Who Is Going to Die on Modern Family
Male parent-son bonding fourth dimension turned out to be far more impactful than expected on Modern Family.
I season later the veteran ABC family comedy bid farewell to Pritchett matriarch DeDe (Shelley Long), in that location was more than Good Grief to share. At the terminate of Wednesday's episode, viewers learned that Frank Dunphy — Phil's goofy, gregarious dad played by Fred Willard, who appeared in xiv episodes over the show's 11 seasons — would exist delivering bon mots from heaven from now on. "Legacy" began with Phil (Ty Burrell) traveling to Florida to cheque on his dad, Frank (Fred Willard), after hearing reports that his father had been wandering effectually the grocery store that he used to run. Turns out, ol' Funpa was fine — no dementia there — until he wasn't. The pair of goofs spent the day together, trying to change a flat tire with Frank'southward ill-fated (and much besides powerful) Presto Jack, and sharing a meaningful, relationship-galvanizing moment while Phil cut his dad's pilus. When Phil asked his dad if he always wished he had some other child then he could take assumed the reins of the family business, Frank responded, "Well, you did accept over the family business, didn't y'all? Keeping life lite, making it fun for everybody." Phil responded, "I learned from the best," prompting father to squeeze the arm of son.
"We didn't do much that day but… it might have been one of the best days I ever had with my dad," Phil told the camera, as he started to tear upwards. "I just didn't know information technology would be the last."
Credit: Richard Cartwright/ABC
Viewers and so were transported to the family's memorial service, where Phil delivered a heartfelt eulogy: "My dad was okay, and my takeaway from our solar day was, don't miss the chance to permit the people yous appreciate know that," he said. Back to photographic camera, he noted, "The hard part has been figuring out a mode to pay tribute to my dad, just something came to me in the garage today. I think he would take liked it." In the episode'south terminal moments, Phil landed his boat on that special beach where a pair of giant bird prints captivated the community in the summer of '77. He donned flippers and left a few more marks, as his dad had once done, a son truly following in his male parent's footsteps. Hither, Modernistic Family co-creator Christopher Lloyd takes you within that surprise "bittersweet" adieu.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The grim reaper has visited the prove over again. Why did yous make up one's mind to have Phil's dad die — and how tough was that decision?
CHRISTOPHER LLOYD: It was a tough decision because you don't e'er want to allow go of a character that yous dearest. And I've always loved that character. Withal, we are in the final season, we're looking to find more meaningful topics to deal with. And even more important than that, it gave u.s. a chance to really have a look at how Phil came to be Phil. Phil has, in many means, been really dead-heart of the heart of the show. But he'south a picayune bit of this manchild. It was a chance to lend some dimension to that. That isn't just Phil being goofy, that's actually a choice. He learned this from his dad, that somebody can be the one who keeps life calorie-free, and that'southward important not but in a family unit just maybe in a customs. That's what he grew upwards seeing his dad do. So we run across that it's a choice on Phil'due south part that he sees the earth around him needing sparkly lights and he's going to be those sparkly lights. And it was a bittersweet way of seeing where he learned that and that information technology's sort of an ethic on his part and not just a goofy characteristic.
Fred brought such an optimism, can-do spirit, quirkiness and daffiness to this role. In that location was no dubiety that this apple fell shut to the tree. What did you lot appreciate virtually about Fred'south comedic contributions to the show and that character?
He'south really a complete comedic actor, and we've been a fan of his for decades. I've worked with him on shows previous to this i. No one makes Ty laugh funnier than Fred Willard, really. That's ever a please to meet someone like Ty — who I have maximum respect for — actually bowing down in front of someone else. So we always loved having him on the show. He just has a light touch with one-act, but there's zero easy virtually it for him. Fred rehearses and practices in his trailer incessantly. So he makes it look easy past working very, very hard. And the character itself, you come across a lot of doddering older people on television — which, if I were that age, I probably would object to — he had a piddling bit more to him than that.
He establish a style to really find fun in the mundane. And we've seen that in the character from the beginning. There has e'er been a very sweet relationship between the two of them where Frank was always a lilliputian resistant to talk about emotional things, simply when pressed, could go there. Nosotros didn't see him more than once or twice a year, just he did help usa brand sense of Phil. So while it had a sad tinge to it, information technology was a chance to requite that character a farewell while getting a lilliputian insight into who Phil is.
When Frank reassures him that he did follow in his footsteps, that seems to be the ultimate validation for Phil, and he got everything he needed to hear before his dad passed. So much was communicated in that one cursory chat.
There's probably nothing a father might like to [see] more than that this son has followed in his footsteps. Phil says to him, "I hope yous weren't disappointed that I didn't go into the family concern," and Frank says, "But yous did, you learned from me and you maybe even did me i better." And then information technology was actually kind of a sweet good-goodbye moment betwixt them that got to the very core of who they both are. So, yes. bittersweet because you lot find out it was 1 of the concluding conversations they had, but it as well might've been the truest moment that those 2 characters always had together.
The death comes unexpected, specially the way the episode was unfolding, and and then you finally realize that Phil was talking about the last day with his father — and and so there'south the off-vanquish tribute with the footprints. Were at that place other means that the writers discussed handling his death? And how did you ultimately country on this fashion?
Nosotros didn't really discuss other ways. Nosotros idea: what if nosotros build backwards from an interview where Phil says, "I spent a day with my dad. We didn't do much, but in many ways it was the best day I ever had with them. I but never knew it would be the last"? I heard about this truthful story [nearly] this small-scale boondocks where these mysterious bird footprints appeared on the shore of a lake. And it was a big thing that the townspeople would come up out and expect at them and it was a mystery, just it really livened upward the town for a while and that these things would disappear. And and then to detect out that Frank had been responsible for that equally a symbol of his desire to give the town something to get excited nearly. And that Phil's tribute to his dad would be to leave those footprints i last time. One time that idea got on the table, we thought, "Okay, well, that at least hopefully takes the sting out of losing the graphic symbol because information technology's very lovely, but also off a very offbeat tribute that he pays to his dad."
Is at that place a take chances that we might see Frank in flashbacks in the final run of episodes?
It's possible. Through the flavor and even as we movement forward, we have been adding flashbacks to the episodes, just as a fiddling nostalgic layer that we've put on the season. As we see moments where characters are reflecting on things that happened in the past, nosotros might pop to a scene where the kids are really small. But as the audition is feeling this growing bittersweetness well-nigh the impending end of the prove, it's squeamish to become dorsum and see where we met all these characters…. We haven't shot everything yet and we're however figuring some things out. There are no plans [to film new scenes with him]. If I were guessing, that was his swan song.
How did Fred and Ty react when you told them the programme for this episode?
Ty actually liked it. He said, "This relationship in this episode made me think of my ain dad." Ty's dad, who has passed away some years ago, was a very playful guy and really kept things lite in their household, and I think Ty enjoyed kind of accessing that in the scenes with Fred. But it was nearly a preview of our big goodbye [laughs], which will be happening soon, to play a more than emotional adieu to someone. It felt like the first of a few that we'll exist going through.
Look, Fred is a veteran and he knows the series is ending. Information technology wasn't like, "Oh, this grapheme would have been seen in a bunch more than episodes." I think he thought, "Okay, that will be a squeamish and different episode for me to play with Ty." And he welcomed it, as far as I could tell. I mean, he's just a very beloved human being who is ever game for anything. And information technology was really great to have him amongst us one terminal time.
Credit: PETER "HOPPER" STONE/ABC
Did yous joke about having him meet his maker via the Presto Jack? Considering that was a pretty amazing invention — and information technology would have been a way to become.
I think fans might have had a affair or two to say if we'd had Phil and Frank crushed to death on the side of a road. [Laughs] But I hope people don't remember we faked that stunt. That car actually flipped.
What did y'all hear from people over the years about how uncanny and credible this casting was? It just fabricated and then much goofy, humane sense.
That was probably a reaction we [got when we] first had him in season one where people go, "Oh my God, how perfect! I mean, they are both bang-up. They wait similar 1 some other." They have the aforementioned kind of ebullience and Phil is always looking for the laugh, the smiling, the fashion to go along things amusing. And that seems exactly what Fred Willard'south rule of life is. And then they merely clicked right away.
Given DeDe's expiry last season, should all Dunphy-Pritchett-Tucker relatives be quaking in their boots as nosotros hit the last stretch of episodes or even the finale itself?
No one is safe! [Laughs] I actually must say the idea of, "We killed another one off" — no one is looking to grab ratings or anything. In fact, we obviously didn't even promote it that fashion. Information technology was meant to be a surprise and I credit the network for non having billed it that manner. It'due south just a matter that happens in life. We all know parents get older, and that is a thing that people face. Nosotros didn't desire to practice the more conventional, "Oh, he dies at the kickoff or halfway through and they assistance their kids bargain with that." This was a different way of doing it; play it more like a surprise, simply have it actually be a discovery for Phil that he finds out his dad was ever really proud of him, considering he more or less did take over the family business of keeping life low-cal for everybody else.
Nosotros are only a handful of episodes from the finale in April, and you're getting ready to moving-picture show information technology. What resonates with you lot as you remember most that looming finale episode? My byword on that is that endings need to exist ancestry. We're trying to discover a fashion to leave the characters in places that the audience will enjoy seeing them so that our characters tin can live on in the minds of our audience on new journeys. And the audience tin create those journeys for them. Merely we have to find the correct paths to put everybody on to allow for that to happen.
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Mitch and Cam, Modern Family
Modern Family
Parents but don't sympathize… and neither exercise kids or spouses in this striking ensemble comedy
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Source: https://ew.com/tv/2020/01/17/modern-family-co-creator-dunphy-death/
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