“I just saw Alex and Michael sitting in a tree—don’t make me spell it out for you”

Modern Family is a sitcom that follows the daily exploits of a large extended family. Each episode finds different members of the Dunphy / Pritchett / Delgado / Tucker clan paired up on some sort of wacky adventure or with some zany problem. This is one of the key things that helps keep the series fresh—by mixing up the character pairings each week the viewer gets to experience all kinds of new and fun family dynamics.

For the fourth consecutive season, Modern Family has won the Emmy for Best Comedy Series. And while some may not like the idea of the same series winning every year, I was instantly reminded of why this series keeps winning as I rewatched the fourth season on this Blu-ray set! From the hilarious, witty writing to the amazing chemistry between the entire ensemble, this show is thoroughly amusing and entertaining. Even in its fourth year, the series is just as strong as its ever been.

At the end of last season Gloria discovered she was pregnant, so in this fourth season we follow her revealing her delicate situation, her pregnancy and the delivery—and how all of this affects Jay and Manny. In the Dunphy home, Phil faces competition from rival realtor Gil Thorpe, while Claire teams up with Cam to flip houses, and also looks into re-entering the working world. As for the kids, Haley’s headed off for college, looking for a job and thinking about her potential future with Dylan; Alex is trying to loosen up a bit; and Luke starts dating and contemplates quitting magic—which doesn’t sit well with Phil! And in the Tucker-Pritchett home, Cam gets back to teaching while Mitchell takes on a larger role running the house and watching Lily, who has become quite the sassy little diva!

The fourth season has some really fun moments and episodes. My absolute favorite is an homage to The Godfather where Phil takes care of family business during a baptism. Lily also has lots of excellent sassy lines throughout the season (this older Lily they introduced last season is hilarious!). Then there’s Gloria with her ventriloquist dummy, Luke being an evil genius and master manipulator, Cam and Mitchell trying to explain to Lily the difference between being gay and having a nationality, and a Dunphy family RV roadtrip.

This season also has a lot of great guest stars, including Paul Scheer, Billy Dee Williams, Nathan Lane, Fred Willard, Shelley Long, Elizabeth Peña, David Faustino, Elizabeth Banks, Benjamin Bratt, Paget Brewster, Rob Riggle, and Justine Bateman.

The video quality on the Blu-ray looks fantastic—everything is crisp and clear and looks even better than when it aired on the HD ABC channel. The audio sounds good, but I didn’t notice very much (if any) use of the surround channel—or even it taking advantage of the stereo channels. The bonus features are a bit disappointing—the audio commentaries are a bit dull and the participants often say nothing at all for periods of time. Some of the featurettes were interesting, but are padded out with a lot of clips from the episodes. The Gag Reel and Eric Stonestreet featurettes are probably the most entertaining because they actually provide some behind the scenes footage. There are also some great deleted scenes, which I wish they had just edited back in as extended versions of the episodes.

I could watch these episodes of Modern Family over and over again and still laugh every time. This show just keeps getting better all the time. This is an easy recommendation!

What’s Included on the Blu-ray:

Episodes: (516 min)

• All 24 episodes of Season 4
  Disc 1: “Bringing Up Baby”, “Schooled”, “Snip”, “The Butler’s Escape”, “Open House of Horrors”, “Yard Sale”, “Arrested”, “Mistery Date”
  Disc 2: “When a Tree Falls”, “Diamond in the Rough”, “New Year’s Eve”, “Party Crasher”, “Fulgencio”, “A Slight at the Opera”, “Heart Broken”, “Bad Hair Day”
  Disc 3: “Best Men”, “The Wow Factor”, “The Future Dunphys”, “Flip Flop”, “Career Day”, “My Hero”, “Games People Play”, “Goodnight, Gracie”
• Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English DTS HD-MA 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish

Extras:

• Deleted and Alternate Scenes (6:55)
  Deleted and alternate scenes can be found on the discs with there respective episodes. Some of the deleted scenes are a lot of fun—it would have been great if they had just reinserted them back into extended episodes.
  • Ep 404 “The Butler’s Escape” — Deleted Scene 3, Deleted Scenes 42-45
  • Ep 405 “Yard Sale” — Alternate Tag, Deleted Scene 24
  • Ep 412 “Fulgencio” — Deleted Scene 5
  • Ep 415 “Best Men” — Deleted Scenes 2-5
  • Ep 422 “My Hero” — Deleted Scenes 13 & 15

• Audio Commentaries
  Writer commentary is provided on four of the season four episodes. The guys provide some interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits and talk about the evolution of the episodes. However, at times these get a bit dull—the participants often seem to just be watching the episodes, saying nothing or just laughing at the jokes.
  • Ep 412 “Party Crasher” — writers Danny Zuker and Bill Wrubel
  • Ep 413 “Fulgencio” — writers Bill Wrubel and Danny Zuker
  • Ep 421 “Career Day” — Steve Levitan and writers Brad Walsh and Paul Corrigan
  • Ep 424 “Goodnight, Gracie” — writers Steve Levitan and Jeffrey Richman
    (appears on regular cut of episode)
• Director’s Cut of Ep 424 “Goodnight, Gracie” (23:52)
  Director’s cut runs 2:12 longer than the aired version of the episode.
• An Addition to the Family (6:30)
  Sofia Vergara talks about what it was like playing a pregnant Gloria, how the baby changes the family, and how actually being a mother helps her to keep it real. Rico Rodriguez talks about what happens to Manny in the birth episode. Includes a lot of clips from the season.
• A Day with Eric (11:57)
  Cameras follow Eric Stonestreet for a day on the set—from hair and makeup to wardrobe to filming his scenes from the tooth fairy episode.
• A Modern Guide to Parenting (4:40)
  Collection of clips from the series in which the characters talk about being a parent and give parental advice.
• “Modern Family” Writers (13:14)
  Executive Producers Bill Wrubel, Danny Zuker, Jeff Richman and Abraham Higginbotham talk about some of this season’s plotlines that were derived from their own experiences. Intermixed with clips from these stories.
• Gag Reel (10:26)
  A really fun gag reel that includes flubbed and forgotten lines, prop malfunctions and the cast just having fun on set.

Final Thoughts:

Modern Family won its fourth consecutive Best Comedy Series Emmy for this season of the show, and rewatching these episode on the Blu-ray, it was easy to see why. This ensemble cast works well together and are given such witty and humorous writing to work with. The video quality of this Blu-ray is perfect, the set provides a decent set of bonus features, and the episodes have high replay value. This is definitely recommended for fans of the series or curious potential viewers.