'Always Sunny': A show aglow

Weather forecast: Sunny. No chance you're raining on my parade.

Danny DiVito laid a big "score" on me when I asked the crew of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia if they were getting near the end and sometimes stuck thinking, "Oh, God, I've got to think up another ridiculously horrible thing that I can do to make myself debased even further"?

"What is he? Looking in the mirror?" joshed DeVito.

He's such a josher.

Sunny has been growing by giant steps in the ratings, and  DeVito says he grooves on that, but there's one aspect of the work that gets his goat: "I don't like to get up like a farmer, like at 5 o'clock or 6 o'clock in the morning,
which we do, and that's the only thing that's very difficult for me. So sometimes I don't know what we film during the morning hours."

Sunny's audience grew 60 percent last year, said FX publicity boss John Solberg. That's just plain astounding for a show that's been on for years.

The show prides itself on tackling up-to-the-minute issues, in admittedly heinous ways, and this fall one topic will be gay marriage.

DeVito and the kids gave away at least one plot secret: After an abortive cross-country trip last year, they're hitting the road with Phillies Ryan Howard and Chase Utley."We go on an adventure outside the city to the wonderful State of New Jersey," DeVito said. "It was kind of scary, but it was really worth it."

Sunny returns in early September.