It might be celebrating its 10th anniversary today, but It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has never quite received the recognition it deserves.

The US sitcom - starring Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, Kaitlin Olson and Danny DeVito - originally began airing in 2005. Labelled as 'The Dark Side of Comedy' by its original broadcaster FX, the show became a cult favourite almost instantly.

Centring on the escapades of the employees of a relatively unsuccessful pub in Philly, Charlie (Day), Mac (McElhenney), Dennis (Howerton), Dee (Olson) and Frank (DeVito) - known as The Gang - have now been rampaging around the City of Brotherly Love – and our TV screens - for a decade.

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Whether they're exploiting a so-called 'miracle', engaging in a 48-hour danceathon, or getting stranded in the woods, The Gang specialise in making a good situation bad, or a bad situation even worse. Even worse than you're probably imagining right now.

The show was created by McElhenney, who pitched the idea to his friends Howerton and Day in 2004. The cast was then rounded out by Olson – winning the role over a then-relatively unknown Kristen Wiig.

Although proving itself as a critical success early on, those behind the scenes at FX thought the show lacked a vital element to ensure a season two renewal - and it was here that Danny DeVito joined the cast as Dennis and Dee's gun-toting, foul-mouthed father, Frank Reynolds.

You can argue that the series started to become what it is today after DeVito joined the cast - the addition of his character only added to the show's offbeat and politically incorrect humour.

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A key reason the show is so easy to go back to is because the characters can make you feel better about your own lives. There is absolutely nothing aspirational about the lives of the gang on It's Always Sunny - which is exactly why we love them.

Although Frank is especially wealthy, he's also especially lazy, choosing to share a sofa bed with the dim Charlie in his rundown apartment. Dennis, a borderline narcissistic sociopath, and Mac, a highly competitive yet highly incompetent gym-rat, are barely any smarter than Charlie.

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Dee likes to think she's smarter and more together than the rest of the cast, but in actual fact, she's every bit as deplorable as her co-workers - and the development of Olson's character is where It's Always Sunny earns extra points.

So often in sitcom, the childish, bumbling male characters are counterbalanced by a straight-laced female – her purpose is to drag the other characters back down to earth. True, Sweet Dee is often the first to call out the gang's stupidity, but it never takes her long to get involved in their schemes.

Dee's development came as a result of Olson not wanting to simply "play the girl" - it was she who convinced McElhenney to create a female who got down and dirty just like her male comrades.

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Ten years on from its first episode airing on August 4, 2005, you'd expect a show like It's Always Sunny to start showing signs of its age, right? Wrong.

In fact, the show has gone from strength-to-strength since its earlier seasons. Later episodes including 'The Gang Goes to Jersey Shore', 'Charlie and Dee Find Love' and 'Charlie Work' - from seasons 7, 8 and 10 - respectively are some of the best the series has ever seen.

It helps that It's Always Sunny has alway delivered lean, mean seasons - with never more than 15 episodes per year, only the very best plots, scenes and dialogue make it into each 20-minute instalment.

And the best news is that there's still plenty more to come - the show was renewed for an 11th and 12th season in May of last year.

It's now the longest-running US cable sitcom of all-time - and for that reason alone, we think you should invest as much time and faith in It's Always Sunny as the good ol' suits at FX have. You won't be disappointed.

Seasons 1-10 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are all available to stream on Netflix now - with seasons 11 and 12 expected to premiere in 2016 and 2017.

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