The episode was written by Danny Zuker, with the story co-written by Zucker and Bianca Douglas.

Justin Kirk guest stars in the episode as Mitchell's boss, Charlie Bingham.

Claire (Julie Bowen) tries to teach Alex (Ariel Winter) and Haley (Sarah Hyland) a life lesson after the girls fight for being in the same math class.

The third story of the episode revolves around the growing bond between Jay (Ed O'Neill) and the dog Stella (Brigitte), something that gets on Gloria's (Sofía Vergara) nerves.

Lusia Strus also guest stars in the episode as Officer Belvin, a cop with which Claire quickly becomes enemies.

In its original American broadcast, "Phil on Wire" was viewed by an estimated 13.45 million viewers and received a 5.7 rating/15% share among adults 18 to 49.

[7] Episodes like “Manny Get Your Gun” and last week’s “When Good Kids Go Bad” take seemingly disparate storylines and fuse them successfully into one fully realized story.

[...] And it isn’t at all hokey, because the very end of the episode has Phil admitting just how oblivious he is to all of the meaningful messages being embodied by his family members."