This season’s breakout hit network comedy is back tonight with new episodes.
Quinta Brunson created and stars in ABC’s Abbott Elementary, which is basically a workplace comedy set in a Philadelphia public school, and when they say write what you know? She tells ABC Audio that’s exactly what she did.
“My mom was a teacher for 40 years in the Philadelphia school district. I was a Philadelphia public school student for most of my, you know, years,” she explains. “I rode to school with her in the morning. I stayed with her after school…I heard about every student and every decision the school district was making or a principal…that was going to make her job a little bit harder that year.”
Despite that, Brunson had to beg her mother to retire when it was time, recalling, “She was driving me nuts because she wouldn’t.”
“This job that she had so many feelings on, she still didn’t want to leave,” she continues, “and I think that’s where the love of the field for me and the love of the show came from.”
So what does mom think of Abbott Elementary? “I think she enjoying the show. My mom’s a sitcom watcher. You know, her my dad they’re TV watchers…And I think it’s really cool because they’re watching Abbot almost as if I’m not their daughter. They’re just, it’s another show for them to enjoy.”
An added bonus — Quinta’s family now understands what she does for a living.
“At point I was making like, really good money working at BuzzFeed. And my mom just didn’t know what BuzzFeed was. So she was like, are you stripping? How are you paying for everything?” she recalls. “So this is a very concrete thing that is understandable to the whole family.”
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