Modern Family - season 1

After all I've read, I'm kind of looking forward to checking this out. but, since I haven't watched an ABC comedy block in decades, I'm not sure I'me ready to take the plunge now, either.

I don't know, it had me laughing pretty hard.

I'm not a laugh out loud person, but I thought it was funny.  Somethimes hard to hear the dialog as my wife WAS laughing out loud.

Soooo uneven.  Not consistently funny enough, and some of the jokes just fell totally flat.

The scene on the airplane about the "baby with the creampuffs" was the funniest, but unfortunately spoiled by promos.  But I can't rip them too bad about that -- if it weren't for that promo, I would never have tuned in.  I'll probably give this a few more whacks and chalk up some of the negatives to pilot growing pains.

With Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton joining Ty Burrell for the ABC comedy block later this season, it's like they took the cast of Back to You and scattered them about Wednesday night.  Is there any way Fred Willard can join the cast of Cougar Town just to make the diaspora complete?
Edited by Hanson - 9/24/09 at 9:01am

Neither my wife or me are from extended families & we both thought this show was great! She gave it her two highest compliments: "great writing", 10 minutes into the show, and "I was guffawing". I was too.

I was really looking forward to seeing it because I'd love to see Ed ONeill on tv again. I made it through about ten minutes or so before changing the channel. It just wasn't funny. Like others said, there were a couple good moments but the rest fell VERY flat.
I made it to the scene where the daughter's date showed up and the dad was going to intimidate him. Then the dad doing his best "Michael Scott" impression talks to the camera trying to talk all ghetto. That hasn't been funny since like 1991.
It reminded me of "The Office" or a Christopher Guest movie, but without the smart, dry, and subtle humor found in either of those.

I really liked this show.  Ed O is perfectly cast as the patriarch.  I feel that he played the part very "Al Bundy" like and I think that's why I liked it so much. 

The "Lily" comment had me LOL'ing.

Ty Burrell, Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd's o holdovers from "Back to You", was definitely the weak link here. He was much better as the long suffering weatherman than he is here as the unbelievably pathetic father. I liked everything else, including the way the pilot only hinted that the three families are part of one big family until the reveal at the end. I like that Julie Bowen and Jesse Tyler Ferguson, despite being opposite genders and sexual orientations, have the same ultra Type A personalities. It made it easy to buy them as brother and sister. After all of the brave, upstanding gays Hollywood's given us in recent years, Eric Stonestreet's out-and-out queen was somewhat of a comedic breath of fresh air. I liked Ed O'Neill's young, volumptous Hispanic wife, and I liked Bowen and Burrell's TV kids. O'Neill's stepson is still a bit of a blank slate.

I actually found the dinner reveal quite affirming, with all of these three families that would seemingly have nothing to do with each other effortlessly merging into a larger whole that felt closer to my family gathering than any of the saintly or miserable families that I usually see on TV; the melting pot in micro.

The real test will come in future weeks to see how Levitan and Lloyd adapt to the single camera format. Is this the tip of the iceberg or, like multi-camera sitcoms, are we just going to get endless variations on the same character quirks?

EDIT: Because my fingers seem to have developed a case of aphasia...
Edited by Adam Lenhardt - 9/24/09 at 7:51pm

This is in a nutshell the parts I found fell flat.  I frequently felt like they were copying The Office for its own sake and that it didn't really add anything.  Arrested Development showed that you don't have to use that pseudo documentary set up for a single camera comedy.  It's almost too much with Parks and Recreation and The Office doing it better.  There is a little part of Modern Family that reminds me of the unsung Brothers and Sisters... no, wait, that's not it.. it's something like that... Sons and Daughters maybe?  Wait, let me check the IMDB... yes, Sons and Daughters, the partially improvised extended family sitcom that was actually really funny.  Modern Family isn't anywhere near that funny or smart.


That's an example of the occasional belly laugh that makes the show worth checking out.  That had me rolling.

By gosh, that cast is full of leftovers, isn't it?  I recognize the entire adult cast with the exception of the chubby gay guy.  Everyone else was in a canceled sitcom I watched previously (well, except for Ed O'Neill (not O'Brien )), be it Knights of Prosperity, The Class, or Back To You.  The MILF-alicious Julie Bowen is remembered from the late, lamented Ed.  I'm surprised Ted McGinley isn't in this.

Who are the characters supposed to be talking to when they're alone with the camera?

I found the first episode moderately entertaining, but the single-camera, mock-umentary style is really irritating to me.

The concept of the show is that this is an actual documentary of a 2009, non-traditional family. Presumably that means they'll be playing the mockumentary angle straighter than, say, "The Office" has.

Last week I noted, "The real test will come in future weeks to see how Levitan and Lloyd adapt to the single camera format. Is this the tip of the iceberg or, like multi-camera sitcoms, are we just going to get endless variations on the same character quirks?"

This episode passed the test. While less laugh-out-loud funny than the pilot, the characterizations were much more nuanced. In particular, Ty Burrell's character felt much less tired. I could believe his character this week is a real dad in a way I couldn't in the pilot. Ed O'Neill's patriarch showed the most growth, though. It takes a lot of maturity to give others credit for your own sacrifices, so that the innocent party won't be harmed.

The gay couple storyline was the least problematic in the pilot, so it's not a shocker that it's the least changed here.

Anyone have audio issues with the show? Right after the hot jogger left, the mom said something and the vocal track disappeared. The background sounds (cars, birds) were still there, but no voices.

Other channels are working, but ABC (via Dish Network) is acting funny. :(

So far, the show has managed to bring a smile and a few chuckles here and there, but not really laugh-out-loud.

+1

She old now.  Like us.

Man, time sucks.

I liked it and even though I see a lot of the jokes coming they still make me laugh.

It was a windy night, so my reception over the old rabbit ears was touch-and-go but I liked what I saw. Ed O'Neill's character is easily shaping up to be the most interesting character. I also like the sickeningly precocious middle child and the whole Costco story line.

This show is starting to bug me and I can't put my finger on it.  But I do feel like a lot of the jokes fall flat, and the jokes are too predictable, especially in light of the setups developing so slowly. Not only do you see the punchlines coming from a mile away, they walk towards you in real time. Too many minutes pass between the time you figured out the punchline and its actual delivery.

Sofia Vergara is given too much dialog at a time.  She was much better in Knights of Prosperity -- in Modern Family, it feels like torture listening to her get through a block of exposition.  She takes too long trying to enunciate the words properly, and it makes me impatient and agitated.

Actually, that's the reason this show bugs me -- those drawn out punchlines make me impatient and agitated.  I feel like the Dave character in that Bob & Dave skit with Bob Eliot as the slow talker.  Thank you, Sofia, for letting me see the light.  The itch is now scratched.

One more week and it's outta here.

"that Bob & Dave skit with Bob Eliot as the slow talker"

You mean Bob & Ray - and Slow Talkers of America.

Whoops -- yes, Bob & Ray.  BTW, it dawned on me that Abby Eliot is 2nd gen SNL but 3rd gen American comedy family.

I like the way each episode is built around a theme that builds to a point at the end. One thing I don't get is how since the Julie Bowen/Ty Burrell family always seems to be missing a child. They don't even bother to explain where they've gone. They just rotate in and out.

Loved Shelly Long's appearance as Jay's more age-appropriate first wife. The final beat with everybody singing Dylan's song about having sex with the oldest daughter had me rolling.

and following Robin Sparkle's success with "Let's Go To the Mall" a music video for Dylan's "In the Moonlight (Do Me) has been released!  :)

http://tvdonewright.com/2009/10/abc-releases-modern-family-music-video/comment-page-1/