In February 2024, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-creator and star Rob McElhenney tweeted how the infamous Willy Wonka Glasgow event felt like a mashup between his series and Quinta Brunson’s hit mockumentary series Abbott Elementary. Word eventually got back to Quinta as she reportedly shared McElhenney’s tweet on Instagram and tagged him with a message stating she loved the Sunny team and just to say the word. It appears that the crossover’s official as the Wrexham AFC co-owner Rob McElhenney went on to share pictures of Quinta alongside him and fellow Sunny castmates Charlie Day and Danny Devito on the Abbott set.
Rob McElhenney’s Joke Turns Into Highly Anticipated TV
In late February 2024, the haphazard unofficial love letter to Roald Dahl’s Willy Wonka series dubbed Willy’s Chocolate Experience went viral online. The event, which took place in Glasgow, Scotland, was organized by a company known as the House of Illuminati and disappointed and frightened attendees who went with their children. The authorities were notified subsequently and many demanded refunds for the poorly designed and coordinated “immersive experience”.
Many fans online drew comparisons to controversial events held in the past namely the Tumblr convention Dashcon in 2014, Billy McFarland’s Fyre Festival in 2017, and an episode of the FXX single-camera sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Rob McElhenney’s comment on a crossover between Sunny and Abbott received notice from the latter series’ creator Quinta Brunson who was all in on the possible production. Variety has confirmed the production has been given the green light.
While she was a guest on Variety’s Award Circuit Podcast, the former Buzzfeed producer Brunson cheekily gushed “You want to find fun ways to shake things up without abandoning what you what you built. And I’m excited for this crossover of which I will not name with the other project,” Brunson said. She never mentions Sunny by name but continues to tease fans. “I’m excited to just shake things up in this way,” she added. “I love TV, everyone knows that, but I love TV moments, and I miss those big TV moments.”
Potential “It’s Always Sunny in Abbott” Plotlines
Show Concepts
Abbott Elementary is a mockumentary series created by Quinta Brunson similar to The Office and Parks and Recreation that follows the lives of teachers in and out of the Philadelphia, PA elementary school. Brunson stars as Janine Teagues, a second-grade teacher who’s consistently optimistic and determined to make the most of her job and improve conditions at the school. Tyler James Williams, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lisa Ann Walter, and Chris Perfetti portray Janine’s colleagues. They are also teachers at this school who usually support Janine’s endeavors and aim to see their students succeed.
Always Sunny, on the other hand, follows the owners of a local bar in Philadelphia -Paddy’s Pub- and the misadventures they tend to find themselves in. Rob McElhenney stars as one of the owners seriously named Ronald “Mac” McDonald and usually engages in self-indulgent scenarios with childhood and high school best friends played by Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, his real-life wife Kaitlin Olson, and veteran character actor Danny Devito. From the outside looking in, both shows could not be more dissimilar but they are plotlines that could make an encounter with each show’s set of characters plausible.
Hinting the Crossover
In a season 6 episode of Sunny, Olson’s character Dee Reynolds, an aspiring actress, starts working as a substitute teacher at a high school after the drama teacher suffered an injury. Day’s character Charlie Kelly works as a janitor at the same school due to performing similar duties at Paddy’s Pub. The writers for both shows creating a scenario in which Kelly and Reynolds work similar roles over at Abbott could make for great television.
Mr. Johnson, the janitor at Abbott, played by William Stanford Davis, often has great scene-stealing dialogue. Johnson sharing a scene or two with Rob McElhenney’s Mac portraying his usual tough-guy act would be worth the wait. Another much simpler plot could be the Abbott teachers pulling into Paddy’s after a long, hectic day at work and teaching the staff how to look after one another or being mortified at how they operate regularly.
Final Thoughts
The prospect of an Abbott Elementary and It’s Always Sunny crossover is shocking given how different the two shows are in terms of humor and genre. The fact that both are consistently being renewed showcases that each series has garnered a loyal, consistent fanbase However, given the capable writers in both camps, both Rob McElhenney and Quinta Brunson can create something incredibly entertaining and worth the anticipation.
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