via Glenn Howerton
We talk a lot about the “Butterfly Effect”—the idea that one small, seemingly insignificant action can ripple out and change the course of the future. But in the annals of television history, we really should be talking about the “Rob Mac Effect.”
If Rob Mac (…or the man formerly known as Rob McElhenney) doesn’t pick up the phone in the fall of 2001, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia likely never happens. There is no Paddy’s Pub. There is no Bird Law. There is no D.E.N.N.I.S. System.
recently caught up with Glenn Howerton to discuss Four Walls Whiskey, the label he launched with co-stars Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day. The Gang is on a noble mission to encourage people to do a better job of simply hanging out with their friends.
During our conversation, Howerton shared the incredible origin story of his friendship with McElhenney. It turns out, the longest-running live-action sitcom in American history didn’t start in a writer’s room or a pitch meeting. It started with one awkward, courageous phone call between two guys who barely knew each other.
Without this moment, Always Sunny may have never happened.
How it all began:
As Howerton tells it, he had just moved to Los Angeles in late 2001 after testing for That ’80s Show. He knew Charlie Day a little bit, but he barely knew Rob. They were just acquaintances from the New York audition circuit.
That’s when Rob decided to shoot his shot, in a friendship kind of way.
“When I first moved to Los Angeles, I barely knew Rob and Charlie,” Howerton explained. “I knew Charlie a little bit better than I knew Rob… Rob, I just had seen him at auditions and we chatted and we had some mutual friends, so we kinda knew each other.”
Glenn had moved out to LA first, content to ride out the pilot season. A few months later, Rob followed.
“Rob moved out and he called me out of the blue,” Howerton recalls. “He’s like, ‘Hey, I got your number from Nick [our manager]. And I just moved here to LA also with my buddy Chris Backus and you know, we’re going to this party. We should hang out. You wanna hang out?'”
Note from the author: I couldn’t fit everything from my conversation with Glenn Howerton into this piece, but I have our full conversation + video over on my Substack, The Wenerd Weekly. Subscribe for weekly thoughts on 15+ years of BroBible, Internet trends, Always Sunny jokes, and lots of Phish and Grateful Dead jam band references.
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The Risk of The “Hang”
It sounds simple, but every guy knows the anxiety attached to that specific phone call. Asking another grown man to hang out is weirdly terrifying.
You feel vulnerable. You worry about the rejection. This gets even worse the older you get, especially after moving to a new city, because of… the implication.
“So this is a guy who I knew, who didn’t really know that many people in Los Angeles, who just out of the blue was like, ‘You know, I’m just gonna call this dude,'” Howerton says. “He was like, ‘He’s one of the only people I know in LA.’ So sometimes it’s just about taking that step.”
Here’s Glenn telling this story via Instagram:
Glenn admits that if Rob hadn’t made that move, they might have drifted into their own separate orbits.
“I think the longer we don’t hang out with each other… the more we get in our own little world and our own little space and it gets more and more awkward to reach out to somebody,” Howerton says. “You feel stupid. You don’t wanna be rejected. Whatever it is, it’s just kinda like you gotta set that aside and just think about like, ‘Well what do I want? Do I wanna hang out with my friends?’ … So you gotta initiate. You just gotta do it. You gotta take that step.”
The Lesson Here: Stop Scrolling, Start Hanging
That philosophy, taking the initiative to actually see your friends in real life, is exactly why Howerton, McElhenney, and Day launched their new whiskey brand, Four Walls Whiskey.
The gang isn’t just trying to sell you liquid; they are trying to cure the “friendship recession.” Their campaign is a direct call to action: put the phone down, stop scrolling, call your buddies, and get to the bar (or the backyard… or garage… or basement… wherever!).
“I’ll text [my friends] and I’ll be like, ‘I wanna see you guys, I wanna hang out,'” Howerton says of his current mindset. “And they’re like, ‘Yeah cool let’s do it.’ And then I’m like, ‘Right, okay, let’s pick a date.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, let’s do that.'”
It’s simple advice, but it changed Glenn’s life. Rob made the call, they went to the party, and 16 seasons of television history followed.
So, take a page out of the Rob McElhenney playbook today. Stop scrolling. Call your friend. Do everything you can to hang out and be with each other. Maybe grab a bottle of Four Walls and clink glasses? That’s up to you… ball is in your court.
Taking the initiative is a Five Star Man move. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐