'Parks and Recreation' alum Natalie Morales stars in NBC's upcoming bar comedy.
Have a drink with your new pals from NBC's bar comedy, Abby's.
Filmed outdoors in front of a live studio audience, Abby's centers on an unlicensed San Diego backyard bar run by Abby (Parks and Recreation's Natalie Morales) where locals congregate to find camaraderie and sanctuary. But at Abby's, patrons must abide by a specific set of rules: No cell phones are allowed. Earning a seat at the bar takes time to rise through the hierarchy (we're talking more than three to six months). And losing a challenge may have unpleasant, unpalatable drink-related repercussions.
"Excuse me, where can I find Abby?" new guy Bill (Nelson Franklin) asks Abby's friends as he makes his way to the bar in ET's exclusive clip from the series premiere.
"You don't just waltz in here and ask for Abby," Fred (Neil Flynn) says, unimpressed by the this guy's entrance. "Drinking here is a coveted honor. You have to work your way up the ladder."
"There's a vetting process for new people. First three weeks, you're on the back benches. You keep your voice down and you drink what Abby tells you," Beth (Jessica Chaffin) says, laying out the unspoken rules to Abby's makeshift bar.
But Fred isn't just a patron looking for a new neighborhood hangout and when he attempts to explain why he's really there (he's Abby's new landlord who unexpectedly inherited the house from his late aunt), he's immediately cut off with more rules on how to earn his way into Abby's good graces.
"And after three weeks, if you're chill, you move on to the random chair section," James (Leonard Ouzts) says, before Beth weighs in with the capper: "You stick it out at the chairs for three to six months, you're a full-fledged member, you can sit at the bar. Once you're in, you're family. You'll never drink alone again."
Created by Josh Malmuth and executive produced by Michael Schur, Abby's is setting a few historic TV milestones when it launches next week. Not only is it the first multicamera comedy to be filmed largely outside, the 10-episode series stars Morales, the first Cuban woman to lead a broadcast TV show ever and whose character is the first female openly bisexual character on a sitcom.
"I think anybody's sexuality or how they relate [to it] is just one of the many, many things in your life. I'm sure at some moments in your life, it can be a bigger deal than others, but she's also a veteran. She's also Cuban. She's also a million other things," Morales, who revealed in 2017 that she identified as queer, told ET. "I like the idea that one thing alone didn't define her, no matter what that thing is."
"I think Josh always wanted that to happen and we were trying to figure [it out]," she said of Abby's bisexuality. "He was so collaborative and amazing with me and with everybody else trying to figure out the best way to do that, and I think they really did a good job. It's just a thing everybody knows about her and a thing that will come up, and you'll see, we don't make a big deal about it because it's normal. And it should be."
Abby's premieres Thursday, March 28 at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
RELATED CONTENT:
