Fellow TV obsessives: We finally have a worthy successor to “The Office” in ABC’s “Abbott Elementary.” Created by Quinta Brunson, who also stars alongside a terrific ensemble that includes the great Sheryl Lee Ralph, the show centers on an eclectic group of teachers working at an under-resourced elementary school. Loosely inspired by the 40-year career of Brunson’s mother, who worked in the Philadelphia public school system, it airs at 9 p.m. Tuesdays (and is available on Hulu if you need to catch up).

Brunson started her comedy training in Chicago at Second City and was most recently a writer and performer on HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show.” Here, she plays a young Philly teacher in her second year on the job. Meaning, she is new enough that she isn’t jaded — yet. When she sees relatively small things that can and should be fixed — flickering lights in the hallway, say — she rolls up her sleeves: “The older teachers are used to giving in,” she tells the camera, “but I, however, am young, sprightly and know where they keep the ladders.”

Her well-intentioned efforts end up short-circuiting the school’s entire electrical system for the day, and the cascading domino effect is as humorous as it is real. Her more seasoned colleagues can only gaze at her with an exhausted-frustrated “I told you so” look in their eyes. “Thank you for trying,” one of them finally says. “Your hyperactive little heart was in the right place.”

Schools — both functional and less so — probably benefit from this kind of young can-do optimism and more seasoned realism mashup, and as a setting for a workplace comedy, it’s pretty ingenious: This is what it looks like when your job feels absurd but also deeply meaningful. There’s nothing wrong with selling stuff, but as “The Office” and “Superstore” later made clear, it can all feel so pointless in the end. “Abbott Elementary” is expert at excavating the small, often petty realities that form any workday — where demoralizing and nonsensical systems are forever thwarting your best efforts — but the show, to its great advantage, is about more than just punching the clock. TV Land’s “Teachers” (also created by Chicago improv alums) ran from 2016 to 2019 and covered similar territory through an affluent white suburban lens, whereas “Abbott Elementary,” which also finds a good deal of humor in the unique personalities within, is set against the backdrop of a perpetually underfunded school system serving Black students. Without being especially hamfisted about it, the show is a hilariously subversive portrait of a profession that’s long been underpaid and taken for granted.

It’s worth contrasting the success of “Abbott Elementary’s” execution with that of another new workplace comedy, NBC’s “American Auto." Created by former “Superstore” showrunner Justin Spitzer (with “Superstore” alum Jon Barinholtz and Ana Gasteyer among the cast), it takes place within the executive offices of a fictitious Detroit automaker. The format is the same single-camera mockumentry style as its predecessors (and as well as “Abbott Elementary”), but there’s nothing about it that lands. I’m not sure a new comedy about in-person white collar busywork feels especially trenchant amid our ongoing COVID-19 reality. Then there’s the running storyline about a young white female executive who sleeps with a Black factory worker, only to then attempt to have him transferred away because his presence makes her uncomfortable. I’m not saying this kind of sexual harassment isn’t realistic; I’m saying it’s not funny. A workplace comedy has to be more than awkward Jim Halpert glances to the camera and outsized office personalities. It also has to find humor in the day-to-day grind in a way that feels recognizably honest.

Which “Abbott Elementary” absolutely does. The fresh-faced newbies are Brunson’s Janine and Chris Perfetti’s dorky Jacob (I appreciate the fact that, despite their relative youth, neither seems particularly tapped into pop culture and Janine is a consistently frumpy dresser). They are forever comparing themselves against their more veteran colleagues: Sheryl Lee Ralph’s Barbara (an elegant and mostly unflappable kindergarten teacher) and Lisa Ann Walter’s Melissa (a tough South Philly broad teaching second grade). There’s also the substitute teacher who appears to be settling in for the long haul, played by Tyler James Williams (best known as the title character in ”Everybody Hates Chris”).

Then there’s the school principal played by Janelle James, who is essentially the show’s Michael Scott character: a fundamentally self-involved and ridiculous person who is somehow in a position of authority. Two things about this: James has found a very funny way to inhabit such a broad and insufferable character type, and “Abbott Elementary” itself has good instincts about just how much time this character warrants in any given episode (erring on the side of less rather than more).

“Abbott Elementary” is primarily a showcase for wildly talented and funny women, and I’m in the bag for any comedy that has the smarts to leverage Ralph’s incredible talents. I was unfamiliar with Walter’s previous work, but she is exceptional here as a street-wise dame who says things like, “I got plenty of classroom supply plugs to keep me stocked up for whatever I need. It’s not my fault you didn’t want into the deal.”

“To be fair,” one of her colleagues chimes in, “none of us said no, we simply had a few questions,” to which she replies without missing a beat: “And I said that’s a few too many questions.”