After Season 2 wrapped last April, “Abbott Elementary” fans have been patiently waiting for Season 3 to arrive after being delayed by Hollywood’s dual writers and actors strikes.
Now, after a long summer and fall break, class is back in session Wednesday at 9 p.m. on ABC.
Instead of the usual half-hour of laughs, the season premiere “Career Day” will be an hour-long for double the fun.
Created by Quinta Brunson, the series follows the fictional Willard R. Abbott Elementary School, a small-budget, predominantly Black school with plenty of faculty turnover in Philadelphia. The opening credits are simple with a brief, bouncy theme song as a kid with a backpack enters the front steps of the school as the title appears.
It’s all shot in a mockumentary style, like “The Office” or “Parks and Recreation,” with handheld pans, zooms and punch-ins to funny facial expressions that keep the show alive with kinetic energy, while hilarious cutaways “interviewing” the characters allow us to see what they are really thinking outside the confines of the classroom.
After graduating from last month’s Emmys with a Best Actress diploma, Brunson returns as Pollyannaish second-grade teacher Janine Teagues, who adds bleeped cursing to her repertoire. Last season, she kissed mild-mannered colleague Gregory Eddie (Tyler James Williams) during a teacher’s conference, but they decided to be just friends in the best “will they, won’t they” romance since Ross and Rachel in “Friends” or Jim and Pam in “The Office.”
Janelle James is also back as pushy principal Ava Coleman, who blackmailed the superintendent to get the gig with shady job security that allows her to waste time watching Instagram videos and shopping online. If you found her annoyingly bossy in Season 1, she hilariously came into her own in Season 2 with arguably the best zingers of the show. Now in Season 3, she attempts to be more serious, having spent the hiatus studying Ivy League standards.
“I went to Harvard this summer and I’ve learned what it truly takes to do the job of a principal,” Ava says with the letters “A-V-A” bedazzled on her Harvard sweater. “Break it up, slackers! I’ve got cameras all over this joint.”
“I cannot stand any more of this new Ava,” says kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph), who provides an old-school, by-the-book, motherly wisdom that makes her a trusted veteran of the teaching staff.
“She must be stopped,” adds Jacob Hill (Chris Perfetti), the awkward teacher who tries way too hard to stay hip by quoting the latest hip-hop lyrics. Usually, this brings nothing but eye rolls, but we did learn last season that his students actually appreciated him during his corny “Story Samurai” improv troupe performance on the school stage.
Rounding out the faculty are wisecracking janitor Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis), who is always pushing a trash can and ready to pop into a doorway to tell kids to clean up a mess, and street-smart teacher Melissa Schemmenti (Lisa Ann Walter), who has a blue-collar charm but threatens anyone who crosses her. A Silver Spring native, Walter joined WTOP during the strike when she performed standup comedy at Bethesda Theater.
“We all cannot wait to get back to work,” Walter told WTOP in September. “I miss Sheryl so much. She is truly one of my best friends. … We don’t get to see each other! What’s it like when you don’t get to check in with your best friend every day? It hurts. Let’s get this strike settled so I can go back to see my friends. That’s what I want to do.”
Season 3 began filming in late November and now it’s finally ready for audiences to see it.
Expectations are high after Season 1 earned two Emmys, including Ralph as Best Supporting Actress and Brunson for writing the pilot, while Season 2 saw Brunson tear up when she accepted the Best Actress trophy from comedy legend Carol Burnett. Both seasons were nominated for Best Comedy Series, losing to “Ted Lasso” and “The Bear,” which Season 3 references as Ava shuts down Gregory’s flex: “Put your arms away, Jeremy Allen Black.”
That right there is already funnier than “The Bear,” so here’s hoping that Season 3 can finally win the top prize. A network television show hasn’t won Best Comedy since ABC’s “Modern Family” in 2014. Whether “Abbott” can end that decadelong drought depends on how these episodes play out starting this week, but it’ll just be great to reunite with all of our favorite friends in the hallways.
Expect maximum audience enrollment when the bell rings.
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