ABBOTT ELEMENTARY Season 3 Key Art | ©2024 ABC

ABC’s ABBOTT ELEMENTARY has its third season finale on Wednesday, May 22, with episodes available the next day on Hulu and Max. Fans should have no fear – the multi-Emmy Award-winning comedy has been renewed for a fourth season.

Quinta Brunson created, executive produces, and stars as Janine Teagues in ABBOTT ELEMENTARY, which deals with the teachers, staff and students at a Philadelphia school.

Justin Halpern, along with Patrick Schumacker, is an executive producer and showrunner on ABBOTT ELEMENTARY. Halpern previously co-created S#*! MY DAD SAYS and, with Schumacker, SURVIVING JACK and HARLEY QUINN, and was a writer/producer on COUGAR TOWN, iZOMBIE and POWERLESS. Additionally, Halpern and Schumacker wrote and executive produced the telefilm THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, which also starred Brunson

When Warner Bros. Television hosts a day of set visits of comedies shot on their Burbank, CA lot for the Winter 2024 Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour, the session for ABBOTT ELEMENTARY is held on the show’s classroom set. An extremely realistic-looking school bus can be seen out the window, but on closer inspection, it turns out to be a life-sized full-color photograph.

“That’s part of our set,” Halpern explains. “So often, when you’re shooting out the windows and things like that, you want to feel like you’re still in a school environment. And so, we move these around where necessary, where they’d actually be.”

He adds that it’s possible to keep the bus looking as though it’s three-dimensional at a relatively near distance. “You’d be surprised. [The camera can get] pretty close. I mean, obviously, it needs to be a gossian blur a bit, but it looks real coming out of the windows.”

Halpern participates in a Q&A for ABBOTT ELEMENTARY, and then makes himself available for a one-on-one follow-up conversation. This interview combines his comments from both.

Brunson’s mother was a kindergarten teacher, and Brunson has used some of her observations about that in shaping the show. Has Halpern brought anything of his own life into ABBOTT ELEMENTARY?

“It’s funny. Patrick and I and one other writer have kids who are actually in elementary school right now. So, a lot of times we’ll bring in stuff that’s happening to our kids and come from that perspective in terms of what issues that the kids are facing in school, or the teachers who are teaching them are facing because of that.”

Halpern adds that everybody in the writers’ room – he estimates its size as “eleven or twelve” brings “their elementary school experiences into this. There are some universal experiences that happen when you’re that age, and I think that that’s the thing that we always try to put into the show, so that it increases the authenticity.”

Are there writers who sympathize with certain points of view, i.e., teachers over administrators, or vice-versa?

“There certainly are some writers who I think maybe sympathize with certain characters, because they’re more similar to those characters. But I think everybody truly likes writing for everybody.”

Halpern praises fellow executive producer Randall Einhorn, who is also one of ABBOTT ELEMENTARY’s key directors. “Randall is the godfather of [the half-hour comedy mockumentary] form. I think that when you watch mockumentaries from now until the next forty years, people are aping Randall’s style. Randall has been the person who has been at the forefront of this style of sitcom-making for such a long time, and I think he’s had such a powerful influence on this style of comedy.”

In Season 3, there’s a change in Janine’s job situation and trajectory. Addressing Brunson directly at first, Halpern says, “You came to us right after Season 2 and were like, ‘This is the idea that I have for it …’ We’re always starting from a place of character first, and these are people in their twenties who make big decisions, sometimes make rash decisions. They want to try things out. They want to see where they fit. And I think, for us, it’s always interesting with Janine and Gregory [played by Tyler James Williams] and Jacob [played by Chris Perfetti] – the characters who are in their twenties in the show – to be able to be a little messy, and to look at different parts of their lives, and what they want to do.

“I think it was also an interesting opportunity. We played the school district as like the boogeyman in the first two seasons, but what’s happening in our country is, young, progressive people are getting into bureaucracies and trying to make a change, and so, what does that look like? We wanted to make a show, and we try to do our homework, so that it feels authentic.”

When the class goes on a field trip and off-studio locations are required, how much consideration is involved as far as what would be good for the series onscreen vs. what would strain the budget?

“Huge,” Halpern replies. “That’s really my and Patrick’s job. When Quinta says, ‘I have this idea for something,’ the earlier she tells it to us, the better. Then we’re able to go to our line producer, Scott Sites, who’s incredible, and say, ‘Scott, how do we make this happen? What do we need to adjust in other episodes in order to make this thing happen?’

“Because the thing that I love about Quinta is, she has such an encyclopedic knowledge of sitcoms, she loves sitcoms. And so, I always tell her, ‘Trust your gut over anyone else’s. It’s right.’” Halpern laughs. “In Season 2, from the start, she was, ‘I want to have Gregory and Janine have their final emotional conversation in this heart that is inside this museum in Philadelphia.’ She told me that from Episode 1 of Season 2. And so, I said to [executive producer and supervising director] Randall [Einhorn], ‘How do we make this happen?’ We worked the whole season to figure out how to parse the money.”

Halpern expresses his appreciation for Brunson allowing all of the characters to shine. “One thing I want to say about her that I don’t think she gets enough credit for is that the reason that that’s possible is because of how gracious a performer and writer she is. Never once in this entire process has Quinta ever been like, ‘I need more this.’ In fact, most of the time, she’s like, ‘I need less here or less there,’ and so the reason that you have this ensemble is because you have an egoless performer who’s leading the charge. This is not possible without that.

“You cannot make ABBOTT without the way that she operates in the writers’ room and on set, and I think that is a thing that is not really touted a lot, but it is so integral to making great television, and it’s something she just intrinsically understands. And also, because she’s a great person, she is able to just put her ego wherever she needs to put it in order to make the best show possible.”

Halpern observes that, apart from Brunson, other cast members seldom have requests. “They’re very busy trying to nail it in the way that they feel respects their character the most, and makes the show the best. We’ve been pretty blessed. We don’t have a cast that’s knocking on our door, telling us, ‘I didn’t get this,’ or ‘I didn’t get that,’ and I think that’s partially because they’re great people, but also because Quinta sets a great tone as Number One on the call sheet and creator of the show. Like I said, she is really egoless, and that sets the tone for the whole show and everybody who works on it.”

In casting guest stars, Halpern notes, “We’re just looking at who’s the best performer for that role. We try to take anything out of the equation that isn’t just simply what is our best creative choice.”

ABBOTT ELEMENTARY has won a huge number of awards – sixty-two so far in addition to the four Emmys, plus a hundred and seventy-two nominations. What does Halpern think that does for the series?

“I think it provides a sort of job security, that you can more easily just concentrate on the creative aspects of it, and not have to worry about whether or not we’re going to be back or not. You can put all of that emotional labor towards making the show.”

But it’s not just the awards that let Halpern and Schumacker know that ABBOTT ELEMENTARY is a successful show. “We’ve worked on enough bad ones, so we know when there’s a good one,” Halpern laughs.

“We have a really incredible writing staff. I cannot say that enough. Our crew is [wonderful] as well. I think that they’re all in the understanding of, we’re pushing this boulder forward, and [Brunson] sets the vision for us that is so clear. It allows us to just work towards it. It’s never muddy. That’s when as writers, you get in trouble, when you don’t really know what the vision is. There’s nobody setting it. [Brunson’s] is so clear. It makes our job just so much easier.”

And what do Halpern most hope people get out of watching ABBOTT ELEMENTARY? “Laughs. I hope that they find it funny. Honestly, that is the thing that I care the most about, and I know [Brunson] does, too. We want to have the funniest comedy on TV. Everything else comes secondary to that.”

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Article:  ABBOTT ELEMENTARY: Showrunner Justin Halpern discusses Season 3 of the hit ABC comedy – Exclusive Interview

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