PHILADELPHIA — For the past 19 years, Danny DeVito has played the deranged con artist Frank Reynolds on "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia."

The greedy, gun-toting character has tortured and mercilessly exploited his (legal, not biological) kids: waterboarding Dee (Kaitlin Olson), coercing Dennis (Glenn Howerton) into sex work, and let’s not forget the time he tricked them into digging up their dead mother.

And for all those years, DeVito has only been gleeful to jump in.

So when it came to the crossover episodes with the wholesome Philly sitcom "Abbott Elementary" — part two aired last week in the premiere of "Sunny’s" 17th season — he was unfazed. Even when the script involved creepy encounters with students and urine-soaked animal pelts.

He has been asked to do worse.

“My first day on the job over there, I was in a cage. Frank’s dreams come true, eating mulch in a cage,” said DeVito, who grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey. “I had no idea how [the 'Abbott' crossover] was going to be. I knew the show was totally not anywhere in our wheelhouse, but it worked out really great.”

In spite of all the high jinks, DeVito says "Sunny" has been a consistent source of joy because the cast and writers are like a family at this point. As the show nears its 20th anniversary, DeVito, 80, is game to do anything, much like Frank; the crazier, the better.

It’s like he’s living out one of his character’s earlier lines: “Well, I don’t know how many years on this Earth I got left. I’m gonna get real weird with it.”

The new season features another crossover when Frank goes on "The Golden Bachelor" to find love. Aggravating reality TV host Jesse Palmer, Frank incorrectly expects the potential love interests to be younger and, well, less “golden,” creating another opportunity for him to be the worst person in the room. (The episode also reunites DeVito with an old friend: fellow "Taxi" actor Carol Kane makes a cameo.)

While DeVito hasn’t made his way back to this area recently, he mentions that this would be the time of year when he’d be on the Asbury Park boardwalk every day, riding his bike and lazing around the beach. When asked about Philly, he acknowledges that it’s been a while since he’s visited, but it still holds special memories.

“I love visiting Philly. When I was a kid, I would go with my father up to Philly. He was a pool shooter,” DeVito recalled. “There was a place in Philly that had all these great pool tables. We’d eat good Italian food, and we’d get back on the road to Asbury.”

Though "Sunny" hasn’t filmed locally lately, DeVito says he looks forward to returning to the city again one day. Thankfully, Frank Reynolds’ destructive behavior won’t follow in DeVito’s wake.

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"It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia" airs weekly on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on FX.

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