Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

During a Tuesday afternoon panel with two of the three creator-producer-stars of the FX comedy hit It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a critic asked if the immature personalities who populate the series that’s going into its sixth season in September were ever going to show anything resembling character development. With all due respect. Co-creator Rob McElhenney admitted that while evolution is ongoing, there is no immediate plan to have them develop at anything resembling an accelerated rate. “The older we get, the sadder it it. And the sadder it is, the funnier it is,” he figures.

The show is planning to address some genuine issues for the coming season, however — like gay marriage. “We’ll do gay marriage, and sometimes we do dick jokes,” McElhenney said, “and we feel like there’s a happy medium there.” The medium has resulted in a series that started modestly in 2005 and has seen its ratings rise each season since, along with the stature of its stars. “It’s much harder for me to just sit in an airport at the gate without it being a whole thing,” admitted co-creator Glenn Howerton. “It tells me how much people are watching and enjoying the show.”