How This Became The Worst Episode Of Modern Family

Very few sitcoms these days have a run like Modern Family did. Lasting 11 seasons, Modern Family gave us a glimpse into what a familial network sitcom could look like in today's age. Though the show started off incredible strong, as the seasons went on it was obvious Modern Family was losing it's touch. Leading to one of the worst episodes of Modern Family ever made.

#modernfamily #haleydunphy #nerdstalgic

Written by Brian Long
Edited by Nick Murphy

[alexd]

It wasn’t the format that killed modern family, season 6 starts the downfall because the kids get old and demand their own story line and dilute the beauty of the adults dealing with their family problems and such

[liamellis-mergl]

This is not the worst episode of modern family, it's just an example of an episode that doesn't quite work. There are weaker episodes for sure

[tresfordays]

Part of the joy of a sitcom is to just watch the funny and charismatic characters interact, there doesn’t always have to be a major overarching plot line episode to episode, I like when sitcoms used to give us 20 episode seasons and we got to spend more time with these characters we love, I’ll take 20 episode seasons of stuff like Community, Moderns Family, and Brooklyn99 with fluff or bottle episodes over this 10 episodes every year and a half model we have now

[katherinemadden]

Honestly I think 22 episodes is a good model, there’s a reason the characters in modern family feel like they’re a real family. It’s because we see them all year even doing things that a more story driven show would deem as “filler”, but in 11 seasons there’s gonna be some bad episodes and the longer it goes on the more there will be.

[Hockeyfan]

I have to disagree. The issue of Modern Family was eventually having to deal with the kids being older and not really adapting to that change. But the charm and beauty of Modern Family is that there is really no overarching story line, it’s just a fun episode every week every season letting you grow and love the characters more and more. It’s what I love about the show.

[chrisandkatiebrooke]

If the show is well written and well acted, you will want 22 episodes and not 13

[oscar]

I’m watching Modern Family for the third time right now and I like longer seasons rather than short seasons. Even if some episodes are could be considered filler episodes I think every episode has a memorable moment that you’ll remember the episode for. Modern Family is my favorite show and 11 seasons of content to watch whenever I feel like it is awesome!

[amitagarwal]

Don't put out videos just for putting them out on YT. You talked about the episode for 2 minutes out of 8 minutes total, in which the criticism did not even stick and the rest of the video was filled with criticizing Modern family season length and praising other sitcoms length and material. I am consuming Nerdstalgic for a really long time but this was one of the worst episodes YOU have ever done.

[hobblyjig]

I disagree that the idea that requiring a certain number of episodes is always bad. Sometimes pushing a creative person (writers in this case) to go beyond what comes easily can result in gems that would never have come to light otherwise.

[waleeeja]

i think modern family started to go down-hill when the kids were getting older and the writers didn’t really know what to do with them (tied in with the fact that 11 seasons was getting a bit too long.) for example, luke was the silly, dumb, cute kid; but from season 5 and onwards, he was too old to play such a role. from there on, the writers just did his character dirty. and as for haley, she had so much potential - it was sweet that by the end she got married and had the twins, but as for her career, considering she had such high emotional intelligence (unlike alex) which was displayed throughout the series, the writers could’ve worked with that; but instead they completely ignored it.

i know that in real life not everyone makes use of their full potential and life as a whole is a crazy journey, but i think that for a tv show, they could’ve been a bit more creative and had SOME characters (cough cough, LUKE) do something meaningful with their lives.

also, i think week-to-week episodes are much better as compared to binging. i feel like releasing all the episodes in one go isn’t doing the show and the effort that went into making it much justice - the cast members spend HOURS on set and work so hard, only for their show to be released in one go and to not get the appreciation it deserves. also, i personally like to have something to look forward to every week.

[Anna-B]

I like longer seasons. I like getting immersed into the world and the lives of the characters, and that can’t happen with shorter seasons

[AnnAD]

i feel like most shows with short seasons feel off. they don't give the characters enough room to show their true colors, they tell and don't show. And that's why recently i haven't gotten as attached to any characters

[DiegoOrtiz-jxze]

Mitchel is a lawyer I don’t think it’s far fetched they introduced law enforcement for his character

[davidmylchreest]

I love Modern Family, but any show with 250 episodes is going to have some filler. A flaw with any long running network show, sitcom or not, is that the later seasons (anything after season 5 as a rule of thumb) run out of things to do with the characters and the writers are forced to use the bottom drawer ideas like in the episode you highlighted with Mitch becoming a policeman.

[aubreylore]

My biggest issue with the week to week, is that instead of starting and finishing the show when I feel like it, I end up forgetting about the show as I move onto something else during that week timeframe.

[johnprager]

Most shows shouldn't last longer than 5 seasons. But American television can't simply let a show end before they squeeze it dry of any humor so shows are prolonged past their expiration date

[JayceeChax]

Mitchell and Cam never learn from their mistakes - they have the same fight again and again and again.

[VJT]

Worst Episode for me is the episode in s11 when Manny breaks up Luke and his ex when they get together. It made me realize that while the other kids developed. Manny became the same momma’s boy in an older kids body. He never changed, he wants independence but doesn’t want to be independent.

[PurgPurg]

My guy is upset about filler in modern family

[DukeSkylocker]

Too many episodes wasn't the problem. I mean yeah maybe a lower episode count might have meant the writers wouldn't have been stretched as thin but the bigger issues were a) they didn't know what to do with so many of the characters 2) it was just getting too hard to keep track of them. The latter point may have made things even harder with a lower episode count.

When the series started it was simple: three families, each with a working parent, a stay at home parent and kids who were at max in high school. Yes this got criticism because most modern families don't have the luxury of one provider being enough but then again most families would not be able to afford such places in California. Having only one provider meant Phil's real estate buisness, Mitch's attorney work and Jay's closet company could get the focus they needed. Meanwhile, all of the kids (except Lilly) were in the same school meaning it was easy to get their plot lines to converge. By season 9, you had to add to that Cam's job as coach, Claire's job running Pritchett's Closets (which felt like more time was spent on that than all the other jobs combined) and also having to follow the diverging paths of all the kids, from Haley (jumping between jobs) to Alex (college) to Luke (working at the club plus debating whether to pursue college) to Manny (college) with Lilly being the only one in school. This made it so easy to lose track of characters and where they were at this point in their lives.

For instance, when they mentioned in this episode that Mitch was freelancing I remember thinking "oh yeah, he lost his stable job several seasons ago - wait why are they only addressing that now?". Similarly, Gloria's sauce buisness felt like it was only brought up because they wanted to wrap up a plot line they started way back and then went nowhere with it. Phil's magic shop was introduced this season and then barely touched upon other than offhand jokes that he was losing money badly on it (it's also implied that he's struggling in real estate but somehow that doesn't affect their finances). And so little time was devoted to Lilly's school life that when they just out of the blue brought up that she was smart and popular they tried to pass that off as a clever joke on Cam and Mitch when it was just lazy writing, while even less time was devoted to Manny's college life. For a show that only added one more character to the main cast (Joe) it's amazing just how much more cluttered the later seasons felt.