I took the ‘It’s Always Sunny’ tour of Philadelphia. Sure enough, there were piles of trash and poop

“The trash part of Philadelphia comes up more often in the show than you’d think,” tour guide Marshall Schurtz said, as he led us around bags of garbage piling up on the streets of South Philly during a heat wave.

It was an early Sunday in July. The AFSCME District Council 33 strike was well underway and garbage collection hadn’t happened for days. It was also a day that five other locals and I decided to attend Schurtz’s It’s Always Sunny Tour of Philadelphia.

In the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode “The Gang Recycles Their Trash,” city sanitation workers also go on strike, and Dennis, Mac, and Charlie start a garbage collection business.

I was supposed to join a group of out-of-towners for the tour, but when they canceled at the last minute, Schurtz put out a call on TikTok and five locals jumped at the opportunity. Leading a group of area residents was rare for Schurtz, who said about 80% of people who take his two-mile, three-hour South Philly walking tour are visitors.

» READ MORE: ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ is turning 20. Has it aged well?

Much like Philly, our group was wonderfully diverse. One guest told me she didn’t watch the show when it premiered in 2005 because she “was 5.”

“There are fans whose dating life, married life, and children’s lives have been contained within the span of this show,” Schurtz said (a truth that also tracks for some of its cast).

We met up near Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, where Schurtz asked us to rate our Always Sunny fandom on a scale of 1 to 10. Most of us fell in the 6 to 8 range, except for Matt Hockenjos, who said he was a 10. He allegedly “did a whole semester of studying, literally, the script writing of It’s Always Sunny.”

“I’m a little concerned,” Schurtz joked.

Later, Hockenjos told us he watched It’s Always Sunny with his dad growing up in Philly and related to it because he started working at bars at 13.

“I met those characters a lot,” he said.

When we expressed mild shock that he worked at bars as a kid, he clarified he was a dishwasher. We had already begun writing an episode, out loud, together about the gang creating an unpaid internship program at Paddy’s for a 13-year-old barback.

“They’re like, ‘Well, child labor is illegal, but you know what’s not illegal? Not paying children,’” Schurtz said. “And they have to adopt him so they don’t get arrested.”

And therein lies one of my favorite things about living in Philly and loving this show. The show’s plot lines sound completely bizarre, but they’re things that could actually happen in Philadelphia.

I can’t tell you how many times a story has broken in Philly where I’ve said, “This should be an episode of It’s Always Sunny.”

Examples:

“The gang gets a contract to run the city’s largest COVID-19 vaccination clinic.”

“The gang throws a dumpster pool party.”

“The gang holds a news conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping."

Our first stop on the tour was the Palumbo Recreation Center basketball courts at 10th and Bainbridge Streets, where Mac, Dennis, and Charlie played hoops in the season one episode “Charlie Wants an Abortion.”

“You start off strong here with episode titles,” Schurtz said.

As he spoke, a police car whizzed past, a medical chopper flew overhead, garbage reeked at our feet, and a bald man wearing a gold chain sashayed by us walking his Chihuahua.

There was some real Philly vérité here.

The first through fifth seasons were heavily shot in Philly, according to Schurtz, and the first season was so low-budget that the cast and crew tapped people who Philly native and show creator Rob Mac (formerly McElhenney) knew for filming locations.

“So because of that, season one isn’t random filming locations, they’re actually a reflection of Rob’s real social network,” he said.

All of the stops on the tour — from the Italian Market, where Dennis and Mac live in an apartment above Anthony’s Italian Coffee House, to the coffee shop where the waitress works, just off South Street — are from the show’s early seasons. You won’t see Paddy’s Pub, because it doesn’t exist (the exterior is in Los Angeles), though there is a Paddy’s Pub in Old City that still allows smoking inside and claims to be an inspiration for the show.

While the tour didn’t take us anywhere I hadn’t been before (one of the stops was the ATM between Pat’s and Geno’s), Schurtz illustrated how those places connected to the show, regaled us with It’s Always Sunny trivia, and told us of Philly’s history of everything from immigration to Ray’s Happy Birthday Bar (the place he recommends for a taste of a true Philly dive bar).

A native of L.A., Schurtz moved to Philadelphia to get his doctorate in archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania and then started his own business, Merakiva Travel, specializing in “archaeologically enhanced travel experiences” abroad.

But he wanted to offer something locally too. When he realized there wasn’t a tour for It’s Always Sunny, he created one.

The people who take Schurtz’s tour aren’t typically those who come to Philly to see Independence Hall. Some come to Philadelphia just because they love the show.

He once had a couple bring a 40-ounce bottle of beer just so they could drink it on the same stoop on South 10th Street where Dennis and Dee drink a 40 ounce in the episode “Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare.”

“There isn’t a lot in the city for fans of the show to do or experience,” Schurtz said. “I don’t think people in the city really appreciate how passionate millions of people are about the show and it is their way of learning about Philadelphia.”

That may be because some Philadelphians don’t think this show about five depraved friends who run a dive bar paints the city in a good light. While it’s obviously satire, Schurtz said some tourists are surprised by the sunny reception they receive here.

But, this is Philly, and if you’re going to walk our city streets for three hours, you’re going to get some of our chaos too.

“Literally, every tour there is some crazy Philly thing. Last week we were on South Street and saw a guy break a bottle on a lamppost,” Schurtz said. “If you’re not used to Philadelphia, it seems like a lot but it’s all part of the experience … and people want that experience because that’s what they see on the show.”

As the tour took us down Latona Street, I pulled out my phone to take a picture of a pigeon-and-rat mural on one house and a sign on the house next door that read “NO DRUNKS, LINGERING, OR LOUDMOUTHS,” when fellow tour guest Jenny Cuevas yelled: “Watch out! Poop!”

“Did I step in it?” I asked.

“Yeah, but it’s dried so that’s OK,” she said.

It was a bit of Philly chaos, kindness, and a small win all in one.

I later asked Cuevas, 25, how she got into It’s Always Sunny. She said her friend Kembo Orema, who was also on the tour, told her to watch it.

“I trust his recommendations, but this one I was like, ‘I don’t know if it’s gonna be my speed, five white people in a bar,’” she said. “But I like The Office, so that’s where it made sense.”

Orema, 25, stumbled onto the show on a streaming service.

“I decided to give it a chance and episode one had me,” he said.

Orema then asked me why I started watching.

Back in 2005, I was living in central Pennsylvania, but knew I wanted to be in Philly and I began watching It’s Always Sunny as misguided research or preparation, perhaps, and became hooked.

“I really loved it, but it made me uncomfortable,” I told Orema. “There’s still parts that gross me out, like the urinal cake episode. I can’t see a urinal cake without thinking of Charlie eating it now, and that should not be a thing in my mind, but it is.”

Once I moved to Philly in 2007, I watched the show even more because I recognized the places in it and began to understand the chaotic-neutral charm of the city reflected in the show’s early seasons.

I’ve been struggling to pinpoint why I don’t feel as connected to It’s Always Sunny now. After the tour, I went back and watched some old episodes and found myself screaming with laughter and pointing to Philly landmarks on the screen.

As I watch the current season, it feels like It’s Always Sunny has little connection to Philly anymore and that’s because the show hasn’t filmed here since 2016.

“It’s interesting that in the later seasons, the writers room are just L.A. writers. They don’t know Philly at all,” Schurtz said. “And it’s not really a Philly show in the same way anymore.”

In a 2005 interview with The Inquirer, Mac said: “You can’t fake Philadelphia. You can’t fake a feeling, and feelings come across the screen.”

He was right, but I fear he’s forgotten. This season when Dennis and Mac go to Second and Race Streets, it’s obviously not Second and Race. There’s no Mr. Bar Stool store on the corner or Ben Franklin Bridge in the background.

Schurtz is extremely forgiving of the show’s long Philly absence. While it was easy to come here to film when the cast was in their 20s, he said the actors have families and other projects tying them to L.A. now.

“It’s kind of a bummer, but it’s been 20 years, so I don’t really blame them,” Schurtz said.

“I do,” I said.

In the end, what I took away from Schurtz’s tour was a renewed appreciation for those early Philly seasons and how lucky we are to have them, and by talking with my fellow guests, I learned that the show is still finding new fans every day, 20 years after it premiered.

If that’s not worth a candle in its birthday urinal cake, I don’t know what is.

The “It’s Always Sunny Tour of Philadelphia” usually takes place Fridays and Saturdays. $35. Pre-booking is necessary. alwayssunnytour.com