Post-modern family
In 2023, I went on a sitcom-bingeing spree. I found a sense of comfort in having a show to put on that didn’t require a ton of focus and allowed me to tune in at my own pace. Generally, I define a sitcom in the following terms: entertaining, usually comedy-centric, but with an underlying sense of community or some other such “feel good” tone; a recognizable main cast with strong recurring characters; and, interestingly, a contribution to or a read on the present “real-world” status of (usually) American society and culture. In this series, for each sitcom, I’ll be highlighting a “key episode” I feel encapsulates the spirit of the show, a personal favorite episode, and, lastly, the show’s “key character”—the show’s moral anchor, the character who sheds light on the larger societal implications of the story, and/or the person who joins the rest of the characters together. Bingeing sitcoms hasn’t been empty entertainment; it’s also taught me a lot about character and story.
Something about the approach of the holidays just screams Modern Family to me. Modern Family aired on ABC from 2009-2020, for 11 seasons and 250 episodes. It features a large, interconnected family and focuses on the exploits of three households: the Dunphys, Phil and Claire, and their children, Haley, Alex, and Luke; the Pritchett-Delgados, Jay and Gloria, and their sons, Manny and Joe; and the Pritchett-Tuckers, Mitchell and Cameron, and their daughter, Lily. I’ve found comfort in this show since my high school days, probably because I’m familiar with the antics that accompany being part of a huge, eccentric family with plenty of moving parts and characters. Notably, it joined Glee in being one of the first shows in my memory to feature and normalize queer characters, and I was very drawn to Mitchell and Cameron’s storylines. The show strikes a careful balance between what is traditional and what breaks tradition while emphasizing love, community, and a view towards progress.
Modern Family
Runtime: 2009-2020
Key episode: “Express Christmas”
“Express Christmas” is the 10th episode in season 3 of Modern Family, and largely why I associate the holidays with this show. The entire extended family normally celebrates holidays together, whether it’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas– except for this year, when conflicting holiday plans have the family realizing that they won’t be able to spend Christmas together. Although it’s only December 16th, they make the executive decision to celebrate Christmas that very day and split off into groups in order to finish gathering gifts, decorating, and preparing Christmas dinner. In true Modern Family fashion, nothing ends up being quite that easy.
What strikes me as so important about this episode is that the family is so insistent on spending the holidays together– they recognize that things will be different for Christmas this year, but they still want to dedicate time to one another, and they’ll go to incredible lengths to make the celebration happen. That kind of close-knit interconnectivity pervades the show as a whole, but is perhaps most potent in episodes like this, when the family is willing to expend tremendous effort to be together in what, to them, is an important and time-honored ritual. Claire and Haley bond in this episode over tracking down a Christmas gift for Lily; Phil and Manny do the same for Jay. Whether blood relatives, married in, or adopted, all characters are given equal respect, value, and love– even Jay’s dog, Stella. Though nearly all of their Christmas plans fall through, the family still enjoys their time together, emphasizing that this is what’s most important during the holiday season.
My personal favorite: “The Wedding”
It was always going to come down to a Mitch and Cam episode. I considered “Closet Con ‘13,” wherein Mitch and Lily visit Missouri to meet Cam’s family for the first time. Ultimately, though, it has to be “The Wedding,” which aired in two parts as episodes 23 and 24 of season 5 and follows Mitch and Cam’s incredibly fraught wedding day as disaster after disaster threatens to ruin their celebration. As I mentioned previously, Mitch and Cam were one of the first queer couples I saw on television, and seeing their relationship normalized, even despite issues with more conservative family members like Jay, was extremely important to me. Seeing them be married at the end, despite all the turmoil, was heartwarming and tear-inducing. This episode also features some great recurring characters, like Pepper, Reynaldo, and Jessica, hilarious crowd favorites who contribute to the episodes’ many shenanigans. Again, prioritization of love and happiness over all is a key tenet of many Modern Family narratives, and the fact that this stands for all their characters and not just the straight ones with more traditional family structures is strikingly beautiful.
Key character: Claire Dunphy
This one was quite challenging to determine, as Modern Family features so many great characters– but I think the key character has got to be Claire. One might argue that Jay is the character that unites the multiple moving parts of his family, and he is the patriarch, after all, but I’m given pause remembering his not-so-savory moments; for instance, when he suggests the forest fire that delays Mitch and Cam’s wedding is an act of God. It’s also no secret that, while financially supportive, he was never the best father to both of his children. Claire, on the other hand, tries her best to be a cycle-breaker. Though occasionally a bit too headstrong and harsh, she works hard to keep her family together. She loves and supports both Jay and Mitchell’s families, even though tension crops up between her and other characters within. As the show illustrates, Claire has a full-time job as a mother and goes on to tenaciously build a career for herself on top of that. None of the characters in Modern Family are perfect, but Claire keeps everyone moving and engaged from the very first episode. She wants more for her children and for the various other members of her family, and she tries to keep magic alive wherever she can, especially during Halloween.
Final Thoughts
I mentioned in a previous post that Modern Family is often fondly reflected-upon, and with good reason. Heartwarming, funny, and relatable, it features a wide cast of well-rounded characters and zany but somehow still realistic scenarios. Anyone can find something to enjoy about the show and see their own family members in the characters, which may explain why the audience is just as diverse as the cast.