So, Modern Family last night: what did you think?
Me, I thought it was one of the tightest-written yet most devilishly-constructed network sitcoms in quite a while. The three-segmented family structure each yielded its own distinct pleasure:
• The “traditional” family with familiar, welcome face Julie Bowen (ah, Ed) married to Ty Burrell’s Phil, who immediately became the best live-action dufus-dad currently on TV. Didn’t I tell you Burrell was good back when he co-starred on the Kelsey Grammer-Patricia Heaton sitcom Back To You two seasons ago?
• Ed O’Neill’s return to sitcoms after some fine work in dramas showed that he’s not afraid to settle into old-fart roles as long as he gets to be a duffer with a hotsy wife and some fine, grumpy punchlines.
• As the gay couple that’s adopted a Vietnamese baby, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet were an impeccable comic duo, delivering their dialogue as though they were riffing and improvising rather than acting their finely-detailed roles. This is an odd couple for a new era.
And by the final scene, Modern Family showed us how this clan can come together and still be distinctively funny, not just a laff riot. O’Neill played his character’s embarrassed self-consciousness about his gay son’s home-life with just the right amount of sweatiness; Burrell demonstrated a knack for slapstick as deft as his deadpan delivery; and… well, I could go on, but I thought this show was, in general, a mighty hoot.
How about you? Did you watch? What did you think of Modern Family?
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I loved it- I laughed outloud throughout the episode. Well done ABC, I’ll definitely be tuning in each week!
So how many of you noticed that Julie Bowen was 8 months pregnant when the pilot was filmed? I didn’t when I saw it in preview and they did a great job of covering for it by her constantly carrying laundry etc.
Even on second viewing within a week, hilarious!
Now just replace the rather desparate Cougartown with Better Off Ted and you have the funniest hour of the week.
I second the suggestion for changing Cougartown- that was awful. What a waste of 30 minutes.
Me too! I LOL’d so much, my son came in and asked WTF? But he got it wrong.
You mean “Why the Face?” Hilarious!
I liked it, my husband didn’t.
Ty Burrell’s “clueless” dad was hilarious.
Oh when Dad (haven’t got their names down yet) finished talking about how dramatic his son’s boyfriend was and the son tried to downplay it…in walks the bf with the baby, the dimmed lights, the robe, the spotlight and The Circle of Life. “Could you tone is down?” “I can’t that’s just who I am!” “I mean the music.” “Oh yeah.” Hilarious!
My favorite line as well!
I haven’t laughed that hard at anything on television for a long time.
Loved it but for one caveat. Stop making the three kids of the “traditional” family quite so smart-alecky. That always makes me nuts in family sitcoms. The kids are always being presented as back-talking brats and the parents are boobs. The only time I can think of when it worked was Roseanne, but Dan and Roseanne gave as good as they got. Other than that one irritant, I loved the show and plan to watch it regularly.
I agree with you 1000%! The precocious, prickly TV kid archetype has really become a cliche. Kids on scripted shows tend to be IMHO both more amusing and three-dimensional — not to mention likable when given more realistic children’s dialogue.
I thought it was trying too much to be The Office in a different setting…
I agree – felt like it was trying too hard. I love the Office. But then Park & Rec came along, and now this. There’s two too many “documentary” style shows now.
Huh?
Don’t ‘huh?’ — it’s a very similar format (no laff track, hand held cameras, faux documentary style). If you think it’s revolutionary, you’re wrong. But it IS hilarious.
I understood GK’s statement. And yea, I agree.
I totally get what you’re saying and I agree, not sure if that’s good or bad yet
I was greatly disappointed. I basically saw a recap of every single preview over the summer in this half hour. It was ok at best. Will give it one more week. Cougartown on the other hand had me laughing out loud! I had rewind several times to hear what I missed due to my howling! Hilarious! Now THAT is a winner!
It’s shot like a documentary, with interviews..like a documentary. That’s the only similarity I found to the Office. So in that reasononing are all documentaries made after 2005 trying too much to look like the office?
Yeah, it was the Ty Burrell dad character. It felt like “What would Michael Scott be like with a wife and kids?” The show would be much more watchable for me if they’d tone that down.
Actually – I think it is more on par with “Arrested Development” than “The Office”. The biggest difference here is that the writing in MF is a bit more obvious than in AR – 7/10 jokes were expected because the dialogue set it up in advance in comparison to AR where punchlines were delivered with only subtle clues in advance. In any event, the pilot was laugh out funny and did not over complicate. This show is definitely in my top 3 new shows of the season!
I did like Modern Family, but I actually only laughed out loud a few times (specifically, the plastic beebee sequence, which was absolutely hilarious; also, the scene where Lily is first revealed was funny, too). I actually thought Cougar Town had more funny moments.
I agree with you. MF drew only a couple laughs, and I thought it would be “LOL” funnier, considering the previews. The BB’s were a hoot, and I also laughed at the prounciation of the word “Phil” by the Latino wife. Even though I’d seen that in the previews, I did “LOL”!
I’m with you on COUGAR TOWN. I don’t really like sitcoms. Comedy is so personal and subjective. I would never, ever have thought I’d have laughed at this show. But Courtney Cox was truly hilarious. Prefered it to MF.
I actually liked “Cougar Town” better too, and that surprised me, the actor that played Courtney Cox’s son had great comic timing, don’t get me wrong I liked “Modern Family” mostly for Ty Burrell, when he shot his Daughter’s Boyfriend, was the high point for me!, but I laughed more in “Cougar Town”
“Let me see the little pot sticker” and “Lilly? Won’t that be hard for her to say?” were two of the funniest (albeit racist) lines. Clearly some great writing. However, pilots always make me nervous. Think about it…the writers/creator put all of their creative energies into this one episode so it would get picked up. Can the show hold up over a season? If Arrested Development was any indication, I sure think it can (and I hope it does).
I have to admit that I laughed out loud at those lines. To date, this is the only new sitcom I will be recommending to my friends. There are shades of Arrested Development, which probably means it will get cancelled early (unjustly so).
“Let me see the little pot sticker” So wrong and yet so right. I think this show has the perfect blend of what critics love and what the general public relate too. Here’s hoping that helps it stick around.
Please enlighten me on why the hell is this funny, if it is racist – because it’s reflective and taunts racism itself, or because putting down Asians compensates for the fact that they’re taking all your good jobs?
um… what wendy? where the h*** did that come from? did you watch the show? because if you didn’t don’t comment on it. If you did and you didn’t find it funny, but offensive, then get a sense of humour. all the shows incorporate ‘racist’ jokes for the CHARACTERS. Its not like a politician is using these phrases
No Katie, I decided to com to a website about Modern Family and comment on it, just for kicks. *eyeroll*
Of COURSE I watched the show. Are you Asian? Because if you were, you would know that no sense of humour is enough to make such a racist joke amusing. It doesn’t matter whose mouth it came out of, because the consequence was that people found it funny for racially hurtful reasons – i.e. it wasn’t “haha, that white guy is horribly racist” funny. It was “haha, Asians are so lame” funny.
Wendy, I am sorry that you were offended. If I had viewed the jokes as saying that “Asians are so lame”, as you put it – I too would have been offended – and I would not have laughed or found it at all funny. Wendy, did you laugh at how dramatic the gay guy was when he brought out the baby and held her up to a spotlight with the Circle of Life song playing? That joke makes fun of the fact that SOME (not all, not even most) gay men can be overly-dramatic.
I laughed because the old white guy is stupid. If you substitute other nationalities/races, the jokes are just as funny. That would not be the case if the jokes were about Asians. The jokes were about how stupid and out-of-touch the old white guy is. If they had the adopted baby be from Poland, they would have had Grandpa say “Let me have a look at the little pierogi”. It still would have been funny because it shows the old white dude is ignorant. When a baby is swaddled it does resemble any type of wrapped-up food – cannoli, burrito, enchilada, kolacky, etc. Plus the humor is in the irony that the guy’s wife is Columbian so he should be more enlightened and politically correct. As for the joke won’t it be hard for her to say “Lily” – I cringed and then a few seconds later it hit me that the reason it’s funny is that he is such an idiot that he assumes a baby adopted from a foreign country will have an accent when she learns to speak. THAT made me laugh. That would be like Grandpa thinking that if the baby came from Austria she would sound like Schwarzennegger when she talks. If she was adopted from Russia, this idiot would think she would grow up to sound like Boris & Natasha on the old Bullwinkle Moose cartoons. They are showing what an idiot Grandpa is. I’m Caucasion – maybe I should be offended that they are implying that all white people are racist & stupid. But I know they are only making fun of the Grandpa character & those like him.
I have tremendous respect & admiration for Asians. Respecting one’s elders and valuing education and other positive qualities are associated with Asians. If the joke had been ABOUT Asians rather than about the dumb old white guy, then I wouldn’t have laughed.
I have to say that I found that joke (“won’t that be hard for her to say?”) shockingly racist and not in the least bit funny. It would be appropriate if it were said by a consistently racist character, but the it was said by the dad, who up until then is portrayed simply as goofy and out of touch, not racist. The joke seems to be less about the dad’s racism and more about an asian stereotype.
I didn’t think it was funny when the gay guy came out with the baby to Lion King music either.
The “Lilly” line killed me.
me too – I cracked up
That was the loudest LOL I have done in a long time!
LOL because white people can’t tell the difference between Japanese people and Vietnamese people! Because they’re ignorant as fuck, LMAO!!!
As a general rule, I really dislike most sitcoms, but lines like both of these above make this one a laugh out loud riot. Plus, the guy bringing out the baby to “Cirlce of Life” was great stuff.
I didn’t like it. I found the gay couple too stereotypical and in general just not funny.
Oh, Ben. You’re so wrong. Loosen up — I’m gay, and they’re like EVERY gay couple I know.
EVERY gay couple you know, Erv? Methinks you doth need a wider circle of friends. I was also uncomfortable with the asexual Laurel & Hardy depiction of the gay couple. Perhaps it’s because broadcast television seems to only incorporate gays & lesbians as eunuchs and clowns. That’s not to say they are not recognizable types, only that I fear America will be laughing at them, not with them.
Asexual? Tyler, didn’t you notice that none of the couples were sexual? Not even the teenage one in their bedroom? Don’t jump on that “they’ll show the gays just not them kissing” bandwagon too soon. Let it play out.
I’m gay too and I didn’t find the gay couple offensive at all. Me and my boyfriend have said some of the same things to each other! Loved the show!
Don’t watch this show while eating!!! I’m just watching it online now (thanks EW for the preview e-mail) and just about choked on my cereal (“Lily? Won’t she have trouble saying that?”)
Brilliant comedy show!
Oh man this was a really funny show. Now I see what the raving was all about. I think what works for it so well is that the comedy catches you off guard and at a good pace. You don’t expect it like you do in a lot of other shows.
They are trying too hard to make the “traditional” family wacky.
It was trying way too hard at first, and the situations were absurd like the scheduling of the kid’s punishment on the calendar. The last scene with the baby was funny. Other than that I cringed. Cougar Town was way funnier. It was excellent in fact. Like Curb You Enthusiasm in a lot of ways.
Except for the fact that Cougar Town isn’t funny…at all. Only reason to watch it is because Courtney Cox looks amazing in her underwear.
That’s interesting, b/c I found the opposite to be true: Cougar Town felt like it tried to hard. The entire episode was at a level 9, as if it were screaming at you, “THIS IS FUNNY! THIS IS REALLY FUNNY!” Although I liked moments of it–the teenage son seemed funny and charismatic. Maybe b/c he played the character in a range instead of constantly staying at that level 9!
I loved it. I loved it almost enough to become one of those crazy posters who tells posters who didn’t that they’re “haters”. Luckily, I’m above that.
Were the gay couple stereotypical? Sure. But not offensively so (IMHO). And it’s not like I haven’t known people exactly like that.
I do wonder if it will have legs long-term, but for now I am hooked.
It was hilarious. We almost fell off the couch laughing. Definitely the best new comedy and must watch TV.
Off to a good start, now all you need is the ex wife
I read in EW that the ex wife is Shelly Long (Cheers Diane) should be good stuff!