Positive trend – season’s top comedies
Tim Goodman from the SF Gate choose the best comedies fo the year and #2 is Modern Family:
2. “Modern Family,” ABC. This freshman series had the best comedy pilot since “Arrested Development” and has barely taken a misstep since. Three disparate families – all related – mingle in a minefield of hurt feelings, differing parental philosophies and their own personal quirks. Shot as a mockumentary, “Modern Family” has rocketed toward greatness as quickly as the most revered comedies.
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Why Does the LA Times Hate ‘Modern Family’?
“Modern Family” is one of the most acclaimed half-hour comedies to debut on a broadcast network in quite some time. Plus, actual viewers are watching it, judging by the very solid ratings.
The love for “MF” doesn’t extend to the grumpy folks at the LA Times Calendar section. The grinches at the paper apparently got annoyed at the virtually universal love for the show and decided to knock it down a few pegs in Sunday’s paper.
The Times included “MF” in the “Overrated” section of its weekly “Underrated/Overrated” column, suggesting the Steve Levitan/Christopher Lloyd series just isn’t as good as the classic comedies of the past.
Because, really, if you’re not as good as “All in the Family” or “Seinfeld,” really, why even bother?
Here’s what the paper said, in full:
Having been raised on classic sitcoms, we’re always curious when a show earns talk for upholding the tradition. But this ABC newcomer still needs improvement. As much as we love seeing Ed O’Neill at his cranky best as the show’s patriarch, many jokes for his young Latin spouse and his daughter’s clueless husband feel tired. And can we give the faux-documentary style a rest, please?
Read the full story at The Wrap.
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ABC Gets its Mid-Season Report Card
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ABC get a B+ from The TV Addict:
The Good: ABC took a fairly substantial leap of faith with their brand-new Wednesday night comedy block, and as luck would have it, the leap paid off. What could have been an epic disaster of HANK-esque proportions single-handedly transformed ABC’s once troubled Wednesday night into a ratings force to be reckoned with thanks to the success of freshman newcomers THE MIDDLE, MODERN FAMILY and COUGAR TOWN.
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Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson on the Upcoming Story Line That Moved Him to Tears
Jesse Tyler Ferguson almost missed out on Modern Family, ABC’s breakout mockumentary that is already being heralded by the Hollywood Reporter as one of the best series of the decade. Recovering from his experience on the critically savaged and quickly canceled Do Not Disturb, Ferguson told his managers that he was finished with television and moved to New York last year to headline the Broadway musical based on Elf. Fortunately for Ferguson, his managers soft-sold him Modern Family, which the actor read five times over and fell in love with. Now, Ferguson can be seen on Wednesday nights as Mitchell Pritchett, the hilariously straight-laced former figure skater who has since settled down with his flamboyant partner — the hilarious Eric Stonestreet — and their adopted Vietnamese daughter.
Movieline has an interview with Jesse, and here are some of the Q&A:
I heard that you also initially auditioned for the role of Cameron. How far were you in the audition process before realizing you were a better fit for Mitchell?
It was literally the first audition, and I had been desperate to play Mitchell. I feel like I had probably played Cameron before and it didn’t seem terribly challenging for me. I just felt it was more of a challenge to find the humor in his seriousness and his uptightness. And then the first audition with Chris and Steve, they said, “Oh you’d make a great Mitchell too. Why don’t you come back in and audition for that part?” And I said, “Well that’s what I’ve been telling people for weeks and no one has been listening!”
There is a lot of tension between certain characters on the show, especially between Julie Bowen’s and Sofia Vergara’s characters, that has extended into certain press interviews with the actresses. Is that tension real, are people afraid of them on set?
It’s completely not. We all have this amazing, kind of unruly sense of humor. Sofia and Julie have this hilarious dynamic between the two of them. They go out to dinner and they are very good friends but they make fun of each other all the time. When that whole thing happened with theChelsea Lately show, it was funny, because that is just how the two would be interacting to each other’s face. But people with too much time on their hands in front of their computers suddenly created this controversy between the two of them [Ed. note: Those people are so pathetic!], but they were laughing about it together. So there’s no tension between the two of them.
Can you tell us anything about the rest of the season — any big surprises or dance numbers?
[Laughs] Yeah, we adopt another baby. Just kidding. Can you imagine? There’s this great episode that actually really hit close to the heart for me. We deal with my dad’s uncomfortability with my character’s sexuality. Ed O’Neill’s character ends up introducing Cameron to his friends as “a friend of my son, Mitchell’s.” And I get really upset about it, naturally and say, “You would never introduce Phil as a friend of Claire’s.” It kind of opens up this can of worms between him and me and how much support he really offers me. It ends up being very moving and very touching. Obviously, through the eyes of Chris Lloyd and Steve Levitan and the writer of that episode, it is handled with such care and humor. It actually made me tear up when I read it. Especially in this era of marriage equality, it gave a simple, clear voice to a father and his son. And by the end of the episode, I think it might take a step towards changing a lot of people’s minds on marriage and equality and how they view people that are different from them.
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Sneak Peeks – Modern Family Episode 10 (1.10) “Undeck the Halls”
CHRISTMAS CHEER IS A LITTLE MIXED AS EACH HOUSEHOLD GETS READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS, ON ABC’S “MODERN FAMILY”
Guest starring Fred Willard (“Best in Show,” “Waiting for Guffman”) as Phil’s dad.
“Undeck the Halls” – Christmas is in full swing at the Dunphy house until the kids get in some trouble and Phil and Claire threaten to take away Christmas until one of them fesses up. Meanwhile, Jay struggles with wanting to stick to his holiday traditions while Gloria and Manny want to incorporate some of their Colombian practices, and Mitchell and Cameron take Lily to the mall for her first picture with Santa — but end up with a disgruntled mall Santa on their hands — on “Modern Family,” WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9 (9:00-9:30 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network.
“Modern Family” stars Ed O’Neill as Jay Pritchett, Julie Bowen as Claire Dunphy, Ty Burrell as Phil Dunphy, Sofía Vergara as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell Pritchett, Eric Stonestreet as Cameron, Sarah Hyland as Haley Dunphy, Nolan Gould as Luke Dunphy, Ariel Winter as Alex Dunphy and Rico Rodriguez as Manny Delgado.
Guest cast include Fred Willard as Phil’s dad, Brian T. Finney as Scott and Jeremy Scott Johnson as Andrew.
Read more: 3 Sneak Peeks – Modern Family 1.10 “Undeck the Halls” « TVOvermind
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Q&A – ED O’NEILL from “Modern Family”
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Ed O’Neill was a hardworking 41-year-old character actor when, in 1987, he was cast as Al Bundy on the Fox TV series Married . . .With Children. The raunchy but hilarious show, featuring the most dysfunctional family on television, lasted 11 seasons and made O’Neill a star. Since then, the likable actor has had a busy TV career, popping up on The West Wing, 8 Simple Rules, John From Cincinnati and as detective Joe Friday in a 2003 remake of Dragnet.
O’Neill, 63, has hit pay dirt again, playing Jay Pritchett, patriarch of the hit ABC series Modern Family. O’Neill was interviewed to dispach.com, here are some of the Q&A:
Q: Modern Family was a hit from the day it made its debut. What attracted you to the project?
A: I liked the fact that 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.
Q: 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 that he’s really trying to be a father to Manny, right?
A: 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.
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Sofia Vergara heats up ABC’s ‘Modern Family’ and makes us laugh
The Times interviewed Vergara at Urth Caffe in Beverly Hills in October, where the Colombian actress proved why she might be on her way to becoming America’s No. 1 funny lady. The following are excerpts from that interview. You can read the rest here.
Fess up. Who’s your friend at ABC? They keep giving you opportunities.
My friend or my friend? (Laughs.) I think [ABC President of Entertainment] Steve McPherson. He always said, “I’m going to look for something for you.” He always believed in me. All of the three shows that I’ve done has been his idea.
How did you meet him?
I met him when he was at Touchstone. I did a pilot with Damon Wayans for ABC. And he was one of the executives. The pilot didn’t go through, but they tested the pilot and I scored pretty high. I don’t know what that means. Then ABC gave me a holding deal until they found something for me. And now it looks like they found it.
Did you have fun at work today?
It’s always funny. Today we were working on the Christmas episode. So today we sang a song.
Do you crack up around Ty Burrell? He’s so funny.
It’s so hard to be straight around him. But you learn because then the hours are too long. That scene we had where I throw the underwear at him, we had to do it so many times because I would throw it on his face and I would just laugh and laugh.
You named your son after Manolo [Steven Bauer] on “Scarface,” right?
I was so obsessed with Steven Bauer. He was so handsome. He was gorgeous. But now my son always says, “Yeah, yeah, you named me after a drug dealer junkie. That’s fantastic, Mom.” I tell him, “It was because he was handsome.” That’s my favorite movie. [She looks down at her plate.] It’s a weird time to be eating this salad. 4 p.m.?
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Behind the Scenes With ‘Modern Family’
ABC News has an article and a video about their visit to “Modern Family” studio. Here are some highlights from the article:
“We are trying to sort of capture slices of life,” Ferguson says. “The writers really write from their own families, and they are incorporating a lot of our stories as well. And they wanted to feel very real. Not farcical. I think they are doing a pretty good job of balancing that real wackiness with that really subtle sweet humor.”
His partner on television, Eric Stonestreet, agress with the assessment and describes himself in real life as “openly straight.”
“People like to laugh. That resonates first. But I think also we are holding up a little bit of a mirror each week for people to take a look at. Because so oftentimes in life we just breeze past [moments] and don’t acknowledge them, we just sweep them under the rug. … On this set we celebrate them. We celebrate the awkwardness. We celebrate the dysfunction,” Stonestreet says.
“I have been told over and over that no one watches TV anymore, and no one watches comedies. But someone is watching,” Bowen says.
“This show is a lot of fun. And rare,” O’Neill says, knowingly. “They don’t come a long like this often. Now we have to keep this up. That is our job. And [it's] stressful. When you come out of the gate like this you have expectations. Can we keep this up? But it is better to come out like this than to come out limping.”
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Modern Family Ratings
With most of its competition in repeats, Fox’s “Glee” hit a season high last night, dominating what’s become one of the most competitive slots on broadcast.
“Glee” averaged a 3.6 adults 18-49 rating, according to Nielsen overnights, its best rating this season and up 13 percent over its season average of 3.2.
The reason for the bump wasn’t hard to gauge. It was the least competitive Wednesday night in months, with ABC’s “Modern Family” and “Cougar Town” and NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” in reruns and CBS preempting usual timeslot winner “Criminal Minds” for a Grammy nominations special.
CBS was first at 8 p.m. with a 3.8 for “Rudolph,” followed by Fox with a 2.3 for “So You Think You Can Dance.” ABC was third with a 1.9 for a “Modern Family” rerun and a new “The Middle” (2.0), NBC fourth with a 1.8 for “Christmas in Rockefeller Center,” Univision fifth with a 1.4 for “El Nombre del Amor” and CW sixth with a 0.4 for a repeat of “Gossip Girl.”
Fox took the lead at 9 p.m. with a 3.6 for “Glee,” while CBS slid to second with a 2.3 for “Grammy Nominations Concert Live!” ABC and NBC tied for third at 2.0, ABC for repeats of “Modern” and “Cougar” and NBC for an “SVU” rerun, with Univision fifth with a 1.7 for “Sortilegio” and CW sixth with a 0.5 for a repeat of “The Vampire Diaries.”
Source: Media life magazine
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First-year show creators, producers hope for Golden Globe nomination
“Modern Family,” “Glee,” “Community” and “The Good Wife” are some of the breakout shows that could get a nod.
It’s no wonder the Golden Globes have a reputation for being more fun than the rather stately affairs that usually bring out Hollywood’s A-list. After all, broadcasting live from the Beverly Hilton on Jan. 17 and keeping the Champagne flowing is bound to loosen things up. But the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.’s biggest night is also known for being ahead of the curve when it comes to honoring first-season TV shows — partly because of being the first TV-related ceremony of the calendar year and partly because of its envelope-pushing attitude.
This season offers a ballroom full of potentials that could strike the fancy of the HFPA’s 83 voting members — among them “Modern Family,” “FlashForward” and “The Good Wife.”
On the comedy side, ABC’s “Modern Family” seems to have put a spring in the steps of critics. Although executive producers Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd are modest about the show’s success, Levitan is happy for the recognition. “One of the reasons that it might be striking a chord is because there’s a sense of optimism,” Levitan says. “We don’t try to dodge emotion.”
Lloyd, who went to many an Emmy ceremony during his years on “Frasier,” says that seeing the show nominated as a whole would be a thrill. “There are lots of individual awards that come and go, and they’re wonderful, but they can have the effect of making people feel just a bit left out. Because [the Globe] recognizes everybody who works on the show, that’s one that you can really rally behind.”
Read the full story at LA Times.
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Going to a wedding?
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