The Modern Day Family

Describe

On Wednesday, October 19th, I sat down and watched ABC's hit show, Modern Family. The series is a fairly new comedy hit that is already in its 3rd season and is a success because of a brilliant cast and crew. Modern Family highlights a "dysfunctional" yet loving, extended American family. There are many main characters within each family. Let's see if I can describe the family tree, without a lot of confusion, sixty something Jay Pritchett married thirty something Gloria Delgado, who has a son from a previous marriage named Manny, Jay Princhett has two existing children from a previous marriage named Mitchell Pritchett and Claire (Pritchett) Dunphy. Claire Dunphy is married to Phil, and they have 3 children, Hailey, Alex and Luke. Then, over to Mitchell whose husband is Cameron Tucker and they have an adoptive child named Lily, who has, in Hollywood style, gone from 1 year old to 4 years old in one season. The video below gives an easier description and explanation of the characters.

So, if you're still with me, the episode I watched was entitled, "Go Bullfrogs!". Because there are three different families that are followed, there are essentially three different plots. The first plot that arises was about Phil Dunphy taking his daughter, Hailey to his college Alma Mater. The second plot was about Jay and Gloria noticing that Gloria's son Manny is growing up quicker than expected. The third plot was following Claire Dunphy trying to get her brother Mitchell and his husband Cameron to go on a "girls night out." Each plot contains its own raw comedy whether it be Phil ditching his daughter to relive his college years, Mitchell and Cameron accidentally taking the wrong Prius from valet or Claire getting a little tipsy before dropping her son off at a sleepover. The show always ends with a heartwarming, family message, this one happened to be accepting limitations in your own way and how it's never too late to grow in life. You can also get a full synopsis of this episode and many others here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1442437/

Now for the advertisements, there were a ton of repeats throughout the show. They played a Ford car commercial more than 3 times, shopping places like K-Mart and Walmart, a kindle ad and kid movie trailers were also very popular. It is only a 30 minute show and didn't run as many advertisements as I thought they would.

Analyze

I absolutely love everything about this sitcom and it's extremely hard to describe such a funny show with a limited amount of words. The characters are portrayed as regular people, which is kind of rare in the television industry. There is obviously a humorous attitude projected by the program.  Mostly Jay and Gloria are depicted as being higher up in society and having more money than the other families. In a perfect world, it would be great for most regular, American families to be upper middle class, but nowadays that's harder to find.

No matter what is being done or said, there is some kind of comedic genius behind the writing of Modern Family. There is a good mix of dry humor and flat out stupid humor, which is just as good as any other kind! The father, Phil Dunphy, is portrayed dumber than his 12 year old son and a dull moment never passes by the antics of the same sex couple Mitchell and Cameron. The producers edit in these small clips that I like to call, "off the record interviews" that also add to the hilarity of the scenes. The filming is kind of erratic (and shaky) at times, going back and forth in between characters, but it adds to the dysfunction and realness of the series. Here are a few videos of my favorite Modern family moments:

The cast and crew of Modern Family must be doing something right because they took home 5 Emmy's at the 2011 Emmy Awards, winning for writing, directing, best supporting actor and actress and also took outstanding comedy for the second year in a row.http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44571396/ns/today-entertainment/t/modern-family-wins-big-emmys/




Modern Family Cast at the 2011 Emmy Awards

 Interpret

I have already mentioned that Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell), portrays the flighty, child like father and husband. Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen), is the strong, yet slightly insane housewife, and the three kids have their own significant personalities as well. Hailey, the oldest, popular and moody teenager is the complete opposite of her younger sister, Alex, the very studious middle child and Luke, the dim witted, accident prone younger brother. The biggest stereotypes I see is probably the way Mitchell and Cameron, the same sex couple are portrayed. Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) is the working business man, whereas Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) stays home and watches their adoptive baby. Cameron is very flamboyantly perceived, he is one that loves dinner parties, singing and dressing up. The other stereotype that is prominently seen is that of Jay, the rich old guy and Gloria, the beautiful Colombian. And if I came from another country and watched an episode of this show, I would probably think the families are a little crazy and weird at times, but they obviously love each other.




Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson
on the cover of Entertainment Weekly.

 



There were a lot of children commercials, along with many family shopping centers or family cars. I think the advertisements were spot on with targeting the families that would be watching the show. The shopping centers weren't expensive places, they were places where families could go to shop like Walmart and K-Mart.



Evaluate

Again, I could rant and rave all I want about this show. I believe the writing is amazing, the humor that comes across is brilliant and they deserve all the success they've been having. I believe it mirrors society in a sense, it mirrors society more accurately than some other current, successful shows. Every time I watch an episode, I swear I'm looking at the interactions between my family. I don't know if it's because I'm such a big fan, but I can't think of anything that I don't really like about the series. There is a good balance between each family and the positive message that comes across after all the family issues get sorted out are, in turn, great advice for the everyday American family.

Engage/ Conclusion

I watch Modern Family religiously every Wednesday at 9PM. And if I can't thank goodness for DVR because I refuse to miss an episode. I don't go on the ABC website and I am a fan of them on Facebook, so I can get updates on the latest stories surrounding the series. But, if you want to watch any episodes online, here's the ABC Modern Family website: http://abc.go.com/shows/modern-family

I learned while doing this in depth evaluation, that there were more stereotypes than I thought there were in this show. I just always went along and thought everything was funny, and it still is, but the stereotypes just stand out a lot more to me now than they did before. Nothing really surprised me other than how much of a crazed fan I sound like sometimes when I'm talking about the show. But, I think Modern Family is one of the more "real" sitcoms out there on TV, they have everyday life problems within the family and it's pretty realistic. What I'm trying to say is that I want everyone to know that if they just turn on their TVs they may see their own modern day family.