“Wow. Paisley and pink. Was there something wrong with the fishnet tank top?” – Mitchell to Cameron on his outfit choice for their first toddler play class
After catching a few minutes of Hank‘s premiere tonight, I realized just how strong Modern Family really is, and also that it lives up to its name. I’m sure Hank is a very sweet family comedy with some laughs — and a laugh-track. I love Kelsey Grammer and I loved Frasier, but now I think it’s time for a new style of family comedy to take center stage, and Modern Family is it.
First of all, thank you for the lack of laugh-track. I think shows like The Office and Modern Family could be taking their cues from the last decade or so’s many successfully dramedies, which are hilarious without the use of the laugh-track. I get that Modern Family and The Office are both using the documentary style of filming, but I do think the likes of Ally McBeal and Psych proved or are proving that you can laugh out loud without a cue to do so.
As I said last week, Modern Family is targeting smart viewers in a refreshing divergence from most of current television programming. For example:
“My dad’s great with tools. He can get the wheels off a car in less than a minute.” – Manny
Had you not been listening closely, you would have missed that, right? Irreverent and hilarious and entertaining. And so not politically correct, which makes it all the more hilarious.
Are you enjoying Modern Family as much as I am?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Oct 01, 2009 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
yes, i am. :)
Really funny show – Ty Burrell is hysterical. And I see that Julie Bowen had her twins between shooting the pilot and this episode – nice to see that she has a lower 2/3 to her body. :)
i’m loving it. “i can’t turn it off….it’s who i am!”
i’m loving it. “i can’t turn it off….it’s who i am!” ~cameron
I refuse to watch any post-2000 comedy with a laugh track. If I need it be told when to laugh, it probably isn’t funny. I love this show. It brings back memories of the great “Arrested Development”. I just hope they don’t yank it off the air for being too “smart”.
I really enjoy this show and hope it continues for us “smart viewers.”
I was sooo caught off guard by Modern Family. I did not expect to like it as much as I did. So far it is my favorite of the new shows (Community is ok but I don’t get excited about watching it like I do with MF). I have been thinking about it all week since it last aired. This week there was a problem with comcast in Seattle where the first six min were without dialog and all we could hear was the background noise. After about a min my phone started to ring with people calling to check and see if it was just them or if it was all of us. I hope that didn’t have an impact on the ratings cause I want this show to be around for awhile. It doesn’t seem like the best fit with the other coms on that night. I never saw Better Off Ted (did it get canceled?) but perhaps it would be a good companion.
better off ted, modern family, the middle and cougartown would be a pretty killer night of comedy.
i know i’m in the minority with cougar – haven’t watched last nights yet but i liked the first episode.
I loved the pilot, and found myself looking forward to this week’s episode (and was not disappointed). Great that a new show can do that to you!
Just like Cameron said he is, this is definatly “appointment viewing.” Best comedy since Arrested Development.