Creators of ‘Abbott Elementary,’ ‘Cobra Kai,’ ‘Ghosts’ and More Talk Broadcast Comedy Comeback and Honoring IP
variety.comJennifer Maas TV Business WriterEleven of the TV industry’s top comedy creators and showrunners came together to talk about the so-called return of the broadcast sitcom, the daunting task of reshaping and adhering to beloved IP and why the workplace comedy is still a tried-and-true format during Variety‘s “A Night in the Writers’ Room” event Thursday.During the comedy roundtable, TV editor Michael Schneider chatted about these topics and more with Jenny Bicks (“Welcome to Flatch”), Quinta Brunson (“Abbott Elementary”), Dave Burd (“Dave”), Greg Daniels (“Upload”), Chris Miller (“The Afterparty”), Tracy Oliver (“Harlem”), Saladin K.
Patterson (“The Wonder Years”), Joe Port (“Ghosts”), Issa Rae (“Insecure”), Meredith Scardino (“Girls5eva”) and Hayden Schlossberg (“Cobra Kai”).
Brunson, who said in a recent Variety cover story that she does not want credit for the “return” for broadcast comedy to go to her and ABC’s “Abbott Elementary”, elaborated on that opinion by saying, “I only think the success of ‘Abbott’ is as great as a lot of the other shows of people sitting here right now.”“We got to come off the heels of ‘Insecure’ going off the air and I think that meant a lot for ‘Abbott.’ l think people left, I know I did, saying, ‘What the hell am I gonna watch now?'” Brunson said.
She thinks that’s when viewers were able to come over to ABC’s “Abbot Elementary” and “The Wonder Years,” CBS’ “Ghosts,” NBC’s “American Auto” and “Grand Crew” and Fox’s “Welcome to Flatch” to get their comedy fix via what is still the largest-reaching medium for TV — broadcast networks.“I knew I wanted it to be a show for anybody to watch anywhere: home, jail, here, wherever they needed to watch it,” Brunson said.
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