As Quinta Brunson builds her own TV production company, she knows what she doesn’t want to make: “Slop.”
In this age of AI, “slop” has become a term to describe the kind of mindless fare that has started to clog social media and other platforms — projects created without much soul or originality at the touch of a keyboard. Speaking to a packed house last week at the Variety TV Fest, Brunson said that she fears “there’s a lot of slop out there right now. And I don’t want to contribute to that.”
While she looks forward to Season 6 of her hit comedy “Abbott Elementary,” Brunson has also been busy developing new TV and film projects at her Warner Bros.-based Fifth Chance Productions, with the goal of “creating more good television by any means necessary.”
“Not just stuff for the sake of it,” she said. “And that may take longer. It may be harder. But I want to provide more good television. Now, I don’t think good always means everyone is going to like it. But I want to put the effort into it. I want to put heart into it. I want to put care into it, and continue to be very intentional about giving people something to enjoy that isn’t slop.”
RELATED: Love Is All Around: Quinta Brunson’s Mary Tyler Moore Visionary Award Closes a Sitcom Circle
Brunson spoke to the Variety TV Fest audience at the West Hollywood Edition hotel while being honored with this year’s Mary Tyler Moore Visionary Award, as presented by the late Moore’s husband, Dr. S. Robert Levine. As founder and CEO of the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative, Levine (who was married to Moore for more than 30 years) aims to help spur the development of new methods to preserve and restore vision in people with diabetes, which Moore was diagnosed with as a young adult.
In his opening remarks, Levine described Brunson as the ideal heir to Moore’s legacy as a comedy star and entertainment icon.
“In Quinta, not only do we have a multiple, award-winning, brilliant, kind, brave innovator who is an actor, comedian, dancer, singer and writer, we are next leveling it, pushing up to match Mary’s role as a creative who forced change to the world of television production,” he said in his speech before presenting Brunson with the honor. “Quinta has gone beyond what Mary would’ve even dared to try. Quinta’s success is deeply rooted in her exceptional talent, work ethic, grace, and practice of true creative collaboration.
“With all that she has achieved in such a short time, it is clear that Quinta is the next Mary in every way,” added Levine. “The Mary Tyler Moore Visionary Award is a way for me to pass on the baton of Mary’s legacy as a game changer.”
In accepting the award, Brunson shared with Levine and the audience how much Moore and the iconic “Mary Tyler Moore Show” meant to her — and especially her parents, who grew up loving the show. “It was big in their household and it kind of brought their family together,” she said.
“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was already about 30 years old when Brunson started watching it in repeats in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “The most prolific thing about it is that at that age, the conversation of representation hadn’t been had yet,” she said. “There was just this show I was watching that was funny. And it happened to have this incredibly charming woman at the center of it. It really defined what I thought was good. And I love that I never questioned whether or not the show should exist because there was a woman at the center.”
Brunson noted that “Mary Tyler Moore” helped cultivate her passion for sitcoms, including the multi-camera genre that is harder to find these days.
“I love when they’re done right,” Brunson said. “Some of my favorite shows are multi-cams. When I’m not here in L.A. and I’m in New York, I’ve really found so much excitement and inspiration from going to Broadway plays. To me, the best and funniest Broadway plays are how a multi-cam should be written.”
She raved in particular about the Pulitzer-winning Broadway play “Purpose,” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. “I’m constantly trying to get him to come write a multi-cam,” Brunson said. “I feel like it is a medium or a sub medium that has been relegated to being where we go to do easy jokes. But it doesn’t have to be that way. When a multi-cam is so cared about, you get some of the funniest moments ever that you can only get with a live audience and the kind-of restricted three-camera setup.”
Brunson recently told Variety that she’d love to do a multi-cam project (and was receptive to the suggestion that she collaborate with iconic sitcom director Jimmy Burrows). “Yeah, we’ve got to get that to happen!” she said. “Another thing I believe in is creating the show for the format. I would want to create a show where the best way to tell that story is through multi-cam. That could be exciting for me and the audience.”
Beyond TV, Brunson is currently developing the film “Par for the Course,” which she’ll star in with Stephanie Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All At Once”) and co-write with Justin Tan, who is also directing.
“I’m enjoying learning about that world and seeing what my place is in it,” she said. “I come to it extremely humble and understanding that it’s not what I typically do. But I feel in this industry right now, that’s a really good way to tell some really cool stories that are harder to tell in television.”
Of course, nothing is quite like producing 22 episodes a season of TV, which is what Brunson and her colleagues still pull off annually with “Abbott Elementary.”
It’s been quite the boot camp for her — “and I feel invincible,” she said. “I can’t stress enough how much work, care, thought, blood, sweat and tears it takes to try to still make it good. Because 22 is kind of asking you to throw the towel in at some point. It’s like you’re in the fog of the season. People are tired. People are exhausted. Babies are being born. People are dying. It gets very exhausting. So we all have to put a lot of effort in still trying to make it good at that rate.”
That’s why, she admits, “I’m not going to lie, I would love to tackle something shorter — for my own mental health. I think there’s so much beauty in that shorter seasons storytelling as well.”
Probably not a good time to pitch this idea: How about a live, multi-camera episode of “Abbott.”
Joked Brunson: “You’re trying to give me a heart attack!”
