In 2018, Charlie Day told TheWrap that he hoped It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia would make it to Season 15 so that the show could finally reach a historic milestone. “I think 15 [seasons] is the record for a comedy, so I imagine we’ll all want to hold the record for the longest-running comedy in America,” he said at the time. This surely raised a few eyebrows afterward, considering that Saturday Night Live celebrated its 40th anniversary just a few years earlier. However, the distinction there is that SNL is a sketch comedy show, whereas Always Sunny is a sitcom.
That brings us to what qualifies as a sitcom. Technically, The Simpsons is an animated sitcom, as are South Park and Family Guy, and all of them have been on the air longer than It’s Always Sunny. During that same 2018 interview, Day clarified that he was talking about live-action comedies, so that eliminates the animated competition. It’s also important to note that he specifically mentioned American comedies because the British sitcom Last of the Summer Wine ran for 31 seasons between 1973 and 2010, earning it the Guinness World Record for the longest-running sitcom.
But even with all that out of the way, does It’s Always Sunny really count as the longest-running live-action American sitcom? At one point, The Honeymooners was considered to be “TV’s longest-running situation comedy,” having been around on and off for 27 years, though for most of that time it was only a segment on Jackie Gleason’s variety show. As a stand-alone series, The Honeymooners lasted only one season. The show that Always Sunny is said to have surpassed with its 15th season isThe Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which aired for 14 seasons and racked up a total of 435 episodes.
Clearly this record isn’t based on episode count, though, because It’s Always Sunny hasn’t produced half as many shows as Ozzie and Harriet. At press time, Always Sunny has only 178 episodes to its name, and given that their seasons have run for 10 or fewer installments for almost 15 years now, it would take the show decades to reach 436. But with its landmark 18th season already in production, the show made sure that anyone nearing its record has plenty of work ahead of them. In summation, though, it’s only fair to point out that, as of this moment, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has merely earned itself the long-winded distinction of being the longest-running live-action American sitcom based specifically on seasons.
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