Chirp (Modern Family)
Encyclopedia
"Chirp" is the seventh episode of the second season
of Modern Family
and the 31st episode overall. It originally aired on the American Broadcasting Company
(ABC) in the United States on November 3, 2010. The episode was written by Dan O'Shannon and directed by season two's main director, Michael Spiller
.
In the episode, Claire (Julie Bowen
) & Haley (Sarah Hyland
) are at home sick while Phil (Ty Burrell
) tries to find an annoying chirping smoke detector
. Gloria (Sofía Vergara
) and Manny (Rico Rodriguez) go to Jay's (Ed O'Neill
) work place much to Jay's dismay and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet
) takes Lily to a commercial shoot against Mitchell's (Jesse Tyler Ferguson
) wishes.
"Chirp" received mostly positive reviews. According to the Nielsen Media Research
, "Chirp" was seen by 12.21 million viewers and a 4.8 rating/7% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, a slight drop from the previous episode.
) and Manny (Rico Rodriguez) go to pick up Jay (Ed O'Neill
) from his workplace to take him to a restaurant for lunch. While there one of Jay's employees, Jack, lets Manny handle a forklift which he drives into the wall. Because of the incident, Jay fires Jack, much to Manny's anger and dismay. Meanwhile, Jay tries to figure out what anniversary Gloria is celebrating today, because she celebrates everything, including their first fight. Jay thinks he has figured what they are celebrating, and therefore where he is to meet Gloria despite Manny's efforts to blackmail
Jay into hiring Jack again. Manny learns that the reason that Jay will not hire Jack back is because he almost "hurt [his] kid." Manny, touched by Jay calling him his kid, tells him the real location of the date.
At the Dunphy house, Claire (Julie Bowen
) and Haley (Sarah Hyland
) get sick and have to stay home. The two initially bond, but soon Dylan (Reid Ewing
) calls Haley, making Claire angry. After Dylan hangs up, Claire tries to convince Haley to break up with Dylan and start going out with David a much brighter kid that Claire prefers (albeit without mentioning either name), using one of the useless male characters on All My Children
as an example. Unfortunately, Haley thinks Claire is talking about herself and Phil. With Claire sick, Phil (Ty Burrell
) takes care of her jobs while trying to find an annoying smoke detector that keeps beeping. Seeing this as a sign he is not man, Phil tries his best to find the smoke detector, to do all of Claire's jobs, and to get his clients back, failing at everything. Soon after replacing the batteries in all the new smoke detectors, Phil uses his old marching band baton to destroy a couple of the smoke detectors. He soon realizes that Luke (Nolan Gould
) had left the old smoke detectors in the attic last year, and they were the ones that were chirping.
Meanwhile, Cameron (Eric Stonestreet
) takes Lily to act in a commercial for a children's furniture store, against Mitchell's (Jesse Tyler Ferguson
) decision. Adult actors perform voiceover for Lily and another Asian child, using stereotypical dubbed-Japanese accents. Mitchell arrives at the studio and confronts Cameron, pointing out that the commercial is racist because it exploits Lily's Asianness and not her acting ability. Cameron initially denies the charge, but then the director brings in the SaveZilla (Godzilla
) monster. Cameron asks the director to tone down the stereotypical accents, but the director refuses, saying that it is a satire. Cameron takes Lily away, but not before choosing the wrong Asian child first.
), Haley's boyfriend. The episode is the first to mention the Late-2000s recession. In an interview with Zap2it
, Sarah Hyland
said referring to Claire and Haley's storyline, "That's really cute. Me and Julie in bed all day."
". The episode also received a 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic in DVR
adding up to a 6.2 rating in the demographic a 29% rise from the original rating. The show became the third highest rated broadcast program of the week it aired and the highest rated scripted program of the week as well.
The episode featured mostly positive reviews. Joel Keller of TV Squad stated in his review "'Chirp' only generated one really big laugh for me -- probably because I have a dirty mind" despite this he also stated "it was still a decent episode because both Jay and Phil looked utterly human this week." Mallika Rao of Entertainment Weekly
gave the episode a positive review calling it Phil Dunphy's "strongest showing". Kara Klenc of TV Guide
called it an "enjoyable episode" despite not featuring "zippy one-liners". Rachael Maddux of New York
gave the episode a rather negative review saying "this episode in particular seemed stuck in a rut."
The Los Angeles Times's Meredith Blake gave the episode mostly a positive review saying it felt more "modern" than usual.The A.V. Club
writer Donna Bowman said "even though these three molehill versions took a while to get cranked up, they provide satisfying and even elegant expressions of what the art of Modern Family is all about". Despite this she stated that the Cameron-Mitchell sub-plot didn't have the "ovely ascending—then crashing—arc of the others".
Modern Family (season 2)
The second season of the comedy television series, Modern Family premiered September 22, 2010 and ended on May 25, 2011 on the American Broadcasting Company in the United States. The series is produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Lloyd-Levitan Productions with creators...
of Modern Family
Modern Family
Modern Family is an American television comedy series created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, which debuted on ABC on September 23, 2009. Lloyd and Levitan serve as showrunner and executive producers, under their Levitan-Lloyd Productions label...
and the 31st episode overall. It originally aired on the American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
(ABC) in the United States on November 3, 2010. The episode was written by Dan O'Shannon and directed by season two's main director, Michael Spiller
Michael Spiller
Michael Alan Spiller is an American cinematographer and television director.Spiller has directed on numerous series and has also served as a cinematographer prior to directing and worked frequently with Hal Hartley. He was a regular director on the HBO series, Sex and the City where he also served...
.
In the episode, Claire (Julie Bowen
Julie Bowen
Julie Bowen is an American film and television actress. She played Carol Vessey on Ed and Denise Bauer on Boston Legal. She is best known for playing Claire Dunphy on the sitcom Modern Family, for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2011...
) & Haley (Sarah Hyland
Sarah Hyland
Sarah Jane Hyland is an American actress, currently starring as Haley Dunphy on the ABC comedy Modern Family.-Life and career:...
) are at home sick while Phil (Ty Burrell
Ty Burrell
- External links :*...
) tries to find an annoying chirping smoke detector
Smoke detector
A smoke detector is a device that detects smoke, typically as an indicator of fire. Commercial, industrial, and mass residential devices issue a signal to a fire alarm system, while household detectors, known as smoke alarms, generally issue a local audible and/or visual alarm from the detector...
. Gloria (Sofía Vergara
Sofía Vergara
Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara is a Colombian actress, comedian, television hostess and model.Vergara had been widely known for co-hosting two TV shows for Univisión in the late 1990s. Her TV career opened up for her a window of exposure to North American audiences prior to her first notable...
) and Manny (Rico Rodriguez) go to Jay's (Ed O'Neill
Ed O'Neill
Edward Phillip "Ed" O'Neill, Jr. is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the main character, Al Bundy, on the Fox Network sitcom Married... with Children, for which he was nominated for two Golden Globes...
) work place much to Jay's dismay and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet
Eric Stonestreet
Eric Stonestreet is an American actor, known for his starring role as Cameron Tucker on the ABC comedy Modern Family. Stonestreet has received critical acclaim for his performance in Modern Family and won the 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his...
) takes Lily to a commercial shoot against Mitchell's (Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Jesse Tyler Ferguson is an American actor who portrays Mitchell Pritchett on the ABC sitcom Modern Family. Previously he played the role of Richie Velch in the CBS sitcom The Class. He is openly gay.-Life and career:...
) wishes.
"Chirp" received mostly positive reviews. According to the Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
, "Chirp" was seen by 12.21 million viewers and a 4.8 rating/7% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, a slight drop from the previous episode.
Plot
Gloria (Sofía VergaraSofía Vergara
Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara is a Colombian actress, comedian, television hostess and model.Vergara had been widely known for co-hosting two TV shows for Univisión in the late 1990s. Her TV career opened up for her a window of exposure to North American audiences prior to her first notable...
) and Manny (Rico Rodriguez) go to pick up Jay (Ed O'Neill
Ed O'Neill
Edward Phillip "Ed" O'Neill, Jr. is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the main character, Al Bundy, on the Fox Network sitcom Married... with Children, for which he was nominated for two Golden Globes...
) from his workplace to take him to a restaurant for lunch. While there one of Jay's employees, Jack, lets Manny handle a forklift which he drives into the wall. Because of the incident, Jay fires Jack, much to Manny's anger and dismay. Meanwhile, Jay tries to figure out what anniversary Gloria is celebrating today, because she celebrates everything, including their first fight. Jay thinks he has figured what they are celebrating, and therefore where he is to meet Gloria despite Manny's efforts to blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
Jay into hiring Jack again. Manny learns that the reason that Jay will not hire Jack back is because he almost "hurt [his] kid." Manny, touched by Jay calling him his kid, tells him the real location of the date.
At the Dunphy house, Claire (Julie Bowen
Julie Bowen
Julie Bowen is an American film and television actress. She played Carol Vessey on Ed and Denise Bauer on Boston Legal. She is best known for playing Claire Dunphy on the sitcom Modern Family, for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2011...
) and Haley (Sarah Hyland
Sarah Hyland
Sarah Jane Hyland is an American actress, currently starring as Haley Dunphy on the ABC comedy Modern Family.-Life and career:...
) get sick and have to stay home. The two initially bond, but soon Dylan (Reid Ewing
Reid Ewing
Reid Ewing is an American actor best known for his recurring guest role as Dylan on the ABC comedy Modern Family.-Life and career:...
) calls Haley, making Claire angry. After Dylan hangs up, Claire tries to convince Haley to break up with Dylan and start going out with David a much brighter kid that Claire prefers (albeit without mentioning either name), using one of the useless male characters on All My Children
All My Children
All My Children is an American television soap opera that aired on ABC from January 5, 1970 to September 23, 2011. Created by Agnes Nixon, All My Children is set in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania, a fictitious suburb of Philadelphia. The show features Susan Lucci as Erica Kane, one of daytime's most...
as an example. Unfortunately, Haley thinks Claire is talking about herself and Phil. With Claire sick, Phil (Ty Burrell
Ty Burrell
- External links :*...
) takes care of her jobs while trying to find an annoying smoke detector that keeps beeping. Seeing this as a sign he is not man, Phil tries his best to find the smoke detector, to do all of Claire's jobs, and to get his clients back, failing at everything. Soon after replacing the batteries in all the new smoke detectors, Phil uses his old marching band baton to destroy a couple of the smoke detectors. He soon realizes that Luke (Nolan Gould
Nolan Gould
Nolan Gould is an American child actor best known for his starring role as Luke Dunphy on the ABC comedy Modern Family. He is the brother of Aidan Gould-Acting career:...
) had left the old smoke detectors in the attic last year, and they were the ones that were chirping.
Meanwhile, Cameron (Eric Stonestreet
Eric Stonestreet
Eric Stonestreet is an American actor, known for his starring role as Cameron Tucker on the ABC comedy Modern Family. Stonestreet has received critical acclaim for his performance in Modern Family and won the 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his...
) takes Lily to act in a commercial for a children's furniture store, against Mitchell's (Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Jesse Tyler Ferguson is an American actor who portrays Mitchell Pritchett on the ABC sitcom Modern Family. Previously he played the role of Richie Velch in the CBS sitcom The Class. He is openly gay.-Life and career:...
) decision. Adult actors perform voiceover for Lily and another Asian child, using stereotypical dubbed-Japanese accents. Mitchell arrives at the studio and confronts Cameron, pointing out that the commercial is racist because it exploits Lily's Asianness and not her acting ability. Cameron initially denies the charge, but then the director brings in the SaveZilla (Godzilla
Godzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
) monster. Cameron asks the director to tone down the stereotypical accents, but the director refuses, saying that it is a satire. Cameron takes Lily away, but not before choosing the wrong Asian child first.
Production
The episode was written by Dan O'Shannon, marking his third writing credit for the series. The episode was also directed by Michael Spiller, his sixth director's credit. The episode is the first of the season to feature Dylan (Reid EwingReid Ewing
Reid Ewing is an American actor best known for his recurring guest role as Dylan on the ABC comedy Modern Family.-Life and career:...
), Haley's boyfriend. The episode is the first to mention the Late-2000s recession. In an interview with Zap2it
Zap2it
Zap2it is an American website and affiliate network that provides news, photos and video, local TV listings and movie showtimes. The site is produced by Tribune Media Services , part of the publishing division of the Chicago-based Tribune Company...
, Sarah Hyland
Sarah Hyland
Sarah Jane Hyland is an American actress, currently starring as Haley Dunphy on the ABC comedy Modern Family.-Life and career:...
said referring to Claire and Haley's storyline, "That's really cute. Me and Julie in bed all day."
Reception
In its original American broadcast, "Chirp" was viewed by an estimated 12.21 million households and received a Nielsen rating of 7.3 rating/12% share meaning that 7.3% of American households watched the episode and that 12% of all televisions in use at the time were watching it. The episode also received a 4.8 rating/13% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. The episode slightly dropped in the ratings from "HalloweenHalloween (Modern Family)
"Halloween" is the sixth episode of Modern Familys second season. It originally aired on October 27, 2010 on the ABC network in the United States. The episode was written by Jeffrey Richman and directed by Michael Spiller and was based on an idea by cast member Eric Stonestreet...
". The episode also received a 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic in DVR
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
adding up to a 6.2 rating in the demographic a 29% rise from the original rating. The show became the third highest rated broadcast program of the week it aired and the highest rated scripted program of the week as well.
The episode featured mostly positive reviews. Joel Keller of TV Squad stated in his review "'Chirp' only generated one really big laugh for me -- probably because I have a dirty mind" despite this he also stated "it was still a decent episode because both Jay and Phil looked utterly human this week." Mallika Rao of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the episode a positive review calling it Phil Dunphy's "strongest showing". Kara Klenc of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
called it an "enjoyable episode" despite not featuring "zippy one-liners". Rachael Maddux of New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
gave the episode a rather negative review saying "this episode in particular seemed stuck in a rut."
The Los Angeles Times's Meredith Blake gave the episode mostly a positive review saying it felt more "modern" than usual.The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
writer Donna Bowman said "even though these three molehill versions took a while to get cranked up, they provide satisfying and even elegant expressions of what the art of Modern Family is all about". Despite this she stated that the Cameron-Mitchell sub-plot didn't have the "ovely ascending—then crashing—arc of the others".
External links
- "Chirp" at ABC.com