These Modern Times are A-Changin’

Modern Family has ended after eleven seasons. I’ve watched it from the first season and caught every episode since then. I wouldn’t definitively say that I’m sad that it’s over, but I do have that feeling of a piece of me is missing without it. As is typically the feeling after a long running and beloved show comes to an end.

One of the reasons for that feeling with this show is how traditional it feels and that not many show like this will be made again. It more than just the completion of a show, it’s the ending of an era of a new type of an old show. That encapsulates what Modern Family was — spinning a new, dare we say modern, take on an old format.

But even that new take has moved past its peak, defining, with a group of others, the decade of immense and lasting change in the medium as much as its content.

Being a show on broadcast TV, with a scheduled release day, a sitcom, repeatable weekly format, two dozen episodes a season, with syndication.

Being a show about a family with an interracial second marriage with a thirty year age gap, a nuclear family, with kids who fail most of the time, and a gay couple with an adopted daughter from another country.

I Love Lucy this is not. All in the Family this is not. The Cosby Show this is not. Even Everybody Loves Raymond, this is not. It was a new vision, both in substance and format.

The format they used at the time was a refresh of an old genre — the sitcom. While they didn’t trailblazer the docu format of this era like Arrested Development or The Office, they used it in a manner that fit with the tone of the writing, acting, and intention of the show. Blending the single camera function, with the docu reality ascetic, with the cut away tool of animation, it allowed for a familiar structure while adapting to the changing landscape of the viewing audience, all while allowing the show room to breath.

Those changing audiences were reflected in its DNA. The standard old version of a nuclear family is no longer relevant. Current families in America are mixed race, mixed generation, and mixed sexual orientation.

Now I’m not blind to the fact that this still sticks to a distinctly white, middle-upperclass focus and the point of view that comes along, with true racial diversity lacking. But these are characters that I relate with and I hope their stories and conflicts resonate universally, but if they don’t I get it and wish there is a show similar to this that does make that connection for you.

With that said, the one area of diversity and inclusion that was emblematic of the show was a focus was the gay relationship. The relationship of Cam and Mitch was endearing and funny. But to me the best part of how their relationship was presented in the show was how normal it was, at a time before it was more fully accepted. These guys are gay, but so what, whiteout even calling out the ‘so what’. They made fun of being gay or straight using wit, charm, and some cliches. The same can be said for all the multiple groups or lanes the characters also associated with in the show.

Each character had their place in the family and in the show. Sure troupes of misdirection and miscommunication were used aplenty over the seasons, but it was all grounded in the characters and their genuine cares and passions established earlier and developed through out the run.

What it comes down to of why it was such a great show is that the characters were genuine. They were distinct and true to their choices, while being vulnerable, and growing over time. They had a true caring for each other and they felt like family, as any truly great show does.

This is another long running series coming to an end over the past year, in what seems window where all great series have finished. What this means, is a wide open space for the new to find a way to capture the imagination.

But while there will be inventive new shows in the future, this type of show feels like the closing of a specific era in TV. While I am already feeling nostalgic for it, I am ready for the next, but happy to have experienced it and will remember it fondly.