Interview: ‘Abbott Elementary’ Executive Producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker Discuss the Comedy Genre and TV Format

For the fifth consecutive year, Abbott Elementary has received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series. However, the show, which is about to head into its sixth season, isn’t just recognized during awards season. Since premiering in 2021, fans have consistently shared their praise and love for the workplace comedy.

Along with Abbott Elementary, executive producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker have worked together on many projects, such as Harley Quinn, Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, Powerless, and Surviving Jack.

“I think it’s reinforced some things I loved about the comedy genre. It feels like it sort of, I think, embraces character-first comedy, that you don’t need some huge high concept to be a successful comedy. All the comedies that I loved growing up didn’t have high concepts to them: Cheers, Seinfeld, and The Larry Sanders Show. It was just workplace or friends hanging out,” Halpern shared. “And so, I love that this show embraces the idea that if you just have good characters, great performers, and a great writing staff, you can connect.”

“I think it allows for deeper audience engagement over a longer period of time, obviously, especially with the weekly model as well. It’s sort of slow-dripping it. I think it elongates that sense of cultural relevance and all of that. And then, also from the perspective of someone making the show, as somebody who probably has undiagnosed ADHD, I think it allows for instant gratification in ways that other mediums don’t always allow for,” Schumacker explained. “[If] you’re making a feature film, it takes quite a long time to reap the rewards of making that. And with Abbott, it’s like, every week we’re kind of moving on to a new storyline while cutting the one that we just shot. You’re churning out stuff much more quickly than you would in other media. So that’s just really gratifying as well, being able to kind of see the results of your efforts much more quickly.”

Currently, the duo is attached to direct and adapt Get Lost, Halpern’s debut novel, into a feature film. Additionally, they have HBO Max’s Backhanded coming up, as well as the coming-of-age comedy series, I Suck at Girls, in production at Netflix, based on Halpern’s memoir.

Watch Awards Radar’s full video interview with the EPs below, where we talk about how Abbott Elementary has changed their perspective on the comedy genre, the weekly TV format, which character from a past project they’d want to make a cameo, their creative partnership, and much more.

All episodes are streaming on Hulu. The ABC comedy will return on October 7.