It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia has existed as one of the funniest shows on television for nearly 20 years now, but you wouldn't know it by looking at its lacking recognition from mainstream awards shows. In fact, there's even a meta Season 9 episode about the unfortunate trend titled "The Gang Tries Desperately To Win An Award." It's a peculiar part of the show's history, but the stars/creators have taken it in stride. For Glenn Howerton, it helps to remember that there are a lot of terrific filmmakers and performers who get even less recognition then they do.
Howerton has personally been at the subject of awards chatter in the last few months thanks to his acclaimed performance in the new movie Blackberry, and how that conversation has lined up with the annual snubbing of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia came up in a recent interview with Vanity Fair. He was asked about how it feels being talked about as a potential Oscar nominee, and he explained,
Yeah, I'm certainly not accustomed to it…the awards aspect of things has been thus far elusive. But I try to also acknowledge the fact that there are just so many great performers and writers and directors that are out there that haven't gotten the amount of recognition that I have gotten up to this point, regardless of the fact that I've never won an award or anything like that. All that would be wonderful, but I also try not to get too hung up on what I haven't been able to get, and try to focus more on feeling gratitude for the recognition that I have gotten up to this point.
While never nominated in any of the major categories, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia has been nominated for an Emmy three times for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Comedy or Variety Program, and in 2016, it won the People's Choice Award for Favorite TV Comedy. Any recognition is obviously great, but that is not exactly an overwhelming amount if love being shown for a series that is presently in the midst of airing its sixteenth season.
The excellent work done by Glenn Howerton on the beloved FXX series may never earn the actor an Emmy nomination, but he certainly is appreciative of all the notice that he's gotten for his role in Blackberry – the film about the history behind the titular early smartphone. He plays businessman Jim Balsillie in the feature, and there is no lack of appreciation on his part about the buzz that he has been getting for his performance. Said Howerton,
That being said, having a performance that's being talked about in the way that this one is being talked about, of course it feels good. You don't want to perform into a vacuum. In an ideal world, you're doing something that's having an effect on people, that's touching people. And if you can do that to the degree that people start actually talking about the wonderful icing on the cake as awards are, it's certainly gratifying. It's fun, but it's also really foreign to me, and almost a little strange to suddenly be getting that kind of attention. But it's nice. It's lovely and I'm grateful, truly.
After playing on the festival market in the early months of the year, Blackberry had a limited release in May, and it is now available for digital rental and purchase from online outlets including Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, and Apple. The movie co-stars Jay Baruchel, Matt Johnson, Kelly Van der Burg and Martin Donovan, and it sports a 98 percent rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
For those of you who can't get enough of Dennis Reynolds and the gang, new episodes of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia air on Wednesdays on FXX, and you can stream episodes with a Hulu subscription the next day.
