Something occurred to me as I l laughed my way through the latest episode of Modern Family, the show’s 127th, to be exact. This is a really good show. Given that I watch like nine different shows a week and have binge-watched dozens more over the past few years, I sort of take it for granted. Yet, every Wednesday, without fail, I’m watching it regardless. And now, reflecting on what makes the show tick, I can’t help but think it owes a lot to Arrested Development, the cult classic FOX show that was killed too soon, and only recently resurrected by Netflix as a somewhat zombified version of itself. Avid Arrested Development fans may lament the comparison to a mainstream, successful, “boring” show like Modern Family, but I think the two share more than a little common ground. In fact, I think Modern Family is only successful at all because it pulled the most important elements from the show and made them accessible to the kind of wide audience that Arrested failed to attract when it aired. Modern Family took the central concept of Arrested Development, a single camera comedy about a dysfunctional family littered with inside jokes, and made it dramatically more appealing. The most important change? The Dunphy/Pritchetts are likable, as opposed to the reviled Bluths.
Now just because the Bluths aren’t likable that doesn’t meant Arrested was bad and the comedy doesn’t work. And in no way am I saying Modern Family is better than Arrested; it simply is more accessible, and inarguably, more successful as a result.
There are almost no Bluths you actually root for, and certainly no valuable life lessons to be learned at the end of the day. Even the lead characters always trying to do the right thing make very questionable decisions, Michael abandoning his family when he can and stealing Gob’s girl, George Michael having an eternal crush on his cousin, etc. And everyone else is either insane (Tobias, Buster), corrupt (George Sr, Lucille) or selfish (Gob, Lindsay).
Not so with Modern Family. Most characters are presented with some sort of flaw, yes: Claire is uptight, Phil is a goof, Jay is grumpy, Haley is dumb, Cam is dramatic, and so on. However, the show goes out of its way to ensure we love them all the same. The show centers on “feel good” plotlines that ensure we never stray from loving the characters despite their faults.
That may sound like typical sitcom BS, the type that overstuffed the 90s with “family values” and laugh tracks, but Modern Family deserves more credit than that. It’s actually a very smartly written show. Its plotlines weave in and out of each other almost seamlessly, and more often than not, the events of the evening come together at the end for a great finale. There are a few long-running jokes on the show, but most are kept to the short term.
The problem with Arrested Development was that it was a show made for binge-watching before binge-watching was a mainstream thing, relegated only to pirates or those willing to shell out $40-$80 for a DVD box set. As such, trying to keep track of Arrested Development‘s inside jokes week to week was a much more challenging task for viewers. But by keeping its recurring jokes contained within the episode for the most part, Modern Family has managed to create good, smart, memorable episodes that are also self-contained, and don’t require you to have watched two previous seasons to understand half the jokes.
And really, Arrested was at its best when it was operating like this as well. My favorite episode was in season three where George Sr. researches a jet pack to escape from house arrest, Tobias buys a mole costume mistaking instructions from the FBI, and Japanese developers are coming to look at the new development, which is nothing more than a series of small-scale models tricking them using forced perspective. All three of these elements combined in a hysterical scene where Tobias stumbles through the fake development like a movie monster in his mole costume, and George Michael swoops in using the jetpack to fight him in front of the Japanese audience. And all of these elements were self-contained within the episode.
This is what Modern Family does nearly every week. Even if the end result isn’t AS funny as anything Arrested ever came up with, the formula still works, and it’s the secret sauce as to why Modern Family continues to be funny and have must-see episodes even after all these lengthy seasons. It’s jokes are self contained within each episode for the most part, but they’re woven together in a way that makes for a great finale nearly every time. Combine that with a likable family and four of the most gorgeous women on television these days (Vergara, Bowen, Hyland and Winter), and it’s a recipe for eternal success, as long as they want to be on the air.
[Photos via FOX and ABC]
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