First review: Modern Family gay wedding episode (Without Picture)

“Is this the first gay marriage on network television?” asked series creator Steven Levitan at a cake-cutting event to celebrate the nuptials in Los Angeles Monday night. (It’s not — soap opera Days of Our Lives did it back in March; but Modern Family is doing it in prime-time.) In any case, said Levitan, the marriage of Cam (played by Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) “doesn’t feel like a shocking or earth-shattering event ... because they’ve seemed like an old married couple since day one”.

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Ferguson, who found out the characters would get married during his own, real-life gay wedding in New York, admitted to feeling anxiety about “this very special moment”. But, clutching on to Stonestreet as they watched the double episode for the first time, he decided they’d done good.

Stonestreet was in a more jocular mood - he’d already got the emotion out of his system while filming the episode.

“When we walked down the aisle for the first time, just in rehearsal, Jesse and I looked at each other and we both had tears running down our faces,” Stonestreet said.

“To finally say ‘I do’ out loud means a lot to us as actors; it also means a lot to us as people to have this sort of impact on people’s personal lives.”

Ty Burrell, whose character Phil ends up officiating the wedding, declared the wedding to be “all about me”, before getting serious about its social impact.

“There’s obviously a political aspect, but from our perspective it’s so secondary because this is the culmination of their relationship. It was an emotional event. Working with people for five years, you’re around friends and doing something meaningful.

“So a lot of us were emotional and it had something to do with the larger aspect of equal rights, but it also had something to do with the fact we love each other. It’s cool to go through theses moments together.”

Meanwhile, proud papa Ed O’Neill mused over his journey as Jay, Mitchell’s dad. Jay goes from being uncomfortable about his son marrying a man and arguing with Mitchell to tone down the “spectacle”, to actually saving the big day.

“He eventually does the right thing,” said the veteran actor. “It was fun to play.”

Ferguson said he’d had a similar journey with his own father: “I came out to my father three times because he just kept conveniently forgetting.

“So this is a very important story to tell, because it’s about evolution. It’s OK to not be 100 per cent OK with it, as long as you take the opportunity to grow. I love that they’re telling that story with Jay and I think it is opening up a lot of hearts.”

Levitan concluded that Jay’s resistance was a way into the wedding episode for those “struggling to make that same journey” in the real world.

“Ed personifies that so beautifully that it helps bring people in that might not want to watch a show about a gay marriage. And hopefully that opens a dialogue and it can do some good.”

NEALA JOHNSON REVIEWS THE MODERN FAMILY GAY WEDDING EPISODE | Wedding Dresses

“HOW often do your fathers get married?” Pepper the wedding organiser asks Lily as her dads, Cam and Mitchell, prepare to get hitched. “So far,” replies Lily, counting on her fingers, “one ... two ... three ...”

Yes it’s fair to say Cam and Mitchell’s trip down the aisle in the Modern Family season finale isn’t a smooth one. Cam is seeing “biblical” and “apocalyptic” signs that God might not be OK with it, while Mitchell is at loggerheads with his dad and openly pleased that his mum is not in attendance.

The couple do make it to their first dance as husband and husband - and any viewer with even half a heart will be in tears when they do. But first they must endure many “bumps”, as Mitchell so brilliantly understates each escalating hurdle facing the nuptials.

The first bump on the big day is Cam’s tuxedo - with the drycleaners shut and 911 refusing Cam’s demands to send in the SWAT team, it’s up to Lily to do a little breaking and entering.

Meanwhile, Phil is faking blindness to jump to the front of the queue at the gift registry, Claire and Luke are literally up the creek without a paddle, Haley is discovering a new side of dorky male nanny Andy and Cam’s parents are about to split up after 48 years of wedded bliss.

“I can’t believe I’m involved in breaking up another marriage!” wails Gloria, whose meddling may have sparked the senior Tuckers’ fallout.

At the first attempted ceremony, Sal (great guest star Elizabeth Banks), the “boozy hag” who somehow appointed herself celebrant, is suddenly nine months pregnant ... to her boyfriend of four months. (Her warning to her dim fella as to what to expect in the delivery room is one of the lines of the episode, if not the entire fifth season.) So Phil (who is seen in a flashback to the Australian episode telling Cam and Mitchell that he’s been ordained as a minister online) steps up - only to immediately, accidentally, legally wed another unlikely couple.

Oh, and there’s the little problem of a wildfire that has broken out near the grooms’ hilltop wedding venue.

After several venue changes and even more “bumps”, it gets to the point where Cam and Mitchell are ready to call it off. But Mitch’s dad Jay, who has been grumbling about this being “almost like a real wedding”, saves the day in heartwarming style.

Yes, there will be tears, but this is that rare sitcom wedding that refuses to douse its usual laughs in sappy sentimentality. And that is worth a few extra trips down the aisle.

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