Kaitlin Olson and Jeff Chang

Episode 157

27th January 2015

Kaitlin Olson plays Sweet Dee on It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. She’ll talk about morally broken comedy characters and whether it’s a good idea to fall in love with the creator of your TV show. Then later Jesse talks to Jeff Chang. About 10 years ago he wrote Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. It won the American Book Award in 2005. His new book is called Who We Be: The Colorization of America. In some ways, it’s a follow up to the last one. It’s about how art in America shapes, and is shaped by, race. Plus, Jesse tells you about one real-life superhuman: Andre the Giant.

Episode notes


Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Kaitlin Olson on “Sweet Dee” and the Morally Bankruptcy in It’s Always Sunny on Philadelphia

Kaitlin Olson plays Sweet Dee on the long-running sitcom It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Dee is the only female member of “The Gang”, a bunch of depraved, self-centered pals who run a bar. The Gang is constantly looking for ways to get rich quick, humiliate their enemies, get out of work, and prove once and for all the talent, charisma and brilliance they hold to be self-evident. In an unusual move for a solo female character, Dee doesn’t serve to counterbalance the guys’ bad behavior — she absolutely matches their pace.

Olson talks to us about creating a more fully-fleshed character for Dee, how she came to comedy, and how she ended up dating (and marrying) her showrunner.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is currently in its tenth season. It airs Wednesday nights at 10pm on FXX.

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Photo credit: Jeremy Keith Villaluz

Jeff Chang on Art, Race, and How Diversity Now Means “Them”

About ten years ago, Jeff Chang published his book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. His new book is a sort of follow-up — it chronicles some of the cultural and racial shifts we’ve experienced as a nation. It’s called Who We Be: The Colorization of America.

Chang talks to us about what “diversity” means to us today, the struggle for artists to defy racial categorization, and how and why corporations embraced multiculturalism.

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The Outshot: What It Means to Be Superhuman

Jesse tells us about the life and legend of Andre the Giant.

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In this episode...

Senior Producer
Producer
Maximum Fun Producer
Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Guests

  • Kaitlin Olson
  • Jeff Chang

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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Senior Producer

Producer

Maximum Fun Producer

Maximum Fun Production Fellow

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