Analysis and commentary
Are the writers and actors on Modern Family in agreement?
Modern Family
In "The New York Times", Bruce Feiler called attention to how the show depicts the increasing way communications technology shapes the way people perceive others, even family members. " is surely the first family comedy that incorporates its own hashtag of simultaneous self-analysis directly into the storyline," he writes. "Mark Zuckerberg may be a greater influence on "Modern Family" than Norman Lear. "The show's writers and actors agree. "We used to talk about how cellphones killed the sitcom because no one ever goes to anyone's house anymore" for routine information, Abraham Higginbotham told Feiler. "We embrace technology so it's part of the story." Ty Burrell draws on Fran Lebowitz's observation that there is no institution other than media. "I had this little flash of Phil—and me—that we are parsing our personality together externally from how people perceive us. "James Parker said that "The American family circa 2011 is, after all, an acutely self-conscious and self-interrogating unit: How does one 'parent'? Who does what, which 'role'? Is Dad sufficiently dad-like and Mom enough of a mom?" he writes. ""Modern Family" taps right into all this, the cameras that lurch through its three households producing the sensation of a wild and shaky experiment, recorded for purposes educational or scientific. "In a 2014 article in "Slate", the site's podcast executive producer, Andy Bowers, a resident of Los Angeles's Westside, where the show films most of its exteriors, praised the series for its realistic depiction of life in that part of the city. "f you live around here and watch the show, it's easy to forget these people are fictional. They feel like real neighbors who inhabit the same world we do, much more so than any other TV show I've ever seen." Many of the show's locations were familiar to him as places he regularly visited or passed. In addition to its accurate depiction of the area's physical landscape, Bowers added, it was a realistic depiction of its social and cultural landscape:"Modern Family" has been called a culturally-defining series. Eric Stonestreet voiced his opinion on the social implications of the show and what the support means to him.