Modern Family is an American TV comedy series revolving around three families interrelated through Jay Pritchett, his son Mitchell Pritchett, and his daughter Claire Dunphy. The families meet for family functions (usually around their three neighborhoods or while traveling during vacations) and cross-family bonding.
Main cast
The Dunphy family
Phil Dunphy
Philip Humphrey "Phil" Dunphy (Ty Burrell) is Claire's husband of 15 years who sees himself as the "cool dad". He dotes on his wife Claire and constantly tries to find ways to bond with his three kids. He is seen as very competitive, one example being his always beating his son in various sports or other competitions. He has a very juvenile attitude and is referred to by Claire as the "kid [she's] married to." He uses a parenting method that he calls "peerenting", which is a combination of talking like a peer but acting like a parent.
Phil is a realtor who is very confident in his work, once saying, "I could sell a fur coat to an Eskimo." Phil has a severe case of coulrophobia, which is first revealed when despite Mitchell's objection, Cameron comes to Luke's party dressed as a clown. This may stem from Phil's having found a dead clown in the woods when he was a child. Phil once dresses up as a clown for a kids' party but has a panic attack when he catches his reflection in multiple mirrors. Phil appears to love home repair yet never seems to get around to any of the jobs requested by Claire. Throughout season 1, his ongoing project is fixing the step. He at times shows a sort of crush-like affection for Gloria. However, he says he "would never stray from Claire," although Gloria did kiss him during a "kiss cam" segment at a basketball game in the final episode of season 1, "Family Portrait", however he was immediately regretful for not preventing it as he didn't want to do it. In college, he was a cheerleader at Fresno State and his birthday is on April 3.
Phil seems oblivious as to what he says by miscalculating (if at all) the consequences of his expressions, such as "Phil Dunphy is no straight guy" (when he is referring to not being a straight man) or "If you ain't white, you ain't right" (referring to the t-shirt color of a team that he was playing on). He often seeks approval from Jay, who generally does not openly show approval of anyone. In the Season 3 episode "Dude Ranch," Phil shows considerable skill both on horseback and with a shotgun, notably shooting two clay pigeons on one foot.
In moments of acute adversity or shock in which most people would curse or swear, Phil utters humorous exclamations: references to food such as, "Sweet Potato Fries!" or "Chicken in a basket!", etc. or he might make a historical reference such as "John Philip Sousa!" It is revealed in "Tableau Vivant" that Phil had once tried to break up with Claire but didn't dare to do so.
A running gag in the show has Phil running up the stairs (often when carrying an object) and tripping on a loose step, causing him to say some variation of "Gotta fix that step!"
Critical reception
Ty Burrell had received many positive reviews for his performance. Hank Stuever from The Washington Post wrote, "A standout performance from Ty Burrell's new twist on the doofus-dad stereotype." Paige Wiser, a reporter for the Chicago Sun Times, wrote, "Ty Burrell is a genius as a dad who stays hip by keeping up with the numbers from High School Musical." Robert Canning of IGN in a review of the season loved Ty Burrell's performance of Phil Dunphy and named him one of two characters that stood out to him saying "actor Ty Burrell owned this part, and his well-intended faux pas throughout the season were stellar."
Accolades
In 2010, Ty Burrell received a nomination for the Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy, winning in 2011. In 2011 and 2014, Burrell won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, also receiving nominations in 2010, 2012, and 2013. In 2012, Burrell won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. In 2014, Burrell won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series, receiving nominations in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2016. In 2010 and 2011, Burrell was nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.
Other appearances
On May 4, 2016, Burrell appeared in character as Phil in the first commercials for the National Association of Realtors talking about his "Phil's-osophies." Arnold Worldwide executive creative director Sean McBride said Phil was written as a Realtor on his show and "embodies many of the attributes that are important in a Realtor: He's honest, he's helpful, he's sincere."
Claire Dunphy
Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen), née Pritchett, is the daughter of Jay, Mitchell's older sister, and is married to Phil Dunphy. She is the helicopter soccer mom of the Dunphy family and its three very different kids. She was once a wild child who made a great deal of mistakes over the years, and she is fearful that her children could make the same mistakes, especially her oldest daughter, Haley. She is often exhausted from the stress created by her family but is still a loving mother. When it comes to her kids, she has difficulty controlling Haley's independence and irresponsibility, Alex's sarcasm and perfectionism, and Luke's lack of common sense. She also gets annoyed with her husband, Phil, constantly.
Claire is very competitive, especially in her obsession with being right, and has a brittle personality that causes her to get angry, paranoid, and freak out easily. She is very strict about a clean house. She is seen as an experienced parent by Cameron and Mitchell, so she is called upon for her parenting advice. She enjoys running and reading. She could also come across as uptight or arrogant at times, especially during her scenes with Gloria. She is also very attached to Halloween and describes it as her "crazy lady holiday." In the episode "Open House of Horrors," it is revealed that the neighbors are frightened of Claire's very graphic and realistic decorations around the house. Claire is also the most active family member when organizing family get-togethers. When a former co-worker (Minnie Driver) visits, it is revealed that Claire had a successful job in hospitality management but left her job and married Phil a few months after she became pregnant with Haley. She shows resentment towards the abandonment of her working career due to seeing one of her former peers' success but later realizes her family is more important.
Claire is a perfectionist; according to Phil, "when everybody else sees something beautiful, all she sees is the teeny-tiny flaw." She is also terrible at giving gifts. As her husband Phil once bought her a bracelet for their anniversary, she made him coupons for five free hugs, which she was very proud of.
Her step-brother is Manny Delgado. Claire received another sibling through Jay's second wife, Gloria: Fulgencio "Joe". She often despises the attention that Gloria gets for her voluptuous figure and is thrilled to learn that Gloria was pregnant because of all the weight that Gloria would be gaining. However, she generally has a good relationship with Gloria, with them sometimes doing yoga or spa days together.
Critical reception
Julie Bowen's performance was praised by Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly who said, "Bowen's Claire could have been a blank blonde cipher. Far from it: Bowen's wide array of silent gazes at the camera, her slow-burns at her clan's bad behavior, and her ability to freak out without seeming nutso crazy makes her an essential, stand-out part of TV's best freshman ensemble cast."
Accolades
In 2011 and 2012, Julie Bowen won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, receiving nominations in 2010 and 2013. In 2012, Bowen won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She has also been nominated twice for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series in 2012 and 2014. In 2009, Bowen was nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy, and then for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries, or Television Film in 2010.
Haley Dunphy
Haley Gwendolyn Dunphy (Sarah Hyland) (born December 10, 1993) is the eldest daughter of Claire and Phil, who is portrayed as a stereotypical teenager. At the start of the series, Haley is a high school sophomore. Haley is depicted as being a flirt, who focuses more on social status than studies. She is a little naive, especially when it comes to arguing with her parents.
She is concerned about her social standing at school, including her sex life, and is frequently embarrassed by her parents' conduct. Haley contemplates moving in with Dylan before learning that she got into college in the final episode of the third season. After a run-in with the law on campus in Season 4, she is expelled from college and moves back into the Dunphy home. She begins a fashion blog and goes to community college to study business and photography, eventually showing and selling her photos in an exhibit. In Season 6, she gets a job working for fashion designer Gavin Sinclair as his assistant, doing some of her design work. In season 9, episode 13, she starts working at a lifestyle company called Nerp.
Throughout Season 6, Haley develops feelings for Jay and Gloria's hired male nanny, Andy, with whom she comes to spend much of her time and with whom she begins a relationship in "White Christmas." At the end of Season 7, Andy is offered a job in his hometown in Utah and initially turns it down, but Haley encourages him to pursue it, insisting that they will figure out a way to be together. As they say goodbye at the airport, she admits that Andy is the first man she has ever really loved. As of "Weathering Heights," she is dating weatherman Rainer Shine, though they break up later in the season after he proposed, and they both realized they weren't ready. In season 9's "In Your Head," she starts dating Dr. Arvin Fennerman, Alex's astrophysics teacher at Caltech. However, a divorced Dylan reappears in the season 10 premiere and confesses that he is still in love with her and wants to be worthy. They sleep together, and Haley finds herself in love with both men. Later that season in "Torn Between Two Lovers," she finally decides Dylan is "the one" and breaks up with Arvin.
In the episode "Did the Chicken Cross the Road?", she finds out she is pregnant with Dylan's baby. In the episode "Can't Elope," she marries Dylan. In the episode "A Year of Birthdays," she gives birth to twins, Poppy and George. In the series finale, the new family moves into Mitch and Cam's former duplex.
Alex Dunphy
Alexandra "Alex" Dunphy (Ariel Winter) is the younger daughter of Claire and Phil. Characteristically nerdy but still cute, Alex is the most intelligent of the three siblings and a polar opposite of Haley. She is very bright academically and cares much more about her studies than her social life. Described in her official ABC bio as "super smart but in a completely likeable way", she is the middle child to a shallow older sister and a goofy younger brother, and enjoys "messing with them".
As a stereotypical precocious kid, Alex displays a sense of superiority due to her intelligence, continually putting her accomplishments on display and demanding recognition for them. An overachiever, she plays the cello; she chose to play the cello because she would have a better chance at being in a university orchestra than if she played the violin as cellos are more in demand. While she has sometimes felt isolated from her peers (once sadly telling her parents "I have no friends"), she has a group of nerdy fans at school who idolize her. Haley sincerely tells Alex at one point that she is smart and attractive in a successful effort to get her to give a light-hearted graduation speech instead of a harsh one (it worked well enough that her classmates invited her to a post-ceremony party). At the beginning of Season 3, she was in a long-distance relationship with a boy she met in Wyoming. Later in the season, she went to her prom with a classmate who everyone believes is gay.
It is established in the episode "Tableau Vivant" that Alex is a light sleeper, as she was surprisingly energetic when staying awake nearly a whole night thinking about her upcoming art project. The episode "Heart Broken" reveals that Alex suffers from hemophobia. In the second episode of Season 5 onwards, she starts wearing new glasses. In Season 6, Alex seeks the best college to enroll in and thinking about getting away from her family for a while. While Alex was not accepted into Harvard, she was accepted into Caltech, where she has been attending since the start of Season 7. She had to take a leave of absence due to getting mono, but eventually graduated. She was dating Sanjay Patel until he broke up with her in "The Closet Case."
In season 8, she has a relationship with Ben (Joe Mande), who works at Pritchett's Closets & Blinds, but later breaks up with him. In the season 9 episode "Royal Visit," she starts dating Bill (Jimmy Tatro), a firefighter who rescued her when she burned a bagel in her room's microwave. Though he is handsome and muscular, Alex is a bit ashamed because he is not very intellectual, and they later break up. In the series finale, as a researcher for Caltech, Alex moves to Switzerland to participate in a major new project, and begins dating her former professor, Arvin.
Luke Dunphy
Lucas Philip "Luke" Dunphy (Nolan Gould) is Claire and Phil's rambunctious son, who is often doing his own thing. He was named after his great-grandfather, Lucas (DeDe's father). At times, he can be a troublemaker, once shooting his sister with a toy gun and getting into a fight with Manny at school. Luke is playful, very innocent, and does not always understand the repercussions of his actions; he once announced at a family gathering that his mom thought her dad's new wife was a "gold digger," although he had misheard it as "coal digger." Unlike his sister Alex, Luke never wins any awards at school except once when Claire meddles to get him the Integrity Award by moving the car of the first choice nominee in the disabled parking.
Luke is also thought to be rather vacuous because of many questionable actions, such as getting his head stuck in the railing and jumping on the trampoline wearing only underwear and a box on his head. Both parents agree that they "dropped the ball" with raising Luke; this is exemplified when Luke states that he was still wearing diapers when he was five years old. Phil once tells Claire that he considers Luke to be their dumbest child (although he conceded to Claire's assertion that Haley was, in fact, dumber than Luke). A psychologist who evaluated him said his type of behavior was normal for someone with above-average intelligence; afterward, Phil and Claire accidentally left a wandering Luke behind when they left the psychologist's office, but they ended up being impressed by how calmly he made his way back home (in a limo) and decided he would do just fine in life. Subsequent events have borne this out, as he only got into one college he applied to (and did so because Phil gave up some magic secrets to his former rival-turned-Dean of Admissions) but has become a well-paid social fixture at Jay's country club and shows he can use his connections to help his family. In the series finale, he is accepted into and enrolls at the University of Oregon. He is frequently seen playing a Nintendo DS Lite later 3DS. Throughout the series, he is often seen playing with Manny. Often, they do not just play but develop plans, plots, and ploys. Being that Luke's birthday is November 28, it sometimes coincides with Thanksgiving.
Dylan Marshall
Dylan Stardust Marshall (Reid Ewing), sometimes called "D-Money" by Phil, is the on-and-off boyfriend (and eventual husband) of Haley Dunphy, introduced as a senior in high school who plays guitar, sings in a band, and has no plans for college. He is often put into awkward situations by Phil, who wishes for the two to be friends. He has diverse interests that are often surprising, such as his love of old Western films. He also sometimes reveals a sort-of attraction to Claire when he gives her a rose on Valentine's Day, saying that "every mom should look as tasty as you when they're old." He also had a dream involving a (suggested) sexual encounter involving himself, Haley, and Claire. Claire strongly dislikes him, to the point of trying to introduce other boys to Haley just so that they break up or don't get back together. He loves the confidence Haley gets from being part of such a loving family and does not mind hanging around during family get-togethers. He wrote a song for Haley, "In the Moonlight (Do Me)," and performed it for her extended family. The song was about sex, and most of the family were surprised by the suggestive lyrics, but it became stuck in all of their heads the next day. He finds inspiration for his music from Bob Dylan, Sum 41, Blink-182 and New Kids on the Block.
Dylan temporarily leaves the cast to work on a ranch after Haley rejects his marriage proposal in the first episode of season three, "Dude Ranch." In the episode "Virgin Territory" Alex reveals that Haley had lost her virginity to Dylan before they broke up; she told Claire three months earlier, but not Phil. In the episode "Disneyland," Dylan reveals he lost his job on the ranch and moved back to California, taking a job at Disneyland as a Dapper Dan. He and Haley get back together to Claire's dismay and Phil's delight. In the season finale, "Baby on Board," Haley discovers she was accepted to college. She and Dylan maintain their relationship, and Dylan lives with the Dunphys for a few months. In Season 4, Dylan is invited to move in with Cam and Mitch after his job as a limo driver led him to their Valentine's Day party. He ends up getting fired, and while Cam and Mitch separately tell him he can stick around, Lily angrily tells him he isn't welcome there and shouts at him until he leaves the house. In Season 8, he marries a doctor named Elaine Kolchek and has three step-kids, much to Haley's dismay as she feels she lost her "romantic safety net." By Season 9, Elaine has left him for her ex-husband. In Season 10, Dylan and Haley get back together and she becomes pregnant. They marry and deliver twins, Poppy and George. In the series finale, the new family moves into Mitch and Cam's former duplex.
The Pritchett family
Jay Pritchett
Jay Francis Pritchett (Ed O'Neill) is the father of Claire, Mitchell, and Joe; husband of Gloria; maternal grandfather of Haley, Alex, Luke; and paternal grandfather of Lily and Rexford; father-in-law of Phil and Cam; and step-father of Manny. He is the ex-owner of a closet company and is presumably the wealthiest family member and, occasionally, the family's chieftain in many situations. Jay has a dry and sarcastic sense of humor. As with his son and daughter, Jay is generally more realistic, mild-mannered, and sensible than his partner, Gloria, who is unashamed because Jay is many years her senior. A recurring plot involves Jay's relationship with his son Mitchell, which became more complicated due to Jay's reaction to Mitchell's sexual orientation. Humor and plot points are also derived from Jay's relationship with his son-in-law Phil; Jay often mistreats and antagonizes him despite Phil's constant attempts to gain Jay's approval. Nevertheless, Jay thinks very highly of Phil, despite their differences, and said so in Season 3.
Jay has several masculine character attributes, including a fondness for sports and model airplanes. Jay is also shown to be compassionate occasionally, showing affection for members of the extended family, particularly to Manny, his step-son; their relationship seems to become more positive as the series progresses, eventually becoming a typical father-son relationship, and Jay eventually comes to see Manny as his third child. The third season's finale reveals that Gloria is pregnant, but Jay does not know yet. In the first episode of the fourth season, Gloria tells Jay and he tells her that it's the greatest news he has heard. The baby was male, which relieved Jay because it says in the episode "Snip" that he was afraid of having a girl. Jay is a dog-lover. He sometimes goes overboard in treating his dog, Stella, as his favorite member of the family, much to Gloria's chagrin, and Jay is thrilled when he realizes that Joe is not allergic to Stella, but to Gloria's face cream, in the episode "Rash Decisions." Jay is farsighted (hyperopia). Jay served in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. His birthday is April 1, as shown in the episode "Grill, Interrupted."
Accolades
O'Neill was consecutively nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2011, 2012, and 2013. In 2011, he was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series and Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Gloria Pritchett
Gloria Maria Ramirez Pritchett (Sofía Vergara), formerly Delgado and née Ramirez, is Jay's second wife and mother to Manny and Joe. She is from Barranquilla, Colombia (as is Sofía Vergara herself). She is a very loving wife and mother. At first, the family (specifically Claire) does not accept her because of her age difference to Jay. In the episode "Coal Digger," Luke calls her a coal digger, a mishearing of when Claire called her a gold digger. The most frequent running gag involving the character is her mispronunciation of common English words and phrases. Vergara confirmed that many of these mispronunciations are improvised.
Gloria often supports Manny when Jay tries to tell him to be less sensitive or hide his cultural background. However, she does occasionally display some odd parenting techniques. For example, when Manny was first born, she had wanted a daughter, and therefore for the first year of his life, she dressed him like one and told all her friends he was a girl. She later told Manny (after he found the pictures of himself like this) that the child in question was his "twin sister who died at the age of one." In the sixth episode of Season One, she chastises Jay for forcing Manny to remove his poncho for school. When they get to the school to return the poncho and realize that Manny has a plan to play folk music to his classmates with his pan flute (which was inside the poncho), Gloria tells Jay to break the flute, saying in her interview that "the poncho by itself is fine. The poncho, plus the flute, plus the stupid dance? My son will die a virgin."
Gloria is a terrible driver, though she is oblivious to this. She is also very comfortable with death (on one occasion killing and beheading a rat with a shovel right before she left for church and leaving the head "as a warning to the other rats"), on account of a couple of her relatives being butchers. She is an excellent marksman, often just using one hand and never misses a shot, even saying to Manny that she could have unbuttoned his shirt if she wanted to with her gun (formerly Manny's BB gun). She has a very high tolerance for spicy food and has perhaps the strongest religious views of any family member. She loves her family and spends a great deal of time with Lily because she fixates on having a daughter. Mitchell and Cameron asked her and Jay to become guardians of Lily if anything were to happen to them.
Gloria has something of a shady past. Doubts have also been raised about her income: her only mentioned employment was as a hairdresser (and later as a taxi driver), and Claire, Jay's daughter, originally labeled Gloria as a "gold-digger" for marrying her wealthy father. It seems likely that Jay is her major source of income. However, in the Season 5 episode "A Hard Jay's Night," the hair shop where she used to work is shown, and it is clarified that Jay is indeed her major current source of income. In the final episode of Season 3, it was revealed that she is pregnant. Her newest son, Fulgencio, a.k.a. Joe, is born in the Season 4 episode "Party Crasher." In the episode "Fifteen Percent," she reveals that she comes from a neighborhood of prostitutes after she said her neighborhood had a saying that "Love is just around the corner." The Hispanic American character of Gloria was based on the character of Angela in the Jim Jarmusch film Night on Earth (1991), played by American actress Rosie Perez. In season 6, Gloria officially became an American citizen.
Accolades
Sofía Vergara has been nominated four times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries, or Television Film. In 2011, Vergara was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries, or Television Film and Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She was also nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series in 2011, 2012, and 2013.
Manny Delgado
Manuel Alberto Javier Alejandro "Manny" Ramirez Delgado (Rico Rodriguez), Gloria's son from her first marriage to Javier, is very outgoing but rather self-conscious. He is brilliant, probably second after Alex, but in a creative, rather than academic, way. He is also mature and intuitive for his age and is often shown doing adult-like things, such as writing precocious poetry for his crushes who are mostly older than him, having conversations with Claire about her marriage and kids, and drinking coffee. He even engaged in the stock market business and briefly considered following his biological father's footsteps by becoming a professional gambler.
Manny has inherited his mother's passion for life (although he is terrified of butterflies), though Gloria has also said, "Manny is passionate, just like his father." This causes Manny to be very romantic. Manny is not afraid to take chances, leading him to ask out older girls, and develops a crush on his step-niece Haley, to whom he gave flowers on "Pilot" and even kissed in "Three Turkeys." He idolizes his absentee father, often speaking about him in a positive light, even after being repeatedly disappointed by his father's broken promises. He plays for a football team, fences, and is a skilled chess player. He is often seen wearing or intending to wear his "burgundy dinner jacket." Manny was in the fifth grade in Season 1, the ninth grade in Season 5, and attends his first year of college Season 9. Manny and his step-nephew Luke are good friends who each admire the strengths of the other, although they spend a great deal of scheming against/fighting with each other as well.
Joe Pritchett
Fulgencio Joseph "Joe" Ramirez Pritchett (Jeremy Maguire) is Jay and Gloria's son. Gloria discovers she is pregnant with him in the final episode of season 3, his existence is revealed to the rest of the cast in the first episode of season 4, and he is born in "Party Crasher." Throughout the series, Joe is shown to be a mature, street-smart child, inheriting his wit from his father. Joe's christening takes place in "Fulgencio." In the Season 5 episode "Spring-a-Ding-Fling", he begins walking. In the episode "Larry's Wife", Gloria calls over the priest, believing that there is evil in Joe. When his birthday is celebrated in the Season 5 episode "And One to Grow On," it is indicated that his party is the day after Manny's birthday party, indicating the proximity of their birthdays. In the episode "Queer Eyes, Full Hearts", Manny's Spanish teacher teaches Joe to swim.
Stella
Stella (Brigitte) is the French bulldog of the Pritchett family, introduced in "Good Cop Bad Dog" (season 2, episode 22). She was the dog of a man named Guillermo (Lin-Manuel Miranda), an inventor, but when Jay convinced him to abandon his idea and return to school, Guillermo gave Stella to the family. Jay wanted to get rid of her but eventually came around. She is very problematic and often destroys things, mostly Gloria's belongings. However, Jay has a great affection for her (letting her sleep in his bed and feeding her from the dinner table), which infuriates Gloria because Jay seems to pay more love and attention to the dog than to her.