Art Directors Guild : Perspective – Building a Hit Comedy abbott elementary

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Building a Hit Comedy abbott elementary

By Michael Whetstone, Production Designer
ABOVE: INTERIOR ABBOTT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SET. OVERHEAD MODEL VIEW. DRAWN IN VECTORWORKS AND TWINMOTION BY TOM WAGMAN.

May - June 2023

Abbott Elementary - The Beginning

As I type this out, I’m currently working on designs for season three of Abbott Elementary. The show has moved stages and redesigned its school facade each year, and season three will be no exception. Each season has been an exercise in making the sets work more efficiently for the crew while also adding more hallways, staircases or buildings across the street from the school facade to ground the series in the specific world of West Philadelphia. It’s a place where schools are four stories tall and are situated in the middle of residential neighborhoods. No sprawling campuses like Los Angeles. Not too unlike Chicago, where I am from.

With the success of Abbott Elementary, it’s easy to forget that it started out as a midseason replacement show. It was in the middle of COVID, and I got a call to meet for twelve episodes of a new show with a young show runner named Quinta Brunson and a frequent collaborator of mine, director/EP Randall Einhorn. Also on the call were EP’s Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker. The pilot was already shot on location, but that was not going to be possible going into a series. Schools were back to in-person learning, and there is always the desire to keep as much as possible on the sound stages for efficiency and cost.

A. SCHOOL GYM. PENCIL SKETCH BY MICHAEL WHETSTONE.
B. CLASSROOM. PENCIL SKETCH BY MICHAEL WHETSTONE.
C. INTERIOR ABBOTT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SET. VECTORWORKS MODEL BY TOM WAGMAN.

Once I was on board, we set about discussing stage space (plentiful), timelines (limited) and money (never enough). I hired Art Director Suzan Wexler, and we began discussions with our construction team, led by Duke Tomasick. Suzan and Duke were both new to me, but that’s one of the fun things about this business—working with new minds and energy on every project. I quickly realized that Suzan and I are a perfect complement to each other. She has been an Art Director for twenty years and always wants to figure out the best way to move things forward. I also had Art Directors Patrick Parkhurst and Megan Fenton on season one, as well as Assistant Art Director Garrett Brown. We spent most of these early days together immersing ourselves into the smallest details of the school, gym and exteriors.

Warner Bros. Television gave the show Stage 16, which is the biggest and tallest stage they have and is one of the largest sound stages in the world. It worked perfectly for us, as we wanted to have the longest possible hallways to tell the story of this massive public school with four hundred fifty kids. Our main hallway ran from one end of Stage 16 to the other, roughly 140-feet-long. I remember getting early schematics from Set Designer Tom Wagman and thinking we were over budget already! Tom has been with us from day one and really brings a designer’s eye to everything he does.

A. INTERIOR SCHOOL. ADMINISTRATION. SET PHOTO.

B. INTERIOR SCHOOL. HALLWAY. SET PHOTO.

C. INTERIOR SCHOOL. CLASSROOM. SET PHOTO.

D. INTERIOR SCHOOL. CLASSROOM. SET PHOTO.
SET PHOTOS COURTESY OF ABC/GILES MINGASSON.

Within these massive hallways, the Art Department needed to find the humanity and core of the show—its teachers. The premise of the show is that the school has invited a documentary crew onto the campus to tell the story of these teachers, who fight to provide a solid education against all odds. Against budget cuts. Leaky pipes. Faulty electrical service. The school the set is based on was built in 1896. The school the pilot was shot in was built in 1920. Anyone with an older house knows what the upkeep of this is like. We try to show this wear and tear wherever we can— in the aging and the haphazard electrical system that runs the school. Each teacher on the surface has a classroom that is the same exact size, but each one has their own personality. Barbara is the teacher with the most experience, who sometimes feels lost in a world of new technology. She still has script letters on her wall to teach kids how to write. Janine is the young gun—lots of hope for the world, but not always realistic in what can be achieved. Melissa gets things done in her own Philly way—she has contacts that can make things happen. Gregory is the substitute-turned-full-time-teacher, a guy who is learning on the job and has aspirations for the top seat at the school. Finally, Jacob is a teacher who wants to right all the wrongs of the world and to be accepted in this underprivileged school. Making these small distinctions of each character has been a specialty of set decorator Cherie Ledwith and her team. She gets a lot of help from Graphic Designer Lissette Schettini, who worked on the pilot and designed the graphic on the outside of the school.

SCHOOL ENTRANCE. RENDERED MODEL VIEW DONE IN VECTORWORKS AND TWINMOTION BY TOM WAGMAN.

Building the School Facade

Multiple ideas for our school facade were debated in the initial design phase. Attaching it to the outside of the stage was an early thought, but it eventually landed on the backlot because of fire marshal concerns. Warner Bros. has a huge backlot, but there is not a lot of space for new buildings. For season one, Warner Bros. had specific places in mind for the exterior of the school. The production had our own list of needs, but a lot of the spots we liked on the lot (open parking lots with lots of space) were hard to book because of the extra space required for COVID testing and the uptick in the number of people back working on the lot. Season one saw us across from the outdoor replica of the Friends couch on fountain square and involved removing huge pieces of sidewalk every time we finished shooting to make room for the WB tour buses.

For season two, there was a commitment from the studio to give the show a more robust presence, likely due to the success of its limited run. To our surprise, they offered to remove part of the Chicago “L” tracks built for ER. I’m from Chicago and did not take this lightly. I always enjoyed seeing the tracks when I visited the studio. It’s been interesting to watch our set grow and evolve over the years. We are now part of the Warner Bros. Studio Tour which means when I visit our set, I’m usually surrounded by groups of tourists taking photos. I’ll sometimes confess to being the Production Designer and tell them about the set, but most of the time I pretend to be part of the tour. It’s always interesting to hear what people have to say.

The Art Department has learned a lot over two years of having a set outside and open to the elements. First, it gets very hot in Burbank in June and July. The construction and paint team had to work mostly mornings, as the days would often hit one hundred twelve degrees. One of the other things we’ve learned about is materiality and how we can have the set survive through rain and direct sunlight. We didn’t initially have the budget to build the set like a permanent backlot set, but as it became apparent that we could be on the lot for a while, the discussions turned toward using real concrete sidewalks and real brick. The more we can use real materials, the less work we have to do in maintaining them.

If you watch an episode featuring the garden, you will notice how real it looks. That’s because it is real. Randall is an avid gardener and was not convinced by the fake kale and fake tomato plants. So now the garden outside of the school is all real plants. Patrick Parkhurst got the look started by going to a real nursery with the show’s greensmen and buying tons of kale, zucchini and other plants that are hearty with large leaves. We have to keep in mind the cycles of plants in a city like Philadelphia, so in the fall and spring we have grown plants, and in the winter they are all dormant. It’s something most people will never appreciate, but I have actually eaten lots of things from our garden and they are delicious!

INTERIOR SCHOOL GYM. VECTORWORKS MODEL BY TOM WAGMAN.

Being on a Studio Lot

I had never worked at Warner Bros. as a designer before, but I did work there earlier in my career when I was climbing the ranks. It has made my job so much easier to work at a place that still values construction and all the things needed in order to get the job done. This includes a huge mill for construction to work in, a staff shop to make brick, and a paint shop on the lot. These things are a luxury but really make daily life better. There is also the fact that the lot is busy and has many other shows going on. I was able to connect with and have conversations with at least five other designers doing shows there. Funny story—Suzan and I were debating what to do about our basketball floor in the gym. I mentioned it to Rich Toyon, who is the designer on Winning Time, as they have lots of basketball scenes. We couldn’t afford to do our floor the way Rich does his in season two, but he connected me with Jack Taylor who was designing a show about the 1950s Knicks, and Jack came by our office with no less than three samples of flooring and a bunch of research. This is a type of camaraderie that too often is missing in this business. For season three, we have a real basketball floor, with the help of Rich’s contact Jack.

Abbott Characters Outside of Work

When I started on the show, I asked about seeing our characters outside of the workplace. It’s something I’ve learned over the years to anticipate. I was told we would never see the characters’ lives outside of the school as it’s a workplace comedy with a documentary crew. Season one was completely at their workplace, but season two changed all of that.

Season two visits Janine’s apartment and neighborhood to show her breakup with her longtime boyfriend. Janine was put in a basement apartment on the New York street in the building where Annie was filmed. The crew then set about to build her interior apartment set near the show’s backlot and took over a space that had been the ER hospital entrance. It was small but made us design a set that was equally small and appropriate for what a schoolteacher could afford. Sometimes space restrictions lead to good realistic choices, and DP Mike Pepin and gaffer Tom Pugh embraced the challenge as well.

The series also features Melissa’s apartment in season two. We debated building this on stage, but location manager David Lyons found a location in Eagle Rock with an interior that looked exactly like a Philadelphia row house. Even though we didn’t do any construction on this location, I’m very proud of how it turned out. Cherie Ledwith really had a fun time showing Melissa’s personality in her choices of dressing.

The Classroom Lessons

The lessons on the chalkboards deserve their own chapter. Each teacher has their own way of communicating a lesson. When breaking down a script, the art team breaks down the possible classroom lessons at the same time. Sometimes the writers have ideas and sometimes they leave it open. Either way, every detail is considered. We make sure that the boards in every room for every scene communicate clearly not only the lesson at hand, but the season we are in. Each teacher has a corresponding set dresser that is in charge of the specific look of their handwriting. The props team, led by Skip Torvinen, makes sure the kids are working off of the same lessons we have on the boards.

INTERIOR JANINE’S APARTMENT. RENDERED MODEL VIEW. DRAWN IN VECTORWORKS AND TWINMOTION BY TOM WAGMAN.

The Best Ideas/It Takes a Village

I wouldn’t be a designer if I didn’t have good ideas, but this business is truly a collaborative business. Therefore, I try to run the Art Department as one

part training for the younger generation and one part an immersive set of references I can bring people to for ideas.

I always start by seeing what Randall and Quinta think. I love working with Randall because he doesn’t care how everyone else has done something before—what can we do to push things? Randall comes at things from a place where anything is possible. Quinta comes at things from a place of realism. She may have three jobs on our show already, but she notices every detail and is always trying to balance the need for making a fantastic episode of television against the financial constraints of a public school. She is hands down one of the calmest, nicest show runners I have ever worked with. I remember early on; she came to the Art Department on a FaceTime call with her parents and we discussed the look of the windows with her dad, who was in construction his whole life. I finally met her parents in Philadelphia this season, and her dad gave me ideas for our backlot for season three. I can’t wait to show him that I was actually listening!

And every show has a producer, but not everyone has Scott Sites. I’m very blessed to get to work with him at the tail end of his career. When you have a creative producer, everything is easier. He is in every meeting I have and on every scout we do. A big part of why the show is a success and why all the creative departments have what they need to succeed is because of him. Shooting 8- to 10-hour days probably helps too. I’m not bringing up all these names to kiss the ring—just simply to point out that a successful show has so much more involved in it than any one person can possibly take credit for.

CORNER DELI. RENDERED MODEL VIEW DONE IN VECTORWORKS AND TWINMOTION BY TOM WAGMAN.

The Future of Abbott

I consider myself a young designer, but I know that won’t be true much longer. I’ve been at this for twenty-eight years. Everyone tells me how lucky I am to be on a show that is going to be around for 5-7 years, but I never think about things like that. I’m too busy. Always thinking about how to make things better for the crew and cast. Very rarely does a week go by without a new challenge presenting itself. One week, it’s the elevated decks being too “alive” and needing to be deadened. Next, it’s the vintage door hardware sticking. The week after that, it’s how to build a museum inside of the show’s existing gym. We are basically operating a school system with tons of kids and the Art Department is in charge of all maintenance. I don’t know everything the future holds for the show, but I hope we can continue to create environments for our incredible cast to tell these amazing and hilarious stories. ADG