ABC’s rejection of the ‘Modern Family’ spinoff was hurtful
‘Modern Family’ star Eric Stonestreet said this during a video interview with Graham Bensinger (via Entertainment weekly) that “it felt a little bit hurtful” when ABC rejected a planned sequel series that would have followed the lives of Cameron (Stonestreet), Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and their daughter Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) as they move to Missouri where Cameron can fulfill his dream as a college football coach. The spinoff was backed by original “Modern Family” co-creator Chris Lloyd.
“I don’t think it has any potential anymore,” Stonestreet said of the sequel series. “They had their chance. Chris Lloyd and some of the writers wrote a great script that inspired Jesse and me in our lives in Missouri, and they said, “No.” They just said, ‘We don’t want to do it.’”
“I love my character. I like the show. I love Jesse,” he continued. “We had a great working relationship, we had great chemistry. I think maybe Jesse and I felt like they thought of us as the old guys, or something like that, that it didn’t seem worth keeping those characters going. It felt a little painful. But people make business decisions.”
Stonestreet played Cameron Tucker in all 11 seasons of “Modern Family,” which ran for 250 episodes on ABC from 2009 to 2020. The actor received three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series during the show, winning twice.
“I think it would have been a slam dunk,” Stonestreet said of the scrapped Cameron-Mitch spinoff. “I don’t think it would have been successful. Because you had one of the creators – who had really made the show great for so long – willing to do it… We had the right people on the ground. It would have been great. If ABC had said, ‘Let’s do it,’ I think we’d be up and running right now.”
Stonestreet emphasized that the door is closed on making the spinoff “because it’s been so long,” though he’s certainly open to reuniting with his “Modern Family” co-stars. He added, “I wish we would do a Christmas special.”
Watch Stonestreet’s full interview with Graham Bensinger in the video below.
