Reid declined to speak about her depature from Always Sunny on the record, but today she goes public with her story: She, along with Always Sunny co-founders Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day and Glenn Howerton, were the original “Gang” who put together Always Sunny‘s scrappy pilot-for-a-pittance, which got picked up by F/X. At the time, she was dating McIlhenny — and right around the time the pilot got picked up, the relationship got rocky. Per Reid:

Here’s what happened. When I graduated from college, I moved out to Los Angeles, where I knew absolutely no one except for my ex-boyfriend, Rob. We began dating again, first casually, and then very seriously. Shortly after I arrived in Los Angeles, Rob conceived of the idea for a Curb Your Enthusiasm-style show that centered on a group of four actor friends living in LA (this, of course, was later changed to four friends working in a Philadelphia bar). Over the next year or so Rob, myself, and our friends Glenn and Charlie shot two pilot episodes for the show, which at the time was called “It’s Always Sunny on TV.” Other friends filled in the remainder of the roles – most notably Mary Elizabeth, who played “The Waitress” and later married Charlie – but the core group was the four of us: me, Rob, Glenn, and Charlie.

It was exhausting work that took many months to complete: we improv-ed out many scenes before Rob actually wrote them, and if one of us wasn’t on camera for a particular shot, he or me (ha) was probably standing off to the side holding a boom mike. Much of the first two episodes (which included several plot lines taken directly from my life, such as my insistence that everyone remove their shoes before entering my carpeted West Hollywood apartment) were shot at my place or at Glenn’s. When we needed more DV tapes, we all chipped in and drove my Chrysler LeBaron to the Rite Aid on Sunset. It was a busy time, but an exciting one – we all felt like we were participating in the creation of something really great, something with enormous potential.

They started shopping the pilot around, and then F/X bit and had them reshoot the pilot professionally. They were in — as a team:

At one point, one of the guys (I believe it was Glenn, but I could be wrong) called a meeting in Rob’s trailer: “What if the network wants to pick up some of us, but not all of us?” Together, we four agreed that they took all of us…or none of us. We were in this thing together – had been for over a year now – and we simply wouldn’t allow them to split us up.

Uh, oh. You can see where this is going. Next sentence: “Around that time, my relationship with Rob began to unravel…” Like I said, you can see where this is going.

When the relationship went south, she says, she “started to sense that I was on unsteady footing on the set…I was surprised to learn that Rob, Glenn and Charlie had all been made executive producers, while I simply remained the lead actress.” Reid notes that at the time she was 23, and was so glad to have gotten a lead role on a TV show — one she helped create — that she didn’t want to rock the boat. Besides, she had agents and a manager to deal with this stuff. The pilot wrapped, and so did her relationship with McElhenney. And then, the news:

A couple of months later my agent and new manager (a manager who quickly disappeared from my life once I was no longer the lead on a show) called to tell me that while Rob, Glenn and Charlie had been picked up for the series, I hadn’t been. The network, they said, felt I was “too pretty” to be believable as a Philadelphia bartender, which makes total sense: TV shows generally hire unattractive people as lead actors, and I was recently voted Miss Universe. Didn’t you know?

Reid was off, and replaced with Kaitlin Olsen, who now plays “Sweet Dee” on the show — and is now married to McElhenney. The show is a hit, and in its fifth season is finding its mainstream audience to match its cult appeal. So — is she bitter? Well, she was — she talks a bit about the betrayal of being cut out of a group project, of never hearing from Glenn and Charlie again (ouch), of being a young actress and feeling powerless against the studios and the system. But Reid, whose blog is all about “domestic bliss,” writes regularly about her own marriage, so it’s hard not to believe her when she says “I wouldn’t give up “right now” for all the money and all the fame in the world.” Meanwhile, for Always Sunny fans who love Olsen’s Sweet Dee and the crazy antics of The Gang at Paddy’s, it’s hard to imagine it any other way — and certainly the wedded bliss of Olson and McIlhenny speaks volumes about the power of “right now” for all concerned.

Still, it’s a pretty good cautionary tale for those at the beginning of the journey: Just to be safe, and no matter how much you love the other person — it might be a good idea to get it in writing. Not so romantic, but, alas, practical — and maybe, just maybe, enough to stave off the Nightman, if it comes to that. Nice to see that in this case, in the final analysis, the Dayman seems to have reigned supreme. Stage freeze!

Reid’s full account is at her blog, and it’s a great read, as well as a fascinating bit of Always Sunny backstory. This was just published, so there’s no response from the Always Sunny team yet, but we will update when there is.

‘Cause You’ve Been Asking [Jordan Reid - Nonsociety]

Related:
NonSociety Adds “Domestic Bliss” Contributor Jordan Reid [Mediaite]
“Always Sunny”: Masters of Karate, Friendship and Viral Buzz [Mediaite]

Related in Danny DeVito Naked:
Danny DeVito Naked on Always Sunny [Late Night with Jimmy Fallon]
Danny DeVito Shows Jimmy Fallon His Boy’s Soul [Mediaite]

Anyhow: Aside from the opening (er, no pun intended), it was a great interview — Fallon got DeVito talking about Taxi (oddly, not even a reference to Fallon’s movie of the same name) and Always Sunny (on Kaitlin Olsen: “the funniest woman on TV”; The McPoyle Brothers: “these guys walk around with their own jar of Vaseline!”), and his own Danny DeVito brand on Limoncello. Yes – Danny DeVito’s Limoncello, inspired by his infamous drunk-on-The View incident ( “I knew that it was the last seven Limoncello’s that was gonna get me“). Fallon says that restaurateur Mario Batali only uses it in his kitchens. Here it is for $24.95 if you would like to purchase some. Good things come from showing up drunk on The View!

Other DeVito news: Go here to see his new Facebook page, here to follow him on Twitter, and here to see him naked on Always Sunny.

The video is below; it’s the full ep, so skip to the second tab at 17:08.

Since the legendary pilot, shot on a camcorder for a few hundred bucks by a group of friends, Always Sunny has had a guerrilla sensibility that is part of the show’s core appeal. It feels rough and accessible, which is a big part of what the fans like about it. It’s been a cheap show to make — by necessity, thanks to an initially hesitant FX —  but enough to develop a cult fanbase that has been growing steadily with the Gang’s every crazy exploit (Russian Roulette in the basement, anyone?). Which has made it a good bet for FX — such a good bet that the network invested in an addtional 39 episodes back in July 2008 before the 4th season even hit the airwaves. Throw in a big time star taking notice and asking to join the fun (DeVito, who came to them), and some cameos from smart actors who know a good thing when they see it (Saved by the Bell’s Mr. Belding is a gym teacher accused of child abuse; Stephen Collins, who played the goody-two-shoes Reverend Camden in Seventh Heaven, is a particularly brilliant bit of stunt casting as Dee and Dennis’ real dad, who hates them). What was that about a good bet?

By network standards, for a show that has earned a fifth season, Always Sunny flies pretty low under the radar. Compare and contrast with, say, Two and a Half Men, which was already a national punchline far earlier in its TV life, but which will return for what promises to be another awesomely mediocre seventh season next week amidst endless promos, bumpers and teases.

But Always Sunny, perhaps as a matter of necessity, has gone a different route. Beyond its hard-core group of fans, not that many average TV viewers have heard of or seen Always Sunny, but that hard-core group is bent on getting the word out. And thanks to their fans and some damned smart marketing, Sunny is spreading big time. Call it “The Gang Goes Viral.”

In July, Always Sunny began to build buzz for the upcoming season by incorporating user-generated content:  The show encouraged fans to recreate the unforgettable “Day Man” scene (in which characters Charlie and Dennis, with some chemical assistance, compose song about a mythical figure who fights the “Night Man” and is a “master of karate and friendship to everyone.” More on this later). The resulting viral video, intercutting the Gang with their fans, all singing a beloved, absurd, song, pretty much speaks for itself.

Videogum called it, “the ‘Single Ladies’ of bored middle class white children with great taste in low budget cable market comedy programming,” and that pretty much nailed it: In “Dayman,” fans found something to want to learn and sing along to, know and reference. Which brings us to The Nightman Cometh.

“Day Man” aired in Season 3, but it had legs — by Season 4, it had been expanded to a full-length(-ish) musical, staged by the Gang in an awesomely amateur community-theater production in last season’s finale, and featuring a princess, a baby boy, a cat-eyed villain, and jokes along the lines of what it also sounds like when you say “boy’s soul.” Needless to say, it became an instant cult favorite. A lark of a live performance by the cast in an LA nightclub sold out decisively, and they figured they had something: Cut to a five-city real-world fourth-wall-demolishing tour of The Nightman Cometh, which sold out the Beacon Theater last night in New York and has launched scads of road trips to Philly for tonight’s hometown showing. The musical is hilarious (you’ll have to trust me, since the full version has was taken off Hulu in recent weeks), and the live version sounds like it was even better, according to last night’s tweeters (I’ll have to trust them, since I couldn’t get a ticket despite weeks-long efforts).

Clearly, the the fans want to be involved — and between the genuine PR for Nightman (NYT, anyone?) and the smart use of social media, Always Sunny is getting a whole lot of fast, cheap, easy and above all else genuine marketing value. The show’s official website is, as CNET has noted very social media savvy, offering a trailer mashup generator, videos, show information and a twitter aggregator (hashtag: #sunnyfx). They established “Greenman Tweet Week” after another bizarre character, again reaching out to fans to don a Greenman suit and tweet the results. And if that’s not enough, the Gang is on Tumblr (with some pretty hiliarious offerings) and Twitter (DeVito sounds like he is having fun). All of this serves to make the fans feel included, while, at the same time, builds buzz for the show and its season premiere tonight.

It only took five years. Hopefully for the Gang that will translate into huge ratings tonight. Or, at least, karate and friendship.

—With Rachel Sklar

Clips Below: Greenman; Charlie’s Finale from The Nightman Cometh; Season Five promo.