Abbott Elementary has made its very long-awaited return to primetime in the 2024 TV schedule, and ABC made an event of the super-sized premiere. Not only was the Season 3 premiere twice as long as a typical sitcom episode, but there were some very famous faces who appeared as guest stars. Just days before the Super Bowl, several NFL stars turned up to make cameo appearances, which prompted me to think about what Abbott casting director Wendy O'Brien told us about Season 3.
Abbott Elementary's Star-Studded Season 3 Premiere
The Season 3 premiere of Abbott Elementary had to go the extra mile to deal with the extra passage of time from the WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA actors strike, but the heart of the super-sized episode was in a special Career Day organized by Janine. The day wasn't going down too well until none other than Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts appeared via Zoom to propose to Melissa on Gary's behalf. Unfortunately for Gary, Melissa said no, but Hurts didn't leave before Eagles center Jason Kelce and defensive end Brandon Graham appeared to beckon Hurts to come to practice.
Should any of the NFL stars quit their day jobs to pursue acting careers, based on their Abbott cameos? Probably not, but Jalen Hurts clearly reading the proposal off of his phone – complete with football puns penned by Gary – was definitely funny, and I got a kick out of Jason Kelce and Brandon Graham showing up. In fact, Hurts had one of my favorite lines of the episode. When Graham told Hurts told that he needs to set some boundaries, Hurts said "You know my boundaries are porous as hell."
Janine clearly being starstruck while trying to be professional about Career Day just made the situation funnier, and it was an amusing break from the latest twist in Janine and Gregory's relationship timeline. (It's still not entirely clear what happened with them, but Josh Segarra's Manny could be involved.)
And Season 3 kicking off with some big-name Philadelphia guest stars happened to coincide with an interview with Abbott Elementary's casting director, who shed some light on the casting process for the show in 2024.
The Casting Process For Abbott Elementary Season 3
Like most network TV shows planned for the 2023-2024 TV season, Abbott Elementary's intended fall premiere was pushed back due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Once both strikes were lifted, many series hit the ground running quickly to salvage as much of the TV season as possible, which likely means 13 episodes for a number of them. When I spoke with Abbott casting director Wendy O'Brien – who has been on board the show going back to the pilot – at SCAD TVfest in Atlanta about the fast pace of the television industry, she shared how much time she has to work with to bring in new people:
Sometimes we have a week and a little bit, sometimes we have a month. It depends on how advanced we get the script, but generally, in this season of Abbott, we've been getting the scripts really early and there's so much communication with the producers and the writers. So really, it's much easier to get ahead of it than a lot of shows. It's really about the timing of when you get the script or the information ahead of time. They're great about that. Incredibly [collaborative].
Season 3 of Abbott has provided scripts early on for the casting department to work on filling in the role vacancies. While this is a show with a large ensemble of series regulars, there are also a lot of new faces who come in and out on a weekly or recurring basis.
And sometimes the casting feels so perfect that I for one have to wonder if characters are written for a specific actor. When asked if there are instances of roles being written for somebody vs. the casting team auditioning the best person for the job, Wendy O'Brien explained:
I think there's definitely been some roles that had specific people in mind. Whether they ended up being available or could perform the services was not always the case. But I think sometimes there have been sort of specific visuals for a role. And other times there was a prototype, and maybe it would end up being the prototype, but the creators were always open to other ideas as well as sort of who the placeholder was when they were writing, if that makes sense.
The sitcom has become such a breakout hit that notable names in showbiz have expressed interest in joining, including Ted Lasso's Hannah Waddingham and Yellowjackets' Christina Ricci. Abbott creator/writer/leading lady Quinta Brunson shared her thoughts on the stars showing interest as well.
And since Wendy O'Brien has been on board the sitcom from the pilot, does having familiarity with the main cast members' performances help in bringing in new people? The casting director explained:
Not necessarily, in that I think that we understand the tone and the type of of humor, so that's super helpful now that it's up and running. But it doesn't necessarily dictate who's going to be in a scene with them, or it doesn't change the kind of actor that is hired necessarily. It's more of the overall tone of the show, than each individual performer because they all sort of fill that symphony with their instruments.
See more from the cast of Abbott Elementary with new episodes on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC, following Not Dead Yet at 8:30 p.m. and The Conners at 8 p.m. You can also revisit every episode of the sitcom so far streaming with a Hulu subscription now.