I only discovered it a month or two ago, but it is a really good show.
I’m watching a Christmas show right now, but since they said it’s Lily’s first Christmas, it must be a few seasons old, at least.
Anyway, what a well-written, well-acted show.
i have only watched the pilot episode, does it still use shaky cam?
Hmmmm… It’s filmed in a pseudo-documentary format (which is one of the things I like about it), but nothing shaky.
I admire both how the writers take standard sitcom formulas into really unexpected twists; and how they’re willing to dance right at the edge of stereotypes—gays, Asians, Colombians, Mexican telenovelas—for comedy, usually without offending.
I managed to avoid it entirely for years, but I’ve been catching it lately and it’s quite good. Clever writing, good performances, very pleasant to watch. I really wouldn’t call it one of the ten best sitcoms ever, though. I mean, I know that’s almost totally subjective, but to the degree that you can try to measure objectively (through originality, influence on the medium, cultural relevance, critical consensus, etc.), I think these sitcoms are uncontroversially superior (in no particular order):
*The Simpsons
Cheers
All In the Family
Taxi
Roseanne
The Bob Newhart Show
Mary Tyler Moore
The Honeymooners
Frasier
Seinfeld
The Larry Sander Show
Arrested Development
*
… and I would personally feel quite comfortable putting these ahead, though here we’re closer to “IMHO” territory:
MASH* (If we’re calling it a pure sitcom it’s definitely on the list)
Friends
The Cosby Show
The Andy Griffith Show
I Love Lucy
30 Rock
Curb Your Enthusiasm
NewsRadio
South Park
Neither list is exhaustive, but, admittedly, you can arguably get closer to the Top 10 without being really weird than I would have thought.
It’s a good show.
It’s quite good, but a bit overrated. Also, it loses points in my book for being a “two camera” sitcom. That is, single-camera plus a “confessional”; it’s been done to death and has been getting on my nerves lately.
The ‘confessional’ footage is not my favorite either.
However, in Modern Family they use it fairly well. They are consistent. The approach is as if you are a neighbor or a friend, and they are just letting you know a bit of the background story of things currently happening. Sort of like going to a party and going off in the corner and have a one-on-one conversation.
So although I think they could do without it, I have gotten used to it in this show and it doesn’t bother me as much as when other shows do it.
It has its moments, but there’s just way too much manufactured conflict among the characters, i.e. someone will take wildly over-reacting offense at something someone says, spend an entire subplot melting down over it.
With a few exceptions, I’d put everything in Varlos’s list ahead of Modern Family, and I could add a few entries myself.
The lack of a manufactured laugh track vastly improves this show, and more than offsets the confessional annoyance. (Which, frankly, doesn’t annoy me one bit.)
I really like the first couple of years, but I feel that the writing has really gotten lazy.
I like it every bit as much today as when it began. It’s still one of my all-time favorite sitcoms.
But what I like about it is that they rarely lets those “whacky misunderstandings” go longer than a scene or two. They rarely take over the whole show.
Any list that doesn’t start with I Love Lucy…it’s the Louis Armstrong of sitcoms.
Modern Family has had three seasons of Funny, and gets to ride the Gay Rights wave, which it does very well. But it isn’t close to Lucy, All in the Family, Mary Tyler Moore or Seinfeld in innovation.
Yeah, I cheated a bit there. *Lucy *just makes me laugh less than the other shows on those lists (along with a bunch of others). Not my cup of tea, so I downgraded it. Had to put in on the list, though.
I also discovered it about a month ago, coinciding with the USA network’s purchase of it for syndication. I enjoy it a lot
Just a side note - this is why Big Bang Theory ratings have continued to soar. For instance, I tried the show way back when when it first started and sort of didn’t “get it”. Now, in reruns, I am hooked and watch the first run shows. Lots of people don’t start watching a show until it goes into syndication, and then the ratings go up for the new episodes.
Another reason syndication is such an important and valuable tool for TV shows - once they hit that magic number of 100 episodes, they can go off onto other channels and grab an entirely new audience.
I can see where people didn’t get Modern Family in the first episode or two, and may have given up. But now when you start to catch on to the format, and get to know the characters, it does grow on you.
I am a late comer to this show as well. I just saw the “Caught in the Act” episode which was one of the funniest things I have seen on TV in a while. I am amazed at the ability of the kid actors–I hope that they can keep it up as they age.
- Knock. Knock.
- Who’s there?
- Someone who doesn’t want to see their parents doing it. That’s why you knock!
Me too.
The episode where they lock Lilly in the car? One of the funniest things ever was Cam running with a trash can over his head, shrieking, toward the car to smash the windows.
Oh, and Julie Bowen is incredibly beautiful!
Oh God Yes! On Festivus, I pulled out my Season 9 DVDs of Seinfeld to watch the episode where the holiday was introduced (“The Strike”) and I completely forgot how obnoxious the laugh track was! Thank God that is slowly but surely becoming a thing of the past.
I, too, caught the show recently due to its being syndicated. The wife and I got hooked pretty quickly. It’s not the funniest thing ever on TV, but it has a lot of good humor, and likable characters. It definitely has an addictive charm to it.
Phil cracks me up the most. I’ve seen that actor in a couple of other things, and I never found him to be remotely funny. But on this show, everything he does just tickles me. I loved when Fred Willard was revealed to be Phil’s dad - everything Phil ever said about his dad or about growing up took on another layer in an instant once I put Willard’s face to the character.
The other day, there was a line (delivered by Claire) that just cracked me up beyond all reason. It’s just a silly throwaway, but for some reason it caught me just right and I couldn’t stop laughing until I was breathless.
“I just caught Alex and Michael, sitting in a tree… Don’t make me spell it out for you!”