The Untold Truth Of Rob McElhenney

May 2024 · 2 minute read

There's no questioning Rob McElhenney's incredible accomplishments in television, thanks to the long-running success of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," in addition to his Apple TV+ comedy "Mythic Quest," and the FX documentary series "Welcome to Wrexham." 

In an interview with Backstage, the comedy star explained that the secret behind his own success is relatively simple — create the kind of show that you yourself would like to watch. Not only has that worked for him, but McElhenney believes that the strategy will also work for other aspiring TV producers. "Just make it," he advised. "People either rise to that challenge or they don't." McElhenney had no formal training when he began writing for television, however, his natural aptitude for the form took over. "I think it was something that seeped into my subconscious over hours and hours and hours of watching television," he said, advising anyone looking to break into television to simply watch as much TV as possible.

As McElhenney told ET, one flip side of the success of "It's Always Sunny," is that the longer the series runs, the more difficult it is to come up with fresh, new storylines. "The limitations that we have with 'Sunny' is that there's only so many stories that you can tell with this group of people," he explained. "And we've done a lot of them. So, it's a challenge for us to continually come up with new stories for them."

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