Modern Family deserves credit for its well-executed farce and paving the way for so many great ABC family comedies

The Hollywood Reporter

"The reason TV isn't deluged with farce is that farce is crazily difficult — and the sort of internally arced episodic farce that Modern Family excelled at, where the details scattered throughout each 20 minutes would magically coalesce in something raucous or resonant in the last two minutes, isn't a thing to take for granted," says Daniel Fienberg. "He adds that Modern Family helped ABC achieve something that other networks couldn't when it comes to family comedies. "Modern Family was never going to actually be able to capture every modern family experience, and this is where I see its greatest impact and influence," says Fienberg. "It set a foundation on ABC that allowed at least a dozen other family comedies to thrive, albeit never quite at the same level of popularity. Other networks, even those with strong comedy brands, have struggled to develop one or two solid family comedies in the wake of the Modern Family premiere, but ABC has churned out one after another after another, and even if Modern Family wasn't a snapshot of the diverse experiences of the 21st century American family, ABC became that snapshot. Without Modern Family, there's no Black-ish and no Fresh Off the Boat and no Goldbergs and no Speechless. There's no Roseanne reboot (and The Conners) or Last Man Standing or Dr. Ken or Cristela or The Kids Are Alright or American Housewife. Hey, they weren't all critical winners and they weren't all audience favorites, but that's a lot of cultural experience that was represented onscreen in the wake of Modern Family that had either been ignored entirely or marginalized in past decades of programing. Modern Family was a cornerstone for something special, and as the landscape becomes more and more fragmented, I don't know if we'll ever see another moment when a single network is able to program between five and 10 above-average family comedies at once."