One of many funniest (and most miserable) episodes of “It is All the time Sunny in Philadelphia” is season 5’s “The Gang Hits the Highway,” during which the gang makes an attempt to go on a street journey to the Grand Canyon. From Philadelphia that is not less than a 34-hour drive, an particularly lengthy distance contemplating that Charlie (Charlie Day) has by no means even left Philly earlier than. However it seems Charlie had no motive to be nervous; the journey consists of so many interruptions that the gang provides up earlier than they even make it previous town traces.
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A type of interruptions is Charlie revealing he is by no means eaten a pear earlier than, inflicting an astonished Mac to demand they cease and get one for him. Though the gang’s journey was doubtless doomed both manner, this detour was the start of the top. What’s worse is that it wasn’t even value it: Charlie takes one chunk out of the pear and concludes that pears style like sand.
This entire plot level, it seems, relies off an actual dialog within the “All the time Sunny” writers’ room. As Glenn Howerton (who performs Dennis and who co-created the present) defined in a 2019 interview, “We had a author on the time — Scott Marder, who wrote many episodes of the present — who had by no means eaten a blueberry. After which we discovered there have been, 5, six, seven, eight different issues that he’d by no means had.”
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Co-creator (and Mac actor) Rob McElhenney would comply with up on this story in a 2023 episode of “The All the time Sunny Podcast.” McElhenney defined, “We actually obtained into itemizing all of the issues that he had by no means eaten. An apricot, a pear, and it wasn’t simply fruit particular. It was greens. … a hen sandwich.”
It is clear that even in 2023, 14 years after the episode aired, the primary “All the time Sunny” solid was nonetheless baffled by this. “Quite common meals,” Howerton mentioned on the podcast. “Like extraordinarily widespread meals. Not uncommon meals, not unique meals, quite common meals.” Charlie Day agreed it was bizarre too, asking, “How do you get that far in life with out attempting a blueberry?”
The true-life dialog supplied an opportunity to discover Charlie’s sheltered life
The true-life gang’s confusion by Scott Marder’s consuming habits, or lack thereof, discovered its manner into the script. Mac’s baffled response to Charlie’s pear reveal appears strongly primarily based on the actual response he needed to Marder. And of all of the characters to offer Marder’s meals historical past to, Charlie makes probably the most sense; he is probably the most childlike of the gang, to the purpose the place he actually cannot learn and he is afraid to depart Philadelphia.
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Though Charlie finally conquers his fears of the skin world, the ending of “The Gang Hits the Highway” makes it appear to be he is trapped in Philly endlessly. It is a becoming destiny for a personality who cannot ever appear to think about a greater life for himself. Different sitcoms let their characters change and develop, not less than throughout the confines of a person episode, however a part of the perverse attraction of “It is All the time Sunny in Philadelphia” is that it normally refuses to do that. When “All the time Sunny” characters do change, like with Mac accepting his sexuality within the later seasons, the method is at all times slow-moving.
Like “Seinfeld” earlier than it, that is principally a present about characters who cannot develop. Scott Marder can strive new meals, however Charlie is doomed to be a person of restricted horizons. And judging by the gang’s resigned realization that they are by no means gonna see the Grand Canyon, the remainder of the solid is not faring a lot better.
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‘The Gang Hits the Highway’ is one among Howerton’s favourite episodes
“I simply love the simplicity of that episode,” mentioned Howerton. “We’re not doing something loopy — we’re actually simply attempting to drive a automotive from one place to a different, and we will not do it. In some methods, it is selecting up the place ‘Seinfeld’ left off.”
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Like a few “Seinfeld” episodes, “The Gang Hits the Highway” performs out in a type of agonizing dream logic. The gang has a easy aim, however one thing or one other at all times comes alongside to pull them down. It is like how folks will dream about needing to get to work on time, however they will discover themselves trapped in a unending limbo between operating late and almost there. The unending setbacks in “The Gang Hits the Highway” are irritating to look at, however that is additionally what makes them humorous and relatable.
The opposite key to creating the episode shine, Howerton believes, is the character’s sturdy opinions about mainly every part they arrive throughout. “There’s something very humorous to me about getting so hung up on the small issues alongside the way in which that you simply by no means attain your vacation spot,” he mentioned. He defined how giving the “All the time Sunny” characters sturdy factors of view has been what’s stored the present going so long as it has. Charlie cannot simply be reluctant to depart Philly; he have to be frightened of it to the purpose the place he is by no means stepped outdoors metropolis traces. Dennis cannot simply dislike gasoline station espresso; he should hate it a lot he buys an costly French press to maintain of their trailer.
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“It is nice comedy fodder, however it’s additionally emblematic of our society an increasing number of. The folks that we hear about or from probably the most are the individuals who have sturdy opinions. And I believe with that, you may simply go anyplace,” Howerton mentioned.
Properly, anyplace besides the Grand Canyon.
