‘Abbott Elementary,’ Leading a Network Sitcom Rebirth

There have been a lot of days lately where it’s felt like the traditional broadcast TV networks haven’t been trying very hard. It seems that their primary goal is to continue generating spin-offs from pre-existing franchises (coming soon). FBI: IT Enterprise Services Division) and to provide library content for their respective streaming services. Sometimes broadcasters will stop airing the more popular shows and instead send them to streaming. Evil is now a Paramount+ exclusive rather than part of CBS’ primetime lineup.

However, there are times when the Big Four still put in some effort on comedy. This season has been quite good for new sitcoms on network TV, including Ghosts CBS. Gr Crew and American Auto NBC and particularly The Wonder Years Abbott Elementary ABC. There are still some things to learn and none of these sitcoms are yet classics. They have all come out of the gate feeling more confident about themselves, their characters and their voices than most freshman sitcoms.

It’s a good thing that these shows borrow from past series. Ghosts — starring Rose McIver from iZombie as a woman who discovers she can see all the spirits haunting the bed and breakfast she and her husband are renovating — is a remake of a 2019 British series. The Wonder Years The classic Fred Savage coming of age tale is being remade with Savage himself as the director. This time, the story focuses on a Black family in Alabama during the late Sixties. The others aren’t officially remakes, but it’s not hard to see the DNA of various comedies of the last decade or so running through their veins. Corporate satire American Auto — starring Ana Gasteyer as the new head of a struggling car company — evokes memories of both The Office SuperstoreTwo previous employers of Justin Spitzer, its creator. Grand Crew This is a hangout comedy similar to Happy endings, New Girl, and many others, but with an All-Black cast. And Abbott ElementaryQuinta Brunson created and stars in the film. “What if The Office or Parks and Recreation took place at a Philadelphia public school?”

Official remakes don’t often use jokes or plots from the originals. Wonder Years sent young Dean (Elisha “EJ” Williams) to watch his mother Lillian (Saycon Sengbloh) at her job, tweaking a memorable first-gen episode where Kevin Arnold visited his father’s office. You can still hear the echoes from earlier shows in all of these. The American Auto pilot, for instance, had a running gag about a driverless car’s inability to recognize Black pedestrians, which was similar to the plot of the best episode of the brilliant-but-canceled late-2000s comedy Ted’s Better. Another episode had a character noting that someone else’s attempt at humor had “the cadence of a joke,”Perd Hapley once said this. Parks and Rec.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Parks and Rec The sunnier version was The OfficeFor instance, the show was made with many of the same creative staff. Happy endings didn’t invent the idea of a sitcom whose primary appeal was the chance to spend a half-hour a week with a group of likable goofballs. There are few new ideas available in television — in comedy especially. It is much better to be inspired by great shows than trying to make the next. It’s possible to do it. And, just as importantly, having these earlier shows as touchstones, whether implicit or explicit, helps provide the kind of structural foundation new comedies need while they’re figuring out the humor part. Except for very rare exceptions, (Cheers, Arrested Development, Modern Family, and a few others), sitcoms need time to learn what’s funny about each character, about the actors who play them, and about how everyone interacts. If you’re flailing around early on trying to generate story ideas, or stylistic flourishes, then that’s less time and effort available for developing the actual comedy in your comedy.

This is the most memorable of all these shows to date. Abbott Elementary. Quinta Brunson was never a worker on The Office, Parks, or any of the other modern mockumentary series, but the series’ most frequent director, Randall Einhorn, did. The setting and the stakes are different, but you can very much see a lot of Leslie Knope in the persistently chipper persona of Brunson’s second grade teacher, Janine Teagues. You can also see Jim Halpert in the detached and bemused responses of Janine Teagues, a substitute teacher Gregory (Tyler James Williams). It’s not that Brunson or Williams are doing impressions of Amy Poehler or John Krasinski, but both are having fun finding their own take on these now-familiar archetypes, like a jazz musician getting to play around within a popular melody.

This style of humor can be found in schools. The stretched funding of a public school (even in the Covid-free reality this show, like most current series, has opted for) provides endless fodder for dark comedy, while the kids — especially the ones in the kindergarten class taught by the school’s elder stateswoman Barbara (the divine Sheryl Lee Ralph) — are so young and full of Sugar energy that they’re easy to turn to for a silly visual gag whenever the satire is at risk of feeling too bleak. There are also jokes specific to the region. Barbara mocks Janine for teaching her kids words like “jawn,” “boul,” “hoagie.”Melissa Ann Walter, a second-grade teacher, sourcing school supplies through her contacts at South Philly’s pro-sport complex speaks to universal issues in school/workplace about managing resources and coworkers with different philosophies. The school’s unqualified scammer of a principal, Ava (Janelle James, hilarious) could be the boss on all kinds of shows, but her unapologetic hustle is particularly amusing in this context.

In this week’s episode, Janine proposes that the school start up a gifted program like the one she loved so much as a girl. Her intentions are good and her incredibly woke friend Jacob (Chris Perfetti), finally finds his place running the new program. But the creation of it has a domino effect on everyone else that results in, among other things, animal control paying a visit to Janine’s classroom. Although the story’s logic is predictable, it will be familiar to those who have been following the characters closely. This is a new, likable comedy that’s funny and witty in a season filled with surprising numbers of characters.

Television is best when it’s imitating others. It’s also often incredibly useful at giving new shows time to find ways to become their own thing.

Episodes of Abbott ElementaryPremiere on ABC at 9:59 p.m. ET on Tuesdays; stream the next day on Hulu. The Wonder YearsYou can watch the episodes of this series on Wednesdays at 8:15 ET. American AutoGrand CrewPremier episodes of NBC’s Tuesday series air at 8 ET and 8:30 ET. They then stream on Hulu/Peacock. GhostsThursdays at 8:30 Eastern on CBS. Then, episodes are streamed on Paramount+.