In April of 2020, Modern Family aired its series finale, bringing the 11-season run to an end. The popular family sitcom follows the lives of the three different types of families that make up the extended Pritchet Family and their unique relationships with one another.
Jay Pritchett is the patriarch of the group who remarried a much younger woman, Gloria Pritchett, with a child creating a blended family. Jay’s ambitious, and sometimes neurotic, daughter Claire is married to Phil Dunphy and has three kids. Phil’s child-at-heart-attitude makes for an unconventional nuclear family. Jay’s shy but high-strung son, Mitchelle Pritchett, is married to bubbly husband Cameron Tucker. The contrast between their personalities makes for hilarious scenarios and their relationship has made strides in representing a gay couple.
Over the years the show has received many awards and garner praise for not only their comedy but how relatable the stories they were telling were to the audience. Modern Family helped redefined what family means and this gave me the idea to explore unconventional families.
Exploring Topics
After much brainstorming on topics of interest and not much luck in the archives, I decided to go ahead and listen to an interesting podcast and try to formulate a better topic. Scrolling through the recommended section the title Switched at Birth caught my attention and after a quick look through I formulated the topic of Seeking Truth. After hearing the story of the miller and the McDonald family and watching an episode of modern family I decided to adapt my topic to family. More concisely unconventional families like our Modern Family.
Once I had a more precise topic my search became easier. I started by searching “family”, which resulted in an extensive list, and once I got tired of scrolling with little luck I decided to further narrow down my search by using “blended family”, “Stepparent”, “Same-sex family”, “nuclear family” and “adoption.” The results were much better and I narrowed down the last two podcasts to “You Gonna Eat That” and “The Sanctity of Marriage”.
