Skip to main content

The ABC comedy Abbott Elementary Season 2 will be one of the most anticipated returns of the season. The show will join the Wednesday night comedy lineup as an anchor after the success of its first midseason run. Abbott Elementary Quinta Brunson previewed what’s to come and said the show would become more like the classic sitcom Friends.

'Abbott Elementary' cast lines up in the auditorium
L-R: Tyler James Williams, Quinta Brunson, Chris Perfetti, Lisa Ann Walter, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Janelle James, William Stanford Davis | ABC/Temma Hankin

Brunson was a guest on Vanity Fair’s Little Gold Men podcast on July 19. While previewing Abbott Elementary Season 2, Brunson invoked the name of Friends. Abbott Elementary returns Sept. 21 on ABC.

How ‘Abbott Elementary’ Season 2 will be more like ‘Friends’

Brunson said she wrote and filmed all of Abbott Elementary Season 1 before it aired. So she was working in a vacuum. Fortunately, the feedback was positive. Now that she has established all of the teachers at Abbott Elementary, season 2 can focus on their weekly shenanigans like the cast of Friends. 

“One thing that’s changed is last year we had 13 episodes,” Brunson said on Little Gold Men. “This year we’re going to get to have a lot more fun. We’ve shown people what we can do in the first season. To me, now it feels like we can become more of a situational comedy. We were that in the first season but we had a lot of lifting to do in terms of making people fall in love with these characters and this school. Now everybody loves them, now we can have some good old fashioned Friends type fun.”

‘Abbott Elementary’ Season 2 believes in itself 

Brunson said the success of season 1 emboldens Abbott Elementary Season 2. She got the chance to make the show, and now everyone involved can see it’s a hit. 

Related

‘Abbott Elementary’: Quinta Brunson Removed 1 Character and It Changed Jacob Hill

“One good thing is the show being so ‘successful’ is it really gave me, my producers, the writers room, the studio, and network the ability to believe in ourselves even harder,” Brunson said. “It was like okay, first season did exactly what it was supposed to do. So we were able to come in not worried. It was easy to get right back into the groove and write what we wanted to write.”

Quinta Brunson is ready to act

At the time Little Gold Men was recorded, Brunson was one week away from filming. As both the creator and star, Brunson had to plan accordingly to leave the writers room to work on the set of Abbott Elementary Season 2.

In the writers room so far, we have seven episodes written. The whole season is outlined and we have the next four or five episodes in either story outline or first script stage. So we’re very far ahead. My wonderful coproducer Justin Halpern created a fantastic schedule to help me be able to see most of the episodes before I start filming. I’ve been here in the writers room every day unless I have to go do press or something. I’m actually sad I have to leave the writers room next week. It’s so bittersweet. Of course, I’m excited to go join the cast but I love being in the writers room. I love telling these stories. 

Quinta Brunson, Little Gold Men, 7/19/22
Best in Entertainment