‘Family’ history is moving and funny
“Modern Family” was on the air for 11 years, so you better believe that pretend family has some real memories from their time on set.
Marc Freeman’s “Modern Family: The Untold Oral History of One of Television’s Groundbreaking Sitcoms” (St. Martin’s Press, 528 pp.) explores the making of the ABC show, which used the mockumentary format to bring to light new stories about what families really looked like.
The oral history includes new interviews with the stars, creators, crew and some famous faces who were in the running to be cast. Freeman also included commentary and observations from his time spent on set in February during the last few days of the series’ filming.
“We were a show that was able to bring people together,” Sofia Vergara (Gloria) said to him. “One of the most fascinating things for me was meeting people, a grandmother with a grandchild, talking about the same episode. That rarely happens. Men would watch, gay people would watch. I think that’s what made it so special. I don’t think there are that many shows written that can bring the whole family together.
Here are 5 of the most interesting things we learned:
1. Who else could’ve been cast?
Most of the main character roles got at least a thousand audition submissions before the creators settled on the actors “Modern Family” fans know today. Though a handful of famous faces ended up in the mix, some other big stars were considered or in the running for roles.
❚ Jay (Ed O’Neill): Craig T. Nelson
❚ Claire (Julie Bowen): Lisa Kudrow, Leah Remini, Debra Messing, Rachael Harris, Constance Zimmer
❚ Phil (Ty Burrell): Matt LeBlanc, Joel McHale, David Harbour
❚ Cam (Eric Stonestreet): Tony Hale, Josh Gad, Jesse Tyler Ferguson (who went on to play Mitch), Kevin Daniels (who went on to play the couple’s
friend Longines)
❚ Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson):
Matt Oberg, Mo Rocca
❚ Haley (Sarah Hyland): Skyler
Samuels
2. Claire having another baby and more story lines that didn’t make it
In the early days of “Modern Family,” plenty of ideas were tossed around about how to tell the stories of, well,
modern families. Creators considered making it about three families living on a cul-de-sac, or just separate households that went through similar weekly struggles. The idea of three households in the same family ultimately won.
But not every idea after that was a winner. These story lines were pitched but never made it to air:
❚ Originally called “My American Family,” the show would have been a docuseries created by a character named Geert Floortje.
❚ Haley could have gotten pregnant much earlier: The reveal ended up happening in Season 10, but writers considered introducing that story line as early as Season 5.
❚ Claire could have had another baby, too: Writers wanted one character in Season 4 to welcome a new bundle of joy and debated adding another Dunphy kid before determining Gloria would get pregnant.
❚ Gloria almost ran for school board, and Mitchell nearly worked with Jay before Claire took on the job.
3. Sarah Hyland, Ariel Winter and Nolan Gould struggled with health and body image on set
Hyland, 29, has been open on her social media accounts about struggling with kidney dysplasia and endometriosis. Though there were plenty of times on set when she wasn’t feeling well – the actress noted that she would often choose for Haley to lean against a wall or table in a scene because standing up straight was too painful – she impressed her co-workers with the way she powered through.
“There were lots of days when she’d be in the makeup chair in the morning and you could see she wasn’t feeling good,” O’Neill said. “And you felt so bad. You’d think, ‘Can you do anything, say anything, bring her anything?’ But she was there. She showed up, all the time, unless she was in the hospital.”
Winter, 22,struggled with negativity online – she “developed much earlier than a lot of other girls,” and commentary on her body has continued since then.
“It happens to all people in the public eye,” Winter said. “But when you’re a child, it’s worse because you’re trying to figure out who you are, trying to navigate the world with everybody else trying to navigate it for you.”
Gould, 21, has been decidedly less vocal about his personal life, aided in part by watching the way his two on-screen sisters were treated on social media over the years. He revealed to Freeman he had a human growth hormone deficiency while growing up on camera.
“I ended up having to give myself human growth hormones,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons you’ll notice there’s this one season where I go from a baby to a weird man-child with a deep voice and facial hair.”
4. The death of Fred Willard’s character was emotional on set
“Modern Family” characters said goodbye to comedy great Fred Willard’s character, Frank Dunphy, in Season 11. Losing a character in the final season represented the cast’s first of several goodbyes for the longtime co-workers. And now, the book debuts less than a week after Willard died at 86.
“The scene where Phil offers a toast to his dad was very moving,” Freeman writes. “Ty shed a tear, and it was impossible for everyone else not to at that point. Yes, we were saying goodbye to Frank, but there was also a harbinger of the end of the series in there, too.”
Co-creator Steven Levitan told Freeman of the actor: “Willard will never stop being one of the most brilliant improvisational comedians of our or any other generation’s list.”
5. The young actors measured themselves on a wall in the Dunphy house over the years
Each house was decorated to make it appear as though the characters really lived there: Photos were updated over the years. And just like in real homes, the actors playing the Dunphy kids marked their growth over the years on the kitchen set.
“When the kids were on set, they would mark their heights as they grew season to season,” production designer and art director Claire Bennett said. “It’s a nice touch that will never make it to camera.”