"Mistery Date" is the eighth episode of the
fourth season of the
American sitcom ''
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 series' 80th episode overall. It aired November 14, 2012. The episode was written by
Jeffrey Richman
Jeffrey Richman is an American writer, producer and actor.
Producer
* ''Uncoupled'' (2022): executive producer
* ''Modern Family'': co-executive producer
* ''Stacked''
* ''Frasier'': executive producer
* ''Charlie Lawrence'' (2003): executive pr ...
and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller.
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 ...
submitted this episode for consideration due to his nomination for the
at the
65th Primetime Emmy Awards
The 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, honoring the best in prime time television programming from June 1, 2012 until May 31, 2013, were held on Sunday, September 22, 2013 at the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California. CBS televised the cer ...
.
Plot
Alex (
Ariel Winter) is participating at the academic decathlon. 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 ...
) drives her there for the weekend, bringing Manny (
Rico Rodriguez) and 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 ...
) along. Alex is removed in the first round of the competition. Claire unsuccessfully tries convincing the judges to accept her back.
Manny meets a girl in the hotel lobby whom he comes to believe is the love of his life. He and Luke decide to attend all of the bar mitzvahs throughout the hotel in an attempt to find her.
Meanwhile, 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 ...
) is home alone. After Claire's encouragement not to spend the weekend alone, he attempts to arrange a boys' night, inviting fellow Bulldogs alumnus Dave (
Matthew Broderick
Matthew Broderick (born March 21, 1962) is an American actor. His roles include the Golden Globe-nominated portrayal of the title character in '' Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986), the voice of adult Simba in Disney's ''The Lion King'' (1994) ...
), with whom he was acquainted at Cameron's (
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 ...
) gym. Dave is gay and Cam, not knowing the guy Dave met is Phil, believes that Phil has invited him over for other reasons.
Cam and Mitch (
Jesse Tyler Ferguson) want to make a surprise baby gift for 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 a ...
) and Gloria (
Sofia Vergara
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and has ...
). In order for the surprise to be successful, they must keep Jay and Gloria out of their house for approximately four hours. Cam takes Gloria for lunch and Mitch takes his dad to the store. Being together during the day, Mitch sees that something is bothering Jay. He attempts to find out what is wrong but ultimately meets with difficulty because Jay is unwilling to discuss things with his son.
Reception
Ratings
In its original American broadcast, "Mistery Date" was watched by 11.89 million; down 0.54 from the previous episode.
Reviews
"Mistery Date" received generally positive reviews from television critics.
Shayelizatrotter from ''The Comedy Critic'' gave the episode an A− grade, saying that it was entertaining: "Overall, I thought this was a very amusing episode with such comical character interaction throughout all of the storylines."
Denise Chang from ''No White Noise'' gave the episode a B+ grade, saying that she would give the episode a 4/5 laughs on the funny scale and that the show effectively balanced humor and serious topics. "Overall, Phil’s plot line made up for any other inadequacies this episode had (which were not that many anyway) and bumped the laughs to a 4 out of 5!"
Leigh Raines of ''TV Fanatic'' rated "Mistery Date" a 4.5/5,
while Zach Dionne of ''Vulture'' rated it 5/5, saying that it was "just a Really Good Episode."
Jules of ''Two Cents TV'' gave a good review: "One simple action or gesture can have a whole lot of meaning. While some believe in one thing, others are just oblivious to see what is really going on. Such misunderstandings always make well for a comedy and this week we have some good and not-so good examples of it."
Britt Hayes from ''Screen Crush'' also gave a good review, stating: "Though the Bar Mitzvah stuff with Manny and Luke doesn’t amount to much, the rest of the episode does what ‘Modern Family’ does best: subverts expectation, gives its characters real depth and humanity, and finds hilarity in the increasingly absurd."
Dalene Rovenstine of ''
Paste Magazine
''Paste'' is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with studios in Atlanta and Manhattan, and owned by Paste Media Group. The magazine began as a website in 1998. It ran as a print publication fro ...
'' rated the episode a 7.4/10, saying that even though she found the episode average, she liked it: "If I had to rank this episode (which I do), I would say it’s pretty average, but for some reason I like it more than that. There isn’t anything spectacular about it: the storylines aren’t intensely intriguing, but there is just enough quality dialogue sprinkled throughout that I was happy to keep watching."
Donna Bowman 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+ grade to the episode, saying: "This episode almost plays like a challenge: Break up the ensemble into random pairs, perhaps by drawing out of a hat, and create comedy out of something that might happen to those pairs. . . . In an episode where everything plays out pretty much as expected, the ending of Phil’s storyline proves exceptionally beautiful. "
Michael Adams of ''411mania'' gave a mixed review, rating the episode 6.5/10. He praised the storyline between Phil and Dave and said that the story alone would give the episode a 10 if it were solely about them: "The minute he
ave
''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE s ...
called up Cam and revealed what he thought was going to happen, I was hysterical. Then, all the innuendos while they were watching the game were fantastic! I thought the two men really played off each other very well, and would totally be on board with Dave coming back."
References
External links
*
"Mistery Date"at ABC.com
{{Modern Family, 4
Modern Family (season 4) episodes
2012 American television episodes
Television shows directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller