LOS ANGELES (AP) — Writer-producers Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd were mulling ideas for the 2009 TV season when they landed on an intriguing sitcom approach, one revolving around an extended family and done in the “mockumentary” style made popular by “The Office.”
“All these things are familiar enough, but different enough that we have a shot with this one,” Lloyd recalled thinking as he and Levitan tackled the first “Modern Family” script. “Having said that, I didn’t believe in it. I was at a party with one of my ‘Frasier’ friends, and said, ‘I think it’s a good piece of writing, but I’d sell the thing to you for 10 bucks because I don’t think it’s going anywhere.'”
Then the ensemble cast of familiar TV faces such as Ed O’Neill (“Married … With Children) and Julie Bowen (“Lost,” “Ed”) and relative newcomers was gathered. Once the first episode was shot, Lloyd moved “all the way to hopeful,” as he put it.
ABC’s “Modern Family,” which ends its 11-season run with an hour-long finale (9 p.m. EDT Wednesday), went on to earn five best comedy Emmy Awards to equal the record set by “Frasier,” which counted Levitan and Lloyd among its writers. The critically lauded series proved to be an increasingly rare TV bird: It gently pushed at social boundaries while remaining a treat that kids and parents could enjoy together, even as the explosion of screens and edgier fare drove solitary viewing.
Largely living up to its title, “Modern Family” built its comic storytelling around a mix of characters and couples — young and older, straight and gay, mostly white but not entirely — that reflected the change in American households while acknowledging that tolerance and understanding still lagged.