What's up with 'Modern Family'?

On a recent Friday in Los Angeles, the 27th annual PaleyFest kicked off . For those who may not know, the two-week event, sponsored by The Paley Center for Media, focuses on what's hot on television with open discussions with creators and talent alike about the inner workings of their respective shows.

The first night of the event turned its lights on the freshman sitcom success of ABC's Modern Family. With the primary cast members in attendance as well as co-creator Steve Levitan and Executive Producer Jason Winer, fans were able to learn about how the actors feel in the roles as well as some of the behind-the-scenes workings that help shape the show, EDGE's Jim Halterman was also there along with 1,400 other diehard fans for the Modern Family lovefest.

On the primary creation of the show, Levitan (Just Shoot Me) said that he and co-creator Christopher Lloyd (Frasier) just sat back one day and began talking. He said that "[we] would come in the morning and sort of look at each other for a while and then sort of started telling stories about what was happening in our lives. And I think it started from there. I think it started from the pure place of there are a lot of good things happening in our lives right now, a lot of interesting stories every day - why don't we just write about that? I think when you start from a place like that - just real and honest - good things tend to happen."

Is America ready for this?

As for including the gay couple of Cameron (played by Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) in the mix of the family, Levitan paid tribute to the groundbreaking sitcom Will & Grace. "I remember seeing the pilot and it was really funny but [I thought] 'Boy, is America ready for this?' And they sure didn't care. I think they broke down enormous barriers and I think the best thing we can do on that front is just present two people who are responsible parents, who are likable, who are in a committed relationship."

Stonestreet, who is straight, was asked if his playing Cameron has affected his dating life with the opposite sex. "I have a little bit of a hole to dig myself out of with the ladies," he chuckled. That said he is obviously very happy with playing the role. "I'm appreciative of all my fans, no matter how much hair they have on their back."

As for how he went about bringing Cameron to life, Stonestreet looked for someone very close to him for inspiration - his own mother. "She's very passionate," the actor explained. "She's a real person, she's not a character. She's excitable. I always say the moment in the pilot that most is my mom is when we walk into the [baby's] room and see the mural and I just say, 'Oh my God, do you love it?'"

Levitan talked about the physical transformation by Stonestreet from his real persona to Cameron. Never one to be shy, Stonestreet was more than happy to demonstrate how he becomes Cameron. The actor stood up, scratched his crotch with masculine flair and then as Levitan yelled 'Action,' he then began to glide across the stage as only Cameron would. Hilarious.

Ferguson :: no more sitcoms

As for Ferguson, he wasn't necessarily interested in doing another sitcom due to previous experience that didn't go very well and had thoughts of going back to the stage (he spent almost 3 years doing Broadway's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.)

"The previous season I had a bad experience on a sitcom. Not The Class. [It was Fox's Do Not Disturb, which was cancelled after three episodes in 2008] I was ready to kind of go back to New York and do theatre and I got this script and it was just one of those things where it just falls in your lap and you're like, 'Oh my God, this is amazing!'

During the event, Ferguson teased Stonestreet that he was cast before him and then Stonestreet fired back that Ferguson is always worried that people will think they are a couple in real life. "Who cares?" Stonestreet said. "You're just maybe being accused of having me be your type. I'm being accused of being with someone who's not my sexual preference." Jesse added that after they both got the roles, they met for coffee and happened to realize halfway that it was Valentine's Day.

When asked about favorite moments they might already have from the young show, Stonestreet immediately said the 'moon landing' moment where Cameron and Jay (Ed O'Neill, best known as Al Bundy on Married With Children) accidentally bump asses while changing clothes in the gym locker room. Stonestreet recounted, "[My friend] flew in from Kansas City and it was like nine o'clock on a Friday night and he flew in, landed at LAX, got in a car, came to 20th Century Fox, to see me and Ed touching asses. I said, 'You know, work hard, believe in yourself and maybe one day you too can touch asses with a television icon.'"

Levitan added that like many of the shows stories and little moments, the moon landing was based on one of the experiences of the writers, in this case Bill Wrubel. Winer also said that there was a bit of fight with ABC to get the pixilation over the men's asses as opposed to just a blur.

When a show is as hot as Modern Family, there is a chance to over saturate the episodes with guest stars eager to be seen on the show. So far, the series has featured Benjamin Bratt, Shelley Long, Edward Norton, Fred Willard, Minnie Driver and Elizabeth Banks. While there is a temptation to use big names to generate higher ratings (as Will & Grace was frequently guilty of doing), Levitan and Winer both agreed that they'd rather focus on the talents cast that they have in front of them. In addition, Winer pointed out, "It's fun to discover new comedic faces...we have to leave room for that. Like the skinny Santa in the Christmas episode. That was an actor who had done purely theatre and had very few television credits and he killed it."

Finally, during the Q&A portion of the evening, Levitan was asked about the documentary style in which the show is shot. Will a documentary film crew be addressed in the same manner as The Office sometimes acknowledges the unseen documentary crew following them around?

"Modern Family is a family show told documentary style rather than a show that is pretending to be a real documentary for the simple reason that I love these characters," Levitan explained. "I'm very protective of these characters. And if these characters allowed cameras into their homes and into their children's rooms and into their bathroom, I wouldn't like them. So it's just a way of telling a story that has a little grit and edge. The documentary form, those interviews, allow you to cut to the chase in such a nice way. They have a pacing that gets through the exposition. So that's the main reason we do it."

Modern Family airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on ABC. If you're in Los Angeles, PaleyFest runs through March 13th. More information at www.PaleyCenter.org.