ClosetCon '13
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"ClosetCon '13" is the eighth episode of the fifth season of the
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ne ...
''
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 thr ...
'', and the series' 104th overall. It was aired on November 20, 2013. The episode was written by
Ben Karlin Ben Karlin (born c. 1971) is an American television producer and writer. He has won eight Emmy awards, and is best known for his work in ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart'' and ''The Colbert Report''. He is one of three co-creators of ''The Colbe ...
and directed by
Fred Savage Frederick Aaron Savage (born July 9, 1976) is an American actor and director. He is known for his role as Kevin Arnold in the American television series ''The Wonder Years'' (1988 to 1993). He has earned several awards and nominations, such as ...
.


Plot

Jay (
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 awar ...
) and 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 Primetim ...
) are out of town because they have to attend the annual Closet Convention. While Claire seems very interested at the schedule of the convention and wants to participate in all the activities, Jay is more interested in meeting old friends, including Rita (
Randee Heller Randee Heller (born Randee Antzis; June 10, 1947) is an American television and film actress known for playing Alice in the 1970s sitcom ''Soap'' – one of television's first lesbian characters – as well as for portraying Lucille LaRusso in ...
), and do the pranks they used to do. Jay wants to put a skeleton in Claire's closet to scare her but because of his awkward behavior in front of her every time Rita is around, Claire believes that her dad has an affair. Claire tries to make Jay tell her the truth but they both end up making confessions like that Jay tried to get 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 in ...
) a job in another state so he will break up Claire and Claire called the immigration to inform them about 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.
). Phil and Gloria are back home alone with the kids and they plan to go all together to a restaurant. Before they leave, Phil discovers what Jay is hiding in his secret closet; a treasure of antique model toys. He gets so excited with his discovery that he unintentionally breaks one of them, a replica of Apollo 13. They immediately cancel their reservation at the restaurant and they all try to fix the model with Phil's dad, Frank's (
Fred Willard Frederic Charles Willard (September 18, 1933 May 15, 2020) was an American actor, comedian, and writer. He was best known for his roles in the Rob Reiner mockumentary film ''This Is Spinal Tap'' (1984); the Christopher Guest mockumentaries ''Wai ...
), help via
Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...
. In the meantime, Alex (
Ariel Winter Ariel Winter Workman (born January 28, 1998) is an American actress. She starred as Alex Dunphy in the ABC comedy series ''Modern Family'', for which she and her co-stars won four consecutive Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Ensemble ...
) 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 ...
) fight over the pizza delivery boy that they both like. Meanwhile, Mitch (
Jesse Tyler Ferguson Jesse Tyler Ferguson (born October 22, 1975) is an American actor. From 2009 to 2020, he portrayed Mitchell Pritchett on the sitcom ''Modern Family'', for which he earned five consecutive nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding ...
) and Cam (
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 Supporting ...
) visit Cam's birthplace,
Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
. Mitch is not very excited being there but after a fight he has with Cam, he decides to give it a try and embrace the farm life. The problem is that Cam's grandmother (
Ann Guilbert Ann Morgan Guilbert (October 16, 1928 – June 14, 2016), sometimes credited as Ann Guilbert, was an American television and film actress and comedian who portrayed a number of roles from the 1950s on, most notably as Millie Helper in 61 episode ...
), who does not know that Cam is gay nor that he has a kid nor that he is getting married, arrives. Cam asks Mitch to pretend they are not a couple and even though Mitch does not agree with the idea, he agrees to do it. Eventually Cam tells his grandmother the truth but she does not take the news very well.


Cultural references

The scene where Phil tries fix the final part of the model, is a parody scene reference to the film ''
Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted aft ...
'', where it is necessary to provide a way for the three stranded astronauts to build a carbon dioxide filter from only the objects they have on board.


Reception


Ratings

In its original American broadcast, "ClosetCon '13" was watched by 10.19 million; down 0.56 from the previous episode.


Reviews

"ClosetCon '13" received mixed reviews. Leigh Raines of ''TV Fanatic'' rated the episode with 4/5 saying that the episode "was a fun trip to the farm for all". Jordan Adler of ''We Got This Covered'' gave a good review to the episode saying that this may be the best episode of the season so far. "One great comedic set piece and a surprisingly adept dramatic scene close what may be the best episode of Modern Family season five so far. The three plots this week all work very well, becoming more poignant and witty than their initial set-up would suggest, and all of the actors are at the top of their game." Britt Hayes from ''Screen Crush'' gave a mixed review to the episode saying: "Overall, this week is an improvement over last week’s overloaded mess of an episode, if only because we’re back down to the basic three-plot structure, but there are no big, stand-out laughs ..Here’s an episode of wholesome, family basic cable comedy where families have simple conflicts that are resolved over the course of 30 minutes with commercial breaks. It’s just so basic." Joshua Alston of ''
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 ...
'' gave a C+ rate to the episode. "Modern Family becomes a high-wire act when it separates its characters into three storylines with no overlap between them. Without a nifty structure to string together the disparate plots, the parts get more scrutiny, because they aren't contributing to a greater whole ..a shambling episode losetCon '13with a smattering of funny lines and a sequence that worked far better than it should have, but without a ton of meat on its bones."


References


External links

*
"ClosetCon '13"
at ABC.com {{Modern Family, 5 Modern Family (season 5) episodes 2013 American television episodes Television episodes set in Missouri