Quinta Brunson’s Abbott Elementary has become one of television’s steadier comedies, a network sitcom set in West Philadelphia that follows teachers and staff at an elementary school in mockumentary form. With the show renewed for six seasons and counting, viewers looking for something that carries the same classroom energy, workplace friction and ensemble rhythm have plenty of places to go next.
One obvious starting point is The Office, the 2005 workplace comedy set in a paper company branch in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Michael Scott’s terrible management and Jim Halpert’s long-running attempt to romance Pam Beesly give it the same mix of office politics and personal chaos that makes Abbott Elementary work. If the appeal is the mockumentary structure itself, Abbott sits squarely in a tradition that also includes It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a basic cable staple since 2005 that follows the misadventures of a bar-owning group of misanthropes in Philadelphia and is far raunchier than most sitcoms.
The crossover between those two shows gave the comparison real weight. Abbott Elementary taught the It’s Always Sunny gang a lesson in the ABC show’s fifth season, and the Season 17 premiere of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia offered the filthier side of that story. That link makes the pairing especially useful for viewers who want to see how a clean network comedy and a much dirtier cable one can still share comic DNA.
There are other matches for different parts of Abbott Elementary’s appeal. Everybody Hates Chris, co-created and narrated by Chris Rock and loosely based on his ’80s upbringing in Brooklyn, shares the point of view of a story rooted in everyday struggle and family pressure. The point of the list is not that any one of these shows is Abbott Elementary all over again. It is that Brunson’s hit sits in a broad lane of ensemble comedies, and the best follow-up watch depends on whether what you want most is the school setting, the mockumentary style or the awkward warmth that keeps the jokes landing.
That is why the answer to the post-Abbott question is simple: start with the shows that match the part of Brunson’s series you like best, because the closest alternatives are already on the list.