“Abbott Elementary” garnered a lot of comparisons to “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation” when it debuted in 2021, and for a good reason. The Quinta Brunson-created ABC comedy utilizes the workplace mockumentary format that made those shows stand out, and more specifically, it shares with them a key creative: director and producer Randall Einhorn. But when it came to developing “Abbott,” Einhorn felt that the device needed some updating.
“We wanted the teachers to appear favorably, because they’re doing a thankless task for very little money,” Einhorn says, noting the contrast with Steve Carell’s Michael Scott, whose incompetence anchors the American version of “The Office.” “We wanted them to look like heroes. That’s why this looks different than ‘The Office,’ which comes with low ceilings and floor lights. It’s like a place where you serve time, whereas I really wanted ‘Abbott’ to feel warm and inviting, a place you want to get back to.”
And when “Abbott” returned for its second season, it leaned into one of the most storied sitcom tropes of all: the will-theywon’t-they. Since the pilot, viewers have clung to the slow-burn flirtation between Janine (Brunson) and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) that came to a head in Season 2. The success of that tension has much to do with the visual tastes Einhorn developed while working on shows like “Survivor” and “Fear Factor” before he made the move to scripted television.
“Coming from reality and documentaries, when you see people coming together to have an intimate moment, my instinct is always to back up,” he says. “So, when Janine and Gregory come together, we’ll put a doorframe in there to imply that they can’t see us. In reality TV, you back up so that people can have an honest conversation. But when we package it with really long lenses, the viewer feels privileged to be part of it. I don’t want passive viewers — I want people to go, ‘I can’t see around that corner. Show me more!’”
During two key episodes of Season 2 that Einhorn directed, “Abbott Elementary” wordlessly elevated Janine and Gregory’s feelings for each other to a point that the characters could no longer ignore. In “Holiday Hookah,” the two young teachers end up at the same night club. Feeling too embarrassed to speak, they dance instead, getting closer and closer together.
After they exit, they almost kiss.
“There were these unspoken moments: looks checking in with each other and checking who’s watching them. Creating those quiet, intimate moments in a sea of people was really fun,” Einhorn says. “We rented some really, really long, big, thick lenses. There’s a lot of scouting and design that went into making the club feel like they could be
alone and still be surrounded.”
In “Teacher Conference,” Janine and Gregory sneak into an educational exhibit after its closing time. In a classroom made up of floor-to-ceiling flowers, ducking to avoid getting in trouble, they finally do share a kiss.
“We designed it so that the cameras could film on the outside of the space and not be in the room with them — peeking through, just barely catching what we see. It gives us this richness and makes them feel caught. We worked with our production designer, Michael Whetstone, to ensure that it was difficult to film, but we could get enough of it. In struggling to get those shots, we made it feel more authentic.”
Einhorn invokes an adage from behindthe-scenes on “The Office” that’s as true of filming romance as it is of romance itself: “Everything that makes it harder makes it better.”
