A Real-Life Story Inspired Quinta Brunson to Move 'Abbott Elementary' to a Mall
The 'Abbott' team wanted to make the mall look like an East Coast mall that had been closed for about a decade.
Published Jan. 15 2026, 12:51 p.m. ET
Abbott Elementary, created by Quinta Brunson, has always struck the perfect balance between humor and heart. Quinta said that the show is loosely based on her mom's career working in the Philadelphia school district. She wants to show everyday people dealing with the sort of situations that come up in their everyday lives.
"We're dealing with everyday people and their work situations that they love, which may not be the best situations to us," she told Wanda Sykes on Jimmy Kimmel Live. That remains true in their current season, which happens to move the location of Abbott Elementary from the school to an actual mall.
Quinta Brunson had the idea to move 'Abbott Elementary' to a mall after hearing about a school affected by the Palisades fire.
In early 2025, deadly wildfires swept across the Los Angeles region, prompting many residents to evacuate their homes and businesses. Quinta heard about the students and teachers from the Palisades Charter High School who had to move to a Sears temporarily after the fires, according to Deadline.
Abbott showrunner Justin Halpern recalled that Quinta told him, "I want to talk about the reality that these educators go through and have us put our characters through the same thing." He added that that's what the writers are always aiming to do.
Justin explained that they researched schools that were having structural issues in Philadelphia and elsewhere. He noted that it was common for schools to need to relocate for periods of time. "...After everything else you throw at educators, then put that on top of their already busy schedules ... it felt impossible," Justin said.
Fellow showrunner Patrick Schumaker said that they talked with someone from the LAUSD board who had real experience moving the students from Pali High to the "dead" Sears at the Santa Monica promenade.
The show was filmed at a real dead mall in Topanga, Calif. The Abbott Elementary cast were the last people to enter the mall before it was demolished.
The production designer for Abbott, Michael Whetstone, told The Wrap that it would have been too expensive to build a set that had multiple stories like a real mall, so it was easier to use a mall that already existed. Michael recalled, "We used literally every square inch that was usable in that mall."
'Abbott' filmed in the Westfield Topanga mall.
After removing mold and cleaning the mall, they "dirtied it back up" to make it look lived-in. They wanted to make it look like an East Coast mall that had been closed for about a decade.
Michael said they "couldn't show a store that wasn't bankrupt and had an online presence," so they ended up using the jeweler Bailey Banks & Biddle, KB Toys, and Sears. They built new signs for the stores and then purposely damaged some of them.
"The mall really dictated what we did," Michael said. "I probably never scouted a location that many times … [it was] really hard to find a home for all the teachers." He explained that after they'd figured out the layout of the space and all the teachers' classrooms, they went back and designed each room, aiming to make the classrooms feel familiar even though they were in a different location.