The fourth season of the American television

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

, ''

Modern Family ''Modern Family'' is an American television sitcom, created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, that aired on ABC for 11 seasons from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. The series follows the lives of three diverse but interrelated fa ...

'', aired on

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

from September 26, 2012 to May 22, 2013. This season was ordered on May 10, 2012. The season was produced by Lloyd-Levitan Productions in association with

20th Century Fox Television 20th Television, Inc. (formerly known as TCF Television Productions, Inc., 20th Century-Fox Television and 20th Century Fox Television) is the television studio arm of 20th Century Studios, owned by Disney Television Studios, a division of the Di ...

, with series creators

Steven Levitan Steven E. Levitan (born April 6, 1962) is an American television producer, director, and screenwriter. He has created many television series such as ''Just Shoot Me!'', '' Stark Raving Mad'', '' Stacked'', '' Back to You'', ''Modern Family'', a ...

and

Christopher Lloyd Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and television shows since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future (franchise), ''B ...

serving as

showrunners A showrunner is the top-level executive producer of a television series. The position outranks other creative and management personnel, including episode directors, in contrast to feature films, in which the director has creative control over th ...

Production

The fourth season of the show was produced by Lloyd-Levitan Productions in association with

and airs on the

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast Television broadcaster, television and radio Radio network, network that serves as the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division ...

(ABC). ''Modern Family'' is produced by co-creators

and

who serve as executive producers and

show runner A showrunner is the top-level executive producer of a television series. The position outranks other creative and management personnel, including episode directors, in contrast to feature films, in which the director has creative control over th ...

s with Bill Wrubel as co-executive producer.

Cast

Ed O'Neill Edward Leonard O'Neill (born April 12, 1946) is an American actor, comedian, and former football player. Over his career, he has earned four Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe ...

as Jay Pritchett *

Sofía Vergara Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara (; born July 10, 1972) is a Colombian and American actress and television personality who received five nominations each at the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards. She is one of the highest-paid a ...

as Gloria Pritchett *

Julie Bowen Julie Bowen (born Julie Bowen Luetkemeyer; March 3, 1970) is an American actress. She starred as Claire Dunphy in the ABC sitcom '' Modern Family'' (2009–2020), for which she received widespread critical acclaim. She won the Primetime Emmy A ...

as Claire Dunphy *

Ty Burrell Tyler Gerald Burrell (born August 22, 1967) is an American actor. Burrell is best known for playing Phil Dunphy on the ABC sitcom '' Modern Family'' (2009–2020), for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in ...

as Phil Dunphy *

Jesse Tyler Ferguson Jesse Tyler Ferguson (born October 22, 1975) is an American actor. From 2009 to 2020, he portrayed List of Modern Family characters#Mitchell Pritchett, Mitchell Pritchett on the sitcom ''Modern Family'', for which he earned five consecutive nomin ...

as Mitchell Pritchett *

Eric Stonestreet Eric Allen Stonestreet (born September 9, 1971) is an American actor. He is known for portraying Cameron Tucker in the ABC sitcom ''Modern Family'' (2009–2020), for which he received two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Com ...

as Cameron Tucker *

Sarah Hyland Sarah Jane Hyland (born November 24, 1990) is an American actress. Born in Manhattan, she attended the Professional Performing Arts School before having minor roles in the films '' Private Parts'' (1997), '' Annie'' (1999) and '' Blind Date'' ...

as Haley Dunphy *

Ariel Winter Ariel Winter Workman (born January 28, 1998) is an American actress. She is best known for playing Alex Dunphy in the ABC sitcom '' Modern Family'' (2009–2020), for which she and her several costars won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Ou ...

as Alex Dunphy *

Nolan Gould Nolan Gould (born October 28, 1998) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Luke Dunphy on the ABC sitcom ''Modern Family'' (2009–2020). Early life and education Gould was born in New York City, to Angela and Edwin Gould. Shortly ...

as Luke Dunphy * Rico Rodriguez as Manny Delgado *

Aubrey Anderson-Emmons Aubrey Frances Anderson-Emmons (born June 2007) is an American actress. She is known for her role as Lily Tucker-Pritchett on ABC's ''Modern Family'' (2011–2020). Early life Anderson-Emmons is the daughter of Amy Anderson and Kent Emmons, w ...

as Lily Tucker-Pritchett ''Modern Family'' employs an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that comprises many principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to the po ...

. The series is set in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and focuses on the family lives of Jay Pritchett (

), his daughter Claire Dunphy (

), and his son Mitchell Pritchett (

). Claire is a

homemaker Homemaking is mainly an American English, American and Canadian English, Canadian term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping, housewifery or household management. It is the act of overseeing the organizational ...

mom married to Phil Dunphy (

); they have three children, Haley (

), the typical teenager, Alex (

), the smart middle child and Luke (

), the offbeat only son. Jay is married to a much younger Colombian woman, Gloria (

), and is helping her raise her teen son, Manny ( Rico Rodriguez). Mitchell and his partner Cameron Tucker (

) have

adopted Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, from ...

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

baby, Lily (

). The kids are only required to appear in 22 episodes.

Episodes

Reception

The fourth season of ''Modern Family'' was met with mixed reviews. Willa Paskin of ''Salon'' gave the season a negative review, writing, "As Modern Family has gotten older, its characters, and their dynamics, have settled into grooves, some more discordant than others." Halfway through the season, Rachel Stein of ''Television Without Pity'' wrote, "much as I liked the pairings and some of the dialogue,

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...

"] is just another contrived episode of ''Modern Family'' we can cite when we talk later about how a different show should have won the 2013 Emmy for Best Comedy." On the other hand, Robert Bianco of ''USA Today'' gave the season a positive review, calling it "TV's most appreciated great comedy." In addition, ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was created in ...

'' was often complimentary towards the season. All 24 episodes were reviewed, with "A−" and "B" as the most common letter grades assigned to a given one. Donna Bowman, reviewing "Goodnight Gracie," wrote that there were "few comedies on television more satisfying" when the season was at its best. Some of the more well-received episodes include " Schooled," "

Yard Sale A garage sale (also known as a yard sale, tag sale, moving sale and by many other namesSome rarely used names include "attic sale", "basement sale", "rummage sale", "thrift sale", "patio sale", "lawn sale", and "jumble sale".) is an informal ...

," " Diamond in the Rough," and " Goodnight Gracie".

Ratings

Awards and nominations

Primetime Emmy Awards

The fourth season received twelve nominations at the

65th Primetime Emmy Awards The 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, honoring the best in prime time television programming from June 1, 2012, until May 31, 2013, were held on Sunday, September 22, 2013, at the Peacock Theater, Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California. CBS ...

in total, including its fourth consecutive nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series. The ceremony for the Primetime Awards was aired on September 22, 2013, on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. The Primetime Creative Arts Awards took place on September 15, 2013.

Home Media release

The Fourth season of ''Modern Family'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

both in a three-disc set on September 24, 2013. The box-set contains all 24 episodes plus the extended director's cut version of the season finale, commentaries from the writers of the show on several episodes, deleted and alternate scenes, a blooper reel and more. This was the final season of the series that had a Blu-ray release, as all of the subsequent seasons were released on DVD and Digital HD only.

References

External links

Episode recaps at ABC.com
* {{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Modern Family'' season 4 , list = {{EmmyAward ComedySeries {{Producers Guild of America Award for Best Episodic Comedy {{ScreenActorsGuildAwards EnsembleTVComedy 4 2012 American television seasons 2013 American television seasons