Streaming may have partially usurped the Emmy-nominated dramas that once populated broadcast television, but in a field the new entertainment medium still needs to compete in sitcoms (“hacks” aside). I have trouble. The Big Four networks still produce the most successful half-hour comedies in the business and arguably the newest addition to sitcom territory last TV season was ABC’s “Abbott Elementary.” Ahead of the Season 2 premiere on September 21, and as part of TheWrap’s Fall TV Preview, writers and executive producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacher talk to us about what has changed and what has changed as they prepare for the show’s return. Hasn’t changed, and how the characters bleed in real life.
TheWrap: ‘Abbott Elementary’ follows the different but grounded The characters and this very organic sense of humor. Did you need to make changes to that recipe as Season 2 approached?
Justin Helper: it’s me, pat and [creator/star] quinta [Brunson], and we just sat down and talked to Quinta about what her vision is for next season and what she wants to do. We all understood very quickly that we wanted to double down on the grounded nature of the characters. many times in [a] Show, as you move on to more seasons, things can get wacky. You go to big places to get the same laugh. We all felt that what works so well about the show is that it is based on some kind of reality and we are doing it a disservice to make it a little broader than it needed to be.
Schumacher: That philosophy extends to every aspect of the show. The show has garnered a lot of headlines and celebrities are keen to do cameos in the show. We’re trying to keep that purity of Season 1 and try to maintain that documentary and make it look as real as possible. It’s tempting to succumb to that kind of interest and we have a cameo in the first episode of Season 2 which is a big, big surprise. But, for the most part, we’re keeping it as close to season 1 as possible.
Season 1 had 13 episodes and Season 2 has increased to 22. Does anything need to change in terms of your mental math to produce more while keeping quality high or is it just focusing on what you’re already doing well?
Schumacher: It’s a little bit of both. We actually started the writers’ room in April of this year to serve two purposes. Its primary function was to keep Quinta in the Writers’ Room as long as possible. We started filming at the end of July so we could spend a few more months with Quinta in the room full time and it was important to maintain that voice. Then the gift of the network is telling us pretty quickly that we’re getting nine back. Then we have clarity and foresight so I don’t think the 22 episode order means we had to slow down anything. This allows us to break the seasons into separate arcs.
A lot of sitcoms pull elements from real life from the creators and put in characters. I’m curious if there is any real life element that has translated into the show.
Helper: Well, there is a very good story that happened when we were shooting for the pilot. We felt Orlando Jones and Orlando Bloom mixed in Shirley Lee Ralph’s head. She was talking about how proud she was of what Orlando Bloom had achieved as a black actor, so we realized she thought Orlando Bloom was black and Darren Starr was black too , none of which were black. And so we wrote in her character Barbara for the second season. There’s a cold open where we’re confused with Barbara about who’s a black celebrity and who’s a white figure.
Schumacher: [Producer/writer] We have also covered the life of Brian Rubenstein on the show.
Helper: Oh yes. One of the writers originally hated food, and that turned out to be Gregory. We took it straight from Brian’s life and we put it in the character Gregory and when we turned to the studio’s outline, all the writers are on the outline’s call with the network. Everyone in the studio was like, ‘God, that makes this guy so unsuitable. If he doesn’t like food, how will he be the romantic lead? Who would ever like this person?’ And we’re all looking at Brian.
Schumacher: It’s on speakerphone and he’s just sitting in his chair.
It’s like Robin Williams’ speech in ‘Good Will Hunting’, about true love being about the peculiar nature we find in each other.
Helper: This is such an interesting point and you are 100% right. That’s what we feel about it and we always talked about how we didn’t want Gregory to be just Jim from ‘The Office’. We want Gregory to be this low-key weirdo who likes you as much as you know him. He has all these strange temperaments. He’s not like your classic leading man. And guess what, Janine is weird too!
The two of you have previously talked about doing more Bottle episodes in Season 2. Can you get any sneak peeks at what we can expect?
Helper: I think our show is uniquely built to make bottle episodes. Similarly, when you’re doing mockuments at a workplace like ‘The Office’, you can call those bottle episodes. But I guess the thing we always try to play with when we do bottle episodes is figure out what is that thing that’s going to stick with the audience? Last year, the Work Family episode where they were learning about each other, we were like, ‘Okay, this is going to be a bottle episode, but let’s alert the audience and everyone else to the fact that Janine never been together Another man sometime in his life.’ How [will that] Send everyone out to hang out because it’s so rare and crazy?
I think this season, when we do those episodes, you’re going to start learning more things about characters you didn’t know before and hopefully it’s very satisfying, interesting and funny.
Schumacher: We open Season 2 to an unexpected place and an episode that shows a part of the teaching that has yet to be discovered. Without going into details, this is what happens when teachers are preparing for the start of the year. but it’s something we were really interested in because I think it was going to illuminate [for] Many people, including me.
“Abbott Elementary” Season 2 premieres September 21 at 9 p.m. ET/PT