subject: Summary Of An Installment Of It Is Always Sunny In Philadelphia [print this page] Fitness is extremely important in life, and often times has a connection to one's ability to defend themselves in problem situations. One thing that demonstrates this idea is an episode of a popular TV show called It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The show involves five bar owners in Philadelphia named Frank, Dennis, Mac, Dee and Charlie. Frank is a father to Dennis and Dee and the rest are just pals from high school. In an episode of the show known as Hundred Dollar Baby, a play on Million Dollar Baby, Frank makes an attempt to teach his daughter Dee self defense after an incident in which the other three men left her to get mugged by a homeless man. Frank uses a life fitness elliptical machine, life fitness equipment and dumbbells to get Dee into shape and able to handle herself.
Dee is left to get robbed when her brother Dennis and friends Mac and Charlie ditch her and flee the scene when confronted with a mugger. This evolves into former boxer Frank, played by Danny Devito, teaching Dee to defend herself. While at the gym getting in shape, Frank runs into an old rival boxer and the two old foes throw jabs at each other for a while before it is decided that their two daughters will fight each other to finally settle the score. In order to get prepared for her fight against a clearly more experienced fighter, and to make up for Frank's horrendous coaching, Dee decides to start taking steroids. Hilarity ensues when the typical steroid side effects become a problem and Dee is left having to shave her face and deal with extreme fits of rage.
Meanwhile, after an argument with Frank, Dennis and Mac decide that they should put Charlie into an underground, unsanctioned and illegal street fighting tournament because they say he is the toughest guy they know. Ultimately this is just a scheme on their part to make money because they plan on betting on Charlie to win the fights they enter him in. In order to prepare him for his fights the three of them get really drunk and Dennis and Mac smash things on Charlie's back, such as chairs. To increase his tolerance for pain for his underground fights Charlie decides that he's going to start using Dee's steroids and towards the end of the episode also deals with fluctuating moods, alternating between crying, being angry and hysterical laughter.
To conclude the episode, Dee finds out that Charlie has been taking her pills and the two of them get in a fight which leaves them both incarcerated. Mac takes Charlie's place in the underground fighting competition at Dennis's prodding and loses badly. On the way back to their bar the two men meet the same mugger as before and it comes out that Dennis switched his bet when Mac fought and bet on the other guy, resulting in him winning lots of money. Mac then eggs on the mugger to stab Dennis and that plot line comes to a conclusion.
In the other plot line of the show Frank decides that since his daughter is in jail he will step up and fight his former rival in the ring like he always wanted to. Frank uses trickery and punches the other man before the bell, resulting in him falling and knocking his daughter down, who then hits her neck against a stool like in Million Dollar Baby. The episode reaches it's conclusion with Frank walking away sheepishly and the credits rolling.
