The highly-anticipated crossover between ABC’s “Abbott Elementary” and FX’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” just got bigger. While it was already revealed that the “Sunny” characters will show up on “Abbott” this season, Variety has confirmed that, as part of a two-episode event, the “Abbott” teachers will also show up on “Sunny” to hang with the Gang at Paddy’s Pub.
Earlier this month, “Abbott” creator and star Quinta Brunson and “Sunny” star/co-creator Rob McElhenney revealed that the two shows would join comedic forces for a very special episode of “Abbott” (which Brunson had previously hinted at San Diego Comic-Con). The mash-up made sense, given that both shows are set in Philadelphia, plus they both air on Disney-owned networks. (“Abbott” is produced by Warner Bros. TV.)
The “Sunny” cast — McElhenney, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson and Danny DeVito — already shot their scenes for “Abbott” episode 409, in a storyline that will take up the full half hour. Olson revealed the turnabout crossover Thursday on the red carpet at Variety’s Power of Women event.
“It was very fun,” Olson said, about shooting the “Abbott” episode, adding, “And they’ll be jumping into our world in a couple of weeks, which is very exciting. So it’s been really fun for both of our casts to be able to do, them a cable show and us a network show.”
Since “Abbott” star Lisa Ann Walter (who plays the tough-talking second-grade teacher Melissa Schemmenti) told Variety that she’d requested that Brunson write her scenes with Olson’s Dee Reynolds, we asked what requests the “Sunny” star made.
“I was just excited to get them to just get, like, nasty,” Olson replied. “They cannot do that at school; they can do that in the bar.”
The “Sunny-on-Abbott” episode will air first, and executive producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker revealed that Day’s character will have a “pretty significant storyline.”
“It was kind of a joke at first, that the two shows should cross over. On paper, it feels like they’d be a real tonal mishmash,” Schumacker told Variety about breaking the story. “But then Rob and Charlie came to our writers room and we hashed out some real broad stroke ideas. From there, we emailed back and forth beat sheets and then an outline. They were super game for everything. All those concerns that we had about the tones of the shows butting against each other were alleviated the second we started filming with Charlie.”
It’s unclear, however, what the “Sunny” team has in store for the “Abbott” characters on their show. Writing for Season 17 of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” took place this fall, and production on the season’s eight episodes has just commenced (with an eye toward a 2025 return). “Sunny” has had to work around the stars’ busy schedules, including Olson on the new ABC breakout hit “High Potential” and Howerton on the Netflix series “Sirens.”
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