Though Modern Family rolled its closing credits for the final time on April 8, 2020, fans are far from forgetting the Pritchetts and Dunphys. The show ended at what seemed like the height of its success — the sitcom had more than 7 million viewers tune in to the season 11 finale — making it unclear as to why ABC decided to pull the plug on the Emmy-winning series. According to the network though, it was time.
Originally, Modern Family was supposed to wrap up after season 10. But creators Steve Levitan and Chris Lloyd found themselves excited to continue exploring characters after a death and a pregnancy happened back to back. After months of discussions, a season 11 was given the green light.
"Chris and Steve have created one of the most seminal and iconic comedies in television history,"ABC Entertainment President Karey Burke said in a statement, per E! News. "In its final season, there will be more milestone events that anyone who has been a fan of the series won't want to miss."
And milestones there were.
“The best endings are actually beginnings that don't try to put a period on a series,” Chris told The Hollywood Reporter. “The series is going to live on, the characters are going to live on in the audience's mind, so it may be best to set people off on new paths and then let the audience imagine them on those paths and almost let the series live on in each individual viewer's mind.”
As fans may or may not know (sorry, spoiler alert!), each Modern Family character was sent off to a destination around the world. Jay (Ed O'Neill) and Gloria (Sofía Vergara) traveled to Colombia. Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cam (Eric Stonestreet) moved to Missouri to pursue a lifelong dream. Haley (Sarah Hyland) and Dylan (Reid Ewing) moved with their baby twins into Mitch and Cam's former home. As for the younger crew: Luke (Nolan Gould) went to college in Oregon, Alex moved to Switzerland for work, and Manny (Rico Rodriguez) went to France for a year. Lastly, Phil (Ty Burrell) and Claire (Julie Bowen) took their RV on the road to tour baseball stadiums.
After a total of 250 episodes and a whooping 22 Emmy wins, the mockumentary ran its course. But it may not be the definitive end — as it turns out, ABC executives and the show's creators have bounced around the idea of a Modern Family spinoff.
Although Steve said he’s “focusing on news things,” Chris is open to the idea. But the concept itself is still up in the air.
“It's tempting to think about what a spinoff might be,” he told THR. “We have had conversations about it and we'll see if that comes to pass. It would need to be right ... We don't want to do a series just because we want to keep the thing going or because we miss it. It would need to be a solid idea in its own right and that may happen, it may not. But it will get discussed. But it's a tall order.”
Here's to hoping it will happen! In the meantime, you can head over to Amazon Prime Video to rewatch your favorite Modern Family episodes. As for reruns, you can catch episodes on ABC and USA Network (check your listings!).
