‘Abbott Elementary’ Started Out as a Cartoon Like ‘Bob’s Burgers’
Abbott Elementary, but make it 2-D. That may be hard to imagine after seeing ABC‘s live-action comedy take off last year with its stellar cast, including Emmy nominees Quinta Brunson, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Janelle James, and Tyler James Williams. However, according to Brunson, who created the series, Abbott Elementary started out as a cartoon concept. Here’s why Brunson envisioned the show that way and how it turned into a live-action project.
‘Abbott Elementary’ is inspired by Quinta Brunson’s mom’s kindergarten classroom
Abbott Elementary follows a group of teachers at the underfunded Abbott Public School in Philadelphia. Young second-grade teacher Janine Teagues (Quinta Brunson) and her colleagues must work through various challenges in education, including a lack of resources and handling rowdy students. And with little help from their underqualified principal, Ava Coleman (Janelle James), they often have to get creative.
The show is loosely inspired by Brunson’s mother, who taught kindergarten for many years at a public school in West Philadephia. Brunson had her mother as a teacher and often spent time in the classroom outside of school hours, so she grew up with an inside look at what teaching is really like. More specifically, Brunson recently told Newsweek that the idea for Abbott Elementary came to her during a visit to her mother’s classroom when she was an adult.
“I spent so much time with her [as a kid], both during, before, and after school. Sometimes that meant getting to school two hours early and seeing what that looked like and staying too late while she had her meetings and stuff. I think I just took in so much information from that time,” the comedian said.
“But now I’m looking at it with an outsider’s view. It was an interesting inspiration, something you know so well but have some time from, it’s really inspiring because you can see it a little differently when you’re not living in it. … I was sitting at my mom’s desk, watching her in her classroom. And I was like, ‘This is it.'”
Quinta Brunson says she envisioned ‘Abbott Elementary’ as a cartoon at first
With the idea for a workplace comedy about a school in mind, Brunson started working on the details. While speaking to IndieWire, the Abbott Elementary creator revealed that her early concept was actually a cartoon.
“I thought of it as possibly a cartoon at the time, because I was working on some other projects and knew I wanted to be a part of it, but making it live-action would be harder,” Brunson shared.
While it was easier to imagine the show as a cartoon, Brunson said she eventually turned it into a live-action concept. Then, it was time to sell the pitch to networks.
“ABC was the one we wanted to sell to, and so we sold it to ABC. After that, [there] was more development, developing the pilot, because at that point all you have is your pitch document. I didn’t sell a pilot, I just sold the pitch,” Brunson explained. “So then it was about writing the pilot, which I did myself. So then we shot the pilot and that was the scariest part of the process for me because after editing it, we knew it was good.”
And so, the Abbott Elementary that fans know and love was born. While it would have been interesting to see the show in cartoon form, many viewers likely wouldn’t have it any other way today.
The comedy show was ‘made for network television’
In her interviews, Brunson also touched on the decision to bring Abbott Elementary to a network instead of streaming TV, which is on the rise. She revealed to Newsweek that her show always felt like it belonged on network television. Even if Brunson stuck with her cartoon idea, she would have approached it “in the Bob’s Burgers fashion” (the cartoon airs on Fox).
“[From] the inception of Abbott, this was for network television, meaning it would be 22 minutes and it would be the kind of humor that is accessible to anyone,” Brunson added. “There’s a different kind of freedom you get to have on your streaming, whereas for Abbott, you really want people to come back after that commercial break. It’s how you write the show, and I think that’s part of the fun for the audience.”
Abbott Elementary Season 2 premieres on Wednesday, Sept. 21, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
