Danny DeVito’s Story About His Father Inspired ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Weirdest Family Tradition
If Frank isn’t actually Charlie Kelly’s father, as both Charlie and the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fandom believed for so many years, then why does Charlie’s birthright come from Frank’s side of the Always Sunny family?
When Danny DeVito joined the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia back in the show’s second season, Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton and Kaitlin Olson hadn’t yet gotten the show to the level of massive success where FX couldn’t say no to their most extreme and outlandish ideas. As such, when McElhenney, Day and Howerton first met with DeVito to talk about him hopping aboard their chaotic sitcom about a bunch of alcoholic a-holes running a bar in Pennsylvania, the Always Sunny team had to sit on one of the most insane stories DeVito has ever told, in or out of character, until they had enough clout to do an entire episode about a trove of teeth becoming a family heirloom.
Back in 2010, the entire Gang appeared on an episode of Conan where McElhenney recalled his first time speaking with his soon-to-be co-star, revealing that, during the meet-and-great, DeVito casually mentioned “a box that his father has that’s full of teeth.”
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Hopefully, that box passed down directly to DeVito and not to any of his siblings — you know how hard it is to get teeth back from your sisters.
When asked about his first impression of DeVito, McElhenney replied with a concerned look, “We went to lunch in Beverly Hills, and he immediately sits down and tells us about a box that his father has that’s full of teeth.”
Day jumped in, telling DeVito next to him, “You came in like a tornado.”
“The three of us were sitting at a table, and you were late,” Howerton added on, telling DeVito, who seemed to have forgotten the funny story about his dad’s tooth collection, “You were running late, and you came firing in like a firecracker. And you sat down, and we were like, ‘Hey, so, uh, great to meet you man!’”
However, as Howerton and his friends would learn later, DeVito’s strange demeanor during their late lunch was all a performance to prove to them that he could get real weird with it. “You were in character, but we didn’t know that,” Howerton said of DeVito’s deranged behavior.
“But you didn’t know what the character was yet!” McElhenney added.
“You proceeded to order food for everyone, regardless of what we may or may not eat,” Day continued to tell DeVito of their first talk. “And then you left, and we thought, ‘Our TV show’s going to be ruined.’”
But while the box full of teeth made such a strong impression on McElhenney, Day and Howerton that, 13 seasons of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia later, it would become a central focus of Charlie’s trip to find his father in Ireland, DeVito admitted that he may have been embellishing a bit about his old man. “I think I might have been bullshittin’ about that,” DeVito said of the dental collection. “You know, you’ve never met these people before, I say my father’s got a box full of teeth! You’re never gonna forget this guy, right?”
“I got a feeling, next year, you’re gonna see a box full of teeth definitely in the show!” DeVito exclaimed, though it would take another decade after the interview for the writers to work it in.
Hopefully, the Kelly Family Tooth Jar is the only bizarre multi-generational tradition that Always Sunny pulled from DeVito’s real-life anecdotes, fabricated or otherwise. I’d hate to imagine DeVito’s poor kids waking up on Christmas morning to a Frank Reynolds fake-out.
