LOS ANGELES -- A young man arrived at Ty Burrell's hotel room to stock the minibar and immediately recognized the co-star of the ABC comedy Modern Family.
He loved the show.
Thanks, Burrell replied. The man went on to quietly describe how his family gathered each week to watch Modern Family together, and because of those group viewings, he was getting to know his younger siblings better.
"I know we're not curing cancer," said Burrell, who portrays the earnest goofball dad Phil Dunphy, "but it feels nice to see people affected by the show."
Modern Family is the most critically acclaimed and popular new comedy of the TV season, the center of ABC's Wednesday lineup and already renewed for a second season. Not only does it fulfill a comedy's central mission -- provide genuine laughs -- it nudges preconceptions and isn't afraid to show some heart amid a sea of snark and irony on television.
The production team of Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd is behind Modern Family. Their credits include Frasier, Wings, Just Shoot Me and The Wonder Years.
After the failure of Back to You on Fox -- a sore subject -- the team and their writers were kicking around series ideas. To break the monotony, they'd tell stories about the odd and amusing things their families had done.
They soon realized these stories were funnier than anything they were making up. Some are already familiar to Modern Family viewers: the wife "busted" for dressing up to impress the firefighters taking her husband to the hospital; the writer who was once an ice dancing partner with his older sister.
Everyone on the writing staff has a family, Levitan said.
"It's almost a requirement," he said. "Only parents come into these situations where the stories come easily."
Levitan and Lloyd decided to tell the story of three families: a traditional mom and dad with three kids; an older man and younger wife, both on second marriages; and a gay couple adopting a baby. They wanted each family to be unique but able to interact with the others, so they made the older man the father of one partner in each of the other two couples.
"That was the magic idea that made it not just an idea but a real series," Lloyd said.
While deciding to make a family comedy is one thing, avoiding cliches is another thing entirely. The producers' success at this is revealed each week as more layers are peeled back on the characters.
Patriarch Jay Pritchett (portrayed by Ed O'Neill) may seem like the typical older man who married a trophy wife (Sofia Vergara). But it's intriguing to watch him build a relationship with his new wife's son -- played by Bryan native Rico Rodriguez -- and learn how Vergara's character needs not a sugar daddy, but someone dependable.
The gay couple Mitchell and Cameron try to meld their contrasting personalities at a time when they're hyper-nervous about being new parents.
"We wanted to do a gay couple that was not sort of finger-snappy and fabulous," Lloyd said. "These guys are a little bit nerdy, like college professors who are a little anti-social. They care about their kid, and over think things. That's kind of winning to America, especially an America that might be a tiny bit hesitant about a gay couple."
Julie Bowen, 39, plays Dunphy with the hyper-energy she has in real life, knowing all too well the tricks her television children can play because mom was doing them herself only a short time ago.
She puts up with Phil (Burrell), one of those characters who isn't quite as hip as he believes.
Modern Family has increased ratings in its time slot among young viewers by 12 percent. And with characters that are rich, diverse and numerous, there's enough to fill several years of story lines.
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