[2] The season was produced by Lloyd-Levitan Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television, with series creators Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd serving as showrunners.

The third season of the show was produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Lloyd-Levitan Productions and aired on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

Claire is a homemaker mom married to Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell); they have three children, Haley (Sarah Hyland), the typical teenager,[9] Alex (Ariel Winter), the smart middle child[10] and Luke (Nolan Gould), the offbeat only son.

[11] Jay is married to a much younger Colombian woman, Gloria (Sofía Vergara), and is helping her raise her pre-teen son, Manny (Rico Rodriguez).

In the season premiere, Tim Blake Nelson guest starred as a cowboy who "intimidates the guys and sends the girls' hearts a-twitter".

[21] When Phil takes Haley to his Alma Mater on a trip to visit colleges, Claire persuades Mitchell and Cameron to include her in their boys' night out.

Gloria persuades Jay to commit to a night of salsa dancing after seeing how much his friend Shorty (Chazz Palminteri) and his girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly) do together.

Meanwhile, Cameron makes a bet that he can get a woman's (Leslie Mann) phone number at the bar and Phil builds a tree house for Luke.

Jay and Claire take control of their kids' school projects from Manny and Luke, while Haley and Gloria help Phil with a real estate presentation.

The season has received an overall positive reception, most of which stated that the series had lost some of its originality and wit while falling prey to comedy clichés, while praising its writing and humour.

[46] James Parker of The Atlantic said, at the beginning of the third season that "Modern Family is very, very funny, almost ruthlessly so," [It's] a bit of a master class in pace and brevity ...