Modern Family (Television grows up)

When I saw that ABC was showing a new sitcom, last fall, called Modern Family I thought, how lame. But something about the ads for the new show made me give it a try. The fact that it appeared just before the new Courtney Cox sitcom probably didn't hurt either. So I watched Modern Family and thought "okay, I could watch another episode". Now one episode was all I needed of the Cox sitcom to decide it wasn't for me. Sorry, Courtney.
So I tuned in to the next episode of Modern Family and the next, but it was the fourth and really the fifth episodes which made me a fan. The fourth episode called The Incident had Shelley Long (Cheers) as Mitchell and Claire's mother and Jay's ex. She comes to visit Mitchell and see his new baby Lily. But really she is looking for forgiveness for "the incident". At Jay and Gloria's wedding she got drunk and basically ruined the reception. Gloria recalled that at her first wedding in Columbia men had rushed in and assassinated the judge conducting the wedding, but felt her wedding to Jay was much worse. His mother tells Mitchell that she needs closure because she has meet a man but can not be intimate with him until she clears her conscience. Mitchell seems to have a history of cleaning up after Mom. Claire who sided with her Dad in the divorce does not get seem nearly as happy to see her mother. And after a couple of minutes you understand why. DeDe (Claire's mother) is hyper-critical of Claire. Her hair is too long (though it seems to be the same length as DeDe's. She questions Claire's parenting skills in front of Claire's children. She doesn't like Claire's blouse, etc. Claire in an aside to the camera said that as children we often have this voice in our head telling us we aren't good enough, well hers was outside driving her to school. Anyway, Claire agrees to let her mother come to dinner to try and get Jay and Gloria to forgive her. Claire also has her daughter invite her boyfriend Dylan to the family dinner. Mitchell goes to get Jay to approve the visit from DeDe. Jay tells him he wants to get it all behind him as well but that he wouldn't be able to get Gloria to go if she knew DeDe would be there. So Jay tells him they will show up but that he will act like he didn't know that DeDe would be there.
The night turns into the kind of disaster you would expect (almost) and the almost is what raises this show above the average sitcom. DeDe apologies to Gloria and Jay. Gloria accepts the apology which DeDe did not expect. So DeDe starts hitting Gloria, who hits back. Finally they are separated and Jay tells her that their marriage was over long before he meet Gloria. That she, DeDe had been the one who left. No one can seem to understand what is going on except Haley's boyfriend Dylan. Showing more maturity that most of the adults he says that he can understand why DeDe doesnt' want to leave this great family. He said he knew that Haley was pretty but it was her confidence that had really attracted him. He said she got the confidence because she knew that her family truly loved her. The adults look ashamed and then decide that Dylan is a great kid and ask him to sing. The song is funny and very teenaged boy mostly talking about wanting to have sex with his girlfriend. The parents decide maybe he isn't as perfect as they thought. But the episode goes off with each member singing Dylan's song (which is one of those tunes that gets stuck in your head)
The fifth episode is called Coal Digger and is the funniest episode to this point. (Actually this episode, Fizbo and My Funky Valentine are the three best episodes so far in season 1, imho) This episode had Manny and Luke getting into a fight at school. The school calls the parents to come. After the principal has problems figuring out the family tree it turns out the fight started when Manny kept calling Luke his nephew. The principal tells the parents (and grandparents) to get the matter settled at home. Jay and Gloria are hosting the whole family at a BBQ so Jay and Phil show their different parenting skills. Phil trys to get the boys to be friends. Jay thumps them on the head and tells them that in this family that love each other. They kids start playing together. Later when discussing where their problems with each other started Luke said he made fun of Manny because his mother had been a coal digger. Luke says he heard this mother say that. The always helpful Phil says it was probably gold digger. So now Gloria is mad at Claire. Phil tries to apologize for Claire but Gloria isn't interested. So finally Claire and Gloria talk and Claire explains that when she first met Gloria that she had been afraid that the much younger, very beautiful Gloria was just after her Dad's money. She asks Gloria to forgive her. Gloria says she will on one condition that Claire jump into the swimming pool with her clothes on. Claire says she won't so Gloria says she will not forgive her. So Claire goes to the pool with everyone else trouping along. She shows her willingness to jump thinking that Gloria will cut her a break, but no, Gloria is waiting for her to get wet. So finally Claire jumps in. Then when she swims over asking for help to get out Jay pushes Gloria into the pool. Then he pushes Phil in and then Luke and Manny push Jay in and go into the pool together. Mitchell picks up Alex and jumps into the pool and Cam cannonballs into the pool. It is a wonderful beautiful family moment.
I love this show. Long may these families light up our lives.