"Chirp" is the seventh episode of the second season of ''
Modern Family
''Modern Family'' is an American family sitcom television series created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan for the American Broadcasting Company. It ran for 11 seasons, from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. It follows the lives of th ...
'' and the 31st episode overall. It originally aired on the
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...
(ABC) in the United States on November 3, 2010. The episode was written by
Dan O'Shannon
Dan O'Shannon (born March 10, 1962) is an American television writer and producer who has worked on shows such as ''Newhart'', '' Cheers'', and ''Frasier''. He was an executive producer of the ABC show ''Modern Family'', but left the show at th ...
and directed by season two's main director,
Michael Spiller
Michael Alan Spiller (born August 1, 1961) is an American cinematographer and television director.smoke detector
A smoke detector is a device that senses smoke, typically as an indicator of fire. Smoke detectors are usually housed in plastic enclosures, typically shaped like a disk about in diameter and thick, but shape and size vary. Smoke can be detecte ...
. Gloria and Manny go to Jay's work place much to Jay's dismay and Cameron takes Lily to a commercial shoot against Mitchell's wishes.
"Chirp" received mostly positive reviews. According to the
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...
, "Chirp" was seen by 12.21 million viewers and a 4.8 rating/7% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, a slight drop from the previous episode. Ariel Winter does not appear in the episode."Modern Family" Chirp (TV episode 2010) - IMDb Retrieved December 1, 2012.
Plot
Gloria (
Sofía Vergara
Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara (; born July 10, 1972) is a Colombian and American actress and model. She was the highest paid actress in American television from 2013 to 2020.
Ed O'Neill
Edward Leonard O'Neill (born April 12, 1946) is an American actor and comedian. His roles include Al Bundy on the Fox Network sitcom '' Married... with Children'', for which he was nominated for two Golden Globes, and Jay Pritchett on the a ...
) from his workplace to take him to a restaurant for lunch. While there one of Jay's employees, Jack (Bryan Krasher), lets Manny handle a forklift which he drives into the wall. Because of the incident, Jay fires Jack, much to Manny's anger and dismay.
Meanwhile, Jay tries to figure out what anniversary Gloria is celebrating today, because she celebrates everything, including their first fight. Jay thinks he has figured what they are celebrating, and therefore where he is to meet Gloria despite Manny's efforts to blackmail Jay into hiring Jack again. Jay maintains that he will not hire Jack back because he almost "hurt iskid." Manny, touched by Jay calling him his kid, tells him the real location of the date.
At the Dunphy house, Claire (
Julie Bowen
Julie Bowen Luetkemeyer (born March 3, 1970) is an American actress. She is best known for starring as Claire Dunphy in the ABC sitcom ''Modern Family'' (2009–2020), for which she received critical acclaim and six nominations for the Prime ...
) and Haley (
Sarah Hyland
Sarah Jane Hyland (born November 24, 1990) is an American actress and singer. Born in Manhattan, she attended the Professional Performing Arts School before having small roles in the films '' Private Parts'' (1997), '' Annie'' (1999) and ''Blin ...
) get sick and have to stay home. The two initially bond, but soon Dylan (
Reid Ewing
Reid Ewing (born November 7, 1988) is an American actor and musician known for his role as Dylan in the ABC comedy ''Modern Family'' and as Charlie Plunk in the TV series ''Zeke and Luther'' (2009–2011).
Life and career
Ewing appeared in th ...
) calls Haley, making Claire angry. After Dylan hangs up, Claire tries to convince Haley to break up with Dylan and start going out with David a much brighter kid that Claire prefers (albeit without mentioning either name), using one of the useless male characters on '' All My Children'' as an example. Unfortunately, Haley thinks Claire is talking about herself and Phil (
Ty Burrell
Tyler Gerald Burrell (born August 22, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. Burrell is best known for his role as Phil Dunphy on the ABC sitcom ''Modern Family'', for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor i ...
).
With Claire sick, Phil takes care of her jobs while trying to find an annoying smoke detector that keeps beeping. Seeing this as a sign he is not man, Phil tries his best to find the smoke detector, to do all of Claire's jobs, and to get his clients back, failing at everything. Soon after replacing the batteries in all the new smoke detectors, Phil uses his old cheerleading baton to destroy a couple of the smoke detectors. He soon realizes that Luke (
Nolan Gould
Nolan Gould (born October 28, 1998) is an American actor known for his role as Luke Dunphy on the ABC sitcom ''Modern Family''.
Early life and education
Gould was born in New York City, the son of Angela and Edwin Gould. Shortly after his bi ...
) had left the old smoke detectors in the attic last year, and they were the ones that were chirping.
In the meantime, Cameron (
Eric Stonestreet
Eric Allen Stonestreet (born September 9, 1971) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for portraying Cameron Tucker in the ABC mockumentary sitcom ''Modern Family'', for which he received two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporti ...
) takes Lily to act in a commercial for a children's furniture store, against Mitchell's ( Jesse Tyler Ferguson) decision. Adult actors perform voice over for Lily and another Asian child, using stereotypical dubbed-Japanese accents. Mitchell arrives at the studio and confronts Cameron, pointing out that the commercial is racist because it exploits Lily's Asianness and not her acting ability. Cameron initially denies the charge, but then the director brings in the SaveZilla (
Godzilla
is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. The character first appeared in the 1954 film '' Godzilla'' and became a worldwide pop culture icon, appearing in various media, including 32 films prod ...
) monster. Cameron asks the director (Darren Dupree Washington) to tone down the stereotypical accents, but the director refuses, saying that it is a satire. Cameron takes Lily away, but not before choosing the wrong Asian child first.
Production
The episode was written by
Dan O'Shannon
Dan O'Shannon (born March 10, 1962) is an American television writer and producer who has worked on shows such as ''Newhart'', '' Cheers'', and ''Frasier''. He was an executive producer of the ABC show ''Modern Family'', but left the show at th ...
, marking his third writing credit for the series. The episode was directed by
Michael Spiller
Michael Alan Spiller (born August 1, 1961) is an American cinematographer and television director.
The episode is the first of the season to feature Dylan (
Reid Ewing
Reid Ewing (born November 7, 1988) is an American actor and musician known for his role as Dylan in the ABC comedy ''Modern Family'' and as Charlie Plunk in the TV series ''Zeke and Luther'' (2009–2011).
Life and career
Ewing appeared in th ...
), Haley's boyfriend. The episode is the first to mention the late-2000s recession. In an interview with '' Zap2it'',
Sarah Hyland
Sarah Jane Hyland (born November 24, 1990) is an American actress and singer. Born in Manhattan, she attended the Professional Performing Arts School before having small roles in the films '' Private Parts'' (1997), '' Annie'' (1999) and ''Blin ...
said referring to Claire and Haley's storyline, "That's really cute. Me and Julie in bed all day."
Reception
Ratings
In its original American broadcast, "Chirp" was viewed by an estimated 12.21 million households and received a
Nielsen rating
Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rati ...
of 7.3 rating/12% share meaning that 7.3% of American households watched the episode and that 12% of all televisions in use at the time were watching it. The episode also received a 4.8 rating/13% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. The episode slightly dropped in the ratings from " Halloween". The episode also received a 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic in DVR adding up to a 6.2 rating in the demographic a 29% rise from the original rating. The show became the third highest rated broadcast program of the week it aired and the highest rated scripted program of the week as well.
Reviews
The episode featured mostly positive reviews.
Joel Keller of ''
TV Squad
Weblogs, Inc. was a blog network that published content on a variety of subjects, including tech news, video games, automobiles and pop culture. At one point, the network had as many as 90 blogs, although the vast majority of its traffic could be ...
'' stated in his review "'Chirp' only generated one really big laugh for me -- probably because I have a dirty mind" despite this he also stated "it was still a decent episode because both Jay and Phil looked utterly human this week."
Mallika Rao of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'' gave the episode a positive review calling it Phil Dunphy's "strongest showing".
Kara Klenc of ''
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program listings information as well as entertainment and television-related news.
The company sold its print magazine division, TV Guide Magazine LLC, in 2008.
Corpora ...
'' called it an "enjoyable episode" despite not featuring "zippy one-liners".
Rachael Maddux of '' New York'' gave the episode a rather negative review saying "this episode in particular seemed stuck in a rut."
Meredith Blake of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
'' gave the episode mostly a positive review saying it felt more "modern" than usual.
''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' writer Donna Bowman said "even though these three molehill versions took a while to get cranked up, they provide satisfying and even elegant expressions of what the art of Modern Family is all about". Despite this she stated that the Cameron-Mitchell sub-plot didn't have the "ovely ascending—then crashing—arc of the others".