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Published Aug 16, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT
Arielle Port started as a TV producer, developing content for Netflix (Firefly Lane, Brazen) and Hallmark (The Santa Stakeout, A Christmas Treasure) before transitioning into entertainment journalism. Her love of story went from interest to lifelong passion while at The University of Pennsylvania, where she fell in with a student-run web series, Classless TV, and it was a gateway drug. Arielle Port has been a Writer for Screen Rant since August 2024. She lives in Los Angeles with her boyfriend and more importantly, her cat, Boseman.
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Modern Family was on the air for more than a decade, and it had to balance meaningful character growth with the conflict that fueled its comedy. As the kids transitioned into adulthood over 11 seasons of Modern Family, their romantic lives gave the show a natural source of new stories and conflict.
Haley ultimately repeated her parents’ history, getting pregnant unexpectedly and settling down with Dylan, echoing Claire’s own path with Phil. Haley’s ending in Modern Family remains one of the most divisive choices in the show. Haley had spent years developing herself beyond the irresponsible teenager she once was. For many fans, Adam DeVine's Andy represented a more satisfying endpoint for that growth.
In the show, Andy leaves in Modern Family season 7 when he is offered a dream job in Utah, and despite the heartbreak it will cause her, Haley encourages him to take it. The character was written out with an option to return because actor DeVine was increasingly busy with his own comedy, Workaholics, and a growing film career following Pitch Perfect.
However, Haley actor Sarah Hyland revealed in Modern Family: The Untold Oral History of One of Television's Groundbreaking Sitcoms by Marc Freeman that at one point, DeVine had been in contact with the Modern Family producers for months to find a way to bring Andy back. The response he got was “they couldn’t find the funny between Andy and Haley anymore.”
The implication is that the writers couldn’t find enough comedy in the kind of mature, stable relationship Haley and Andy might have had. This exposes one of Modern Family’s harshest realities: the show needed its relationships to remain dysfunctional to keep them funny, making it feel surprisingly dated for a sitcom that ended only six years ago.
Modern Family’s Dysfunctional Relationships Make The Show Feel Older
Image via Everett CollectionModern Family repeatedly relied on mildly unhealthy relationship dynamics as a comedy engine. The main couples in Modern Family clearly loved each other, but many of their stories depended on them irritating, deceiving, manipulating, or keeping things from one another. The show was considerably less interested in finding comedy in couples simply being good to each other.
Mitch and Cam are perhaps the clearest example. Despite being a loving couple, many of their storylines involve one lying to or manipulating the other, usually leading to an argument once the truth comes out. Jay and Gloria similarly keep secrets and lie to each other, while their age gap and cultural differences frequently become sources of conflict.
Phil and Claire arguably have the healthiest central marriage, but even that dynamic frequently depends on Claire being controlling and Phil being a pushover to accommodate her. None of these relationships are outright toxic, and their flaws help make the characters funny.
However, even the best episodes of Modern Family returned to the same relationship conflicts so frequently that dysfunction began to feel less like an occasional source of comedy and more like a requirement for it. Over 11 seasons, the repetition also limited the characters’ growth, since resolving these recurring relationship problems would have removed a reliable source of conflict.
Modern Family’s Next Generation Highlighted The Relationship Problems
The original couples’ conflict was at least balanced by durable love and commitment, and there was never any question that these marriages would survive. When it came to the younger generation, Modern Family seemed more concerned with creating funny relationship dynamics than convincing romantic matches.
Haley’s ending may attract the most criticism, but Alex’s ending in Modern Family might be worse. The show struggled to transition her from the brilliant, socially awkward middle child into a fully realized adult. In most of Alex's relationships in Modern Family, she was embarrassed by her partner, including Luke’s friend Reuben and the firefighter Bill.
Alex ultimately ends up with Arvin, her former professor and, more importantly, her sister’s ex-boyfriend. Rather than feeling like the culmination of Alex’s romantic growth, the pairing feels like the show recycling an available character.
Luke never receives much of a meaningful romantic arc at all, while Manny cycles through relationships and crushes that are generally presented as obviously wrong for him. The younger generation in Modern Family presented the show with an opportunity to evolve its approach to relationships, but instead often highlighted its limitations.
Contemporary Sitcoms Find Humor In Healthy Couples
Image via Everett CollectionOther contemporary sitcoms have demonstrated that healthy relationships do not have to come at the expense of comedy. Jake and Amy in Brooklyn Nine-Nine remain intensely competitive even when they are deeply in love. They still make major life decisions through ridiculous competitions, including deciding whose apartment they will move into based on who catches the most escaped convicts.
Parks and Recreation similarly finds humor in just how completely Leslie and Ben adore each other. Instead of manufacturing reasons for them to fight, the show turns Ben's difficulty remembering every minor anniversary and finding a suitable gift to impress Leslie Knope into a running joke. Schitt’s Creek takes a similar approach with David and Patrick, finding comedy in their contrasting personalities and how they navigate problems together.
Writing funny, stable couples arguably requires more creativity because conflict cannot always come from partners deceiving or undermining each other. The result can be more meaningful for both the characters and viewers. Modern Family could have brought Andy back and challenged itself to find the comedy in Haley finally having a healthy relationship rather than lazily regressing her character after she'd come so far.
All seasons of Modern Family are streaming now on Disney+.
Release Date 2009 - 2020-00-00
Writers Becky Mann, Audra Sielaff, Bill Wrubel, Stephen Lloyd, Jon Pollack, Vali Chandrasekaran, Ben Karlin, Jack Burditt, Chuck Tatham, Andy Gordon, Christy Stratton, Cindy Chupack, Ilana Wernick, Kenny Schwartz, Rick Wiener, Joe Lawson, Jessica Poter, Carol Leifer, Emily Spivey, Jerry Collins, Dave Weasel
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Sofía Vergara
Gloria Delgado-Pritchett
English (US) ·