Danny DeVito and Charlie Day on ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’

When Danny DeVito arrives — camera off — on our video call with Charlie Day late last month to discuss the 17th season of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” he apologizes for sounding like he has “just come out of the salt mines.” His voice is hoarse, and Day is worried he’s sick.

“I did a lot of yelling this week,” DeVito explains.

You would think he would be practiced at that.

For 20 years now, DeVito has been exercising his vocal cords as the mischievous, disgusting Frank Reynolds, layabout father of Dee (Kaitlin Olson) and Dennis (Glenn Howerton), colleague of Mac (Rob McElhenney or Rob Mac, as he announced recently), and roommate of Day’s Charlie. In the upcoming season premiering Wednesday on FXX and streaming next day on Hulu, the gang that runs Paddy’s Pub gets into more absurd scrapes. They visit “Abbott Elementary” in the second of two planned crossover episodes with that ABC sitcom; they head to a dog track; Charlie opens up a ghost kitchen in his apartment to make Frank a smashburger; and, as is teased in the trailer, Frank goes on “The Golden Bachelor.”

During our interview, Day and DeVito offer up a dose of the chemistry that has long made Frank and Charlie a madcap pair as they discuss their history with each other, their brushes with Bachelor Nation and, naturally, turds. DeVito remains off camera most of the time, but he pops on occasionally for dramatic effect.

Charlie (Charlie Day) and Frank (Danny DeVito) over the seasons in “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” (Patrick McElhenney / FX)

Danny, what do you remember about that first meeting you had with the three guys?

Danny DeVito: I knew lots about the show already. I was going in because I was friends with [then-president and now current FX Networks chairman John] Landgraf. Landgraf sent me the first eight shows, and I watched it with my family. He was saying he was talking about these really talented guys that he was working with, and John was building the network over there. I can’t remember exactly where we met. But where we met was a weird — that was the first thing that threw me a little bit. Do you remember where it was?

Charlie Day: We had a lunch — you, me, Rob and Glenn — [on] Beverly Boulevard. We didn’t have an office. We were writing the second season. You’d agreed to the show, and you came in like your character from “Get Shorty.” You started ordering for all of us, and you told us some crazy story about your father having a box full of teeth and watches, and we were just taking notes, man. I think we pitched you a couple different character names. I think you shot down a few of them, but you liked Frank. Frank was my step-grandfather’s name.

DeVito: I had an Uncle Frank.

Day: You came in like a tornado. It was great.

DeVito: Well, I usually do that. Way before “Get Shorty,” I would just come in and everybody would be looking at their menus, and I would just look at the menu right away and just say a half a dozen things and everybody would look at me like, “You’re ordering everything on the menu!”

Day: Danny, know that I went and spent maybe almost a whole week rewatching almost everything you’d ever done before we met with you. I watched every episode of “Taxi.” I watched almost every single movie I could find. Just studying a fighter you’re going up against. And it was “Get Shorty” that really kind of locked in for me. A lot of people would have you do that Louie De Palma thing over and over again, and you’re so great at that. But there was something so idiosyncratic about the “Get Shorty” character and unpredictable that we’re like, “Oh, if we can tap into that …” I think it took us a couple seasons to do it, and then it felt like kismet that you sort of came into that meeting like that guy.

On “It’s Always Sunny,” Charlie Day, left, and Danny DeVito are friends, roommates and schemers: “Whenever Charlie does something, it titillates Frank.”

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

How do you feel like the dynamic between Frank and Charlie has shifted over the years? Or even if it hasn’t, what do you discover coming back season after season?

DeVito: I think Charlie offers a lot of avenues for Frank to follow for some reason. I like the idea of the scheming and everything that everybody else does, and they do it in a normal way. They want to make money, they want to get ahead, they want to be famous, they want the bar to succeed, they want this, that. But whenever Charlie does something, it titillates Frank. They know when I am really happy with the material. When I see I’m going to eat a turd, I go like, “Wow, man. We’re pushing the envelope.”

Day: I’m always loving writing and working on the scenes in our apartment and then getting to the set and filming those. I’m always excited for it. There’s something about filming in that intimate space that feels like there’s a magic there. Same with the little back office in the bar. Any time we’re there, there’s something funny to these cramped spaces.

DeVito: We’re playing sardines all the time.

This season opens with the “Abbott” crossover and ends with Frank on “The Golden Bachelor.” How did that come about?

Day: Well, the funny thing about this show is, there’s so many different ways that we do it. I think there’s a push-pull where I really was wanting to do the EMT episode and the dog track one. And Rob has these really big ideas, like buying a soccer team. He wanted to do this “Abbott” crossover, and he wanted to do this “Golden Bachelor” episode. To be perfectly frank, I didn’t really want to do both. I think you can do one or the other. The “Golden Bachelor” thing I thought was funny, but I was like, maybe we could just do the “Sunny” characters’ version of it. But to his credit, those are the things that people latch onto and are talking about. I tend to like when we’re not doing the pop culture references as much, but then we have a big back and forth and we argue. And then when we land on it, the second we agree to do it, then I’m always all in, as is Rob. So then we’re both writing together and saying, well, what’s the best version of how to do this?

The gang is back at “Abbott”: Danny DeVito, left, Charlie Day and Rob McElhenney in this season’s opening episode of “It’s Always Sunny.” (Patrick McElhenney / FX)

The “Abbott” crew — Chris Perfetti, from left, Sheryl Lee Ralph and Quinta Brunson — in a scene from the crossover episode. (Patrick McElhenney / FX)

Danny, what was it like filming Frank’s “Golden Bachelor” moment?

DeVito: I had no idea what they had in mind at first because I must admit, I’m not a “Golden Bachelor” watcher. Once I got there and figured out what they had up their sleeve, I just went with it big time. Being Frank is really wonderful, I must say. It gives you the opportunity to do a lot of things that you wouldn’t. And they push the envelope and come up with all these crazy things, and I go along with it, and from the time my feet hit the ground, when I get there, I’m smiling.

Day: Rob and Glenn and I spend weeks and months really digging in and arguing and pushing each other out of our comfort zones in all sorts of directions. And then towards the end, we’re all invested in the same thing. And what really makes it work is that Danny comes in and gives it a hundred percent. Really, if Danny wasn’t so supportive, it would be really challenging. But pretty much everything we bring to you, Danny, you say, “OK, I’m going to make this work.” “Golden Bachelor” was a perfect example. We had a lot of arguments about how to do that, whether to do it. And then once we committed to it and tried to write what we thought was the best version of it we could, Dan, you come in and just sell it in a way that it needs to be sold.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s also a very sweet “Taxi” reunion in there.

DeVito: That was big for all of us. We were blessed to have that in our show.

“Frank gives me just the wonderful opportunity to be naughty. I can go where other characters can’t go,” Danny DeVito says.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Danny, you said you love being Frank. Why do you love it?

DeVito: I felt operatic as the Penguin [in “Batman Returns”]. There’s a freedom to that. Even in “Taxi,” there was a freedom. I am not like that. I don’t boss people around. I mean, I do a little bit, but I don’t do over the top stuff. Frank gives me just the wonderful opportunity to be naughty. I can go where other characters can’t go. And it’s kind of like we’re bringing people along with Frank. Maybe it’s something that you would say, “Oh god, I would never do that.” But it’s so much fun to imagine the taste of that turd in that soup.

Charlie, Lynne Marie Stewart, who plays your mother, died before the release of this season. How did you think to honor her?

Day: It was pretty tragic and unexpected. She was on the show, and then about a month later we got an email that she was close to the end, and then I think a day later we got an email that she had passed. Mary Elizabeth [Ellis, who plays the Waitress and is married to Day,] and I got to go to her memorial service, and it was luau-themed. It was packed, and there was so much love for her. She always elevated the material that we wrote for her, and she was just as lovely a person as a performer, and I’m going to miss her a lot. We were still in the editing room when she passed away, and so we felt as though it was right to build a little tribute to her because she’s been there since Season 1 and we’ve worked together for over 20 years. Other than it just being a tragedy, I don’t know how we’ll deal with it next season.

DeVito: She was always a favorite of Frank’s.

Day: And we would always have great stuff for the two of you guys.

DeVito: And maybe one day Charlie and I will sit down and have the talk.

For how long do you want to keep coming back to these characters?

DeVito: Well, why does time exist?

Day: Look, we have a contract with FX up to 18 seasons, and all of us feel as though we can do that. So that’s at least one more. Beyond that, I’m not sure they’ll ask for more seasons, so next year could be it.

DeVito: Yeah, they might have some kind of mental defective thing happen to them between next year and not ask for another bunch. That’s always the case. Then also, maybe, they might want to pay us more.

“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” was renewed up to Season 18. “Beyond that, I’m not sure they’ll ask for more seasons, so next year could be it,” Charlie Day says.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Day: Who knows? But this far in the run, I think Rob and Glenn and I, at least in terms of having to sit and write them, really sort of just say each year: Do we have it in us? Do we think we can do a good job? That has to do more with the people that we’re working with. If we can get the band together and have all the musicians that we want, then we’ll try to make some music, to use a bad sort of analogy.

DeVito: It’s a lot of fun. And we have good times. You guys always deliver. Everybody comes with their game, and you can’t ask for anything more. I just feel like I don’t want to let these guys go. I want to be with them all the time. I nag everybody. I call Charlie all the time, even if it’s to call up and say, how’s Mary Elizabeth and Russell? I just feel like I need that connection. I miss these guys. I miss Kaitlin and Rob and Glenn. Every time I see Glenn [I] go, “Is that Glenn?” He does radical things. He, like, shaves his hair.

Speaking of shaving, Charlie, you shaved your beard off for a gag this season. What was that like?

Day: It was horrible, just to see how old the man is under the beard. Once you take off the eyebrows, that’s when it really starts to look freaky. We had that idea, and we knew we had to shoot it last because if I was going to shave, that had to be the last thing we were going to shoot. Right after we wrapped, I went on a little vacation with my wife and son, and I rarely got recognized, which is funny. Every now and then, people who were fans of the movie “Pacific Rim,” because I didn’t have a beard in those movies — they’d be like, “Hey, man, where have you been? Why you not been working?” The funny thing was I couldn’t unlock my cell phone with that look because I looked so different.