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“They have been so smart in the portrayal of what it means to be gay in a family that tries but sometimes fails to be totally welcoming,” says Jeffrey Richman, a writer who has worked with Messrs. Lloyd and Levitan on sitcoms like “Frasier,” and is gay. Yet Mitchell and Cameron are actually the most normal of the lot. While Cameron can play to gay stereotypes with his dramatic hand gestures, he and Mitchell are mostly depicted as adults trying to survive parenthood. A recent episode had them fighting with each other amid the stress of trying to sleep-train an infant. Cameron calls the method of allowing a baby to cry itself to sleep “torture” and sobs uncontrollably as he listens to his daughter’s wails over the baby monitor; Mitchell rolls his eyes at his partner’s histrionics. It harks back to “The Cosby Show,” which was revolutionary in portraying an upper-middle-class black family as an upper-middle-class family that just happened to be black.”
‘Modern Family’ is Reviving the Half Hour TV Comedy (via apsies)
