Danny DeVito has been a major Hollywood star for decades, ever since his role as Louie De Palma in the iconic series Taxi. These days, DeVito is still going strong in the TV space. In 2006, DeVito joined the cast of the TV series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a sitcom that has since received great critical acclaim.
DeVito helped to make the show a success, with his charm and wit leading to excellent reviews and lots of love from fans. With Season 16 currently in the works, DeVito has been opening up about his process behind the scenes on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, admitting that he improvises song lyrics and dance moves on the show for one specific reason.
Danny DeVito plays Frank Reynolds in ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’
DeVito plays Frank Reynolds in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, an eccentric millionaire who also happens to be the father of Dennis and Dee Reynolds, twins who spend much of their time arguing or scheming up money-making plots. According to MovieWeb, DeVito’s character has slipped further down the hill into debauchery as the series has progressed — and his outrageous behavior and hilarious moments on the show have made him a firm pop culture favorite.
In fact, many fans of the show consider Frank Reynolds an all-time iconic television character, easily rivaling DeVito’s work in other popular projects like Taxi.
What did Danny DeVito say about improvising his song and dance moment in ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’?
While DeVito does count on excellent writing from the production team at It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, he also brings a great deal of his own expertise to the table — and when it comes to improvisation, he’s no slouch. In a December 2022 interview on The Always Sunny Podcast, DeVito talked about why he improvises his song and dance moments on the show, including the iconic “Go For It” song.
“You don’t wanna sing a song that’s recognized, cause then you have to pay for it,” DeVito said. “In ‘Twins,’ I improvised ‘Tonight Is Your Night, Bro’ because they were gonna use ‘Tonight, Tonight’ from ‘West Side Story’ but they didn’t want to pay for it.”
The production team on the podcast, including Rob McElhenney, noted on the same podcast that after DeVito improvises a song, they go in during post-production and add in the lyrics that DeVito comes up with. Kaitlin Olson, who plays Dee Reynolds, has praised DeVito’s ability to improvise, telling Yahoo that DeVito is a natural.
“Danny’s a ham, and everything comes really naturally to him, so he doesn’t have to do a lot of preparation,” Olson said, according to The Things. “He can just show up and mosey in at the last second and go. That leaves a lot of time for just screwing around.”
Season 16 of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ is on its way
Season 15 of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia wound to a close in December 2021, with many critics praising it as one of the wittiest in the show’s history. Not long before the end of that season, the show was renewed for four additional seasons. Fans can’t wait to see what’s next for the gang, and they might not have much longer to wait.
In early 2023, Season 16 officially started filming, and while there’s no word on a possible release date for new episodes, all signs point to a possible late 2023 or early 2024 premiere date.
