The TV Column

Modern Family crosses into virtual-reality world

Ty Burrell stars as Phil Dunphy in a special episode of Modern Family airing at 8 p.m. Wednesday on ABC.
Ty Burrell stars as Phil Dunphy in a special episode of Modern Family airing at 8 p.m. Wednesday on ABC.

Here's the challenge: How do you keep the buzz buzzing around your aging sitcom?

The word sitcom comes from "situation comedy." Let's face it, there are only so many situations available out there before they begin to repeat themselves.

ABC's Modern Family is in Season 6 now and it wasn't that long ago it was the hippest comedy on the tube. (Yes, kids, before flat screens, TV sets used to have tubes.) The three wacky families involving Jay Pritchett (Ed O'Neill) and his two grown children were the darling of TV.

Darling? That's an understatement. Modern Family has won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy in each of the past five seasons. That ties it with Frasier (1993-2004) as the only other comedy with five wins.

That's only appropriate since Modern Family was created by former Frasier executive producers Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd.

Why, then, do I have a co-worker who says he used to watch Modern Family, but it has become predictable and boring? Is that a growing sentiment out there in TV land?

Modern Family's ratings have declined a bit since the peak of 2011 (16.7 million), but that's to be expected over such a long run. The show was still pulling in 14.3 million last year and is near that mark this season, once you factor in the seven-day DVR viewings.

In this age of fragmented audiences, those numbers are still impressive, but age and familiarity is causing Modern Family to slip out of the buzz zone.

How do Levitan and Lloyd keep the show fresh as the cute little kids grow older and the sitcom situations begin to look familiar? The temptation may be simply to coast along after six years, but that's not the case this week.

Wednesday's Modern Family episode, "Connection Lost," airs at 8 p.m. and is to be applauded for attempting something different.

In the episode, Claire Dunphy's (Julie Bowen) laptop is our window into the action. It becomes the hub of the episode's activities when Claire gets stuck at the airport and is desperate to reach daughter Haley (Sarah Hyland) after the two have a big fight.

After FaceTiming (live video chatting, for those out of the loop) with hubby Phil (Ty Burrell) and the rest of the family to help track down Haley, Claire turns to online snooping. That quickly becomes disturbing as everyone gets sucked into the online drama.

The innovation? The episode takes place entirely on a computer and in the virtual reality of social media. Levitan co-wrote the episode and directed.

The episode will certainly look different. A few scenes were shot on a MacBook Pro, but the rest used iPhone 6s and iPads. Levitan told The Associated Press the episode was inspired by his online dealings with one of his daughters away at college.

"I had emails open, some websites," Levitan said, "then my daughter showed up on FaceTime. I could not only see her, but I could see me, and there was something going on behind me, my wife or somebody. I realized on that screen, you could tell so much about my life."

Those of us shackled to our electronic devices will be able to relate. Some young folks I know rarely raise their heads from their iPhones. The online world has replaced imaginary friends.

In Modern Family's 2009 debut, Haley is called down to dinner the old-fashioned way -- by yelling for her up the stairs. "Why are you yelling," Haley asks, "why don't you just text me?"

About the episode, self-confessed "super techno geek" Levitan said, "This came from life and it made sense."

So, if you haven't seen Modern Family in a while, be sure to check out Wednesday's episode. We need to encourage innovation.

In case you've forgotten, Modern Family also stars Sofia Vergara as Jay's wife, Gloria; Rico Rodriguez as her son, Manny; Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Jay's son, Mitchell, and Eric Stonestreet as Mitchell's husband, Cameron; and Aubrey Anderson-Emmons as their adopted daughter, Lily.

Playing the two youngest Dunphy kids are Nolan Gould as Luke and Ariel Winter as Alex.

No John for Jon. Bad news for John Oliver fans hoping he would be the replacement for Jon Stewart when Stewart leaves Comedy Central's The Daily Show later this year.

HBO has given the green light to two more seasons of Oliver's Last Week Tonight. That translates to 35 new episodes each in 2016 and 2017.

Oliver has just recently begun Season 2 of the critically acclaimed comedy show that brings us smart, witty social commentary each Sunday at 10 p.m. It's pithy satire delivered with a British accent and well worth your time.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style on 02/24/2015

Upcoming Events