Modern Family is an American television sitcom created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan that aired on ABC from September 23, 2009 to April 8, 2020 for 11 seasons and 250 episodes.

Modern Family employs an ensemble cast and is presented in a mockumentary style, with the characters frequently speaking directly to the camera in confessional interview segments.

She is married to Phil Dunphy, a realtor and a self-professed "cool dad", who is also an amateur magician and real-estate lecturer at community college.

They have three children: Haley, a stereotypically ditzy teenaged girl;[8] Alex, an intelligent and nerdy middle child;[9] and Luke, the offbeat only son.

[29][30] Nathan Lane appeared as Cameron and Mitchell's flamboyant friend Pepper Saltzman; he was nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.

[31][32][33] Adam DeVine appeared as Andy Bailey, Jay and Gloria's "manny" (male nanny), Phil's assistant and Haley's ex-boyfriend.

Elizabeth Banks appeared as Mitch and Cam's fun-loving friend Sal; she was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series at the 67th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in 2015.

[42] Lloyd and Levitan, whose credits both include Frasier, Wings, and Just Shoot Me!, are executive producers of the series, serving as showrunner and head writer under their Lloyd-Levitan Productions label in affiliation with 20th Century Fox Television.

[41] The other original producers on the writing team were Paul Corrigan, Sameer Gardezi, Joe Lawson, Dan O'Shannon, Brad Walsh, Caroline Williams, Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker, and Jeff Morton.

"Chris and I are both strong, opinionated people, and we very, very quickly realized it doesn't make sense to sit here and debate each other and waste time," Levitan told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012.

[45] As a result of the show's success, the cast attempted to renegotiate their contracts in the summer of 2012 to obtain higher per-episode fees, but talks broke down to the point that the fourth season's first table read had to be postponed.

[67] In a 2014 article in Slate, the site's podcast executive producer, Andy Bowers, a resident of Los Angeles' Westside, where the show films most of its exteriors, praised the series for its realistic depiction of life in that part of the city.

According to market research company Parrot Analytics, which examines consumer engagement across streaming, downloads, and social media, Modern Family has experienced a notable increase in interest since its debut on Hulu and Peacock in 2021.

In response to the controversy, producers released a statement that a season two episode would address Mitchell's discomfort with public displays of affection.

[142] Robert Bianco of USA Today gave the second season four out of four stars, saying "Not since Frasier has a sitcom offered such an ideal blend of heart and smarts, or proven itself so effortlessly adept at so many comic variations, from subtle wordplay to big-laugh slapstick to everything in between.

On Rotten Tomatoes, season three has a rating of 92% based on 13 reviews, with an average score of 8.33/10 and the consensus: "Modern Family settles into a well-oiled groove, consistently delivering inspired farce and making it look effortless.

The writing is Vorsprung durch Technik: hectically compressed but dramatically elegant, prodigal in its zingers and snorters but austere in its construction."

Rotten Tomatoes gives the season an approval rating of 67% based on 11 reviews, with an average score of 7.75/10 and the consensus: "Modern Family still has charm to burn and boasts a uniformly excellent cast, but the series' subversive edge has dulled".

[156] Halfway through the season, Rachel Stein of Television Without Pity wrote, "much as I liked the pairings and some of the dialogue, ["New Year's Eve"] is just another contrived episode of Modern Family we can cite when we talk later about how a different show should have won the 2013 Emmy for Best Comedy.

[159] Reviewing the season's first eight episodes, Matthew Wolfson of Slant Magazine wrote that the show "appear[ed] to have finally arrived at the depressing and predictable low point toward which it [had] been trending for the past two years."

He also went on to say that the show had "turned into a shrill pastiche of stereotypical characterizations and superficial banter lacking both feeling and wit", assigning it a rating of 1.5/4 stars.

One writer for the magazine, Joshua Alston, gave "ClosetCon '13" a "C+" and remarked that "Modern Family becomes a high-wire act when it separates its characters into three storylines with no overlap between them.

The series was praised for its tackling of Haley's pregnancy, the humor of Mitch and Cam looking after Cal, and its dealing with change in a positive way.

The show also later received a GLSEN Respect Award for its portrayal of "positive images and storylines that reflect a diverse America, including the depiction of a family headed by a gay couple."

In June 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked Modern Family number 34 on a list of the 101 most well-written television series ever made.

"[191] Late Night with Jimmy Fallon writer Ali Waller asked her Twitter followers in 2013 "If Modern Family is so 'modern' then why don't any of the women have jobs?

According to a CNET staffer commenting on a first-season episode: "The wife and daughter are unable to learn how to use the remote and must be taught by the father, while the son is 'good with electronics,' even though he is thought of as the stupidest member of the family.

"[194] Arianna Reiche from Gawker commented on the episode "Game Changer" in which Gloria hides her skill at chess so her husband will not be upset at losing: "This moment is at best a sappy quip about compromise in an often heavy-handed series, and at worst, it's a moment in a show with 9.3 million viewers, on a network owned by Disney, which explicitly validates girls and women subduing their intellect.

[214] In June 2020, ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke discussed a spin-off of Modern Family centered around Mitch and Cam, inspired by an idea from series co-creator and executive producer, Steven Levitan.

"[216] In September 2024, Eric Stonestreet stated that the spin-off "[isn't] potential anymore" and that the time to produce it has passed, despite believing that the series would have been a "slam dunk".