ABC's 'Modern Family'; There's Hope For The Half-Hour Network Comedy

When you're one of a lot of critics recommending a new show, there's a lot of pressure to say something everyone else isn't already saying. Lots of other people are also telling you today that ABC's Modern Family is a startlingly good pilot for a network comedy, and most of what I have to offer, I have to admit, is enthusiastic agreement.

Ed O'Neill, good jokes, and let's go to the video, after the jump.

 

The network's new idea for Wednesday nights is a comedy block, and the first two shows premiere tonight: Modern Family and Courteney Cox's new show, Cougar Town. Cougar Town is from Bill Lawrence, the producer of Scrubs, and it isn't as terrible as it deserves to be, based on its atrocious title. There are moments when it shows promise, but it will only appeal to people who like a very cartoonish approach to sex comedy. If you liked the episodes of Friends where Monica went completely around the bend (playing ping-pong against Phoebe's boyfriend Mike, for instance), then you might enjoy it.

In Modern Family, on the other hand, there are three converging stories, and all three of them work. There is a straight couple (Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell) and their kids; there is a gay couple (Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet) and their newly adopted daughter; and there is an aging goofball (Ed O'Neill), living with his much younger wife (Sofia Vergara) and her son (Rico Rodriguez).

In all three stories, there are elements that are surprisingly dark, given that the show comes from creators Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, who between them spent quite a bit of time on Just Shoot Me, Frasier and Wings. How dark? Well, Burrell and Bowen intend to cure their son of his tendency to shoot his toy gun at people by standing him up in the backyard at an appointed time and shooting him back. This is not a family comedy of the adorable "Oh, DAD!" variety.

At the same time, it carefully keeps the characters sympathetic and surprisingly warm. If you remember O'Neill from Married With Children, his performance here might remind you of Al Bundy if he were more intelligent and self-aware. And Jesse Tyler Ferguson (whom I saw on Broadway in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee a few years ago, and who's had a couple of misfires since then) is used perfectly — he can come across as a bit of an odd duck, and here, he's wisely playing down instead of up.

But for all of this — the characters are interesting, the comedy is nicely pitched, the actors are matching each other's tone — the biggest reason the show is a success is funny jokes. It's all well and good to play with convention and family structure and tone and sitcom convention, but if the jokes don't work, it makes absolutely no difference.

Take this clip, for instance. In it, you'll see them borrow the "I gave her my heart; she gave me a pen" line from Say Anything, which has made so many appearances in pop culture that it's almost impossible to make from it a good joke. But then, unexpectedly: a good joke. Not a genius joke, but a good, chortling joke. And it's far from the best one in the pilot.

Comedy is subjective, of course. There's no guarantee that widespread critical agreement is going to translate into anything like popular support. But for those who wonder whether broadcast networks are capable of creating new comedies anymore, the combination of NBC's Community last Thursday and Modern Family tonight suggests that humor is not entirely dead.