Illiterate Charlie was passed out on their bars floor after munching a few too many cough medicine-spiked brownies.
Amoral playboy-wannabe Dennis and his tattooed buddy Mac each had a 25-pound keg hung around his neck.
Did their shenanigans earn them loyal fans?
Credit: Aaron Rapoport
But had theSunnygang gone too far?
Was it time to lick their wounds and move on?
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So youve started up the new season.
We just sort of spit-fire, like, I want to do an episode about health care.
Okay, I want to do an episode about the arms race.
I want to do an episode about the housing market crisis.
So we put up index cards.
This one seems to make sense with this one.
And we start putting them together, and today we broke our first story scene-by-scene.
So had you been stockpiling ideas since last season?
Do you walk in with a ton of stories you want to get done?Not really.
So when we have time off, I like to take time off.
I think some people misunderstand what youre trying to do.
They think youre trying to push the envelope or to think up outrageous things.
But it seems like you guys are just sitting around going, Whatd be funny?Thats right.
And you’re able to see it coming a mile away.
Anybody can be outrageous.
Theres a certain subtlety we hope comes across.
And our number one goal is to make people laugh.
So… have you been reading anything in the news?Oh yeah, absolutely.
To me theres nothing more tragic right now then the subprime mortgage crisis.
These people are losing their homes left and right.
And we thought, How can we have these characters take advantage of that situation?
The last thing I thought wed be talking about is the subprime mortgage crisis.Thats the thing.
Were going to do something with the tax rebates that everyones going to be getting this summer.
We force them to use American dollars.
You guys are running out of drugs to get hooked on.
Drug addiction seems like an ongoingSunnytheme, and it turns out to be actually hilarious.
We did an episode about a band last year.
Day Man!Day Man has been huge, and we really want to take advantage of that.
Were really happy that people seem to dig that.
Maybe its the story of how Day Man came to be the ruler of the universe.
Howdidhe become the ruler of the universe?We knew we wanted to have an episode about a band.
So we started questioning, What is the kind of the music that this band plays?
He had the suggestion of putting in the voice from Flash Gordon.
It goes, Flash… Ah-ahhhhhh!
Thats where Dennis [Howerton] got, Day Man… Ah-ahhhhhh!
Who knew Charlie could play the piano so well?Hes a musician.
And believe me were going to exploit it as much as we can this year.
NEXT: We really want Frank degenerating even further.
So the main cast is coming back.
Lets talk about the supporting cast.
Whos coming back?We love the waitress [Mary Elizabeth Ellis], obviously.
That character is just so funny.
Having this character whos madly in love with Dennis and he hates her.
Charlie is madly in love with her [but she hates him].
Frank has had sex with her.
And Dee and the waitress are pseudo-friends, but not really.
Rickety Cricket will be back, too.
Hes a writer on the show, right?He is.
David Hornsbys a writer, and producer on the show as well.
Hes been a friend of ours for years.
The McPoyle brothers will be back, of course, at some point.
She might show up post-op.
And Mac might be really into it and she might finally realize hes a degenerate and drop him completely.
Somebody of that caliber would really raise the bar.
Shooting for the moon, baby!
What do you have planned for Danny DeVitos character?We really want Frank degenerating even further.
By the end of it hes just going to be a puddle of goo.
She has I Rock and Come to Philly for the Crack.
The reason is the director of that episode is a guy named Jerry Levine.
He directed our first bloc of episodes last year.
The season 3 DVD is going to have stuff you cant get anywhere else.
We want to spend a lot of time working on that.
