Charlie Day describes "the moment of truth" when he knew the 'Abbott Elementary' gang would be cool with the 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' crossover

As for what the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia gang was actually up to, Day explained, "I think one of the reasons we started to feel as though it could work was that we said, almost no matter what we do on their episode, we have an opportunity to paint that same episode through an It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia lens and justify our characters behaving in the much more PG way they have to behave to be on ABC. That started to get us a little giddy and excited, that we could do the same story through a different lens. Yes, all these things happened, but here’s what else was going on that day that had much more of a rated R, It’s Always Sunny tone."

So what else can we expect in terms of pop culture references outside of the upcoming The Golden Bachelor crossover? "There’s a little reference to Succession and we give a little wink to The Bear. Is It Cake? gets mentioned at one point, there’s a lot of overlaps. But Abbott Elementary and Golden Bachelor were the only two shows that we were doing directly in the style of another television show," he revealed. 

It also looks like season 17 won't be the end for the longest-running live-action sitcom ever. "Fortunately, I think we’re lining up everybody and we’re going to come back for season 18. Beyond season 18, I don’t know, it could quite possibly be the end. But I think there was something about writing this season and having David and John Cherin back in the writers room, and having Rob Rosell and David Hornsby and a little bit of some of the old gang back, and then having some of these episodes work so well was exciting in a way that reinvigorated everybody. So we’ll see how long we can keep it going. But one season at a time," the actor concluded.