Every TV fan has at least one show they love with every fiber in their body but feels an extra level of attachment to it for one reason or another. For many, it’s shows like ‘The Office,’ ‘Friends,’ and ‘Seinfeld.’ And while one of those is definitely on my favorites list, there is one show I am so connected with. It almost feels like a family member at this point, and that’s ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.’ And with this week’s guest, Beth Conner, coming through to talk about Love Centered Life and her Nice Guy Crush, I wanted to pull up a chair for my nice guy, and that’s none other than ‘Sunny’s’ own Charlie Day.
So ‘Sunny’ premiered mere weeks before my freshman year of college, and I watched that night because I’d seen previews for the other show that FX was pimping way harder. That show failed to make it past a season, and honestly – ‘Sunny’ really captured my heart more that night anyways. I was hooked and have been since all the way back in 2005.
Fast forward a year or so later…I was well-versed in how meeting people in the alley behind Jimmy Kimmel’s studio worked, and I was there waiting to meet Charlie Day, and I did! Him and The Waitress, his lovely real-life wife Mary Elizabeth Ellis, were absolute sweethearts. I also think I may’ve been the only one in that alley trying to meet them because he was promoting the second season, and Danny DeVito was just about to help make that show a household name. Plus, the musical guest has some guy who was in…some band that was popular in the ‘80s or something. So yeah, I was the lone ‘Sunny’ fan with hearts in her eyes, and again, they were incredibly nice.
From then on, there has not been a point in which Charlie Day or the show has let me down as a fan, and I am forever grateful for that, but the second time I happened to meet him took things to a whole new level…See, on the show, the gang does a musical and said musical got so big that they decided to do it live. I went the first time they did it at The Troubadour, and then I couldn’t afford to go when they actually toured and were going to play The Palladium in Los Angeles. I was pretty bummed but found a contest via Playboy’s site and entered daily, with several email addresses.
One of those emails happened to get me two golden tickets! I was in, but what I didn’t know was that the tickets came with an extra thing…out of four winners, one of them was going to be in the show. Come the night, only three winners showed up, and when they pulled a name out of a hat, it read mine. The only downside to any of this was that I pretty much missed the entire show because I was backstage in not only hair and wardrobe (a wig and nightgown) but also hanging with the cast. I say hanging, but it was really just most of them saying hey and being cordial and Danny DeVito just going on about his time directing ‘Matilda.’ Was that a highlight of my life? Of course.
While the others came and went, it was Charlie I spent the most time with because that’s who the scene is mostly with – and he was a gem. He made sure I was comfortable and okay doing the scene and made sure I got a script from the show that I could keep. That script is now one of my most prized possessions and hangs framed in my living room.
Since then, I’ve seen the ‘Sunny’ cast to a panel discussion and went to a season premiere event for fans back before COVID, and that – that’s another story of niceness revolving around this show that warms my heart, but that’s for another day. So while you’ll have to wait until later this week to hear about Beth Conner’s nice guy crush, relish in the fact that while the guys and gal from ‘It’s Always Sunny’ play people who aren’t always the best, they are actually really amazing and nice, especially Charlie Day.
Crushgasm 