Abbott Elementary has been a success because it speaks to what we're all needing right now

Salon.com

"If you were to compile a list of the last six years' defining sentiments, you'd be obligated to include anxiety, anger and hopelessness," says Melanie McFarland. "Each is an invisible psychological wedge driving people apart, but also toward TV comfort food, mainly comedies." As McFarland notes, The Wall Street Journal revealed in 2018 that The Office was then Netflix's No. 1 show. "Overtly that show has little in common with Abbott Elementary beyond their shared status as workplace mockumentaries," says McFarland. "But Brunson's ABC comedy speaks to 2022 in ways that classic, adored as it is by Gen Z and Billie Eilish, can't quite touch. The Office is a fantasy about work and a best-case scenario workplace family, while Abbott Elementary uplifts the value of choosing meaning and satisfaction in a profession, even one as financially thankless as teaching. Aside from the ways that purpose and meaning can be exploited to increase product output and profit, meaning and satisfaction are worthless concepts to most corporations. And as more people are rejecting the notion that this is the way work has to be, the career and life philosophy Abbott Elementary espouses feels comfortable and right."

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• Quinta Brunson's failed CBS comedy pilot with Larry Wilmore and Jermaine Fowler helped pave the way for Abbott Elementary: Brunson had many experiences that led to Abbott Elementary's success. She starred in a failed CW pilot The End Of The World As We Know It that connected her with future Abbott executive producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker and planted the seeds for Warner Bros. TV to want to work with her on future projects. She also had a recurring role on iZombie and had a failed pilot at HBO Max. "Interestingly, Brunson also credits a development detour at CBS for helping pave her way," explains Josef Adalian. "Back in 2018, between the CW and HBO Max projects, she teamed up with fellow writer-performers Larry Wilmore and Jermaine Fowler for a half-hour comedy. Though CBS made a hefty production commitment to the project, it ultimately opted against taping a pilot, killing the idea in the script phase. Yet the experience of developing for the number-one network provided Brunson an invaluable education in making TV for the masses." As Brunson put it: “CBS is the big network, still getting the big ratings. They make big monster hit comedies that appeal to most of America. Where I could have taken a lot of disdain from that process, I instead learned so much about what it takes to make a network comedy, as opposed to a streaming comedy or even a digital project.” The pilot also allowed her to work with comedy legend Larry Wilmore, The Bernie Mac Show creator who helped launch Black-ish and Insecure. “I want it to be in print somewhere, how vital Larry is to so many people’s experiences,” Brunson says. “He’s this behind-the-scenes person who never takes credit, even though he gets so many creators off the ground.”
• Teachers -- particularly Black teachers -- are thrilled with Abbott Elementary: “I've always said that I wish there was a show like The Office that reflected my life as a teacher,” says Malikah Mahone, a 26-year-old middle school teacher in New York. “It was just so nice to be seen on TV and, I know that's already a thing for Black people in general, but it's different to see such a specific thing like your career. To see that on TV is absolutely hilarious.”
• Five lessons learned from Abbott Elementary's first season