Abbott Elementary has been a breakout success for ABC. The Philadelphia-set, school-based sitcom has four seasons in the bag with a fifth coming in the fall of 2025, not to mention a long series of award nominations and victories. That includes some big writing and editing wins for the series' creator, Quinta Brunson.
That being said, Abbott Elementary is not the first television series to be set in the City of Brotherly Love, though it is one of a very small number of sitcoms. Arguably, the most famous, or more likely infamous, sitcom set there is It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The venerable dark comedy is heading into its 17th season and is a tentpole of FX's programming.
It's important to keep in mind that Abbott Elementary and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are exceedingly different series. Abbott Elementary is an upbeat mockumentary-style comedy about teachers trying to beat the odds and give their students a good education. It's Always Sunny, on the other hand, is about the five worst people on Earth running a terrible bar in South Philly and trying to pull off borderline cartoonish scams that never work. In Season 4 of Abbott Elementary, they crossed paths.
Season 4 featured an episode where a group of volunteers arrived at the school to provide help. The teachers were excited for the community support, mainly because they didn't know who Frank, Sweet Dee, Dennis, Mac, and Charlie were. Naturally, everything went downhill from there, particularly when the teachers found out the gang's good will was court ordered.
Reputedly, the idea for this crossover came from a chance meeting at the 75th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in 2023. Abbott Elementary creator Quinta Brunson was there representing her series. Rob McElhenney, creator of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, was also in attendance.
As both creators are Philly natives, they had a lot to talk about, particularly since they had set their signature sitcoms in their hometown. Naturally, this led to a discussion of how hilarious and improbable a crossover between their two series would be. The improbable gained momentum, actually became a thing, and the crossover was dropped to rave reviews from fans of both series.
As part of the initial crossover reveal, it was also announced that some members of the Abbott Elementary faculty will be making the trip to Paddy's Pub. What that looks like has not been revealed, though the episode is likely to be part of the upcoming Season 17 for It's Always Sunny.
A portion of the episode is reputed to have been shot on the Abbott Elementary set, though that doesn't mean the whole episode is in that location or that the teachers swinging by Paddy's Pub is out of the question. Not surprisingly, everyone is being quite tight-lipped about the second half of the crossover, but fans expect big laughs.
It will be interesting to see how Abbott Elementary characters handle being on a series with much more lenient network rules and regulations. Honestly, it will be even more interesting to see if the Abbott mockumentary crew follows the staff to Paddy's Pub. Dennis really didn't like being on camera the first time.