Modern Family co-creator explains why "bittersweet" ending was "the right thing to do"
Plus, it looks like a spin-off might be in the works
Christopher Lloyd, co-creator of US sitcom Modern Family, has opened up about the show’s "bittersweet" conclusion.
The showrunner spoke after the two-hour finale of the comedy’s 11th season, which saw plenty of new beginnings for the Pritchett and Dunphy families.
While Haley (Sarah Hyland), Alex (Ariel Winter) and Luke (Nolan Gould) all left home, their parents, Claire (Julie Bowen) and Phil (Ty Burrell), planned a cross-country trip together.
Cameron (Eric Stonestreet), meanwhile, moved with his partner Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) to a new home in Missouri with their two children. And Jay (Ed O'Neill) finally reconnected with wife Gloria (Sofia Vergara) after she left to embark on a new career.
The show closed on a shot of Phil and Claire's porch light, switched on – a symbolic conclusion, according to Lloyd.
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"The intention of that image was more to make people imagine that the family will reunite," he explained to Entertainment Weekly (EW).
"That's a lovely thing people have in their lives when they move on, that there's a home base, and that you can come back to that base. To even just know that that light is on can do wonders for you wherever you are in the world."
He also opened up about the show’s “bittersweet” ending, with the characters dividing in different directions.
“It seemed like the right thing to do. I mean, it's always been by my principle on this, that a good ending actually needs to be a good beginning,” he said.
“You almost want to set people on new paths. It feels a little bit uplifting in a way, and it also enables the series to live on in viewers’ heads a little bit better.”
So, is this the last we’ll see of Modern Family? Perhaps not. At least for a few of the characters, with co-creator Steven Levitan admitting to Deadline some writers are pondering a Missouri-set spin-off following Mitch and Cam.
“But they’re literally just thinking about it,” he said. “They’re using this time that we have now to think about it, if there’s something there.”
As Lloyd also revealed to EW, there have been some "very preliminary conversations about spinning off some characters".
"That could be a year from now, we catch up with one or two or three people and then other characters from the show perhaps drop in," he said.
"It could be something like that. But I don't want to suggest that that's a real thing, because it isn't yet. It's a thing we knock around."
Modern Family is available to watch now on NOW TV.
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