Season 17 Poised to Bring Back a "Classic" Character...

Filming on Season 17 began over three weeks ago now, and while Glenn promised some big swings and Rob has shared a few bits and pieces that may be indicative of that, the absence of The Always Sunny Podcast has left a noticeable gap between the amount of mid-production information we were able to gather last Season as opposed to this year. 

But not all hope is lost for those desperate for a peek at what's to come, because as the Gang inevitably end up in the streets of Philadelphia over the course of their schemes, the cast and crew move to run-down areas of Los Angeles that can pass for Philly, and sometimes (if we're lucky enough) shooting locations and third party information makes its way public. How any of these scraps can be used to speculate on or predict plots is a later issue—the first step is collection and connection! 

(POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD, OBVIOUSLY!) 

Last week, Sunny was set to film on-location around Los Angeles, with one filming notice at the 4th Street Bridge in Los Angeles on Santa Fe Ave. This location is right around the block from the Paddy's Pub exterior in LA, and has been used a few times in the past for "under the bridge scenes" (see A Woman's Right to Chop). A number of scenes and plots could occur under the bridge, so with little else to go on this information isn't worth much. But, funnily enough, we ended up getting an Instagram post from David Hornsby, showing him in the make-up chair for Rickety Cricket, the day after this filming notice. 

Suddenly, the bridge information is a little more valuable, as the chances of Cricket hanging out under the bridge are pretty high. (And we can speculate as we wait for more.. who could he be with? Frank and Charlie are our known bridge dwellers, but perhaps the Mac and Cricket pairing we saw in The Gang Gets Cursed is continuing?)

So Cricket is back and looking as depraved as ever, hanging out if not living under the bridge. That's cool, but not necessarily breaking information. The real news here is that the bridge wasn't the only location Sunny had a notice for last week, and the other one was much more perplexing to me: a suburban house. 

Could Frank be back in the real estate game? And would Mac & Dennis be back involved as realtors? Or is it Move to the Suburbs 2: Electric Boogaloo? With just a house, speculation and possibilities swimming around in my mind were quite literally endless, so having nothing to build off of I pushed the information to the side: collection with no connection...until, just like David Hornsby posting as Cricket brought the bridge location into better focus, information came to light that has given a direct context to this suburban house:

Based on the date and the background of this photo and a few others which were taken, the location quite-exactly lines up with the filming notice location for Sunny at the time, and thus is pretty much confirmed to be "on set". 

So, who is the "Actress Spotted Filming" in question? Jamie Alexander, most famously known to be Lady Sif in the MCU (Thor, AoS, Loki, etc.), but perhaps more importantly know around here as having started out on our show, all the way back in 2005:

Jamie Alexander in Season 1: Underage Drinking: a National Concern

Yep, "Classic Tammy," as Charlie would say, has been spotted on set for Season 17. 

How and why Tammy is back in the context of the characters and a plot is really anyone's guess: Does she make her way back to Paddy's after all these years, or does a member of the Gang happen to run into her elsewhere? Is she followed back to her house, or is a member of the Gang led there? How will the Gang inevitably fuck up the normal life she's likely living? Or will she instead fuck with theirs like she tried to in 2005?

UPDATE: In newly discovered photos, it looks like Glenn and Kaitlin were on set, in character, as Dennis and Dee. So we can safely assume that the twins are involved with Tammy's return!

(Charlie Day is in the background on set, but clearly not in character and likely there as a showrunner)

They seem to both be holding pieces of paper. Whether they're holding scripts or the paper is a prop of some kind is unclear, but I'm leaning toward the latter...

What's funny is, despite my earlier complaints that the absence of The Always Sunny Podcast was making it harder on us (as the spoiler-hungry audience) this Season, I really have to speculate that we may owe Tammy's return, at least in part, to the existence of the Podcast.

Last year at one of the Dublin live shows (post filming Season 16), Rob made a very adamant point that the "Classic Tammy" line from Charlie was one of his favorites:

And I can't help but wonder how the live shows they put on in 2023, a further extension of the Podcast that involved not only rewatching their show, but sitting down to pick, highlight and discuss their favorite parts of each other, the plots, and their characters with live feedback, may have influenced what's to come this season. (Because you know what else was teased at that show? The return of Hugh Honey and Vic Vinegar)

Only time (and more reveals) can really tell us if Season 17 will have any TASP (+live)-born plots, ideas, and/or connections, but Jamie Alexander's presence on set indicating the return of Tammy certainly seems to be pointing toward a continuation of what we saw with Season 16: plots driven by the characters' basic wants and needs, inspired by diving into and pulling from Sunny's classics.

(And not that it isn't fun digging up information myself, but Rob, maybe you could throw us a bone this week? It's been a long one...)

- Seth

As a reminder, the Season 17 Updates page is regularly updated to add any new information that comes to light via cast/crew Instagram or Twitter, and also contains links to any Season 17 information posts.