Modern Family says Farewell after 250 Episodes and 11 Seasons
Courtesy Medium News
By Garrett Farrell
At exactly 9:00 PM on Wednesday, September 23, 2009, ABC stations began broadcasting a new television show where the documentary style of The Office meets the more traditional themes and motifs of sitcoms. In spite of the fact that the show was immediately celebrated for its quick, witty writing and the immense talent of its ensemble cast, no one could have predicted the success the show would encounter. At 9:00PM on Wednesday, April 8, 2020, Modern Family said farewell after one of the most critically acclaimed runs in recent broadcast television.
Both critical and commercial success for Modern Family were immediate; the show won the Emmy for outstanding comedy series in each of its first five seasons, becoming just the second show in the history of primetime television to accomplish such a feat, the first being Frasier. In addition to this, during its early years, the series was one of the most watched on television; each of Modern Family’s first six seasons averaged over 11 million live viewers per episode.
At its core, Modern Family is about exactly what one would think it is about: a modern family. The show gives us days in the lives of three different families: Claire and Phil’s nuclear family of two daughters and a son; Claire’s brother Mitchell and his partner Cameron and their adopted daughter Lily; and Claire and Mitchell’s father Jay, his younger second wife Gloria, and Gloria’s son from a previous marriage.
The fact that this kind of family had never been shown on such a high profile series greatly contributed to the show’s initial popularity. In fact, many politicians, including President Obama, credit Modern Family for helping to change public opinion on same-sex marriage. In fact, during its later seasons, Modern Family was criticised for not adding more diverse roles, as families of this sort became more and more common in American homes. Many pointed to Amazon Prime’s Transparent as an example that Modern Family was not adapting to the changing landscape of American family life. For all that Modern Family did for gay rights, Transparent’s focus was on how having a parent go through a sex change impacts a family. As public opinion on same-sex marriage shifted, the family dynamic in Modern Family became less progressive, while the dynamic seen in Transparent was a take on more immediate social issues in America.
Regardless of the socially progressive nature of the show, Modern Family proved a great unifier for many Americans. During the 2012 presidential campaign, both President Obama and the Republican nominee Mitt Romney agreed that Modern Family was their favorite show on Television.
Creating a satisfactory ending for this show would prove no small feat, especially considering that in its last five years Modern Family went from an average viewership of 11 million an episode to slightly under two million. The job the show-runners did? Adequate.
The finale championed many of the themes that were the core of Modern from the beginning, notably change and, unsurprisingly, family. In the finale, the main couples of the show are all dealing with circumstances that have shifted radically in a short amount of time, and their children are all growing into themselves and moving away from their parents, both in a literal and metaphorical sense.
The many changes of the final episodes show how quickly life can change. In a matter of weeks, the families adjust to rapidly changing circumstances which seem to move them all apart from one another. But the ending of the show assures the viewer that despite everything, family will endure.
Late in the finale, Claire asks Phil, the couple having recently become empty nesters, how they will cope without their children and how they will be able to help their children. Phil, ever the reassuring husband and father, gives the response “Leave the porch light on. They come back.” The quote is a powerful reassurance to both Claire and the viewer that no matter what, family will always remain.
The changes that occur in the finale are not only reflective on the history of the Modern Family itself, but it is equally introspective on the rapidly changing way Americans watch tv shows. Network sitcoms like Modern Family are becoming less and less popular as services like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ take over television. The finale of Modern Family seems to acknowledge and accept these changes. In the final moments of the show, Jay acknowledges that there are many changes in the world, but he offers assurance that the family is a source of stability in an ever changing world, even when the nature of family is changing. The show ends with the image of a porch light turning on, offering one last assurance that family will always be there no matter what.
