Stonestreet to turn on Mayor’s Christmas tree

November 11, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Actors

A star is born – we wish Eric luck with his new responsibility as reported by the kansascity.com:
Piper graduate Eric Stonestreet, the breakout star of the new comedy “Modern Family” on ABC, will flip the switch on the Mayor’s Christmas Tree at Crown Center Nov. 27.
“Modern Family” is the season’s top-rated new sitcom and for the past two weeks has been the highest-rated Wednesday night series on any network.
Recent honorees chosen to light the Mayor’s Christmas tree include former Kansas City Chief Jared Allen, KMBC’s Johnny Rowlands and musical great Oleta Adams.

Tags: ABC, American Broadcasting Company, Christmas, Christmas tree, Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family, Oleta Adams, Situation comedy

The Return of Ed O’Neill in Another Great Dad-on-the-Couch Sitcom

November 4, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Actors

ed-oneill-modern-family

You know him as Al, former high-school football player* turned women’s shoe salesman, one-time scorer of four touchdowns in a single game, and reluctant head of the Bundy household for eleven years on the hit sitcom Married with Children.

After Married ended, O’Neill receded from the pop-culture spotlight, but he kept right on working, popping up in a few notable roles — like the criminally underappreciated John Hughes movieDutch and his cameo as Glen, the crazy guy who works behind the counter at Stan Mikita’s Donuts inWayne’s World. There were a few forgettable roles in there too: remember Dragnet? Me neither.

But this fall, O’Neill has returned to television on the new ABC comedyModern Family, and he’s back to doing what he does best — playing a wiseass and seemingly miserable patriarch. Shot in a mockumentary format similar to The Office, the show follows three generations of the dysfunctional Pritchett family — O’Neill’s Jay and his young Latina wife, Jay’s son and his partner, Jay’s daughter and her husband and a bunch of grandkids. It sounds like every other beleaguered-dad sitcom. But it’s not. It’s goddamn hysterical.