The Afterword: Why ‘Modern Family’ Isn’t So Modern Anymore
I was 9 years old when “Modern Family” first aired in 2009, and I watched the show religiously. I remember how much of a hit it was for children and adults alike, how lauded it was for its progressive material. Wednesday night, ABC aired the first episode of the show’s 11th and final season. That struck a nostalgic chord in me, and I found myself rewatching the pilot. That’s when I realized — a lot has changed in 10 years, and we’ve been around for all of it.
Rewatching the pilot made me feel like I was experiencing a tangible manifestation of social change. When it began airing, “Modern Family” was praised for being progressive — it was one of the first network sitcoms that followed a gay couple, Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cam (Eric Stonestreet), on their journey to adopt a baby. It was applauded for its ethnic diversity in the casting of Sofia Vergara as Gloria and Rico Rodriguez as Manny. In 2010, it won six Emmy Awards, including the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. The consensus was overwhelmingly positive: “Modern Family” was taking a big step in the right direction.
And while that still holds true a decade later, the show’s pilot probably wouldn’t even meet anyone’s standards today. I’m not just saying that to be a stickler — watching that same pilot in 2019, the lack of representation and sensitivity jumped out at me. Aside from Gloria and Manny, the main cast does not feature a single person of color. The Dunphys, while hilarious, are a white, upper-middle-class family from California — far from the average American family. Gloria’s character is a two-dimensional trope of negative Latinx stereotypes. Need a little more convincing? Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill), Mitch’s dad, refers to his son’s newly adopted Vietnamese baby as a “potsticker.” Yikes.
What really got me thinking, though, was the fact that every couple in the pilot was married except for Mitch and Cam — and not because they didn’t want to get married, but because in 2009, gay marriage was illegal, even in California.
Though the 2009 pilot does not fit into a 2019 framework, that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it is quite the opposite. It’s a great thing that in the past decade — a decade my peers and I experienced and played a significant role in — enough has changed that something viewed as highly progressive in 2009 can be astutely criticized today. It’s a great thing that the issue of representation in the media has become so prevalent that the show’s shortcomings presented themselves to me as big, fat red flags. Most importantly, it was a wild feeling to watch that pilot as a 20-year-old and think, “From start to finish, we’ve been here for all of this.” It makes progress feel tangible, and it makes me hopeful that our generation will continue to witness and enact change on a greater scale, at greater velocity, throughout the rest of our lives.
At a time when it’s easy to feel disillusioned and to focus on all the work that has yet to be done in our society, we tend to forget that we are an integral part of the work being done right now. It may take patience to reap the fruits of change, but paradigms have shifted and are continuing to shift. The show’s trajectory throughout the last decade is a testament to that.
And as the show’s time on air comes to an end, I have no doubt that the next hit family sitcom will make up for what “Modern Family” lacked in representation, in social awareness, in substance. I have no doubt that its pilot will be celebrated for the progress it reflects. And I have no doubt that 10 years from now, we’ll have conquered yet another slew of beasts and will be taking on the next challenge.
Rachel McKenzie is a junior writing about pop culture. Her column “The Afterword” runs every other Friday.