The It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia origin story is basically myth by this point: A trio of twenty-something dudes shoot a short film for under $100, someone realizes it's more like a TV pilot than a short, and then, all of a sudden, they've landed a deal with FX and have a $400,000 budget to reshoot the thing for TV. And then... Danny DeVito! Hundreds of episodes! A rabid, overwhelming outpouring of love from critics and fans that got Mac into Game of Thrones but still, inexplicably, hasn't earned the show an Emmy!

Now, 14 years and 13 seasons later, It's Always Sunny has tied Ozzie and Harriet as the longest-running live-action sitcom ever, and it isn't showing any signs of slowing down. Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and Glenn Howerton, the three co-creators/writers/stars/general masterminds are all off working on projects of their own—Day and McElhenney have a new series coming to Apple TV+ and Glenn Howerton is starring in A.P. Bio, one of the best network sitcoms in years—but the trio still manages to find new and increasingly bonkers ways to keep It's Always Sunny going. Howerton is even on board to direct a pair of episodes in the upcoming season for the first time.

So in honor of the new season, which premieres September 25 on FXX, we caught up with Glenn Howerton to dive back into the It's Always Sunny archives to unpack the guy's top five favorite episodes of the show. He wound up choosing eight favorites, then six episodes for newcomers to start with, then a few episodes with the most personal meaning to him, and... Look, there are a lot of brilliant episodes of It's Always Sunny out there. He has as much trouble picking favorites as the rest of us, apparently.

Long live It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. May it last as long as Danny DeVito's acting career, which is to say, forever. We'll have to do this interview again in another 13 seasons, since Howerton's picks may have evolved a bit by that point. Until then, though, here are his top five—er, eight—favorite episodes of the series so far.

"The Gang Hits the Road" (Season 5, Episode 2)

VICE: "The Gang Hits the Road" feels like the platonic ideal of an It's Always Sunny episode to me. I know why I like it—but why did you pick it?

Glenn Howerton: Maybe for the same reason. I just love the simplicity of that episode. We're not doing anything crazy—we're literally just trying to drive a car from one place to another, and we can't do it. In some ways, it's picking up where Seinfeld left off.