Alohahaha! Modern Family Boss Dishes on Tonight’s Hawaii Episode and Why He’ll Never Do a Spinoff

May 12, 2010 by emily · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Crew, Modern Family News

You’ve been credited in the press with saving the TV comedy genre. Does that bring on a certain amount of pressure?
A little pressure. I did another show with my partner a year or two ago, and they said that one was going to save the sitcom. In full dramatic fashion, we decided to knock the sitcom down a peg first before we saved it. I think we pulled that one off somehow.

Are you planning a Modern Family spinoff, or any other series?
No. I wanna focus on Modern Family right now. I feel so fortunate to be on a show that is somehow working in this day and age that I don’t dare want to jinx it by taking my eye off of it for a minute.

Modern Family’s Ty Burrell Doesn’t Think He’s a DILF

May 7, 2010 by emily · 2 Comments
Filed under: Actors

Vanity Fair has an interview with Ty Burrell from Modern Family, here are the hightlights:

Eric Spitznagel: I never got an advance screener of theModern Family Hawaii shows, so if it’s O.K. with you, I’m just gonna assume it follows the same basic plotline of The Brady Bunch Hawaii episode.

Ty Burrell: (Laughs.) Please do. And you’d be entirely correct. It’s a word-for-word reenactment. We’re dressed in full Brady Bunch costumes, and it’s basically a frame-by-frame remake.

So who finds the Tiki idol that causes a curse? Is that your character?

No, no, it’s Jay (played by Ed O’Neill). I don’t think Phil is smart or cunning enough to find any idols.

Are we finally gonna find out what’s up with the smoke monster?

No. (Long pause.) Was that from the Brady Bunch?

Wait, I’m sorry, I’m thinking of Lost.

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I don’t know anything about what’s happening on Lost. I’m really late to the game.

Mike Brady was the ultimate TV dad. How does Phil Dunphy hold up to his legacy?

Ummm. Gosh, I don’t know if I remember Mike Brady well enough to compare the two.

Come on, it’s gotta be somewhere in your muscle memory. How are Phil and Mike Brady similar, and how are they different?

Well… (long pause.) I think Mike Brady probably had more of his wits about him.

He was definitely the most smugly superior of TV patriarchs.

It seemed like Mike Brady was a really in-control, sensible guy. Phil envisions himself as a hipper version of Mike Brady, but he’s probably not even close. He isn’t that sage voice of wisdom that Mike Brady represented to his family. (Long pause.) Am I remembering Mike Brady accurately?

Tags: Arts, Brady Bunch, Ed O'Neill, Lost, Modern Family, Programs, Television, Ty Burrell

“Modern Family” is Wednesday’s No. 1 Scripted TV Show For its 10th Consecutive Week

May 6, 2010 by emily · 2 Comments
Filed under: ratings

“Modern Family” is Wednesday’s No. 1 Scripted TV Show For its 10th Consecutive Original Broadcast in Adults 18-49.

“Modern Family” (9:00-9:30 p.m.)
Opposite “Idol” at 9:00 p.m., ABC’s “Modern Family” built sharply on its lead-in (+2.5 million viewers/+73% in AD18-49) to stand as the No. 1 scripted show in its time slot with Adults 18-49 (3.8/11), defeating originals of CBS’ “Criminal Minds” by 15% (3.3/9) and NBC’s “Mercy” by 245% (1.1/3). In addition, for its 4th straight original telecast, the ABC rookie ran in a virtual tie with “Idol” as the No. 1 program in the half-hour with Men 18-34 (3.1/11 vs. 3.2/11).

“Modern Family” registered as Wednesday’s No. 1 scripted TV show for its 10th consecutive first-run broadcast in young adults.

Source: RBR

Tags: ABC, American Broadcasting Company, Arts, CBS, Criminal Minds, Modern Family, NBC, Television

Actor makes family ‘Modern’

May 6, 2010 by emily · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Actors

: Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Eric Stonestreet, who plays Cameron, the melodramatic half of the gay couple on ABC’s “Modern Family,” isn’t worried about being typecast.

While he was shooting the first episode of “Modern Family” he was also playing a convicted rapist and murderer on “Nip/Tuck.”

“I played Oliver Platt’s legal intern on ‘The West Wing,’ on ‘CSI,’ I was the handwriting documents technician. I’ve killed a bunch of people on TV. People ask if my parents have a problem with me playing a gay man on TV, I say they were more upset with me killing people. They say, ‘Why do they see you as a killer?’ ”

Read the full story on Buffalo News

Tags: American Broadcasting Company, Arts, EricStonestreet, Gay, Modern Family, Oliver Platt, Television, West Wing

Julie Bowen’s ‘Modern Family’ mom knows best

May 5, 2010 by emily · 1 Comment
Filed under: Actors

Actors aren’t usually thrilled when unimaginative journalists ask how they’re like their characters. After all, their job is to slip into different personae.

Julie Bowen, however, cheerfully volunteers how much she is like Claire, her character on ABC’s Wednesday comedy “Modern Family.” Like Claire, she is the mother of three; Bowen has twin 1-year-olds and a 3-year-old, all boys. And like Claire, she’s tightly wound and in charge of, well, everything. In honor of Mother’s Day, Zap2it interviewed Bowen and here are some of the highlights:

Q: How are you like Claire?

A: As I am talking to you, I am wildly multitasking: preparing lunch for the 3-year-old to take to school, and I am cleaning the kitchen. I believe if you are sitting still you are doing something wrong. We both feel if we are not driving the train, it will never leave the station. It is an incredible amount of arrogance on my part thinking that no one could operate without me.

Q: What’s the worst meal you ever served?

A: Oh, my God, really? There are so many, many bad meals to choose from. I am a terrible cook. One night my son just wanted processed turkey, sandwich turkey. I can’t get him to eat anything else; give him luncheon meat and he will eat. And if it’s a birthday party, they eat icing all day and then poop that color.

Tags: ABC, American Broadcasting Company, Comedy, Holidays, Islands, Julie Bowen, Modern Family, Television

Modern Family, “Travels with Scout”: dude, you should label those sticks

May 2, 2010 by emily · 2 Comments
Filed under: reviews

TV Geek Army has a review of “Travels with Scout”. Here are the highlights:
While not an absolute off the handle laughfest, this was one of the most balanced, entertaining, and funny episodes of Modern Family to date. Balanced in the sense that every major cast member got to do something interesting or funny. And to top it all off we had the legendary Fred Willard rejoining the action as Phil’s dad.

More thoughts on “Travels with Scout”:

“Hey, what’s the big sweater at a concert – is that a gay thing?” – Jay

“Our boyfriends totally rock!” – Haley to Mitchell

“This is awkward… Oh, awkward for me.” – Cam, on learning that his position as rock band drummer would not be a permanent one

“I can’t believe he took my dog.” – Claire

“Yes, that’s what the disabled lesbian shaman who blessed Lily’s room said, too.” – Mitchell, upon hearing Cam talk about what a traditional family they are

Tags: American Broadcasting Company, Arts, Comedy, Fred Willard, Modern Family, NBC, Programs, Television

Sarah Hyland, Modern Family, Interview

May 2, 2010 by emily · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Actors

Sarah Hyland stopped by the ClevverTV studios to talk about Modern Family on ABC.

Tags: ABC, Arts, Modern Family, Programs, Radio, Sarah Hyland, Television, United States

Modern Family Series High

April 29, 2010 by emily · Leave a Comment
Filed under: ratings

Modern Family was adjusted up 0.1 ratings points to a series high 4.2 adults 18-49 rating:
- 10.008 million viewers
- 6.0/10 HH
- 4.2/12 A18-49

Source: TV by the Numbers

Tags: Arts, Business and Economy, Cable Television, Modern Family, Programs, Public Access, Reality-Based, Television

Modern Family – One Of The 10 Best Sitcoms on TV Right Now

April 29, 2010 by emily · Leave a Comment
Filed under: reviews

Paste magazine selected the 10 best sitcoms on TV right now , and of course one of them is Modern Family. Here is what Paste had to say about the show:

The funniest debut season of a sitcom in a long while belongs to Modern Family on ABC. The story of three inter-related families works because its characters seem familiar to life but fresh to the screen. Not that the show is above archetypes: There’s the rebellious teen seduced by popularity, the beautiful Colombian second wife, the trying-too-hard-to-be-cool dad, the patriarch who doesn’t like to show affection, the flamboyantly gay boyfriend. But it’s not taken long for TV veterans Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan to let each character’s uniqueness flourish through the myriad relationships within the family.

It’s these relationships that make even a completely messed-up family a valuable thing. No matter how bad things get in this Modern Family, it always beats the alternative of not having each other. They’re flawed individuals, offering only broken bits of love to one another, but that’s more than enough to cling to. As Dylan, the boyfriend of Claire’s oldest daughter so sweetly an wisely said—before breaking into a song about Haley with the lyrics, “I just want to do you, do you” in front of the family—“You’re reaching out, trying to hold on to something awesome… Haley’s got the kind of confidence that you get from having a family like this that’s passionate and accepting of hot foreigners and gay dudes and nutty people—you know, family that actually loves each other.”