- "Abbott Elementary" won three awards at the 80th Golden Globe awards, including Best Comedy Series.
- Brittani Nichols is a producer on "Abbott" and says the writing team often changes jokes on the fly.
I first met Quinta Brunson on a web-series for Buzzfeed that we both acted in.
After that, we kept running into one another around town, and both of us ended up on the first season of "A Black Lady Sketch Show," where I was a writer and she was an actor.
I wasn't going back for the second season of "Sketch Show" because I had sold a show to Quibi (RIP), but Quinta told me she had a show in development at ABC that she was feeling pretty positive would move forward.
She told me a bit about it and sent me the pilot. I read it and really enjoyed it, so I kept my schedule open with fingers crossed that it would get picked up — and that I would get to write for it.
I was hired to season one as an executive story editor, and I'm now a producer on the second season. I've been loving my job ever since.
The writers and characters on "Abbott Elementary" are the best
I started out in the entertainment industry doing standup, sketches and improv, and working as a production assistant. When I decided I wanted to write for television, I launched a web series called "Words With Girls."
The half-hour version of the show was chosen by Issa Rae to produce, but then "Insecure" got picked up by HBO — naturally, Issa got pretty busy and my project didn't move forward. But the silver lining was I got my entry in the TV writing world, and by the time I crossed paths with Quinta and "Abbott Elementary" I was an experienced writer.
The first episode I wrote for season two of "Abbott" was episode four, "Principal's Office," which aired in October. I also wrote upcoming episode 13, and will write episode 22.
There are 10 writers including Quinta, plus one writer who works once a week. It's really fun to be in a writers room full of talented, funny, and kind people and talk about characters who are also talented, funny, and kind. I like arguing with my colleagues about the emotionality of a scene and what joke is best.
It's a challenging environment, but it's also just a really good time.
What I also love about this job is that we get to see the fruits of our labor pretty immediately because we're on a broadcast schedule — we're writing and shooting as the show is on the air, so there's not this huge gap in time between working on the show and getting to see it.
It takes five days to shoot an episode and we try to stick to 10-hour days. The time between writing and airing gets shorter as the season goes on.
People might be surprised at how collaborative the 'Abbott Elementary' writers room is
From the first season, I've been able to really leave my mark on every episode and storyline. I think that people would be surprised by how much each writer gets to contribute to every script.
When something in an episode needs to be punched up or made better, all of the writers have to pitch a joke and then the writer of the episode gets to decide if they like any of the pitches enough to replace something in the script.
When our individual episodes come out, the scripts still feel like the writer that wrote them — you can hear that writer's voice and you can see their personality in the jokes they choose to include. At the same time, other writers get at least a joke or a substantial moment in another writer's episode.
There are so many TV writing jobs where people don't feel like their voices are heard or they don't feel valued, so I feel lucky to be a part of a show where if you put in the work, you'll be rewarded and see your work on screen.
I had to advocate for a higher position on the show
Until "Abbott," I hadn't been getting the title bumps that I was supposed to get in my career. I'd actually been given positions that went backward in title — I was offered staff writer positions after I had already been a staff writer.
Consequently, I started on the first season of "Abbott" as an executive story editor, when I really should have had a higher position.
With that in mind, and with a season under my belt where I'd worked at a higher level than what my title would've suggested, I requested to be a producer for the second season. Quinta and Justin Halpern (an executive producer on the show) both really supported me in my request to Warner Brothers, and I was able to become a producer.
The difference this season in my new position is that I'm privy to more of the decision-making process. I get to see cuts of episodes earlier than I would've been able to before. I get access to dailies (the un-edited footage we shot for the day), and I get to see other people's episodes earlier than I was able to last season. I also get called down to set to tackle problems or issues in a way that I wasn't for the first season.
I'm still not a final decision maker by any means, but I definitely feel as though my opinion is valued when it comes to the showrunners' decisions.
We're constantly workshopping jokes
Sometimes the actors might not understand the reference of a joke, so I'd be there to pull up a YouTube video and show them where it comes from.
One example was a reference in the script to a hilarious viral YouTube video of Jasmine Masters saying, "And I oop!" The actress was like, "How am I supposed to say this?" — so we pulled up the video to show her.
A lot of time we come to set with alternative jokes if it didn't get as big of a laugh as we wanted at the table read, or if there's an allusion to some cultural figure that could possibly be canceled in the next three months and we don't want to be shouting them out in our script.
Writers are also around on set to put in extra jokes that maybe weren't in the script originally because we'll often discover that we need to add a look to the camera here, or a joke there, to give the camera operators the time they need to move to the next position and catch a different angle or another character's reaction.
There are of course some things that come up that are deeper — for our more emotional moments on the show, I help the actors get in touch with the intentions behind the scene. We work with them to make sure that the scene rings true with how they see the character and with any developing backstory.
Writers are on set during filming to help problem solve
The job of a writer on set is really to problem solve. We're mostly there in case a joke isn't working or a scene is feeling a bit long. Our job is also to equip the editor and director with everything that they need to put the puzzle pieces of the episode together.
I'm always on set for episodes I've written, but occasionally I'll get called down if there's a question that I have the expertise to answer. One time I was called to set when they were trying to get the beat right for the song "Grindin'" by The Clipse, for the episode "Juice."
Our call times are usually 7 a.m. because we shoot on a soundstage most of the time (so we aren't dependent on the weather outside).
When I get to the soundstage, I walk around, say hello and good morning to the actors and crew. I grab breakfast and get myself situated in front of video village (where screens are set up on set so we can see the show being recorded), get my Comtek (headphones to hear what's being recorded in the scene), and get my sides (printed scenes from the script that we're shooting).
There's a lot of go-go-go and sustained effort with this job, because as writers we don't get hiatuses the way that production does. While the actors and the crew get a week off, that week is the writers' time to put the pedal to the medal and go harder than we normally do.
The best way to understand the job is to think about a normal workday: how often are you actually making eye contact with someone, having a fully engaged conversation, and creating new ideas? Most peoples' workdays consist of short bursts of intensity in between hanging out and scrolling social media or something. For us, those "short bursts'' lasts the whole day.
Part of why we're able to work reasonable hours is because when we're in the writers room, we're working and engaged the whole time. We're having fun, but — we want to go home. We don't want to be in the room until 10 or 11:00 p.m.
We're like Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph's character) that way. We work hard so we don't have to work long.
TV writing jobs are an acquired taste
The entertainment industry is mostly made up of people that have the ability to withstand work dry-spells — the ability to do that has to do with mental disposition as much as finances. It's hard not to have that stability like you would in other careers, but it comes with the territory.
TV writers have to accept that we're not going to be working constantly — and we have to be cognizant of how we spend that time in between jobs, because that directly correlates to what our next job will be.
Your next job in Hollywood is often about being the last person that someone saw. It's come up in the "Abbott" writers' room occasionally when we're casting and someone will say, "Hey, what about this person?" and we'll have to be like — "Okay, do you really think they're right for the role, or is that just someone you saw at a party last weekend?"
The writers get to weigh in on the reads and pitch people for roles, as do the directors of the episode — but Quinta makes the final decision and is very particular.
There are so many opportunities I've had that have come from being out and being social. I'd run into someone who knows someone who's hiring, and I'd get recommended.
Both getting a job and staying creative in Hollywood really comes down to having a life outside of work. Your hobbies and interests are what keep jokes and story ideas flowing. You have to make time to have a life to uncover character dynamics you could use in your work.
For me, I really like board games and basketball. I also do a lot of community work in Los Angeles with local politics and mutual aid.
If all you're doing is going to work and coming home, that's the only world you're ever really going to know, and you won't have much to pull from creatively.
This story was originally published on November 2, 2022.
If you work in Hollywood and would like to share your story, email Eboni Boykin-Patterson at eboykinpatterson@insider.com.