In an interview with The Guardian, Abbott Elementary creator and star Quinta Brunson (A Black Lady Sketch Show, Magical Girl Friendship Squad) explains the inspiration behind the ABC comedy series and the attention it has brought for the lack of funding in school systems. The ABC show first premiered in 2021 and has since won three Emmy awards, which marked Brunson as the “youngest Black woman ever to be nominated in a comedy acting category, and the first to earn three comedy nominations in one year.”

The satirical half-hour series follows “a group of teachers brought together in one of the worst public schools in the country, simply because they love teaching,” via IMDB. Its season two debut brought the highest ratings for an ABC comedy show in three years, after the Modern Family (2009-2020) finale. It has already been renewed for a third season.

Brunson gives credit to actor Paul Rudd (Ant-Man, The Perks of Being a Wallflower) for motivating her to follow her dream of becoming a comedian; after randomly noticing him at a Philadelphia cinema, she left her date and approached the star, who reportedly told her, “If you want to do comedy and you love it and you can do it, then you should do it.”

Brunson also reveals that the kindergarten teacher Barbara, played by Sheryl Lee Ralph (Moesha, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit), is partly based on her mother, who worked in the Philadelphia public school system for forty years. Via The Guardian: “Growing up, it was just her job. But as I got older, I realized how hard that job was and how hard it is to have a family also … So yeah, I’m very empathetic to teachers.”

“Philadelphia gets a bad rap,” says Brunson of the show’s location. “Like there’s a lot of violence, a lot of poverty – and these things are true – but I just wanted to offer a different depiction. One that shows the people who are there, who get by day by day, because I appreciate the resilience in humans, period.”

Brunson, whose production has partnered with several charities to provide books and meals for the wider Philadelphia community, wants to address the underfunding in schools that the show often depicts: “At a certain point I want to make sure we’re not taking the pressure off the government, y’know, because that’s not our job. It’s just a TV show. And I’d like to save room to be like, say, Succession, and do nothing at all!”

She says of her own character, protagonist and second-grade teacher Janine: “She mirrors back a lot of what we don’t want to see in ourselves – the blind optimism, the overstepping, the just being a corny person. So I do see some of myself in her … and it’s a part that I don’t want to see.”

In the same interview, Brunson also discusses her co-star, Tyler James Williams (Everybody Hates Chris, Unaccompanied Minors) and the accusation that she exploited her authority by casting herself as a love interest alongside “an absolute smokeshow of a man” (made by U.S. tabloid Jezebel).

The Guardian reports that Brunson finds this bemusing and sexist: “What’s funny is when Tyler and I started working together, we both knew he was not regarded as this ‘hot man in Hollywood.’ I told him: ‘Dude, you’re gonna turn into a heartthrob, the way Gregory is getting written.’”

Brunson also compared the situation to other shows with female leads that have given viewers a new perspective on a male co-star. “I saw it with Issa [Rae] in Insecure. There’s this narrative that gets put on it, like: ‘Oh, my God, they gave themselves a hot male lead!’ Whereas, actually, this person is hot to you because we’re telling you they’re hot. You weren’t thinking about them before!”

On The Tonight Show, Williams himself reflected on his rising stardom; he says he knows when people remember him from Abbott because they give him a look that makes him think “Oh, you’ve been seeing me on Abbott — you think I’m sexy. Thank you. I appreciate it.”

The cast of Abbott Elementary includes Chris Perfetti (The Night Of, Crossbones), Janelle James (The Comedy Lineup, Black Monday), and Lisa Ann Walter (The Parent Trap, Bruce Almighty).

Season two of Abbott Elementary is currently airing exclusively on ABC and is expected to end by March 1, 2023.