Modern Family

Its finally that time of year again. The leaves are starting to change colors, the weather is getting brisk, the school year is in full swing, oh, and most importantly Modern Family is back on! 

As “modern” as you can imagine a sit-com being, this tri-family dynamic with its wide range of personalities does a fantastic job of bringing light to struggles and controversies of everyday life.  The families are all interconnected by Jay who is the father of Claire and Mitch, who both also have families of their own.

The Dunphys, including goofy, “I’m the cool Dad” Phil, and Claire, with their three children Hailey, Alex, and Luke are seen as the “traditional” family of the show.  But only in the sense that they represent the average family in society and mimic what most people find acceptable.  You know, man and wife and their three children. Yeah I know, sounds like déjà vu ,and not to mention boring, but I promise this is no ordinary family.    Well, unless you have a dad like Phil, who undoubtedly wins the award for the ability to make any situation awkward and who is frequently labeled as one with “not much going up on upstairs”. Yet who is then know for having the biggest heart and makes it apparent that family is his biggest priority. In fact, you may actually be surprised by how you may possibly relate to his character in several different ways.  And then there is Claire, who has the more serious role, and keeps things together and organized.  Both Phil’s and Claire’s personalities complement each other and make up the perfect recipe for comedy. They are the butt of each other’s jokes.   They use comedy to get through to one another in tense situations and it translates into being the audiences’ pleasure as well.

Mitch and Cam also bring a lot of laughs to the table.  Its no secret that they are gay and though many cant help but make a fuss about it in one form or another, especially during this culture change society is enduring, they aren’t portrayed any less as people or as a family than others.  They are accepted and represent a positive example to those who they reach out to.  We see them struggle through the adoption of Lily, winning the approval of parents, approval of society… you name it.  Regardless, the real impact I believe the writers of Modern Family were trying to portray was the uniqueness of the characters themselves and how they both blend and bounce off each other while at the same time reaching out to a different demographic. Cam himself can keep me laughing for days.  His mannerisms, his facial expressions, and his crazy actions alone are fantastic.   Cam is the portrayed as the lazy one who is perfectly content playing the role of housewife.  Mitch, however, is more like the average working guy, who goes to work and provides for the family.  They both are so opposite that they play off each other’s actions and emotions, which are often times way off the charts, and make it is impossible for you not to find yourself in a fit of laughter.

Then there is Jay and Gloria.  For those that have seen the show quickly recognize the big age difference between the two.  To put it into perspective, Gloria is the same age as Jay’s daughter, Claire.  I’m not going lie and say that I didn’t find it a bit strange and slightly uncomfortable initially. But as I continued to watch more of the show they became nothing more than a normal happy couple.  Age has nothing to do with happiness, its about who you are and your respect for one another and they make a great example of that.  In fact, it has come to my attention that there actually many couples that have substantial age differences and in this case it just adds to the originality and social accordance of the show.  Gloria is from Columbia and has an accent to say the least. I can’t help but have a love hate relationship with it.  Sometimes it makes me laugh because of her over exaggeration of words and emotions, then other times I would personally like to send her a rendition of Rosetta Stone so that I wouldn’t have to put on the captions.   Despite the fact, she adds an interesting quality to the show that is not to be overseen.  Jay, in return,  is simply a laid back older guy who either does whatever his wife wants or does whatever he can to get away from her and her over the top activities.  Just imagine the comedy in that. Let me tell you, its priceless.

 And not to be forgotten, the children are also big components into the success of the show.  Much of the drama revolves around them. Ranging in all different ages, from College to newborn baby.  For those who have kids can only imagine the drama that comes with that. And for those who are the kids…well, you know how it goes.

All in all there is something for everyone in this show.  The different aspects that reflect on many of society’s own, different personalities that we can all relate to, different ethnicities and cultures, and last but not least family. Writers and producers, Steve Levitan, and Christopher Lloyd have undoubtedly created one of the best sit-coms of all time and continue to produce awesome writing. 

Season 5 has just kicked off and I couldn’t be more excited. If you have not seen this show I encourage you to give it a try because I promise you that there is a big chance that it will be hard to walk away.  It airs on ABC at 9:00 every Wednesday. 

The misconceptions of today’s male television characters

Since the very first television shows, it was obvious that men were all portrayed the same. They were simple, one-dimensional characters that always knew the right thing to do, the right thing to say. Men were the ones to turn to in a crisis. Whether it was a son who needed help with his homework or a town who needed help with a criminal, the star of the show always seemed to know what to do. Many people argue that, today, men are still portrayed as simple, easily understandable characters who merely have different characteristics than their counterparts from fifty or sixty years ago. That’s certainly not the case. The way men are portrayed in television shows has slowly evolved over the past half-century. They undoubtedly have become more complex throughout this evolution. The journey began in the 1960s with The Dick Van Dyke Show.

The Dick Van Dyke Show—aired 1961-1966—starred lovable US Army sergeant turned television writer, Rob Petrie. Petrie had the ability to be both wildly spontaneous while staying professionally disciplined. He was a loving father and husband. He went from holding a top position in the army to having a prestigious position in the television industry, so he was both masculine and intelligent. He was spontaneous as well as disciplined, so he was fun while also serious. After all this, he still had the energy to go home every single day and show his wife and kids that he loved them. Rob Petrie was basically the perfect man. He was masculine, intelligent, professional, fun, and loving. Could anyone ask for a better father or husband? Realistically, no, but Petrie also isn’t a realistic person. He’s simply too perfect. He rarely loses his cool or falls off the pedestal viewers put him on. This makes him an extremely one-dimensional character. He never strays from what viewers expect from him. In the 1960s, men were portrayed on television as what society’s ideal men looked and acted like. Rob Petrie was that ideal man.

The Cosby Show—aired 1984-1992—was based on the fictional doctor and father of five, Cliff Huxtable. Huxtable was an all-around eccentric and silly person with almost everyone he interacted with, especially his family. He was a kind-hearted man and a dedicated father and husband with an extremely strong sense of humor. Like a good father should do, he always makes sure his kids try their hardest. Whether it’s education—an especially important thing in his eyes—or any other part of life, Huxtable always pushes his children to succeed. Now, here’s where Cliff Huxtable differs from Petrie. While Huxtable’s main characteristics dictate that he be a loving, gentle person, his secondary, less present characteristics give him the ability to occasionally veer from what viewers are used to seeing from him. For example, Huxtable will most of the time support his children in the kindest way he can, but when any of them do something he sees as foolish, he lets them have it. He doesn’t let his anger loose or anything like that, but he never hesitated to call his son, Theo, an idiot when he said he was going to drop out of school. He would occasionally have behavior like this with his children’s friends as well—people who he hardly even knew. Cliff Huxtable was a first-class, but much more realistic television father compared to those who came before him. He was, indeed, one of the first multi-dimensional men on television.

Modern Family—aired 2009-present—is centered around the lives of three intertwined families, one of which is run by cool dad, Phil Dunphy. Dunphy is a high-end real-estate agent whose only need in life is his family. There’s nothing he loves more than his wife and three kids. While his family gives him happiness, he gives them laughs and love. Anyone who watches the show knows that Dunphy is really just a big kid at heart, which is probably why he connects with his youngest child, Luke, so easily. Between he and his wife, Dunphy is also known as the cool parent. He uses a strategy—which usually doesn’t work, by the way—which he dubbed “peerenting,” to discipline his kids. He acts like a parent and talks like a peer. Seems like a normal, silly dad, right? Wrong. The reason why Phil Dunphy is one of the most amazing male characters television has ever seen is due to the fact that he combines the authenticity of Ray Barone (Everybody Loves Raymond) and the complexity of Tony Soprano (The Sopranos). While Phil Dunphy is much more childish and silly than most real-life men, it’s impossible to argue that he’s not a regular guy. Most problems he encounters—a mindless son, a stuck-up daughter, an unaccepting father-in-law, a stressful job—are ones that the majority of men have been forced to deal with themselves. To add to his overall realness, Dunphy also shows the complexity of real-life men. On the outside, Phil Dunphy is a calm, collected individual who just wants to have fun as much of the time as he can. The truth: Dunphy is panicking on the inside much of the time. Phil Dunphy acts as if he worries about nothing, but really, lots of things get to him pretty easily. For example, when his father-in-law, Jay, doesn’t ask for his help with some kind of project, Dunphy immediately begins worrying that he has done something wrong to bother Jay. It’s very possible that Modern Family’s Phil Dunphy is one of the best-portrayed men to ever appear in a television show.

It’s been argued for quite some time, now, that men on television have slowly become more and more simplistic and idiotic. On the contrary, the exact opposite has happened. Over the past fifty years, male characters have slowly evolved into the most complex characters in all of television. Starting in the 1960s and ending in the 2010s, men have developed from simple, one-dimensional characters into complicated, multi-dimensional societal figures. It would be absurd to say the portrayal of men has slowly declined over the past half-century. Not only have male characters become more intricate, but they have also become more realistic when compared to real-life men. Not only does this make the characters more easily relatable, but it also diminishes the awful message that television used to force-feed viewers that told men they had to be perfect in every aspect of their lives. Beginning with Rob Petrie and ending with Phil Dunphy, television has greatly improved its overall portrayal of men.

Modern Family

Last week I went to the Dan O'Shannon, Executive Producer of the ABC sitcom Modern Family, for the Park Distinguished Speakers event. His talk was very interesting and it made me watch a couple episodes of Modern Family afterwards, which I have always been a big fan of. One of the things that Dan O'Shannon talked about during his speech was how he used experiences in his real life for episodes of the TV show. For example, Dan said that the episode where Phil and Claire find a cigarette burn in the couch on Christmas was based on his real life. This idea made me realize that it is probably much easier to make a realistic story if it has actually happened to you or someone you know.

After going to see Dan O'Shannon, I watched a couple of episodes of Modern Family. I think the thing that I enjoy the most about the sitcom and also what sets it apart from other TV shows is the character development. Every single character in the show is unique and original. Phil is the dad who always try to be the cool dad. He always tries to stay young and act like the kids are his best friends. Claire is the mom who is constantly cleaning up after the kids and taking care of them. Jay is the oldest and the head of the family. Jay is also married to the much younger, Gloria, a Colombian woman. Jay has two children Claire and Mitchell. Mitchell is gay and recently adopted a baby girl with his partner Cam. Not only are the adults tremendous characters but the kids are as well.

Modern Family is a hilarious sitcom that appeals to a wide variety of people. I think the reason it is so popular is because the characters are very different but still in the same family. They are all very different but similar at the same time. Many families can probably relate to the characters in some way, which makes Modern Family different from other tv sitcoms.