Since 2021, the ABC sitcom “Abbott Elementary” has told funny and heartwarming stories about the dedicated teachers at an underfunded Philadelphia school, working hard to inspire their students and make a better world.
Since 2005, the FX (and FXX) sitcom “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” has … well, it has also told funny stories. Riotously and raunchily funny ones. But is this comedy about selfish, sleazy Philadelphia dive bar operators heartwarming? Hardly ever.
The casts of these two shows appeared together in an “Abbott Elementary” episode on Wednesday night (available now on Hulu) that has been teased by the “Abbott” creator and star Quinta Brunson and the “Sunny” creator and star Rob McElhenney since before the current TV season began. When the crossover was announced, just about anyone who has ever watched these two shows had to wonder: Can this combination work?
The answer is a qualified “yes.” What Brunson and company have produced here is something that feels like an “Abbott” episode featuring a version of the “Sunny” characters with their rougher edges sanded off, perhaps so they won’t seem potentially harmful to schoolchildren.
This isn’t like when the “Mad About You” characters crossed into the similarly urbane New York worlds of “Friends” and “Seinfeld,” or when Thomas Magnum and Jessica Fletcher solved crimes together in “Magnum P.I.” and “Murder, She Wrote.” “Abbott” and “Sunny” may share a city — and a corporate overlord in Disney, which owns ABC and FX — but they do not share a sense of humor or purpose.
Titled “Volunteers,” the episode has Abbott’s principal, Ava Coleman (Janelle James), asking the community for some help around the school. The gym scoreboard has fallen off the wall. The second floor air ducts do not distribute heat evenly. Raccoons are destroying the community garden. Even the ever-optimistic, can-do second-grade teacher Janine Teagues (Brunson) is falling behind on grading. (“It takes a surprising amount of effort to give everyone an A for effort,” she chirps.)
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