Who didn’t laugh with the Modern Family’s gags and didn’t fall in love with its witty characters throughout eleven seasons of the most popular ABC comedy series in the last two decades? “Modern Family” is an American mockumentary family sitcom television series created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan that ran from 23 September 2009, to 8 April 2020.
The pseudo-documentary style in which the actors spoke to the camera as if they were being interviewed, the talented and well-connected cast, combined with the original idea and a sharp and fresh script made this series a hit. The plot proposed to highlight all of the postmodernist ways of raising a family: straight, gay and multiethnic. So this three different but related families face trials and tribulations in their own uniquely comedic ways. As the series tagline says: “One big (straight, gay, multi-cultural, traditional) happy family”.
The series depicts the story of Jay Pritchett, an elderly businessman who lives in suburban Los Angeles, married to Gloria, a beautiful, passionate, much younger, and Colombian immigrant who gave birth to his young son Fulgencio Joseph “Joe” Pritchett. She is also Manuel “Manny” Delgado’s mother, son from her previous marriage. Manny is portrayed as very mature and intuitive for his age and is often shown doing adult-like things, such as having deep emotional conversations with adults.
Jay is the father of Mitchell and Claire, born of his first marriage with Dede Pritchett. Claire is a housewife who decides to return to the market after years of raising her children. She is married to a state agent and “cool daddy” Phil and they have three kids: Haley, a stereotypical teenager, Alex, the smart and nerdy, and Luke, the offbeat only boy. Attorney Mitchell is timid but smart, he is closer to his mother Dede, as opposed to the fiery Claire who is closer to their father Jay. He is married to Cam, a flamboyant farmer man, with whom he has a daughter named Lily, a girl of Vietnamese origin who was adopted. At the series finale, they adopt another child, a baby boy named Rexford.
“Modern Family” conquered numerous awards, including 14 Emmy nominations in the year 2012 alone, and became one of the most loved series between the late 2000s and 2010s. The series’ longevity is the result of impeccable teamwork among the departments(scripting, directing, production, edition, sound, art, wardrobe, casting, etc).
All actors have been spotlighted over the 11 years that the series has been on TV. My favourite characters are Claire (Julie Bowen), Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and of course Gloria Delgado Pritchett (Sofía Vergara). These three actors catalysed the viewer’s attention for them. How can we forget Claire’s paranoia and competition mania? Cam’s exaggerated and bubbly personality behaving like a drama queen all the time? Also, Gloria’s culture clash funny moments, especially when she mispronounced any English word?
“Modern Family” was acclaimed by critics throughout its first few seasons. Its critical reception became more mixed as it progressed, but it maintained a loyal fan base throughout its 11 series and continued very popular. The two final seasons received positive responses, and the finale episode had 7.37 million first-run viewers. The retrospective documentary that aired before the final episode had 6.72 million first-run viewers.
The show won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in each of its first five years and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series four times, twice each for Eric Stonestreet and Ty Burrell, as well as the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series twice for Julie Bowen. It won a total of 22 Emmy awards from 75 nominations. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 2011. Being on-air for 11 years, it is ABC’s longest-running comedy series.
Gloria Best Moments
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