Positive trend – season’s top comedies

December 14, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Modern Family News 

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’?

December 13, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Modern Family News 

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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Eric Stonestreet draws inspiration for Cameron from his mum

November 16, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Actors 

Modern Family’s Eric Stonestreet draws inspiration for his camp character Cameron Tucker from an unusual source – his mum.
“I sort of grounded the character in my mum – she loves it, loves every square inch of it!” Eric laughed, speaking during a break from filming the mockumentary-style comedy in Hollywood.
“Playing other characters, people would always say I reminded them of my brother or my dad or whatever so it was a real treat to be able to say ‘not only did I get the part, but mum I based the character a little bit on you’ and she was like ‘oh my god!’”

Read the fill interview with Eric on The Press Association.
Eric Stonestreet

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Critics will always be critics

November 5, 2009 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: reviews 

It seems that yesterday a few critics were on Twitter jawing about which they considered the best comedies on right now. Modern Family came up, and while there was general agreement that the show is hilarious and clever and warm, James Poniewozik added that he hoped that its warmth didn’t get expressed, in every episode, as “[Ed] “O’Neill says something gruffly sweet in last 30 secs.”

Here is what he says about the ending monologues:
I’d like to see the show change up from those here’s-what-we-all-learned homilies, for a couple reasons:
* First, and most obvious, a show is just better if I can’t predict its ending the afternoon before it airs.
* It undercuts the documentary format. There’s nothing inherently wrong with ending an episode with a longer speech from one of the characters’ “confessional” interviews in a mockumentary show. But the Jay we hear in a speech like last night’s isn’t entirely the Jay we see in action or hear interviewed on camera in the rest of the episode: he’s more reflective, self-aware and empathetic. Though the speeches end on a tension-breaking joke—like last night’s Guilt fades, but hardware lasts forever—it verges on breaking character.
* Finally, it’s just not always necessary. Modern Family has heart and sentiment to spare, and it doesn’t need to oversell it to get us to like it. If you took the monologue out, the montage it ran over would have been just as affecting, and actually maybe more.

What do you think?

Read more at the: Time.

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