Abbott Elementary star Chris Perfetti just gave us a major clue on what to expect in the show’s highly anticipated crossover with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Perfetti said in a recent interview with TVInsider that filming with the It’s Always Sunny gang was a “surreal” experience.
“They are a highly trained ensemble that is so gifted, so generous,” he said. “It was so fun to pit these crews, sort of, against each other to have the PG version of an ensemble and the R-rated version of an ensemble.”
Fans have not stopped talking about this two-episode crossover event. But it has, understandably, been difficult for them to imagine what a crossover between these vastly different comedies would even look like. Luckily for us, Perfetti revealed exactly what fans should expect from the episodes.
Perfetti said the shows will “tell two different [stories] kind of on their own terms.”
“I think I can say that they are in an episode of our show, and we are in an episode of their show, and the episode of their show is sort of the behind-the-scenes of what really happened when they were on our show,” Perfetti shared.
It sounds like the It’s Always Sunny gang – Kaitlin Olson, Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Danny DeVito – will all appear in an episode of Abbott Elementary, which is formatted as part of a documentary about an elementary school.
And the It’s Always Sunny episode will show what happened off-camera during their (likely ridiculous and dangerous) visit to Abbott. It also sounds like the Abbott teachers –—Quinta Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lisa Ann Walters, Janelle James, and Perfetti — will get a chance to come on down to Paddy’s.
Olson recently told Variety she had a “very fun” experience filming the crossover episode for Abbott and noted the ABC stars will be “jumping into our world in a couple of weeks.”
“I was just excited to get them to just get, like, nasty,” Olson said. “They cannot do that at school; they can do that in the bar.”
And it sounds like both crossover episodes will be seriously funny. Perfetti told TVInsider that DeVito almost made him break several times while filming.
“It was such an honor to be with all of them. They are grade-A comedians. I pride myself on not breaking or ruining takes, but Danny DeVito absolutely ruined me almost in every scene,” he said.
It’s unclear when the It’s Always Sunny crossover episode will air, but the Abbott Elementary crossover episode will air Jan. 8 at 8:30/7:30c.