Unplugged (Modern Family)
Encyclopedia
"Unplugged" is the fifth episode of the second season
of the ABC sitcom, Modern Family
. The episode originally aired October 20, 2010. The episode was written by series co-creator Steven Levitan
and directed by Michael Spiller
.
The episode follows Phil (Ty Burrell
), Claire (Julie Bowen
), and the kids trying to improve their communication skills by giving up their electronic devices. Gloria (Sofía Vergara
) is getting obsessed over a neighbor's barking dog, and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson
) and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet
) try to find a preschool for Lily (Jayden and Ella Hiller).
"Unplugged" received a mix of critical acclaim and negative reviews. The episode also received controversy in Peru
because a line of dialogue of Vergara's character in which she relates Peruvians with violence. According to the Nielsen Media Research
the episode received a 4.7 rating/13% share in the 18-49 demographic going down a tick from the previous episode, "Strangers on a Treadmill
"
) and Phil (Ty Burrell
) declare that no one is allowed to use electronics, however Phil turns it into a contest much to Claire's annoyance, and offers prizes: A car for Haley, a new computer for Alex and a chicken pot pie for Luke. Alex (Ariel Winter
) and Luke (Nolan Gould
) quickly give up the contest leaving Phil, Claire and Haley (Sarah Hyland
) in the contest. Claire soon gets tired of calling to check on reservations to go see Phil's family and uses the computer before getting caught leaving Phil and Haley. Not long after, Claire and Phil catch Haley talking on the phone which prompts Phil to use the computer right away, however Haley reveals to them she was only talking to a fake phone that she carved out of a black colored bar of soap, as she celebrates that she is getting a new car, she is informed that her parents were bluffing.
The Pritchetts get annoyed by a neighbor's dog and go to see if he will shut the dog up. The neighbor says no much to Gloria's chagrin because he also demands that they shut their cockatoo
up, something they deny because they have no pets (as it turns out, Gloria's high pitched voice is the one being confused with a cockatoo). Suddenly the dog goes missing with Jay (Ed O'Neill
) assuming Gloria (Sofía Vergara
) killed it (her family in Colombia were butchers so she is very used to be around blood and killing animals and Jay had witnessed that she killed a rat in the house with a shovel). He asks Manny (Rico Rodriguez) if he thinks she did anything which he initially denies. At night Jay and Manny go to the garage to look for evidence of the dog's murder. Manny rats out Jay's plan to Gloria making her very angry. Gloria tells Jay that she gave the dog to a friend for a jar of pickles. To make her happy, Jay buys plane tickets to Colombia
to see what her village is like. She says in an interview she does not want to go to her old village as it will prove Jay right.
Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson
) and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet
) learn that all of Lily's friends have been put in preschool causing the couple to panic. Mitchell calls Claire to see if Wagon Wheel is a good school and asks her if she can get them an appointment. At Wagon Wheel the assistant tells them with their diversity (with Mitchell and Cameron being gay and Lily being Asian) they can get them into basically any preschool. Mitchell starts calling Cameron his life partner
to seem even more diverse to make it in Billingsley, a posher school than Wagon Wheel. They soon become beaten at their own game by an interracial lesbian couple (one being in a wheelchair) with an adopted African American child causing Cameron to pretend to be a Native American
. They eventually decide to go to Wagon Wheel after bombing their interview.
& directed by Michael Spiller
. The episode alluded to a trip to Colombia
that the cast (especially Sofía Vergara
) had been hoping the producers would announce. The episode would serve as a sequel to "Hawaii
".
viewership making it the third most viewed program of the night. The episode received a 7.1 rating/11% share among overall viewers and a 4.7 rating/13% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49 leading its timeslot in the demographic and becoming second in its timeslot for total vieweship. If you were to include DVR viewership, the episode was watched by 14.82 million viewers and a 6.2 rating among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. The episode went down a tick from the previous episode, "Strangers on a Treadmill
". Despite dropping in the demographic the series became the highest rated scripted series of the week between October 17 and October 23.
's TV Squad stated in his review "While 'Modern Family' is consistently one of the funniest half hours on television, it's rarely as well-balanced as this episode." Michael Slezak of Entertainment Weekly
gave the episode a positive review. Despite feeling it didn't have a "mushy center" he also felt "it's Modern Family's balancing act between the absurd and the relatable that has made it a sitcom for the ages." TV Guide
's Kara Klenc called the episode "laugh out loud". She also stated "I laughed out loud at so many moments of this episode, there are barely any shows that can do that anymore!"
Henry Hanks of CNN
gave the episode a positive review and also stated "This week, all three plots were equally strong, but I have to admit, I'm really looking forward to next week's Halloween episode even more." Mickey O'Conner of TV Guide
named Cameron and Mitchell's interview the fifth best TV moment of the week. Matt Roush gave the episode a positive review. Despite criticizing the writers "painiting" Mitchell as a "shallow social climber" also stated "that storyline is quickly redeemed in yet another hilarious episode".
Despite these positive reviews Brett Singer of The A.V. Club
rated the episode with a B-. He felt the episode was "rushed" due to the plotlines not "overlapping". Alan Sepinwall of HitFix gave the episode a negative review as well staying "I didn't laugh at the Dunphy plot" and "I hated hated hated the Cam/Mitchell plot", but also praised the Pritchett plot.
, “It’s incredible that in a country where everything is politically correct, ABC would have a line of this sort.”
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 the ABC sitcom, 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...
. The episode originally aired October 20, 2010. The episode was written by series co-creator Steven Levitan
Steven Levitan
Steven E. Levitan is an American director, screenwriter and producer of television comedies. He has created such TV series as Just Shoot Me!, Stark Raving Mad, Stacked, Back to You, and Modern Family....
and directed by 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...
.
The episode follows Phil (Ty Burrell
Ty Burrell
- External links :*...
), 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 the kids trying to improve their communication skills by giving up their electronic devices. 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...
) is getting obsessed over a neighbor's barking dog, and Mitchell (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:...
) 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...
) try to find a preschool for Lily (Jayden and Ella Hiller).
"Unplugged" received a mix of critical acclaim and negative reviews. The episode also received controversy in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
because a line of dialogue of Vergara's character in which she relates Peruvians with violence. 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...
the episode received a 4.7 rating/13% share in the 18-49 demographic going down a tick from the previous episode, "Strangers on a Treadmill
Strangers on a Treadmill
"Strangers on a Treadmill" is the fourth episode of the second season of the American sitcom, Modern Family. The episode originally aired October 13, 2010 on American Broadcasting Company...
"
Plot
After getting tired of the abusive use of electronic gadgets at the table, Claire (Julie BowenJulie 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 Phil (Ty Burrell
Ty Burrell
- External links :*...
) declare that no one is allowed to use electronics, however Phil turns it into a contest much to Claire's annoyance, and offers prizes: A car for Haley, a new computer for Alex and a chicken pot pie for Luke. Alex (Ariel Winter
Ariel Winter
Ariel Winter Workman , known in television shows and films as Ariel Winter, is an American teen actress and singer. Winter is best known for her current role as Alex Dunphy in the TV series Modern Family, for which she has won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series, along...
) and 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:...
) quickly give up the contest leaving Phil, Claire 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:...
) in the contest. Claire soon gets tired of calling to check on reservations to go see Phil's family and uses the computer before getting caught leaving Phil and Haley. Not long after, Claire and Phil catch Haley talking on the phone which prompts Phil to use the computer right away, however Haley reveals to them she was only talking to a fake phone that she carved out of a black colored bar of soap, as she celebrates that she is getting a new car, she is informed that her parents were bluffing.
The Pritchetts get annoyed by a neighbor's dog and go to see if he will shut the dog up. The neighbor says no much to Gloria's chagrin because he also demands that they shut their cockatoo
Cockatoo
A cockatoo is any of the 21 species belonging to the bird family Cacatuidae. Along with the Psittacidae and the Strigopidae , they make up the parrot order Psittaciformes . Placement of the cockatoos as a separate family is fairly undisputed, although many aspects of the other living lineages of...
up, something they deny because they have no pets (as it turns out, Gloria's high pitched voice is the one being confused with a cockatoo). Suddenly the dog goes missing with 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...
) assuming 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...
) killed it (her family in Colombia were butchers so she is very used to be around blood and killing animals and Jay had witnessed that she killed a rat in the house with a shovel). He asks Manny (Rico Rodriguez) if he thinks she did anything which he initially denies. At night Jay and Manny go to the garage to look for evidence of the dog's murder. Manny rats out Jay's plan to Gloria making her very angry. Gloria tells Jay that she gave the dog to a friend for a jar of pickles. To make her happy, Jay buys plane tickets to Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
to see what her village is like. She says in an interview she does not want to go to her old village as it will prove Jay right.
Mitchell (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:...
) 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...
) learn that all of Lily's friends have been put in preschool causing the couple to panic. Mitchell calls Claire to see if Wagon Wheel is a good school and asks her if she can get them an appointment. At Wagon Wheel the assistant tells them with their diversity (with Mitchell and Cameron being gay and Lily being Asian) they can get them into basically any preschool. Mitchell starts calling Cameron his life partner
Life partner
A life partner is a romantic or otherwise very close friend for life. The partners can be of the same or opposite sexes, married or unmarried, and monogamous or polyamorous....
to seem even more diverse to make it in Billingsley, a posher school than Wagon Wheel. They soon become beaten at their own game by an interracial lesbian couple (one being in a wheelchair) with an adopted African American child causing Cameron to pretend to be a Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
. They eventually decide to go to Wagon Wheel after bombing their interview.
Production
The episode was written by co-creator, Steven LevitanSteven Levitan
Steven E. Levitan is an American director, screenwriter and producer of television comedies. He has created such TV series as Just Shoot Me!, Stark Raving Mad, Stacked, Back to You, and Modern Family....
& directed by 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...
. The episode alluded to a trip to Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
that the cast (especially 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...
) had been hoping the producers would announce. The episode would serve as a sequel to "Hawaii
Hawaii (Modern Family)
"Hawaii" is the twenty-third episode of Modern Family on the first season. The episode originally premiered on May 12, 2010 on American Broadcasting Company ....
".
Ratings
In its original American broadcast, "Unplugged" was viewed by an estimated 11.972 million households without DVRDigital 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...
viewership making it the third most viewed program of the night. The episode received a 7.1 rating/11% share among overall viewers and a 4.7 rating/13% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49 leading its timeslot in the demographic and becoming second in its timeslot for total vieweship. If you were to include DVR viewership, the episode was watched by 14.82 million viewers and a 6.2 rating among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. The episode went down a tick from the previous episode, "Strangers on a Treadmill
Strangers on a Treadmill
"Strangers on a Treadmill" is the fourth episode of the second season of the American sitcom, Modern Family. The episode originally aired October 13, 2010 on American Broadcasting Company...
". Despite dropping in the demographic the series became the highest rated scripted series of the week between October 17 and October 23.
Critical reception
The episode received mostly positive reviews. Jason Hughes of AOLAOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
's TV Squad stated in his review "While 'Modern Family' is consistently one of the funniest half hours on television, it's rarely as well-balanced as this episode." Michael Slezak 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. Despite feeling it didn't have a "mushy center" he also felt "it's Modern Family's balancing act between the absurd and the relatable that has made it a sitcom for the ages." 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...
's Kara Klenc called the episode "laugh out loud". She also stated "I laughed out loud at so many moments of this episode, there are barely any shows that can do that anymore!"
Henry Hanks of CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
gave the episode a positive review and also stated "This week, all three plots were equally strong, but I have to admit, I'm really looking forward to next week's Halloween episode even more." Mickey O'Conner 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...
named Cameron and Mitchell's interview the fifth best TV moment of the week. Matt Roush gave the episode a positive review. Despite criticizing the writers "painiting" Mitchell as a "shallow social climber" also stated "that storyline is quickly redeemed in yet another hilarious episode".
Despite these positive reviews Brett Singer of 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...
rated the episode with a B-. He felt the episode was "rushed" due to the plotlines not "overlapping". Alan Sepinwall of HitFix gave the episode a negative review as well staying "I didn't laugh at the Dunphy plot" and "I hated hated hated the Cam/Mitchell plot", but also praised the Pritchett plot.
Reaction in Peru
The episode received controversy for Gloria's statement ""Ah, here we go. Because, in Colombia, we trip over goats and we kill people in the street. Do you know how offensive that is? Like we’re Peruvians!" Milagros Lizarraga, founder of the online group Peru USA Southern Ca, told the Associated PressAssociated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, “It’s incredible that in a country where everything is politically correct, ABC would have a line of this sort.”
External links
- "Unplugged" at ABC.com