When Quinta Brunson, 35, was cast Abbott Elementary almost five years ago (Disney+), had a clear request. The set didn’t just have to look like a school – it had to To be at school. It was something the creator and star were obsessed with. So much so that the first episode – the 2021 pilot – was filmed in a real Los Angeles school (though it’s set in Brunson’s hometown of Philadelphia on the opposite coast). But that proved too complicated. So, to bring the stories of a half-dozen teachers and hundreds of students to life, the decision was made to recreate the closest building to a real school at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California.
There, in Stage 16, which in its 90 years of history has seen productions such as Giant, My beautiful lady, Ghostbusters, jurassic park, The Return of Batman, The perfect stormAND Wild Wild Westan entire school was installed to capture what matters most: authentic stories that make you laugh out loud.
A few meters beyond Stage 16, in front of the filming trailers The PittIn Season 2, Brunson and his co-stars reunite to explain how humor and relatability remain their strengths five seasons and nearly 80 episodes later. In fact, it is possible that the combination of both elements amplifies the impact of each. That’s how Brunson and fellow cast members Lisa Ann Walter (who plays Melissa Schemmenti), Tyler James Williams (Gregory Eddie), Sheryl Lee Ralph (Barbara Howard), William Stanford Davis (Mr. Johnson) and Chris Perfetti (Jacob Hill) describe him at a relaxed press event. Because, as everyone agrees, they may not have been teachers, but they have all been students and spent time in the classroom at some point in their lives.
“It’s something Lisa (Ann Walter) was saying when the show started,” Brunson recalled. “When she first came, she said, ‘Everyone, really, either you had a teacher or you’re a teacher.’ And that’s literally true: It may be one of the few things in the world where every single person has a direct connection to a teacher.”
“So let’s start with this,” she told EL PAÍS, sitting at a desk at the Warner Bros. studio. “From the beginning of the series, I really wanted to hire writers who appreciated teachers, I didn’t laugh at them or think it was something to belittle themselves about. And by the end, most of the writers had a teacher in their immediate or nuclear family.”
Every year they talk to teachers that Brunson herself seeks out: friends, acquaintances… In fact, she reveals that she had a sort of chat with “the real Gregory, in Philadelphia.” At the beginning of the school year, they hold a video call with many of these educators “to hear how people are feeling, what problems they’re really facing,” Brunson explains.
Tyler James Williams, who plays Gregory on the ABC series, confirms this: “You were very specific about finding writers who put their heart at the forefront,” he reminds Brunson. “I think that’s the key to any version of relationality or good storytelling. If you go into it with your heart first, you’ll be able to connect with anyone else who has access to their heart on the other side.”
“As long as that’s the focus, I think you can run a lot of different types of stories through that lens,” he continues. “But I think that’s also where you get into this situation where we’re not just telling the teachers’ story, we love them as we tell it and we’re not punching them, we’re trying to make fun of their plight.”
That authentic vision, free of derision or humiliation, is central to the plots, writers and actors, even if the show is a comedy, and they admit to laughing at themselves on screen months after filming the scenes and lines. None of this conflicts with giving real voice to teachers’ stories.
“I think we get a new perspective of what’s happening, the real perspective of what’s really affecting them on a day-to-day basis, and we try to draw from that experience. And then we also try to be mindful that we’re not making a drama,” Williams says. “We’re making a comedy, so even though some of the realities are going to be harsh and real, we want to make sure we take material that we can actually have fun with. We don’t want you to go home and look at what you’ve been through during the day and feel sad, so we add a little bit of fictional fun just to make sure it stays a comedy.”
Lisa Ann Walter — known to 90s kids for her role in The parental trap along with Lindsay Lohan — recalls that her mother was a public school teacher in Washington, D.C., and even taught her. She remembers immersing herself in her mother’s stories.
“He loved his children and would fight and kill for them,” the actress recalls fondly. “She also didn’t take crap from anyone. So someone thought they were messing with her, she shut it down real quick… and those were my friends. So it was crazy. But she went to bed early, so everyone still celebrated at my house.”
The diversity of the teaching staff is well reflected in the show. There are men and women of all colours, ages and backgrounds.
“For me, the bottom line is that you don’t have to look like us or love us or like us in our entirety as a class, as a cast,” explains Sheryl Lee Ralph, a four-time Emmy nominee and 2022 winner for her role as the school’s veteran teacher, the first Black woman in more than 35 years to win the award.
“People connect with the show,” he explains. “They connect with people. It’s not the color of the people, it’s the people they connect with, and for us that’s made a difference.”
For Brunson, this diversity is inevitable. “I think the better the stories, the more diversity you will naturally get,” says the creator of the show, which streams on Disney+. “We will always need our industry to appreciate the narrative of people of color, to not erase it because it’s people of color. But a good story is a good story.”
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