Rob McElhenney was visiting a new West Hollywood hotel recently to speak at a conference, and started snapping photographs of the place on his cellphone. “I’d never been there before, and it was stunning,” he says. “So I took a bunch of pictures because I was like, ’Kaitlin would love this. It’s right up her alley. And wouldn’t it be nice to just go and have a little staycation here, if only for one night?’”
It’s a sweet gesture for a husband to be thinking about planning a quick getaway with his wife of nearly 17 years. And it illustrates the endurance of the relationship behind what may now be the most powerful couple on television.
Days later, McElhenney is recounting this tale while seated in his West L.A. offices. Next to him on a plush couch is Olson (and Ryan Reynolds, in the form of a cardboard cutout, hovering above them), who affirms how they continue to make it work — even with two kids, McElhenney and Reynolds’ growing Wrexham football empire and Olson’s new hit TV show, “High Potential.” “Yeah, we still like each other,” Olson says.
The two first met when he cast her to play Sweet Dee on FX’s comedy “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” back in 2005, and now their teens are old enough to binge it.
McElhenney then launches into a story: “Our 15-year-old was just watching ‘Sunny’ the other night …”
“He’s 14,” Olson reminds him.
“He’s almost 15!” McElhenney responds. “But he was watching ‘Sunny’ Season 1 the other night, and we started watching with him. And we look like little kids! We’re different people — so different from the characters, but also so different from then. We’ve been together for so long and then created this person who’s now watching this version of us. It’s a very surreal experience.”
Those young versions of McElhenney and Olson couldn’t have imagined where they might end up. Twenty years later, they’re quite the stimulus package, having just given a jolt to two businesses — linear TV and a UK football club, both of which desperately needed it. And if “stimulus” and “package” both sound a little dirty, well, I’m sure after 17 seasons of salty “Sunny” humor they can appreciate the double entendre.
“It would be very impressive if just one of them was going on a run, but the fact is that both of them are stringing together a series of real successes,” says “Sunny” co-star and exec producer Charlie Day. “They’re on a tear.” For starters, Olson is a major reason broadcast is enjoying a resurgence this season. ABC’s “High Potential” is a smash hit — one of the biggest shows on TV right now — pumping new blood into network TV circulation after cable and streaming pilfered primetime’s pulse. In the series, based on the French/Belgian format “HPI” and adapted here by Drew Goddard, Olson plays as a single mom with a knack for solving crimes. “Kaitlin is the show,” Goddard says. “She pours herself into every frame, she elevates every person who steps on set. I think the show works because we somehow capture how inspiring it feels to be around her.”
Meanwhile, across the pond, McElhenney and his buddy Ryan Reynolds have taken an also-ran Wrexham football club and turned it into the talk of the U.K. The team’s success rejuvenized its economically depressed local community, as Wrexham AFC has gone on an unprecedented run of back-to-back-to-back English Football League promotions. Last month, the club won a shocker that sent it to the Championship level — now one step away from the vaunted Premier League.
That’s not all for this duo. Olson, too, is a recurring guest star on Max’s “Hacks,” earning two consecutive Emmy nominations for playing the daughter of Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and helping that show secure an outstanding comedy win. (“She’s so talented, so exceptional,” Smart says. “And it’s so overdue, the attention she’s getting now. I loved her from the day I met her.”) Speaking of Emmys, McElhenney has won two for FX’s unscripted series “Welcome to Wrexham,” which chronicles his and Reynolds’ journey after buying the team.
And don’t forget: The long-running “Sunny”— which McElhenney showruns, and where the couple first fell in love — returns in July for its 17th season, already a record duration for a scripted live-action sitcom.
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