Photo: John Lamparski/Getty; Pamela Littky/ABC
The heartwarming on-screen chemistry between theAbbott Elementarycharacters has quickly made the ABC sitcom a fan favorite.
And now,Sheryl Lee Ralph, who plays straight-talking kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard, is revealing that the actors genuinely love each other off-screen too.
“I’ve done a lot of series. This does not happen very often to actors,” says Ralph, 65. “You are not often — if ever — put in a group of people who actually like each other, who actually look forward to seeing each other. It’s not hype.It’s not fake. We fit together like a zipper. We just lock perfectly together, and it is a dream come true for all of us.”
Ralph, who appears in this week’s issue of PEOPLE, says she’s “not surprised” thatAbbott Elementaryturned out to be such a success.
Recalling a conversation she had with costarTyler James Williams, who plays substitute teacher Gregory Eddie, the actress says they believed it would do well even before it aired.
Sheryl Lee Ralph (center) with her Abbott Elementary co-stars.Christopher Willard/ABC
“We were shooting the pilot, and one day the two of us just looked at each other and we said it, ‘We have something very special here,'” she recalls. “And the success has not surprised either one of us. We love what we’re doing, and it’s been an amazing, amazing journey.”
Williams, who played a youngChris Rockin the showEverybody Hates Chris, is no stranger to hit sitcoms — and neither is Ralph.
To a generation of fans, she is Dee Mitchell, stepmother to Brandy’s title character in the ’90s teen comedyMoesha. Like herAbbott Elementarycharacter, Dee was a teacher.
Ralph (left) with Brandy and their co-star William Allen Young in the 1990s sitcom Moesha.Everett
Speaking about her current role as Barbara Howard, the actress feels the ABC sitcom is particularly special because it shines a light on education and the real-life teachers who devote their lives to it.
“You’ve got a group of people working in a very challenged school system who love what they do, who love the children they teach and the communities that they serve so much that they are willing to work through some very difficult situations and times together,” she continues. “It’s very heartwarming to me.”
The actress, whose late father Stanley Ralph was a music teacher, especially loves the fact that showpays “homage” to teachers, whom she describes as being “some of the most underrated people ever.”
She notes: “[They] spend so much time with all our children and we do not give them what they deserve. We just don’t.”
The season finale ofAbbott Elementaryairs on Tuesday, April 12 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
source: people.com
