As if a brand new season of “Abbott Elementary” wasn’t enough to get people excited, creator and star Quinta Brunson is continuing to expand the show’s appeal with a television tradition that has become rarer and rarer as time goes on: A crossover episode. And what better show to intermingle with than fellow PA series, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” Announcing via pictures posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, it was revealed last week that the two Disney-owned shows (“Sunny” on FX and “Abbott” on ABC) would crossover this season, with Charlie Day, Rob McElhenney, and Danny DeVito being featured alongside Brunson, Tyler James Williams, and William Stanford Davis outside the “Abbott” school set. Speaking in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Brunson shared how this collaboration came together and why she thinks it made perfect sense.
“So Rob McElhenney, there was something online that he saw that someone sent him and said, ‘This would make a funny ‘It’s Always Sunny’ episode,’ and he retweeted it and said, ‘I think it would be a great ‘Abbott’ episode,’ and that kind of sparked us talking,” Brunson said. “The episode has nothing to do with what was sent to him, but it got us chatting and, honestly, I really like Rob.”
Having both been raised in Philly and both having a deep love of comedy, Brunson says her and McElhenney “clicked right away.” Since both of their shows were “under the Disney umbrella,” they also realized it wouldn’t be too difficult to get the teams behind each show together and that, considering geography, the characters from each show may very likely bump into one another.
“They represent a part of South Philly, and we represent a part of West Philly that is very real, and it wasn’t a long walk for these characters to interact. It just made sense immediately,” said Brunson to THR. “And when it came to us that easy, we were like, ‘Yeah, we have to do this.’ So we start putting things in motion at the beginning of this ‘Abbott’ season because ‘Sunny,’ they just started writing their season. And Charlie [Day] and Rob came into the room with us one day, they were wonderful, just excellent, excellent collaborators. I can’t say enough kind words about them. We had a ball.”
At the root of their collaboration, Brunson explained, was a desire to capitalize on blending different types of humor. She said, “Our shows have very different tones, and that’s what I like about them. Them being willing to take the chance, which ‘Abbott’ had to be as well, to blend those tones together. Some people on my own production were like, ‘It can’t be done,’ and it’s like, it absolutely can. It can, it really can. And actually, it’s pretty easy. You just have to believe it can be done.”
Season 4 of “Abbott Elementary” airs Wednesdays on ABC.