Ed O’Neill is married with a child in ‘Modern Family’
Freelance writer Lewis Beale caught up with the 63-year-old star during a break in series production, you can read the full interview at Newsday, but here are the highlights:
“Modern Family” was a hit from the day it debuted. What was it you liked about the project?
I liked the fact there were no jokes, that it was story-driven. I liked the interconnectedness, yet the separateness of the three families, and I thought there was a lot of room for comedic situations. I liked that it was so ensemble. That’s my theater background.
Your character is an older, successful guy married to Gloria, a Colombian hottie (Sofia Vergara) with a precocious, 10-year-old son, Manny (Rico Rodriguez). One of the things that makes Jay endearing is he’s really trying to be a father to Manny.
The fact he wasn’t the greatest dad the first time around, I think a regret is there. Now that he’s got another chance, even though I think Manny was not part of the bargain originally, now that he’s got him, he’s enjoying it. He’s basically a good guy, anyway.
Given that it’s football season, and the Steelers are defending Super Bowl champs, are you still a Steelers fan?
Of course. I’m born and raised in that area. When I was trying to make that team, what I recall the most was the graciousness of the Rooney family; they treated the players great. I was a rookie [during coach] Chuck Noll’s first year – we beat Detroit in the opener and lost every other game. This should give you a clue. If I couldn’t make that team. . . .
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Modern Family and Screen Actors Guild Awards
Repeat nominees are the rule of thumb at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where the eligibility period is the calendar year—rather than the TV season, as is the case with the Emmys. So, new shows are traditionally given short shrift, as they’ve had only a few months of airtime, compared with the whole 12 of the returning series. But this year may be different, considering breakout shows such as “Modern Family,” “The Good Wife,” and “Nurse Jackie” have emerged as contenders.
“This has been an awfully good fall,” says USA Today’s TV critic Robert Bianco. “And I hope the trend would be that some of the new
work from the summer and fall will be recognized this year.” In addition to Bianco, Back Stage spoke with TV scribes Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly; Chris Beachum, contributor to TheEnvelope.com; and Barry Garron of The Hollywood Reporter to get their picks.
Here is were “Modern Family” has potential for nominations:
Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Ed O’Neill of “Modern Family” (“So different from what he was doing on ‘Married With Children’ “) and Garron cites Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the gay son on “Modern Family”: “He’s the best of equals on that show. They’re all very strong, but if I have to single out one actor who owns his part, it would be him.”
Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Garron goes for Julie Bowen of “Modern Family.” “She ends up reacting to a lot of characters, so she may not be the obvious choice, but she provides the glue that holds a lot of episodes together,” he says.
Ausiello Sofia Vergara of “Modern Family.”
Ensemble in a Comedy Series
Ausiello, Bianco, and Garron hope freshman series “Modern Family” will make the cut. “It’s an incredibly strong ensemble. You look at all the characters and the actors and hope some for recognition coming to them for it,” Bianco says. Ausiello agrees: “The one shakeup will be the addition of ‘Modern Family.’ It’s too funny, too critically acclaimed to get ignored.”
The SAG Awards will air Jan. 23, 2010, on TNT and TBS.
[Source: Backstage]
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TV Ratings: Modern Family, Cougar Town rebound
CBS won the night both with adults 18-49 and overall viewers on the backs of Criminal Minds and CSI: NY.
FOX edged out ABC for second with adults 18-49 and FOX won the night outright with adults 18-34 by a wide margin with its lineup of So You Think You Can Dance and Glee. Glee was the night’s highest-rated program of the night with adults 18-34 and teens.
Modern Family and Cougar Town were both up from the ratings-notched November 4th when Cougar Town hit a series low with adults 18-49 (CMA Awards aired last week) and were the night’s most-watched comedies.
9:00PM:
CBS Criminal Minds 3.7/9 13.47
ABC Modern Family 3.7/10 9.16
FOX Glee 3.2/8 7.29
NBC Law & Order: SVU 2.6/7 8.43
CW America’s Next Top Model (Clip Show) 0.8/2 1.81
[Source: tvbythenumbers]
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‘Modern Family’ Sneak Peek – “Aggressive Clown”
here is a sneak peek to next week’s Modern Family Episode 9:
Modern Family – Great Expectations
We hope you enjoyed last night’s episode 8 of Modern Family; here are some clips for you:
‘Modern Family’ Star Talks Portraying A Gay Dad On TV
Eric Stonestreet has been busy giving interviews. In the one in Fancast Stonestreet shared how he felt about portraying the very special character, how he’d like to rid the world of reality programming, and what he might say to the more conservative audiences who are concerned about seeing gay fathers on TV.
Here are some highlights from the interview:
Do you feel you’re opening people’s minds about gay parenting?
It’s a really cool thing about doing what we do. By Jesse and I playing gay characters on TV – I’m not really looking to change people’s worlds and belief systems, all we want to do is make a comedy that’s funny and true and honest. But if, while doing that we can open people’s minds to the idea that just because two guys are raising a baby, it’s not the end of the world, that’s an awesome opportunity, to help people change their minds.
What do you say to the conservative folks who may have concerns about seeing this on their TV?
I always say to conservative people who are worried about two gay guys raising a baby on TV is they should continue watching people get raped and murdered on other shows. Like on CSI the other day they had a scene where someone took a person’s eyeballs out. I mean, how many ways can a person get murdered?
You have such amazing guest stars coming up.
This week we have Edward Norton (tonight). We have Minnie Driver. When these people are excited to do the show, that’s really cool. I didn’t work with [Ed] specifically, my story has to do with Elizabeth Banks.
What was it like working with her?
She’s hilarious. Her energy level is amazing. It’s easy to see why she’s the star she is. I love everything about her. She plays mine and Mitchell’s good friend.
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Worth sticking with ‘Modern Family’?
Maureen Ryan has her mid-season review of the TV shows, and this is what she has to say about ‘Modern Family’:
“Modern Family,” 7 p.m. Central Wednesday, ABC: This sterling comedy is still the season’s best new show. Sure, not every episode is as gut-busting and perfectly crafted as “Modern Family’s” best outings, but then, very few comedies on the air now can match “Modern Family” at its best. This show unites sharp-eyed observations about family life with characters who still seem believable (and believably flawed, not sitcom-fake). The best part? I can’t pick my favorite character. Some weeks it’s the dorky Phil (Ty Burrell), other weeks, I’m in stitches thanks to guest stars such as Shelley Long (Edward Norton and Fred Willard are among the upcoming guest stars). But it must be said that the delightful Cameron (Eric Stonestreet, pictured at left) steals every single scene he’s in. (My original review of “Modern Family” is here.)
Will I stick with it? Absolutely
Grade: A
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Sofia Vergara on ‘The View’
Sofia Vergara, from ‘Modern Family’, was on ‘The View’ today and got into troubles for inappropriate joke…
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Eric Stonestreet Interviews
Eric has two interviews about “Modern Family” and Cam, the first is on BuzzSugar and the second on LA Times. Here are some highlights of the interviews:
You’ve said before that you base Cameron off of your own mother; what’s your fondest memory of her where you think, “That’s a Cameron moment?”
There’s a single moment in the pilot episode where it was this inspiration. When I walk in and see the mural that’s panted (in Lily’s featuring Mitchell and Cameron as Michaelangelo-esque naked angels with carefully placed drapery). The script said, “Cameron gasps” but all I could hear was my mom. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard my mother say, “Ohhh, my God.” I told my mom you’re gonna be happy to know that I got the part, and that I based it off you and there was that “Ohhh, my God!!” It’s not as much based on her, it’s just an anchor in something that’s familiar. Lots of actors do that with characters. She was the easiest and most forward thing in my mind, her mannerisms and her body language.
Soon we get to see Cameron show his skills as a clown, which I understand taps into your background.
I wanted to be a clown as a kid. That’s very well documented, you’ll even see some old pictures of me. By 5 I was wearing clown shoes and makeup. My birthday is in September, and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey always came to town. I was always fascinated by clowns. When it was explained to me that they were people in makeup, it made perfect sense to me. That’s what I wanted to do.
There has already been an impressive stable of guest stars with Shelley Long, Edward Norton (appearing with Elizabeth Banks in tonight’s episode) and now Minnie Driver. Who’s on your wish list?
If I could pick one person to play Cameron’s mom, my dream would be Kathy Bates. Her as my mom from the farm and being the loving supporting mom would be incredible. I have no idea if TV is on Kathy Bates’ radar. They are so good to get great people. But I hope they keep finding great unknown people. I can sympathize with them. Going out for roles and not getting them in favor of someone more famous. That was me eight months ago.
On whether he expected the show to be so successful: No. I had a very, very good idea that based on the writers’ history and their very extensive careers that we had a really, really good shot at being something great. Anybody that tells you in this business they knew it was going to be this well-received is crazy. Actually, being this well-received makes you a little nervous.
On what’s next for Cameron, Mitchell, and baby Lily: We have an episode coming up where we’re Ferberizing the baby when she won’t go to sleep, and Mitchell is very much committed to letting her cry it out, and Cameron of course can’t for the life of him imagine why you would let a baby cry it out like that, so there’s drama there. It’s what’s great about the show — yeah, they’re a couple of guys raising a baby, but the focus really on that relationship is the challenges of a relationship, the challenges of parenthood, and just trying to find the happy medium of keeping up a relationship while raising a kid.
[image source: Getty]
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Fred Willard joins ‘Modern Family’ tree
Another guest star on “Modern Family”: Fred Willard, who played on “Back To You” with Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, will be welcomed to “Modern Family” by “Back To You” executive producers Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd on December 9th.
ABC confirms that the comedic actor has been cast as Phil (Ty Burrell)’s father, though he’ll appear just briefly on a computer screen as he and Phil chat online during the show’s Christmas episode.
[Source: Zap2It]
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Going to a wedding?
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