McPoyle is far from the only “Sunny” character to be named after a real-life person, and none of the characters are particularly flattering. Dennis Reynolds, for example, was named after three old friends of series co-creator, star, and showrunner Rob McElhenney.
“I have a number of friends named Dennis, and then one of my best friend’s name is Tom Reynolds, and so I just fused those together for Dennis Reynolds,” he said, giving the underwhelming backstory behind Dennis’ name on the “Always Sunny” Podcast.
Dennis’ sister Dee, nicknamed Sweet Dee, was also inspired by someone that McElhenney knew in real life, but he wasn’t exactly paying homage to the namesake in question. The series co-creator was introduced to Tom Morello from “Rage Against the Machine” at a barbecue in the early aughts, and his wife was nicknamed Sweet Dee. Although their meeting was brief, the name stuck with him.
“I always thought, God, that’s an interesting, funny name, Sweet Dee,” the showrunner continued. “Why do they call her that, I don’t know? And then I kind of forgot about it, for like three years. Three years I forgot about it. And then when I sat down to write the show, I don’t know why it popped into my head. I was like, maybe they call her Sweet Dee, that’s kind of fun. Yeah, that’s just a funny name.”
Other people have inspired “Sunny” characters that don’t share their name, like the father of writer-producer Scott Marder (who inspired some of Frank’s weirdest moments). Charlie’s tailgating alter-ego the green man, for instance, was another old friend of McElhenney’s, Day told Vice.