Saying Good-bye to “Modern Family”

On February 22, the cast and crew of Modern Family wrapped their 250th and final episode, to be aired on April 8, thus concluding an 11-season run — the first five seasons of which earned the series consecutive Emmys for Best Comedy (only the second sitcom in history to do so).

It’s difficult to believe that it’s been over a decade since the first promos and previews of the new series began appearing on the air, foretelling of a different kind of sitcom on the way. Until that point, I had found myself torn between naming either The Honeymooners or All in the Family as my all-time favorite sitcom (not that anyone has ever asked me).

Modern Family changed that.

The first episode, written by TV veterans Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, aired on September 23, 2009. The pilot script originally carried the name My American Family. Levitan once explained that the original backstory of the show presented the main characters being filmed for a fly-on-the-wall documentary by a camera crew led by a fictitious Dutch filmmaker living with Jay’s family as an exchange student — and who had developed a crush on Claire (while Mitchell had a crush on him). As Levitan’s and Lloyd’s brainstorming progressed, various ideas for the show came and went; they eventually felt this extended backstory was unnecessary, and scrapped it. Lloyd prefers to look…