Note: The following story contains spoilers from “Abbott Elementary” Season 4, Episode 9.
When “Abbott Elementary” creator Quinta Brunson mentioned the idea of a crossover episode with “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” — fueled from a conversation with Rob McElhenney during Disney’s upfronts — showrunners Patrick Schumacker and Justin Halpern agreed it would be fun, but said “too bad that’ll never happen.”
Nevertheless, both Disney-owned shows pushed through logistical and scheduling challenges to craft two episodes where the Abbott teachers come face-to-face with the “Always Sunny” gang, with the “Abbott” version of the crossover airing Wednesday on ABC.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” Schumacker told TheWrap.
While a certain subset of TV viewers might watch both the ABC mockumentary and the long-running FX sitcom, the creative teams wanted the crossover episode to feel “rewarding for super fans of both shows [or] of just one,” while also working “in a vacuum,” according to Schumacker. “We wanted [the ‘Always Sunny’ crew] to play like these … kind of eccentric, idiosyncratic guest stars that would feel like they could show up on a typical ‘Abbott’ episode,” he said.
In the crossover episode, Mac (McElhenney), Charlie (Charlie Day), Dee (Kaitlin Olson), Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Frank (Danny DeVito) arrive at Abbott as volunteers sent by the school district to help out the school for the week. It’s later revealed that the “Always Sunny” gang is complying with court-ordered community service after committing an unknown crime.
“That gave us carte blanche to let them be their characters and not have to worry about what that would be like in the tone of ‘Abbott,’” Halpern said, adding they began leaning into “Always Sunny” canon to “figure out how that might produce a story within our show.”
One meshing of “Always Sunny” and “Abbott” canon that came together “very early” in the initial brainstorming session (which included McElhenney and Day) was Charlie’s illiteracy, which has long been referenced in “Always Sunny” with Charlie frequently accused of being illiterate or dyslexic. After previous seasons of “Abbott” established that Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) has done some adult literacy work in the past, the crossover sees Barbara take Charlie on as a student, asking him to read a book in front of her class.
“We left it in a way where … he can barely read, and so, if he keeps practicing, he’ll be able to read,” Halpern said. “They could go that way if they wanted, or they could also go the way of like he just stopped doing it because he assumes he can read and he can go right back to being illiterate. We left it open-ended for them to be able to re-correct for their show whichever way they want to go.”
The Charlie-Barbara pairing came just as swiftly as the Frank-Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) pairing, who team up to help ward off raccoons from the garden, though they go about it in a much different way, leading to Frank being trapped in the raccoon cage by the end of the episode. Halpern revealed that in an alternative storyline, Frank and Mr. Johnson realize they dated the same woman, Shadynasty, which is part of “Always Sunny” canon, though they ended up cutting it.
Likewise, Mac tries to ingratiate himself to Ava (Janelle James) in the hopes of her signing off on their community service early, extending his assistance beyond the school with custom lattes, a car detail and baked goods. With Mac prepared to “do anything” to get Ava to sign the paperwork early, the showrunners revealed the interaction led to an NSFW exchange between Mac and Ava that didn’t quite meet the family-friendly standards of the ABC show.
“[Mac’s] like, ‘I’m prepared to do anything to get you to sign these papers,’ and she takes that to mean sexual favors, which wasn’t his intention, and he says, ‘I’m currently gay,’ and the ‘currently,’ I think, was ad-libbed by Rob,” Schumacker said. “On top of that, she goes, ‘the only white dudes I’m into are Johnny Bravo, Johnny Knoxville [and] she needs another Johnny and Rob just ad-libs— I did not see it coming, and I almost ruined the takes spitting out my coffee — but he just goes, ‘Oh, Johnny Knoxville — He’s obliterated his penis. There’s nothing there.’”
While most of the “Abbott” crew doesn’t take well to the “Always Sunny” gang — especially after learning they were ordered to do community service after committing a crime — Janine immediately hits it off with Dee after learning they both went to Penn. “They’re both so eager to mention that they went to Penn,” Schumacker said, noting they needed one character to champion the crew, and Janine’s optimism made her the perfect option. “When everybody else in the show was like, ‘Hey, these guys are criminals — get them the hell out of here,’ … Janine is like, ‘Oh, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt’ and it’s only because she’s just smitten with Dee.”
Janine’s ‘tude quickly on Dee changes rather quickly when Dee starts making moves on Gregory (Tyler James Williams), even after Janine tells Dee that she and Gregory are in a committed relationship.
“By the end, we wanted [it] to flip where Janine wants her to leave and everybody else wants them to stay,” Halpern said. “The only way we could really think about that working is if Dee made a pass at Gregory, which is something she very much would do.”
The “Abbott” teachers eventually bid farewell to the “Always Sunny” crew, though fans will get another perspective on their visit when the “Always Sunny” version of the crossover comes out on FX, though there isn’t an exact release date yet. The “Always Sunny” episode takes place during the “Abbott” episode, according to Halpern, explaining viewers will see “what’s happening with them when they’re not in our episode.”
“In theory, someone could, when they have both the episodes, cut them all together so they make sense in a linear timeline,” Halpern said. “Their episode is very much a ‘Sunny’ episode, and ours very much an ‘Abbott’ episode. Their episode is f—g funny.”
After tackling the challenges that came with combining two busy casts and crews for the crossover episode, Schumacker said they’re still “exhausted” from organizing the “Always Sunny” episodes. But Halpern said he “wouldn’t completely rule” out a future crossover event, saying “I would never doubt Quinta’s ability to make something like this happen — she is a force of nature in the best way.”
As for the rest of Season 4 of “Abbott Elementary,” the showrunners teased there will be a “large, giant plot twist happening late in the season that is going to definitely be a shocker.”
“I think we’ve set everything up for it, so I think when it happens, it’ll feel earned, I hope, and interesting,” Halpern said. “It’s one of the things that we’ve done in terms of long-arc storytelling that I’m most excited for.”
“Abbott Elementary” airs Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m ET/PT and streams the next day on Hulu.
