I have to do it. I have to start a thread for ABC's Modern Family/The Middle/Cougar Town Lineup

actually

cougar town is pretty awesome ... the only other network shows that bring the LOLs as consistently this season were parks and recreation and community.

I dropped Cougar Town before it got good, apparently, and now it seems like a lot of work would be needed to get up to speed. I'll get there before next year...maybe.

Also, I liked Mr. Sunshine...but I get why people wouldn't.

it's a bit weirder (and not that representative) of what cougar town has become, but this still had me cracking up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VGDsMESUx8

That was pretty funny indeed!

i thought happy endings sort of killed it? none of the jokes were partic quote-worthy but just the gangs all here vibe and the joy and ease of their interactions, even the two lame blonde characters were p good idk

Yeah, I really dug it. It does what it does very well.

the one lame blonde character is generally pretty good and the other one truly is lame but looks like elisha cuthbert so i'm always tolerating her. this show keeps maintaining that watchability baseline, maybe even raising it (himym: watch yr back, incumbency can only save you for so long). casey wilson looking better than ever.

i think theyve started to figure out what those two are good at as the shows progresses, elish cuthbert feeding peeps to her snake was p great, i thought. one of the things i really like abt this show versus himym or some of the other recent hangout comedies is that the empahsize how lame and comfortable the characters taste in music/movies/culture is

you guys otm, show had a very solid season premiere

That isn't Elisa Cuthbert? Hah! I was all proud of myself for recognizing her :P

Julie Bowen was on fire last night - Law & Order Special Parking Unit! I died.

no that is her, i just think balls mean the character 'looks like' the actress who is playing her

bowen's big speech was definitely one of the first modern family scenes in a while that i thought was really great

ahhh - gotcha. I'm terrible at recognizing any celebrity lower than "A list" so it was a shining moment that was almost taken away from me!

Mitchell spitting as he cried was pretty lulzy too. Much better episode than the first two! My husband is the EXACT same way as Cam when hungry. Heh.

I don't really get the love for happy endings, everyone just seems like such self-satisfied dicks.

i kind of like that the show isn't trying hard to make the characters likable (but also isn't quite going in an opposite seinfeld/it's always sunny direction). the worst thing about a lot of pretty young ppl network sitcoms is the overwhelmingly needy stench of LOVE US LOVE US LOVE US.

Julie Bowen had some good moments but I thought that was a really terrible episode.

why didn't my dvr record happy endings last night? :(

this dvr is so terrible. i can never get it to work properly

Cougar Town has been delayed until March, with its episode order cut from 22 to 15. RIP.

There's always Cougarton Abbey.

only 6 episodes tho

This just hasn't been Abed's week.

Pudi's on the Cougs, too?

He did a guset shot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWfJYJMrYa0

But I was just refering to the bad news about Community & Cougar Town breaking so close together.

cougar town!

huh.

during this ep of The Middle there is a scene where sue is talking to the older brother and a pink jacket keeps jumping around the shot with every cut and disappearing and reappearing. it is very distracting

Huh- I didn't notice that.

I've come to the conclusion that, with the exception of Happy Endings, ABC's Wednesday night lineup is an embarrassment of winning comedic performances on shows that I don't otherwise care for at all.

Gave up on Suburgatory so I'd agree.

Like, if your only requirement for a solid sitcom is funny people being funny, you could do much worse.

there is so much talking on this thread about the other shows that aren't modern family...modern family is pretty much the best comedy.

the little segments over the closing credits in modern family (like the one when everyone's talking about gloria's mispronunciations) >>> pretty much any other entire 30 min sitcom on the air now.

sorry modern family hasn't been great since season 1 (maybe halfway thru season 2 to be generous)

The best ABC comedy on Wednesday is Happy Endings

NZA must be an Emmy voter because afaict those are the only people who are still excited about Modern Family

The little pre-opening-credits vignette yesterday with Phil Dunphy in the doctor's office was pretty funny. I don't remember word for word but they were talking about the real estate market:

[Doctor behind Dunphy, putting on a glove.]
Dunphy: Well, it's a buyer's market so if you're a seller, y'know...
Doctor: Bend over.
Dunphy: Right, so it's not great for them, but...
Doctor: No, bend over.

Modern Family is still funny, don't get me wrong

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cougar-town-ric-swartzlander-329745

Showrunner carnage continues as Cougar Town moves to TBS. This seems less contentious though.

"that's the risk you take with street eggs."

A couple of years ago, I started stopping on this occasionally, then started watching whole episodes in syndication (so all jumbled up), and I'm finally watching it from the beginning. Long way to go--I'm halfway into Season 3--but most of the time I love it. Don't know if there's a major drop-off at some point, as there usually is with long-running shows. There's not one of the 10 principals I don't like a lot, putting aside non-entity (so far) Lily. The most surprising thing is that a handful of times--Phil and Claire getting properly married for the first time in Hawaii, for instance--I think it even approaches art.

I think it held up very well over the years (spoiler: Lily becomes an entity, and joins the good cast members. A later addition, not so much). I think Manny is one character that is even better in the latter part of the series.

I have to disagree, I recently encountered a contemporary episode and thought it was utter hack, and I really liked this show at its height.

Took a long break, started up again, and am working through season 6.

I'm laughing because I was mystified by something that returned search results and evidently mystified others too: Mitchell looking at the wedding video at the end of E3, "The Cold."

The show does tail off, but there's almost always a few things that make me laugh in every episode.

One thing this show does really well is work in guest appearances from well-known people: Catherine O'Hara and Andrea Martin (Martin Short was pretty good too), Steve Zahn, Ray Liotta, Kelsey Grammar, Matthew Broderick, etc. Not to mention all the semi-regulars like Fred Willard and Shelly Long. (I consulted a list to jog my memory--I didn't even that was Edward Norton as the Spandau Ballet guy!)

Fred Willard was so, so enjoyable on this show.