TV Talk: How past series inspired Quinta Brunson’s ‘Abbott Elementary’

Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip.

BURBANK, Calif. – There are many qualities to admire about “Abbott Elementary” creator and star Quinta Brunson, but the one that jumps out for me most often is her genuine love of and appreciation for television.

Viewers might think this is a natural thing, that all those who work in TV love and watch TV, but that’s often not the case. But when Brunson talks about TV, it’s clear she’s both a fan and a student of the medium, similar to late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

Brunson stars in “Abbott Elementary” as teacher Janine Teagues, who’s supported by veteran teacher colleagues Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) while principal Ava (Janelle James) looks out primarily for Ava.

In a February visit to the “Abbott” set on the Warner Bros. lot during the Television Critics Association winter 2024 press tour, Brunson offered a smart dissertation on mockumentary series that helped inspire “Abbott,” comparing how its look differs from the drab lighting of “The Office” and the brighter lights of “Parks and Recreation.” Brunson and “Abbott” pilot director Randall Einhorn set about creating a warmer lighting style for the Philadelphia elementary school-set series.

“That, to me, immediately set us apart. I love going behind the veil,” Brunson said of the mockumentary format. “You’ve seen it in sillier versions, like ‘What We Do in the Shadows.’ Yeah, I think I know about vampires, but there’s so much more to learn once you pull back the curtain. So I wanted to keep up that tradition of this format.”

From there, Brunson segued into discussing her admiration for a 2013 Australian mockumentary series, “Ja’mie: Private School Girl.”

“I wouldn’t recommend watching; it’s not aging well,” Brunson cautioned. “But at the time Ja’mie was more inspiration for me for Ava than anything. People think that it was Michael Scott, but Ja’mie is so horrible. But by the end of the show, I’m like, oh man, I really want Ja’mie to get what she wants. … ‘The [Real] Housewives’ were a huge inspiration for Ava, too. So you pick and pull from different places. A lot of the influences aren’t even mockumentaries. I loved ‘Newhart’s’ Larry, Darryl and Darryl. I [thought], I want to have something stupid like that in our world that’s dumb. And that kind of inspires [school custodian] Mr. Johnson. Or Kenneth from ‘30 Rock’ inspires Mr. Johnson a lot for me. And ‘Mary Tyler Moore’ is a huge inspiration for Janine, while the ‘The Golden Girls’ bleed into the Melissa and Barbara world.”

Regarding the decision to have Janine and fellow teacher Gregory (Tyler James Williams) kiss in season two, relatively early in the show’s run, Brunson said that was an effort to fly in the face of comedies that came before “Abbott.”

“We’ve seen versions of this trope before,” Brunson said. “I really like to look at TV as constantly reinventing the wheel. We had the opportunity to reinvent by just moving that kiss up. … It was easy to slow it back down because they are coworkers who care about their jobs at the end of the day. … We know for the audience, they tend to look at them as a ‘will they/won’t they,’ but it’s Janine’s path and Gregory’s path and sometimes those paths cross, but they are individuals, so it’s really easy to focus on just them and not them as a couple.”

“Abbott” is pre-empted this week on ABC – episodes also stream on Hulu and Max – but the show returns for a four-week run of the remaining episodes in its third season at 9 p.m. May 1 on WTAE-TV.

“Abbott” executive producer Justin Halpern (“Harley Quinn,” “Cougar Town”) credits the success of the show’s ensemble approach to Brunson.

“The reason that that’s possible is because of how gracious a performer and writer she is,” Halpern said. “Never once in this entire process has Quinta ever come and been like, ‘I need more this.’ In fact, most times, she’s like, ‘I need less [to do] here or less there,’ and so the reason that you have this ensemble is because she is able to put her ego wherever she needs to put it in order to make the best show possible.”

Brunson said despite being one of the show’s stars, she also loves to be in the writers’ room creating stories and breaking scripts. But how does she do that when she also has to film many, many scenes for the series?

“We build an extra few weeks into our pre-production [schedule] so that Quinta can be in the writers’ room for much longer,” Halpern explained. “By the time we’re done with pre-production, sometimes we have written seven scripts and outlined to 10. And she has been in the writers’ room every single minute of the day for everything up to there. And then what we do is we build in hiatuses every few weeks so that before we get caught up [filming], she’s back in the [writers’] room, or we build a light day or a couple of light days so she’s back in the room.”

“Abbott” catapulted Brunson from a virtual unknown to an in-demand star who’s been busy winning trophies, including Emmys for lead actress in a comedy and outstanding comedy series for “Abbott.”

“I’ll be honest with you, I wasn’t processing it for a while,” she said, describing filming the second season and winning a Golden Globe Award as a blur. “I do not have a memory of that. I have a memory of [co]-star] Tyler [James Williams] winning, but not me physically winning, or even the show winning, because we were here [on set] at 5 a.m. every day afterward.”

Brunson said the downtime of last year’s dual writers’ and actors’ strikes gave her a chance to begin to deal with the success that’s come her way.

“I was in my office and I walked out and then I did the walk back, and I was like, what the hell is that award? What is that? And I had to pull it off the shelf to see that it was a SAG Award,” Brunson recalled. “When did this happen? Because we were in it. We were working and I wasn’t really processing how much had changed, which I think was good, but also bad. You should also be keeping up with where you are in life.”