Abbott Elementary season 1

The first season of the American television comedy Abbott Elementary created by Quinta Brunson, premiered in the United States on ABC on December 7, 2021, concluded on April 12, 2022, and consisted of thirteen episodes. The series sees the introduction of characters portrayed by Brunson, Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, and Sheryl Lee Ralph.

Abbott Elementary is presented in a mockumentary format similar to one of The Office and Modern Family, and follows a documentary crew recording the lives of teachers working in underfunded schools including the fictional Willard R. Abbott Elementary School, a predominantly Black Philadelphia public school.

The season holds a 98% approval rating from critics and audiences alike on Rotten Tomatoes, gaining universal acclaim. The success of the season ultimately led to a second season renewal in March 2022.

Cast and characters

Main

• Quinta Brunson as Janine Teagues, a second-grade teacher at Abbott who hopes to improve the lives of her students by making the best of the poor situation the school district makes teachers work in.
• Tyler James Williams as Gregory Eddie, a substitute for a recently-fired first-grade teacher who quickly harbors a crush on Janine.
• Janelle James as Ava Coleman, the school's tone-deaf principal who consistently bullies Janine and gives the staff reasons to believe she is poor at her job; a job in which she received after blackmailing the superintendent.
• Lisa Ann Walter as Melissa Schemmenti, a second-grade teacher at Abbott who has questionable connections with the Philly locals, but uses them to help the school.
• Chris Perfetti as Jacob Hill, an eighth-grade history teacher who tries his best to help Janine with her plans to improve Abbott.
• Sheryl Lee Ralph as Barbara Howard, a religious kindergarten teacher, adamant about keeping with tradition, and a mother-figure whom Janine looks up to.

Recurring

• William Stanford Davis as Mr. Johnson, the school's janitor who is seen as lazy, but consistent with his job.
• Zack Fox as Tariq Temple, Janine's boyfriend since middle school who is an aspiring rapper.

Guest

• Kate Peterman as Tina Schwartz, a second-grade teacher who is fired for assaulting a student.
• Naté Jones as Amber, the mother of a student in Gregory's class.
• Lela Hoffmeister as Courtney, a troubled student in Melissa's class who is transferred to Janine.
• Bruno Amato as Gary, a vending machine stocker who begins dating Melissa.
• Richard Brooks as Gerald, Barbara's husband.
• Mitra Jouhari as Sahar, a college friend of Janine who briefly works at Abbott as a substitute art teacher.
• Orlando Jones as Martin Eddie, Gregory's father.
• Iyana Halley as Taylor Howard, Barbara's daughter.
• Reggie Hayes as Denzel Collins, the school's superintendent who is after Ava for blackmailing him about an affair he had with his now-wife.
• Larry Owens as Zach, Jacob's boyfriend.

Additionally, Jim Gardner appears as himself, Levi Mynatt appears as Will, Brian Scolaro appears as Vinny, George Sharperson appears as Wendell, Ambrit Millhouse appears as Alley Williams and Shirley Jordan appears as Delisha Sloss.

Episodes

Production

Development

In May 2021, Abbott Elementary was given a series order. The season is distributed by Disney Platform Distribution and Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, while being produced by Delicious Non-Sequitur, 20th Television and Warner Bros. Television. The first season released onto DVD and various online platforms including Amazon Prime, Apple TV & Vudu on October 18, 2022.

In an interview, director and producer Randall Einhorn spoke about how the series works with the mockumentary format:

"The thing that I was really clear upfront about when we started shooting the show is the rules. Other shows don't necessarily have rules, they have styles that they're serving. But to keep the documentary honest, we needed to have rules, and that can make a lot of things harder."

On March 14, 2022, due to the success of the series, a second season was green-lit by ABC months before the first season was set to conclude. Brunson, Einhorn, Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker all returned as executive producers.

Casting

In March 2021, Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, and Sheryl Lee Ralph were announced to star as regular cast members; alongside Brunson, who was confirmed to star upon the series announcement.

In addition to the main cast, the series sees William Stanford David and Zack Fox recur as Mr. Johnson and Tariq Temple respectively. Tariq is Janine's slightly selfish and so-called "feminist" boyfriend, whom she dates throughout the duration of the season. After backlash from the staff of Abbott, Janine ultimately breaks up with him during the season finale. When asked about the relationship of Tariq and Janine, and why she wrote him the way she did, Brunson stated:

We have these Black main characters, and I saw an opportunity to make sure that they were fleshed out and dimensional. We don’t very often get to see that. Yes, there have been other Black shows, but not as many. So, I don’t think that Tariq is a villain. I think people are just growing up. Tariq is doing the best he can, and we wanted to show that too.

The second episode of the season, "Light Bulb", features a short cameo from Philadelphia ABC Channel 6 Action News anchor Jim Gardner, who appears during the cold open; beloved by the staff of Abbott. Another Philadelphia celebrity, Gritty of the Philadelphia Flyers, was originally supposed to appear during the pilot episode, but was unable due to scheduling conflicts.

Filming

Filming began on August 16, 2021, in Los Angeles, California, and concluded on November 5, 2021. The interior scenes of the series are filmed at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, with exterior shots of the series being filmed in front of Vermont Elementary School in Los Angeles. In August, three crew members tested positive for COVID-19 but production was not impacted.

Reception

Critical response

For the first season, Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 80 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Angie Han of The Hollywood Reporter said the first episodes "[are] a willingness to deal with class head on, while also finding humor in the characters' situations", and concluded that Abbott Elementary is "crowd-pleasing."

Ratings

The series premiered on December 7, 2021. New episodes aired at 9:30 p.m. (EST) weekly prior to the premiere of new episodes of Black-ish; which was in its final season. Including viewership recorded over a 35-day period through "linear and digital platforms" (known as MP35) after its original broadcast, the pilot episode on December 7, 2021, increased to a 2.4 demographic rating, with 7.1 million viewers. ABC said the 300% increase was its "largest percentage growth for any new comedy premiere". The viewership of the second episode, "Light Bulb", increased by 5.6 million viewers to 9 million after 35 days. Per The Hollywood Reporter, the first season of Abbott Elementary ranked 66 in broadcast television ratings for the 2021-22 season, and scored a 3.84 average million viewers.

Notes

References

External links

• Official website
• Abbott Elementary at IMDb