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Throwback Thursday: How Modern Family revived the family sitcom

By Kareem Gantt

MODERN FAMILY - ABC's "Modern Family" stars Julie Bowen as Claire Dunphy, Ty Burrell as Phil Dunphy, Ariel Winter as Alex Dunphy, Sarah Hyland as Haley Dunphy, Nolan Gould as Luke Dunphy, Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell Pritchett, Eric Stonestreet as Cameron Tucker, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons as Lily Tucker-Pritchett, Sofia Vergara as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, Jeremy Maguire as Joe Pritchett, Ed O'Neill as Jay Pritchett and Rico Rodriguez as Manny Delgado. (ABC/Bob D’Amico)
MODERN FAMILY - ABC's "Modern Family" stars Julie Bowen as Claire Dunphy, Ty Burrell as Phil Dunphy, Ariel Winter as Alex Dunphy, Sarah Hyland as Haley Dunphy, Nolan Gould as Luke Dunphy, Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell Pritchett, Eric Stonestreet as Cameron Tucker, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons as Lily Tucker-Pritchett, Sofia Vergara as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, Jeremy Maguire as Joe Pritchett, Ed O'Neill as Jay Pritchett and Rico Rodriguez as Manny Delgado. (ABC/Bob D’Amico) /
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With ABC’s Modern Family coming to an end after its 10th season, we took a Throwback Thursday look at how this show revived both ABC and family sitcoms.

Modern Family began as most family sitcoms do, with a close look at the show creator’s real-life families.

In this instance, it was Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, who used the family stories they would tell as the basis for their new ABC sitcom. This was in 2008, a time when reality television was dominating the ratings, and single-camera family sitcoms were slowly fading from network programming lineups.

Lloyd and Levitan pitched the then working titled “My American Family” to CBS and NBC, but both rejected it. NBC already had The Office and Parks and Recreation, so pulling in a third “mockumentary” show was not in the cards for them. CBS rejected it because they were more invested in their hit drams and didn’t want to do a single-camera show. They didn’t go to Fox because of prior problems with another comedy they produced for the network.

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ABC would be the network that would take the chance on the new single-camera family sitcom, which was now titled Modern Family to reflect the changing dynamics of the typical American family, a dynamic that included an older guy marrying a much younger wife, a gay couple, and typical nuclear family with a mom, dad, and kids.

Part of the reason why ABC took a chance on Modern Family was that it had nothing to lose.

The only other family comedy on the network at the time was Ugly Betty, which was heading into its last season, so ABC needed another family sitcom to replace the departing Betty. Modern Family did that and then some, not only become the flagship family comedy for ABC, but also one of its consistently highest-rated shows.

The success of Modern Family was not just a shot in the arm that ABC needed at the time, but it also wound up reviving the family sitcom genre altogether. If Modern Family would have been a failure, we wouldn’t have been graced with the likes of Black-ish and The Goldbergs.

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Modern Family is also historic in the fact that it dared to showcase the changing demographics of what a “nuclear family” was. Modern Family was one of the first sitcoms to feature a gay married couple in a non-stereotypical fashion, and grandpa marrying young and taking in a kid. Modern Family truly lived up to its title, and the show made viewers rethink the traditional mold of the American family fabric.

Modern Family is now in its 10th and final season, but the impact the show had will be felt on television and American culture for generations to come.

What did you think of this week’s Throwback Thursday? Be sure to tell us in the comment section below!

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