SPECIAL COMMENTARY: Modern Family - A Complicated History

When I started this blog in Fall 2010, I was recently graduated from college. I wasn't watching as many current shows as I do now but made a plan to watch more and start reviewing them on this blog. One reason I was excited about doing that was because several shows I liked had premiered in 2009-10, chief among them Modern Family.

When Modern Family premiered in September 2009, ABC's comedy department was in shambles. Sure, they had successful dramas like Lost and Grey's Anatomy but they had nothing to speak of in the comedy department. The past couple years had seen tired sitcoms like According to Jim, niche ones like Better Off Ted and The Knights of Prosperity and dumb ones like Cavemen and Carpoolers. ABC knew things needed to be different and they bravely launched a lineup of all new comedies on Wednesday night. The other shows were star vehicles for Kelsey Grammar, Patricia Heaton and Courteney Cox as they returned to TV with Hank, The Middle and Cougar Town.

And then there was Modern Family. ABC loved the show so much that it gave it the 9pm anchor slot and showed the entire pilot at its Upfronts presentation that spring. It was a critically acclaimed darling from the start and instantly broke out as a hit with one of the best comedy pilots of all time. The rest is history. Modern Family went on to win five straight Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series and ABC became the home of family comedies, a title it still holds over a decade later with shows that have shown all kinds of TV families, just as Modern did. Early on, Modern Family could do no wrong in my eyes. The adult characters were so fresh and funny, the kids were adorably charming, the situations were extremely clever and the jokes were aplenty. When I started this blog, I probably would have said it was my favorite current show on TV.

I probably started to turn on Modern Family sooner than a lot of critics did because I didn't think its last couple Emmy wins were warranted. It is probably the strongest example of me watching a show simply to see it through. I haven't really enjoyed the show in about seven years. Sure, it still has its moments but those moments have gotten fewer and further between with each passing year (until this current final season, which I think is a step up from recent seasons but nowhere near its peak). The child stars except for Sarah Hyland have turned into bad actors and the great adult cast has gotten tired and settled into caricatures. The plots that once felt so clever started to feel awfully contrived. I don't know that the writing really got that much worse as much as it just never evolved. Its early companion, The Middle, ended up being the much better show in my opinion though that seemed laughable at the beginning.

So tonight, Modern Family says farewell and I'll be watching but with mixed feelings. There's certainly an element of sadness just because these characters have been a part of my life for so long. But it's complicated feelings because of how the show has been for so long now. I can't discount how influential it was and how great it was at its best. But I also can't forget how quickly it became tired. It's without a doubt going to be mentioned as one of the defining network comedies of this era and it deserves that. But it couldn't do what other long, long running network shows like Cheers and Friends could do. It couldn't sustain it for a decade or more, not even close.