Abbott Elementary Takes Over the Please Touch Museum for Its Season Finale

Abbott Elementary visits the Please Touch Museum in its season 4 finale. / Photography courtesy of Disney/Gilles Mingasson

The students and staff of Abbott Elementary are headed on a field trip. For their season four finale, airing Wednesday, April 16th, the show takes over the Please Touch Museum, and we can’t wait to see what happens when the Abbott team is unleashed in the iconic children’s museum. (If you’ve ever tried to corral a group of kindergartners through the Rocket Room or keep your little one from ransacking the grocery store exhibit, you know the vibes.)

Aptly titled “Please Touch Museum,” the episode’s field trip was filmed entirely on location. Abbott Elementary doesn’t just visit the museum — it lives in it for 22 glorious minutes.

But this one feels especially personal. “We are honored that Please Touch Museum holds special childhood memories for Quinta Brunson,” said Tracy Curvan, the museum’s COO, “and that she wanted to incorporate the museum into Abbott Elementary in such an immersive and authentic way by bringing the entire production to Philadelphia.”

Quinta Brunson films the season four finale of Abbott Elementary in the Please Touch Museum’s Rocket Room.

In particular, the West Philly-born Brunson has fond memories of visiting the Please Touch Museum — its former iteration on the Parkway — driving the SEPTA bus, and shopping in the grocery store. And Curvan tells us that both exhibits feature in the episode. (She’s read the script but has not yet seen the final product.)

Production shut down the museum for three days in February and March, transforming nine of its permanent exhibits into filming locations. From what we’ve seen in preview photos, they include the Alice in Wonderland maze, the Rocket Room, and Food & Family (where Mr. Johnson looks very excited about a banana).

More than 3,000 kids submitted to a local casting call, and 340 lucky kids (and grown-ups) ended up as background actors alongside Brunson, Philly Mag October cover girl Sheryl Lee Ralph, and the rest of the Abbott crew. The museum even paused a restoration project on its historic Memorial Hall to accommodate the shoot.

Why and how seemingly an entire K-8 school is going to the Please Touch Museum at the same time remains to be seen, but the museum staff had input on that as well, says Curvan. During the location scouts, she says, they showed the Abbott team the educational frameworks from their guided field trips to help serve as inspiration in the writers’ room. “They actually lifted a couple lines,” she says. “They really wanted it to be authentic.”

So, behind the scenes, the PTM team worked closely with producers, location scouts, and set designers to make sure the on-screen version felt true to the real deal. That meant everything from adjusting camera angles inside tight exhibit spaces to adding a little scenic paint here and there — without losing the childlike wonder that makes the museum what it is.

For Philly kids past and present, the Please Touch Museum is a core memory. Seeing it spotlighted in one of the city’s most beloved shows? That’s just good TV. “By watching the episode, we hope viewers experience the magic of a visit to Please Touch Museum and how it inspires children and families to discover the power of learning through play,” says Curvan.

“Please Touch Museum” is the latest in the tradition of Abbott season finales paying tribute to beloved Philly kids’ spots — the sleepover at the Franklin Institute and the giant slide at Smith Memorial Playground were both backdrops for key Janine-and-Gregory moments. “What a gift to the cultural institutions of Philadelphia, right?” Curvan says. “They’re so essential to the fabric of the city, and that they were formative in [Brunson’s] experience is really a testament to the work that all of our cultural institutions do for learning for children in Philadelphia in those informal ways.”

Catch the Abbott Elementary season finale on Wednesday, April 16th at 8:30 p.m. on ABC, or stream it the next day on Hulu.