'Modern Family' cast on long run: 'People connected in a that's-really-what-it's-like way'
LOS ANGELES – Whose place is this? It sure doesn't look like a "Modern Family" home.
After 11 seasons of getting comfortable in each of the three Dunphy and Pritchett homes, it's a little jarring to find oneself visiting the new digs of Mitchell and Cam as the award-winning ABC sitcom shoots its one-hour series finale (Wednesday, 9 EDT/PDT, preceded by a retrospective, 8 EDT/PDT).
It symbolizes more change to come in the finale for this extended family, as the top-notch series and its memorable characters say goodbye after 250 episodes, big ratings and 22 Emmys, including five in a row for best comedy series. ("Family" finished filming in February before the coronavirus shutdown, but post-production work had to be done remotely.)
When familiar faces fill in the strange living room – Phil (Ty Burrell) with a signature misinterpretation, as wife Claire (Julie Bowen) looks askance; Cam (Eric Stonestreet) having a minor meltdown as husband Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) stifles his true feelings – we're home with "Family" again.
And that's less than half the cast that makes up three very different but related families, including an older patriarch, Jay (Ed O'Neill) and his much younger Colombian wife, Gloria (Sofia Vergara), and the clan's ever-growing number of children and grandchildren.
Beyond sharp wit, character quirks, farcical misdirections and documentary-style confessionals, leavened by moments of sweet emotion, "Family" likely has enjoyed success for so long because viewers can relate the characters and stories to their own lives, Bowen says.
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"The people that come up to me are usually white, suburbanite women in running pants at the grocery store who say, 'You are me!' And they mean Claire," she says. "I think people connected with (the characters) in just a more everyday, that's-really-what-it's-like way."
Steven Levitan, who's directing the episode from a monitor in the kids' bedroom of the rented house, says he and fellow co-creator Christopher Lloyd designed a show reflecting the changing makeup of families and the relationships they enjoyed on successful shows one or both had worked on: adult siblings in "Frasier" and "Wings" or an older father in "Frasier" and "Just Shoot Me."
"Once we came up with this notion of how families have changed, that brought us right to a gay (couple). … And I was interested in telling a story that felt like my family, the way lives are changing with technology and social media," he says. "We got very lucky in casting some excellent actors and we were fortunate to bring on a lot of very senior writers" after the 2008 writers strike.
O'Neill, in turn, praises the writers and says "Family" arrived at the right moment. "Like every hit show, I always think it has to be the timing, what the country wants to see at a certain time."
There was some kind of chemical bond between the actors and writers, as characters drew laughs for recognizable traits – Jay's impatience, Gloria's boldness, Phil's physical recklessness – as much as for the jokes.
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"I have stumbled more in public since the show started than I ever have in my life, for some reason," says Burrell, who talks as he walks the half-block from the location home to his trailer on the Fox lot – without injuring himself. "And I swear, people see me falling and they laugh because they think of me as the character. And I'm like, 'No, I really hurt my knees. That hurt.'"
Distinct personalities set up amusing interpersonal relationships, too, Lloyd says.
At the start, "we built in a lot of potential: Jay, with a troubled relationship with both his kids, as well as this newcomer, Cam; Phil, with a difficult relationship with his father-in-law as well as this strange attraction to the father-in-law's new wife; Mitchell and Claire, there's a competitive angle between them," he says.
If the show has been able to accurately reflect viewers' own family relationships, albeit from a specific, financially comfortable Los Angeles setting, it may also have influenced cultural viewpoints.
"The Mitch and Cam relationship, when (the show) premiered 11 years ago, felt very revolutionary. I don't think it feels revolutionary today and that's a good thing, a sign of how much we've grown. I think this gay couple on a very popular television show (with) the country sort of figuring out how we are going to move forward with LGBTQ rights was a pop culture touchstone for a lot of people," Ferguson says of the couple, who got married and adopted two babies, one at the start of the show's run and another as it's ending.
Vergara, whose accent reflects her Colombian heritage, is similarly proud of Gloria's prominence on TV.
"I don't remember anyone but Ricky Ricardo on national television sounding like me. That people would see (Gloria) every week and that they would love her, it gave me a lot of pride to be that Latin person that was able to break that wall," says Vergara, crediting Lloyd and Levitan with taking a risk when there were fewer Latino characters than there are today.
Families mean change, as kids grow up, graduate and start their own families; adults take different jobs and move into different life stages; and older relatives, sadly, die. Those milestones created a font of stories for "Family" and opportunities for characters to evolve.
"Everybody's character development over the years has been great, but it's really been cool to see the kids grow up," says Rico Rodriguez, who was just 10 when he first played Gloria's son Manny in the series pilot. (Rodriguez, Ariel Winter and Nolan Gould, who play Dunphy siblings Alex and Luke, were born in 1998; Sarah Hyland, who plays elder sister Haley Dunphy, was born in 1990.)
As the TV kids grow, "you see what they've been through, what they can succeed at. That's been fun to portray and to learn for myself. 'OK, don't do that,' because if it didn't work for Manny, it probably wouldn't work for me," Rodriguez says.
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As the cast, writers and crew have created a loving and lovable family for TV, they've also formed their own tight bonds. It's apparent when actors interact, even when they disagree.
When asked what they'll miss the most about the "Family" set, Winter and Gould act like actual siblings.
They answer simultaneously. Winter: "The crew." Gould: "Free food."
"Hello!" Gould exclaims.
"Wow! That was different," Winter adds, assuming the big-sister explainer role. "He means the crew as well, but he does usually say he loves free food. He came to my house and ate waffles that I was about to throw away. He ate them for, like, four days. They were not good anymore. They were soggy. It was awful."
As Winter buys time, Gould reconsiders: "It's amazing, the family we built here. We have a lot of people who have been with us 11 years. We're going to miss seeing them every day."
Viewers won't have to miss seeing the TV "Family," however, in a syndication and streaming environment where past hits remain popular today.
"What would make me happy is if I look back in 10 or 20 years and people are still watching because they love these characters and the experience of sitting down to watch the show, knowing that they're going to laugh, but they also might be moved a little bit," Lloyd says.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Modern Family actors, producers reminisce on ABC sitcom's 11-year run