This week’s “Abbott Elementary” episode is only half the story. “Volunteers” featured the long-awaited crossover with FX’s long-running “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” told from the perspective of the hit ABC sitcom. But you’ll have to wait for the upcoming season of Sunny to know the gang’s opinion.

“Scenes that took place off-screen in our episode take place on-screen in their episode,” teases Patrick Schumacker, the executive producer of “Abbott.” “Someone should get both episodes (as soon as they air) and edit them together. While this isn’t quite the perfect composition, people keep comparing it to “Rashomon.” We are not experiencing different truths, but their episode takes place in essentially the same time frame.”

Schumacker suggests that Hulu should consider pairing both episodes so that audiences can watch them back to back once the “Sunny” version (which has also already been filmed) airs sometime this spring. But now we have a pretty good idea of ​​what the situation will look like in this episode: The “It’s Always Sunny” gang ends up doing community service at Abbott Elementary School – and Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter), who has been to Paddy’s Pub before has visited, recognizes them for the criminals they are.

“We asked ourselves, ‘Who in our cast would ever go to Paddy’s?'” says executive producer Justin Halpern. “Oh, Melissa might stumble into this place sometime. We assume she could.” Garrett Werner, who wrote the episode, adds, “That’s also the neighborhood where she lives, South Philly, and that’s where Paddy’s is. It was the clearest overlap.”

Star/creator/executive producer Quinta Brunson and the “Abbott” writers met with “Sunny” EPs/stars Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day early on to brainstorm ideas for the A-story, and they agreed on it “Sunny” canon, which Charlie (Day) is illiterate.

“As we thought about what the stories would be and what pairings we wanted to see together, we kept coming back to the fact that Charlie can’t read,” says Halpern. “A good Abbott episode generally has some emotional foundation to the story and a character reaches a satisfying, emotional moment near the end. And so we felt that Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) teaching him to read could become a really meaningful moment and still hold up.”

And then, for a second storyline, the writers realized that both Janine (Brunson) in “Abbott” and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) in “Sunny” attended the University of Pennsylvania — and that this unlikely duo could potentially become closer in the process.

“Janine is the only teacher at Abbott who wants to give these people the benefit of the doubt, at least at the top,” Schumacker said. “Because the way they come into the fold is by the gang doing community service. So you have to volunteer at Abbott to virtually avoid jail time. As soon as everyone puts two and two together that they are criminals, they all think: We have to get them out of here. But then Janine connected with Dee because of their shared alma mater, and that kind of blinds her, a fellow Penn student.”

It was difficult at first to find a way to merge the voice of two different types of comedy and mix those tones, Werner said. But the mockumentary nature of “Abbott” helped split the difference.

“The gang are terrible sociopaths, but they are still aware of how they are perceived,” he says. “Just the fact that they have to interact with cameras and be documented kind of puts them back where they could sometimes go – because there’s filmed evidence of what they’re doing. So that helped bring them down. And just because there are four sociopaths in this school, the tone of our characters becomes a little more relaxed, just to be able to interact with them better. Actually, it felt kind of natural.”

It’s unclear how many “Abbott” fans are “Sunny” viewers and vice versa – although producers note that there aren’t many comedies on television, so there’s a good chance fans of laughter will see both. Still, they made sure the episode made sense even if you didn’t know Charlie, Dee, Mac (McElhenney), Frank (Danny DeVito), or Dennis (Glenn Howerton).

“We wanted to treat them as if they were typical guest stars on the show,” says Schumacker. “I don’t think we’re overstating it at all. There are a few little inside jokes, but they are quite few. We wanted to treat it this way: If you’re just a fan of “Abbott” and don’t know who these people are, you can appreciate it. And hopefully it works on the other side too. And in the episode of ‘Sunny,’ I think that will be the case.”

Werner watched several famous TV crossovers to prepare for this one, and he was clear that he wanted this one to be successful.

“Growing up watching TV in the ’90s, all of these crossovers were always focused on cameo appearances, as if the characters weren’t a major part of the story,” says Halpern. “We didn’t want to just do the ‘Oh my God, Urkel showed up on ‘Full House!’ We wanted to do something really ambitious that would tie these two episodes together. If you were someone who watched both episodes, you would have a viewing experience that I know you wouldn’t have with any other crossover.”

Meanwhile, “Abbott” writers also faced the challenge of not knowing which “Sunny” stars other than McElhenney and Day would be available for the episode. Olson was busy working on “High Potential” while Howerton was filming “Sirens” for Netflix. And the availability of DeVito was not initially clear.

“Rob says you have Danny, and then our casting people would say, ‘Danny isn’t returning our calls and we don’t know where he is,'” Halpern says. (Which was confusing since “Abbott” and “Sunny” have the same casting teams.)

Werner added: “We didn’t know that Dennis would be in the series until the day I started writing the script. So it was kind of like, let’s find a way to explain why he’s in there for such a short time. It was simply the fun and enthusiasm of everyone involved that kept us going, no matter when a little logistical challenge arose. Everyone’s attitude was, ‘Well, we’ll figure it out.'”

“Abbott” executive producer and director Randall Einhorn also served as a bridge between the two series, as he also directed “Sunny.” “Randall was like that middle ground in building trust between both sides, where Randall could vouch for each other for us and for them to vouch for each other,” Werner says. “I think it was just an immediate comfort that he was able to do something that we couldn’t have done with any other director on the planet.”

Among the episode’s Easter eggs, Werner notes that each episode of “Sunny” begins with a title card indicating the day and time. So with “Abbott,” “we don’t have title cards, but after the cold opening, in the very first line, someone says the day and time, a nod to ‘Sunny.'” There are other little allusions like them. It’s just a lot of fun to find out the whole story of “Sunny” and then figure out what the story of us is. So Janine and Dee both have big feet. It’s like a very strange little thing because they can adapt to it and cater to both audiences.”

And in addition to his inability to read, Charlie’s affinity for bird law in “Sunny” also comes into play in “Abbott.” That’s partly because the Abbott team wanted this episode to continue to play an important role in the ongoing storyline of season four: the legal showdown over the relocation of a golf course to the Abbott neighborhood.

“This episode is as important in terms of seasonal mythology as any other episode this season,” says Schumacker. “In Season 4 we have the specter of this golf course and gentrification in the neighborhood. There’s the illegal deal Ava made with the golf course lawyer who gives Abbott payola, basically hush money. All of that comes into play in this crossover episode, and the “Sunny” gang influences that relationship as well. This episode does not exist in a vacuum. It’s actually a reward for ‘Abbott’ fans who plan to watch the entire season.”

This episode even features what the writers say is the most elaborate special effect “Abbott Elementary” has ever done: the school’s scoreboard falling off the gym wall in the cold outdoors.

“It has nothing to do with the ‘Sunny’ people at all, it was just another big thing we did for this episode,” says Werner. “We left out the scoreboard before but it was off camera and just the sound effect. But this one we actually manipulated. There were all these tests where the scoreboard fell. It could happen in all these different ways. Randall and I were just like, “What’s the fastest, funniest way to make it fall?” So we did it in one take. It was really incredible.”

Halpern jokes: “We’re a completely normal ‘avatar’ here.”

Next, it’s still unclear when the “Sunny” side of this crossover will air, and producers are hesitant to give any hints about what might happen in their version of the story.

“I don’t want to spoil any of it because it’s really about their story, but I have to say that what they’ve done is really ambitious,” says Halpern. “If you’re a fan of ‘Abbott,’ you’ll definitely want to watch her episode.”