ABC Wednesday 9pm
debuts Wednesday, September 23, 9pm
concept
from

Modern Family, a new half-hour comedy that takes an honest and often hilarious look at the complexities of modern day families, premieres Wednesday, September 23 (9:00-9:30 pm, ET) on the ABC Television Network.

Today's families come in all shapes and sizes, and that is very evident in Jay Pritchett's very full and very blended family. Jay and his new gorgeous and much younger wife, Gloria, are happily married and getting accustomed to their new life together. But when her pre-teen son develops a crush on a 16-year-old girl, it becomes apparent that Jay and Gloria may have some generational and cultural gaps to bridge. Jay's grown daughter, Claire, has a family of her own -- three kids and a husband, Phil, who is practically a giant kid himself.

Things get a little tense when their teenage daughter, Haley, brings a boy home and Phil tries to adopt the cool, hip dad approach. Then son Luke misuses of his BB gun, which results in Phil and Claire turning it right back on to him. Jay's other grown son, Mitchell, is in a committed relationship and has just adopted a baby girl from Vietnam with his life partner, Cameron. They're going through the joys and anxieties of bringing a baby home for the first time, but Mitchell still has the daunting task of introducing their new addition to the whole family. 
stars Ed O'Neill (Married with Children), Julie Bowen (Weeds, Ed) Ty Burrell, Sofia Vergara, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, Sarah Hyland, Nolan Gould, Ariel Winter, Rico Rodriguez
producers Steven Levitan, Christopher Lloyd, Jason Winer
studio Twentieth Century Fox Television in association with Levitan Lloyd Productions
my take
It's The Office meets three families. ABC's materials tell us it's going to be "shot from the perspective of an unseen documentary filmmaker." Ed O'Neill heads the large cast as the head of one of the families. Looks like they'll be reveling in embarassment. Not much buzz or coverage of this. It's in an important slot in the middle of ABC's "Comedy Wednesday," but I think it might get lost in the shuffle. It's one of those shows we'll look at later and remember the time or two we watched it, we liked it, but it never clicked.
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