/Film’s Ben Pearson spoke with “Abbott Elementary” executive producers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker to see if there’s any story the team hasn’t found a way to make work just yet. The answer? Spirit Day.
“We keep trying to crack a Spirit Day episode that we haven’t have not been able to crack,” says Patrick Schumacker. “We had the desking episode in season 1 started as a Spirit Day episode, because we wanted an episode that showcases some of Barbara’s theatrical background. For whatever reason, we have not been able to crack that one yet in two seasons.”
The lack of a Spirt Day episode has become a point of contention in the writers’ room as well. “Every time someone brings up Spirit Week, everybody’s like, ‘Shut up. Stop. Get it away. Get it out of here. We can’t make it work,’ like it’s our Kobayashi Maru. No one can figure out how to make Spirit Week work as an episode,” Justin Halpern says. “So, every year, it’s like, ‘Well, what about Spirit Week?’ It’s like, ‘Shut the f*** up. We’re not doing Spirit Week.'” [laughs]
Here’s hoping the team finds a way to crack the code and make Spirit Week a possibility. As a former elementary school educator myself, I’m personally a huge fan of celebrating the 100th day of school by inviting the kids to show up dressed like they’re 100 years old. If you want to use the idea, just give me a shout-out on Twitter. I’m easy to please.