Meridith Cooper considers herself more of a Janine. His mother, Marnie, is rather Barbara.

The pair, who are both teachers, said they text each week about ABC’s “Abbott Elementary,” a mockumentary series that follows the lives of educators at an underfunded public school in Philadelphia. The freshman sitcom, which premiered in December, was created by Quinta Brunson, 32, who also plays sophomore teacher Janine Teagues.

Cooper’s mother has been a teacher for over 20 years, hence the resemblance to the older, wiser character of Barbara Howard, played by Sheryl Lee Ralph. Cooper, like Janine, is newer to teaching — she teaches a seventh-grade class in the Austin, Texas area. But Cooper and his mother learn from each other. She helps her mother with the latest technology and soaks up all the wisdom her mother has to share about the profession they both are passionate about.

The sitcom “shows all the effort that teachers put into it,” Cooper said, when asked why she and her mother loved it so much. “It’s not something you can just jump into. It takes a lot of energy and thought from every teacher.”

It was important to Brunson, who rose to fame with her online videos, that the show felt authentic to viewers like Cooper.

Brunson’s mother was also a teacher, and the show itself is named after Brunson’s sixth grade teacher. The Writers’ Room is made up of people who, like her, also know educators. Some are even educators turned writers.

“At the end of the day, it’s a comedy,” Brunson said of his show. “But, I really love the heart on TV…and the heart of the show is the message of ‘Look what these people do every day’.”

About a year before her mother retired from teaching, Brunson went to visit her at her school. It was the night of a parent-teacher conference, which meant she’d probably be late, so she wanted to make sure her mother got home safely. They waited for hours and “not a soul” showed up, she said. Finally, around 8 p.m., a relative came in.

“I was so angry,” she said. “The school day had ended early, so my mother had been there for 12 o’clock waiting for people.” But, she said, her mother was surprisingly not upset at all.

“She sat there and had this conference with this relative. I was listening to their conversation, watching my mother do her job beautifully, perfectly, with such care,” Brunson said. “And I was like, ‘Man, this is beautiful.'”

This moment was one of many that helped launch the idea of ​​”Abbott Elementary”, which received overwhelmingly positive reviews since the release of its pilot. Although the show is a comedy, it also wants viewers to feel like they’re in an underfunded public school, where teachers — who, yes, crack funny jokes as they navigate their lives everyday as educators – go above and beyond for their students. Even if they receive low wages and have few resources. All because they love it.

It’s about “making people laugh, but also making them think a little bit more about what teachers have done for people,” Brunson said.

So far, the show’s message has resonated with many educators, some of whom have commented on its relatability in social media posts.

Kenneth Avery, Jr., who is earning a doctorate in Africanology and African-American studies at Temple University, live-tweets about new episodes every week.

“I think a lot of my teacher friends and I talk about this show, it definitely gives us some common ground, a space to come together and talk about these issues,” said Avery, who taught high school English before entering the Temple program. “And not just in a negative way, we also talk about solutions and what we can do to improve education.”

He especially enjoys the camaraderie the teaching staff has on the show. “I really like how the teachers form a community,” he said, noting that as teachers, “you become a family, you care about each other and you hold each other accountable. “.

Avery also said the show does a good job of showing what teachers really do (spoiler: that’s a lot).

“People don’t see that teachers often become more than teachers,” he said. “They become parents. They become mentors. They become therapists. They become everything beyond what their job title says. I think it’s super important to show that because I think often teachers take on responsibilities for which you have not been trained and you are not paid This is truly an area of ​​public service.

Elayne Borenstein, who has been teaching for 26 years, said many elements of the show were accurate. But not at all is realistic, as expected with any show that isn’t a docuseries.

“There are some things that are realistic but some things that are really goofy and silly,” Borenstein, an elementary school teacher in Santa Monica, Calif., told NBC News.

His favorite storyline on the show so far is one that involved the teachers trying to get items from their donated wishlists. In the episode, Janine issues a challenge on TikTok to try and go viral and get all of her items.

“The thing with young teachers using social media was hilarious to me because I see that all the time,” she said.

Another element of the show that she called “very fair” is the relationship between older teachers and their younger colleagues. She said she has a younger colleague she leans on when it comes to technology.

So what’s overdone in the show? Well, teachers could never get their nails done during recess, like viewers see Barbara do in one episode, Borenstein noted.

“We can’t go anywhere during recess, it’s ridiculous,” she said. “It’s so fast, and you have so much to do.”

Also, Principal Ava (played by Janelle James) is not the norm, according to Borenstein.

“They pass her off as a Michael Scott character on ‘The Office,'” she said. “She’s hilarious, but…our school principal is very responsible and hardworking.”

Brunson said she was happy people were responding well to the show’s message.

“We don’t show on our show that they can do everything… We tell them to give them more,” she said of the teachers. Oh, it shouldn’t be like this.

The show has also made efforts to help educators. School tweeted earlier this month, he teamed up with the ABC series to donate books to teachers in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

The show also partnered with Scholastic for what they called the “Abbott Elementary Traveling Teacher’s Lounge”, where a school bus toured cities across the United States and gave teachers free school supplies.

Without teachers, Brunson noted, most people wouldn’t be where they are.

“Your life doesn’t even begin without a teacher,” she said. “They teach you to read… They should show up and have absolutely everything they need.”