'It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia' looks to Seasons 8 and 9: 'We're just hitting our stride'

Shortly after FX president John Landgraf announced a two-season pick-up for "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", which will take the series into at least 2013, the cast sounded off on the big decision at the Television Critics Association summer press tour.

"We had a lot of discussions about it from a creative standpoint," says star and co-EP Charlie Day. "We've been fortunate that this show has stayed somewhat underground. It seemed unfortunate in the beginning, and now it's great. If we were 7 years into an over-hyped television show, then we would probably be as sick of it as the public."

Instead, Day thinks the show is only just now finding its audience, and after weighing the personal and financial ramifications of committing to another two years, the gang didn't see anything keeping them from carrying on.

"We're just sort of hitting our stride," says Day. "It doesn't feel like we're dragging the show through the mud."

For Season 7, which returns to FX on Sept. 15, that stride will involve the previously-acknowledged 50-pound weight gain of creator and star Rob McElhenney, who plays Mac.

"Instead of making the characters as likable as possible, we try to be as unlikable as possible," says McElhenney, who's already dropped 20 pounds. "[I wanted] to do the same with the aesthetic."

But Mac won't be bothered by his weight gain. Instead, he'll wear it proudly like he does his tribal tattoos.

"Mac believes that he looks fantastic," he says of his character who claims to just be adding muscle. "It's like when Michelangelo sculpted the David, he started with a fat slab of marble."

Originally, McElhenney tried to get all of his cast mates to participate in the weight gain -- something co-star and real life wife Kaitlin Olson shot down with the rest of them.

You can watch the latest promos for "Sunny" Season 7 here, with special Hallmark treatments for Dee's loneliness, Dennis' vanity and Charlie's learning disability...