Members of the Modern Family cast and co-creator attended a Q&A panel at the Television Academy in North Hollywood Wednesday night. The house packed with Emmys voters were treated to the Season eight finale of the show.
Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet, Ariel Winter, Nolan Gould and Aubrey Anderson-Emmons were on hand, along with co-creator Steve Levitan to discuss ABC’s number one comedy. Reflecting on the show’s eight seasons, the cast recalled some highlights. Sofia Vergara who plays Gloria on the show said, Peyton Manning’s guest spot was a favorite for her. “Peyton Manning gave me a ball and solved my Christmas gift to my husband. I love him.” The actress said after Manning presented her with signed football which she gave to husband, Joe Manganiello. Burrell said the “Basketball” episode that aired in season eight was a favorite. The episode featured NBA stars Charles Barkley and DeAndre Jordan, Burrell joked that he would “look out of the corner of my eye to see if they were watching. I’d do cool basketball moves. Those guys were such good sports. They were so funny and smart.” Winter and Gould agreed that Jordan was their favorite guest star too with Gould adding that Jordan gave him good dating advice. Gould also said that the most recent episode that aired while the cast were at the event showed Manny and Luke attending the Women’s March, was a favorite moment to film this season because “Luke and manny go to the women’s march. Manny is going because he’s a feminist and like is going to pick up women.”
Reflecting on favorite moments, Tyler Ferguson said for him, shooting episode 12 made him cry. “I’m a Broadway kid and to be in the presence a Tony award, I was in tears.” He added, “Elizabeth Banks is so smart and funny and that she gets to play out best friend and come back is great.”
http://abc.go.com/shows/modern-family/video/pl5520993/VDKA3671468
The conversation switch to politics when the panel discussed how groundbreaking the show had been. Levitan said, “Will and Grace broke huge barriers at the time. Before that Brothers did.” Asked whether the political climate will affect the show, Levitan said, “We try not to be too overtly political. We never forget our first mission is to make people laugh.”
Joking about her audition process, Vergara joked, “I didn’t audition I just got the part.” Talking about Trump and the show, she said, “Do you think they’re going to cancel us? They’ll deport me for sure.”
Tyler Ferguson admitted to the crowd, he was asked to audition Cameron and he wanted to audition for the role of Mitchell, but he went in and did the audition as requested. He didn’t get the part, and went back to audition for the role of Mitchell. The rest is Modern Family
history.
The hilarious and emotional season finale of Modern Family airs on ABC May 17