Abbott Elementary may be the newest kid on the primetime comedy playground, but it’s already making a big name for itself.
Created by the one of the internet’s favorite and funniest comedic minds, Quinta Brunson, the mockumentary-style, hit ABC series has all the ingredients necessary to become yet another cult classic. And it’s well on its way. Don’t believe me? Just take one look at the stellar pilot episode, the sad yet hilarious moments of relatability in the subsequent episodes, the myriad of comparisons to another cult classic workplace show (looking at you The Office), and the phenomenal cast, which consists of : Brunson in the lead role, veteran actress and icon Sheryl Lee Ralph, comedian Janelle James, Lisa Ann Walter, Chris Perfetti, and Tyler James Williams.
The latter star, whom we all got our first introduction to on the popular CW comedy Everybody Hates Chris, brings his signature comedic style to the role of Gregory Eddie, a nonchalant and non-confrontational substitute teacher who appears to only be at titular school for a good time, not a long time. But while his plans may have only accounted for being of service to those students for a minute, it becomes abundantly clear as episodes go by that his presence there may play a bigger role than he first realized. Williams’ portrayal is funny yet familiar, playing up both the best and burdensome layers of those educators who’ve helped shaped us and the struggles they go through to keep it pushing, despite the odds.
In recent conversation with The Root over Zoom, Williams discusses his role as “Substitute Greg,” the importance of normalizing Black male teachers, and divulges a bit on what we can expect as the season progress. (Spoiler alert: it’s a whole lot of flexin’.)
*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity
The Root: What drew you to the role of Gregg? What did you want to bring specifically to this character?
Tyler James Williams: It was a few things. First of all, Quinta and I had been friends for awhile and I was a really big fan of her work. I think it was one of those times where the stars align, you get to work with your friends, and it’s actually gonna be good. It could be bad, you know? But this one actually worked out. But in the role I saw an opportunity to bring voice to Black, male educators and particularly Black men and encourage, represent, acknowledge and validate the experience of the Black man rearing the next generation—whether it be educationally or just in everyday life. I think we don’t talk about that enough or validate it and when we do: we do it in a way that’s very hyper-focused and it seems like it’s rare. I think for people to really be able to see themselves, like with a lot of my previous work, you have to see it on a consistent, week-by-week basis—in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s super shiny or ‘let’s hand a gift to this.’ I think we have to show things more normalized in order to really affect change.
TR: It’s interesting that you bring that up because that sentiment, I feel, was something that struck me especially in episode three with Janine pointing out to Gregg that his presence with these kids matters a lot. We all know how influential a good teacher can be for a child, particularly when that teacher happens to look like them. Have you found that to be true in your own upbringing?
TJW: Yeah, we say it all the time that it takes a village to raise a child. But we have to also understand that if that village is not diverse and not diverse as the children that are being raised—that some of them will not feel seen or represented. I think that was the thing for sure, for me, in my educational experience. I didn’t run into a lot of people who looked like me and at times felt as if: in order to be a part of that world, the educational, the academic that I had to be a different version of myself. And that’s never a good thing, you know, where people are denying their own authenticity in order to assimilate? So I think it’s very, very important. One of my favorite lines from that episode is: “it’s you in a du-rag.” To be able to show that those two things can go together. Smart and du-rag go together. Kids put that together. Authority figure and du-rag go together. Those are all things that need to be addressed.
So yeah, I was very intentional about wanting to do this for that reason. And I think I’m always attempting to show characters that I needed to see when I was younger and didn’t have enough of. With this I want to not only represent—but not representation for the sake of representation—normalize the Black, male teacher and make it attractive, you know what I mean? A lot of times, for Black men, we live in this hyper-masculinized society where we feel like if what we’re doing or the amount of money we’re making is not considered attractive—it’s not even an option. But if we can make that attractive [like] ‘no, being a teacher is admirable work. It’s attractive work, it’s sexy work.’ Then we can have more men drawn to the profession to influence the lives of the next generation of young, Black people. That’s important, we need to show it, we need to normalize it. We need to take it from it being shiny to being normal, something that you see all of the time.
TR: I want to switch gears a little bit and talk about what I think works tremendously for this show and that’s the chemistry between all the cast. How are you all able to channel that, to what do you credit that chemistry to?
TJW: Quinta. Just Quinta alone. She’s a great writer, she’s a really great actor but something about this show, she became a really great producer. She saw all the pieces that needed to put together of this puzzle and found, to me, in my opinion, the only pieces that worked. And that’s one of her superpowers is being able to see things that other people cannot and how to put together a real, workable project. So many times in the industry, people go for the biggest names that they can find and they’re like ‘that’s what’s gonna hit,’ and every year I’m like ‘nope.’ It never works. You see these cash grabs with these huge names that don’t gel, ‘how many times are we gonna do that?’ And she [Quinta] was smart enough to see and get that and put it together like a basketball team. You don’t need five Jordans, you need a team around people who can all do their role and do their job. So I give maximum credit to Quinta Brunson’s brain.
TR: I’m sure you’ve seen the comparisons online about this show and The Office. We know how much of an impact it’s had on pop culture, how does it feel to already have this show be positively put on that pedestal with just three, soon-to-be four episodes out?
TJW: I think it’s huge. It sets a very high bar, which, I always like playing there. For me, I don’t like chuckle comedy or like ‘hmm,’ I like the tear your mouth out, have you wheezing [kind]—because that’s the point of comedy. So The Office really does that and it sets a high bar for us and I think we can—as long as strive to meet it, I’m not sure, we’ll see, we still have a lot to play out—but as long as we’re striving for that we’ll hit it. Randall Einhorn, our executive producer who worked on The Office for a long time [is there], we have a lot of the right pieces there. Three episodes in, I love that people love it. From us on our side, the glimpse behind the curtain, we know what’s coming and this isn’t even—we’re just getting started.
I’m looking forward to seeing when people see the rest of our season. With any cast, the longer you’re together, the more you gel, the better it gets. So we have another 10 coming that feel like we have some heat in the chamber. But it’s exciting, it’s fun, I’ll take the comparison any day. They’re the golden standard and hopefully we’ll live up to that.
TR: Lastly, what can you tell us about what’s in store for the rest of the season?
TJW: Zack Fox comes back and we’ll see that storyline continue to play out and anybody who knows Zack knows that that first episode—Zack could not get let off the leash. That’s a very subdued Zack. We’ll let him play a bit and that’ll be really fun. It’s some of the funniest stuff I’ve seen on network tv in a very long time. We’re gonna let people flex. This is a show that let’s actors who;ve been doing this for some time flex. Sheryl [Lee Ralph, who plays Barbara] has got some great stuff that’s coming. I pray people understand the context of her career and how great she has been consistently in different genres, different styles, different eras, She’s everything and Quinta does a really good job of letting her show that off .
Chris Perfetti is insane in this show, Janelle James is fantastic in this show and she’s just getting started. For us we kind of forgot what we did in the first four episodes mostly because it was so long ago and now seeing it back it’s like ‘aw, OK, yeah that’s great.’ But I remember those days and it’s alot of those days that are coming up where people just went STUPID. So we’re gonna start flexin’ in a bit. We’re not even flexin’ yet.
Abbott Elementary premieres Tuesdays at 9p.m.ET only on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu.