Quinta Brunson—the creator and star of the ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary, formerly a living meme—could once predict exactly who would love her work. It was mostly young, mostly Black people who had seen her viral videos, like “The Girl Who’s Never Been on a Nice Date,” or the miles of content she produced for BuzzFeed, or her book of essays, She Memes Well. Now, thanks to the ubiquity of network television, it’s a free-for-all.
“With Abbott, I cannot predict who will have seen this show,” Brunson says in a phone call. That’s in part because millions upon millions of people have watched her delightful sitcom—an instant hit for ABC that, seven episodes in, is already breaking TV records. (Some are so unique to the arcane world of network television that Brunson has admitted to doing Google searches to figure out what they mean.)
“I’m a child of the internet, but at the end of the day, ratings are still a huge indicator in how successful a network perceives a show to be,” says Brunson, who is also a writer and executive producer on the series. “After the first episode premiered, [ABC] was like, Whoa! These are the numbers! And I’m like, I don’t care! But now I have to care.”
Now, though, she understands. “And I am overwhelmed,” Brunson says.
It’s easy to see why people love Abbott Elementary. The show follows an idiosyncratic group of teachers at a struggling school in Philadelphia, Brunson’s hometown. She plays Janine, a scrappy young second-grade teacher who genuinely loves her kids and will do whatever she can for them—whether that means buying a new class rug with money from her own pocket, or grabbing a ladder to fix a faulty lightbulb in the hallway. The character was originally envisioned as a supporting role, Brunson says, but she was slowly pushed to the center as the series was developed.
Janine has pep and verve, determined every day to put one foot in front of the other. But she’s also got a dark side, alluding to a troubled upbringing in which she didn’t have any friends and had to potty train herself.
“In my experience, the most optimistic people in my life who keep me going and cheer me up…they often have some stuff they’ve been through in their life that they’ve either had to bounce back from or are dealing with,” Brunson says. “And Janine is also 25. She does not have it all together.”
The show is shot like a mockumentary, in the vein of The Office and Parks and Recreation. Brunson drew inspiration from those two shows in addition to many others, name-checking touchstones like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Martin, and the Fresh Prince. “My love for TV is endless,” she says.
She’s also a student of television, analyzing the trends that come and go. “Network television, if I’m being honest, was just getting super formulaic, and I think that’s what made it not feel cool anymore,” she says. “Then streaming came out…and then all the comedies started getting super dark—because that became cool, for the comedies to get dark and pretty. Which is fine! But they’re dark. You can’t watch ’em with the whole family…. It’s not going to give you the same laughs as a network comedy.”
Abbott is a firmly family-friendly show, designed to tap into every audience quadrant. (“It’s not prestige television,” Brunson adds. “It’s TV for everybody.”) It’s a tall order, but Abbott, named after Brunson’s beloved sixth-grade teacher, is filling it week by week. Its core characters are harried teachers trying their best, the sort of people you root for before you even get to know them. They’re played by a stellar cast: Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lisa Ann Walter, and comedian Janelle James, in the standout role of Ava, the noxious school principal.
Ralph was initially interested in the role of Ava, but Brunson knew that James was perfect for the part immediately after seeing her audition. Though it’s now apparent to everyone else that Brunson was right, she had to fight the network to get the comic, a relative unknown in the TV world, cast in the role. “You just want someone who reads it and gets it, and Janelle just read it and got it,” Brunson says. “I feel this way about my whole cast. If they didn’t audition, I don’t know what we would’ve done.”
The series is also grounded by its relatable story lines, some of which were inspired by Brunson’s own mother, a retired teacher. The pilot, for example, revolves around Janine trying to frantically replace a soiled classroom rug, an absolute necessity for her students. “That was completely from me seeing my mom have to get a new rug every year…because it would be so filthy by the end of the year,” Brunson says. Her mom would pay for the rug herself—just one of the many ways Brunson learned how often teachers have to reach into their own pockets to provide for their students.
It’s an aspect of the show that’s resonated with teachers in real life. But there are also plot points relatable to anyone who’s ever been in school, from an episode about the touchy politics of a gifted and talented program, to an episode about a tiny troublemaker named Courtney.
“A lot of people were like, ‘I was a Courtney!’” Brunson says with a laugh. “Every week it feels like people are finding something that resonates with them…. It’s cool that everyone can find something.”
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