‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ attends ‘Abbott Elementary’

Since 2021, the ABC sitcom “Abbott Elementary” has told funny and heartwarming stories about the dedicated teachers of an underfunded Philadelphia school who work hard to inspire their students and create a better world.

Since 2005, the FX (and FXX) sitcom “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” has … well, it’s also told funny stories. Rebellious and wickedly funny. But is this comedy about selfish, sleazy Philadelphia dive bar operators heartwarming? Almost never.

The cast of those two shows appeared together in an “Abbott Elementary” episode Wednesday night (available now on Hulu) that has been teased by “Abbott” creator and star Quinta Brunson and “Sunny” creator and star Rob McElhenney since before the current television season began. When the crossover was announced, almost anyone who has ever seen 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 with a version of the “Sunny” characters with their rougher edges sanded off, perhaps so they don’t seem potentially harmful to school kids.

It’s not like when the “Mad About You” characters crossed over into the equivalent urban New York worlds. “Friends” and “Seinfeld,” or when Thomas Magnum and Jessica Fletcher solved crimes together in “Magnum PI” and “Murder, She Wrote”. “Abbott” and “Sunny” may share a city — and a corporate overlord in Disney, which owns ABC and FX — but they don’t share a sense of humor or purpose.

The episode titled “Volunteers” has Abbott’s principal, Ava Coleman (Janelle James), asking the community for help around the school. The gymnastic board has fallen off the wall. The second floor’s air ducts do not distribute the heat evenly. Raccoons destroy the community garden. Even the ever-optimistic, bright 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.)

Enter the gang from Paddy’s Pub: Mac (McElhenney), the dim, boyish hunk; Charlie (Charlie Day), the illiterate, easily confused handyman; Frank (Danny DeVito), the millionaire libertine; Dee (Kaitlin Olson), the self-absorbed planner; and Dee’s twin brother, Dennis (Glenn Howerton), the handsome sociopath. True to its nature, the gang from “Sunny” arrives at Abbott not because its members actually want to do good; rather, it is because of a court-ordered community service. (They were caught dumping 100 gallons of baby oil, 500 T-shirts and a Cybertruck into the Schuylkill River.)

The episode is structured a bit like a superhero cartoon team-up, with characters from each show working together in different subplots. Ava drafts the eager Mac to be her personal assistant. Frank agrees to help first-grade teacher Gregory Eddie (Tyler James Williams) and the school’s janitor, Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis), in the garden. Dee – who attended the University of Pennsylvania, like Janine – becomes a surprisingly capable second-grade classroom aide.

Charlie, meanwhile, answers the call of sixth-grade teacher Jacob Hill (Chris Perfetti) to repair the ducts. But Charlie’s inability to read alarms Jacob, and he hands Charlie off to teachers Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Melissa Schemmenti (Lisa Ann Walter) to take him to the library.

Dennis is conspicuously absent from any of these storylines. He appears at the start of the episode and then quickly disappears because he wants to avoid Abbott’s ever-present documentary cameras. (Sitcom falls under the “mockumentary” subgenre.)

It could be that Dennis’ whole persona on “Sunny” — as a proudly amoral and predatory womanizer — was just too harsh to temper for such a family-friendly series. Otherwise, it’s surprising – and somewhat enlightening – how easily the “Sunny” characters fit in.

Frank’s general quirkiness goes well with Mr. Johnson’s eccentricities as they argue about how to outsmart the raccoons. (When he hears that Gregory intends to spread chili powder and garlic on the ground, Frank warns that this will “make the dirt taste delicious,” so he eats the dirt himself.) And while Dee initially has a sisterly bond with Janine, she kills the mood by repeatedly flirting with Gregory, Janine’s boyfriend.

None of this is too off-brand for “Abbott,” where strange and annoying characters often pop up and briefly complicate the teachers’ lives. The two shows also share the Philadelphia bond, evident in this episode in references to UPenn hangout Smokey Joe’s and in a quick count of how many of these characters have gotten into fights at an Eagles game. (The answer: pretty much everyone.)

The relative seamlessness of this crossover may be due to the show’s less frequently talked about qualities: “Abbott” is often a bit meaner than its reputation, and “Sunny” is sometimes unexpectedly sweet.

It’s no surprise that the most active (as opposed to reactive) “Abbott” character in this episode is Ava, who tends toward the sneaky. The writers often lean on Ava when they need someone to fire off slurs or do something dirty, and here she happily takes advantage of Mac, who hopes to impress the principal and go home early. Instead, Ava starts looking for ways to keep the free labor going longer.

It’s also no surprise that the “Abbott” writers are leaning into the “Charlie learns to read” story line. Charlie is an odd ball. (When asked what kinds of library books might interest him, he names three of his favorite subjects: beer, “dandelion,” and bird law.) He’s also charmingly childish in his own freaky way.

That the two shows end up meshing together as well as they do is a testament to the talents of these actors, all of whom are good at getting laughs. Your next test? When the cast of “Abbott Elementary” appears in an episode of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” as scheduled for the upcoming season. We now know that the “Sunny” cast can be soft when they need to be. But how edgy can the “Abbott” cast get?