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In an episode of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" titled "The Gang Tries Desperately to Win an Award," the barkeeps of Paddy's Pub – Mac (Rob McElhenney), Charlie (Charlie Day), Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Dee (Kaitlin Olson) and Frank (Danny DeVito) – learn a local best bar award is up for grabs.
Their Philadelphia Establishment – dark, unspeakable, and almost always nominated, and they hate to admit that they are bothered by the lack of recognition.
The plot is not so subtle at the Emmy Awards. The episode aired during the comedy's ninth season – Season 13 starts Wednesday and the show is still in the air.
It has, however, earned three Emmy nominations, all of which went to the show's stunt coordinator, Marc Scizak.
Mr. Scizak, 40, has been a stunt performer and coordinator for roughly 20 years. In that time, it's been working on movies and shows that would seem to naturally involve plenty of dangerous action ("Dunkirk") and others that might not be ("The Goldbergs," "Pretty Little Liars").
"Sunny," a bar, falls in the latter category. But the plans also include a lot of plans and toxic behavior. (Mr. McElhenney, the creator, 50 pounds ahead of Season 7 as part of an extended gag. In Season 13 he is incredibly fit, the subject of a running joke in Wednesday's premiere.)
Mr. Scizak, who joined "Sunny" in 2009, is Mr. McElhenney's stunt double and has contributed to more than 50 episodes.
"My job is as simple as possible and as easy as possible without any problem with their comic genius," Mr. Scizak said.
[[Read an interview with the stars of "It's Always Sunny." ]
When Mr. Howerton, Mr. Day and Mr. McElhenney, who write many of the episodes, include stunt scenes, Mr. Scizak plans how they would be executed and takes note of potential risks.
"Even if they do not think they know exactly what they want, they do know what they want and they're really good at giving me direction," Mr. Scizak said. "They're all really smart, talented and coordinated actors, so they're not people who are going to end up stupidly hurting themselves."
There are not many stunts in Season 13, goal the trailer features some shocking snippets (most notably one in which Mr. McElhenney lifts Ms. Olson, his wife, by the crotch).
While Mr. Scizak says action films challenge him and allow for more creative control, comedy has its perks, too. "Sometimes we have to reshoot scenes because we're all laughing too hard behind camera," he added. "That's a good problem to have."
Here are some of his favorite stunt sequences from the show.
Mac to the Rescue
In "The Gang Saves the Day," the group witnesses an armed burglary while shopping at a convenience store. As they huddle in an aisle, each character imagines what they would do to take control of the situation. Mac, who desperately wants to be seen as a formidable martial artist, envisions himself fighting a crew of Yakuza thieves.
"He basically said, 'Just make me look badass,'" Mr. Scizak said. "It was a very, very wide undertaking and I think it turned out really nice."
An Unpleasant Ride
While most of the stars love to perform their own stunts, Ms. Olson is particularly keen on doing so.
"She is so incredibly talented that she is so good, her body manners, the ability to match her so well," Mr. Scizak said. "On bigger gags where she's going to get hurt, we're going to get hurt."
In a scene from "The Gang Goes to a Water Park," Dee and Mac get stuck inside a tube and they are coming back to the next.
"We were literally dropping kids down on [Ms. Olson] "Mr. Scizak said," I'm going to get smoked up against the top of the tube. "She did not feel like it sold right and wanted to go with the kids."
In "Who Pooped the Bed ?," which aired before Mr. Scizak joined the show, Dee tries to steal a pair of expensive high heels that are a little too small for her. As she rushes out of the store with them, she falls in her head against a door, leaving a huge dent and triggering a car alarm.
The scene was originally shot with a double stunt – Mr. Scizak's predecessor thought it was too dangerous for Ms. Olson. "She did that and it ended up being genius," Mr. Scizak said. "It was amazing, and she does that stuff all the time."
Cricket Knows His Parkour
Another of Mr. Scizak's favorite stunts is from "A Cricket's Tale." A minor character, Rickety Cricket (David Hornsby), steals a baguette and escapes by performing parkour down a stairwell. In the same episode, Cricket jumps out of a window, tumbles onto a roof and lands on a moving dump truck. "There were no wires on hand." Mr. Scizak said. "That was obviously a double stunt but it was a really fun scene."
Mr. DeVito, 73, does not shy away from the action.
In an especially challenging scene from Season 12, also in the water park episode, Frank rides a towering, dry slide that is closed off to customers. Charlie tries to lubricate the surface with a bottle of water, but Frank inevitably ends up burning his back.
Mr. DeVito's Mr. Dezito took a double stunt. "Danny's ability to do the physical comedy is pretty amazing," Mr. Scizak said. "I think if we asked him, he would have done it."
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