Everything the ‘Modern Family’ Cast Has Said About the Show Ending

Credit: ABC/Jill Greenberg

Everything the ‘Modern Family’ Cast Has Said About the Show Ending

The end has arrived. On Friday, February 21, the cast of Modern Family filmed their final episode and wrapped the series after 11 seasons. The sitcom, which launched on ABC in 2009, has an all-star cast who quickly became a family: Sofia Vergara (Gloria Delgado-Pritchett), Eric Stonestreet (Cameron Tucker), Ed O’Neill (Jay Pritchett), Sarah Hyland (Haley Dunphy), Julie Bowen (Claire Dunphy), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Mitchell Pritchett), Ty Burrell (Phil Dunphy), Ariel Winter (Alex Dunphy), Nolan Gould (Luke Dunphy), Jeremy Maguire (Joe Prichett) and Rico Rodriguez (Manny Delgado). From the start, the show began breaking barriers on TV — especially with Mitch and Cameron. “I do think putting a gay couple in the forefront and not having it be a sidekick [but] having it be an integrated part of the family and not leading with the fact that they’re gay [was] revolutionary back then,” Ferguson told reporters in January 2020 during the Television Critics’ Association’s winter press tour. “I don’t think it’s as revolutionary now, which I think is a great thing. I hope Mitch and Cam open the door for other writers to be inspired.” The show was also very important to the younger actors; many of them grew up on the show which wasn’t always an easy experience. Hyland, who was 18 when the show began, struggled with health issues during the show and received a ton of criticism for her changing looks. “People really love to attack women especially,” Hyland added during the panel in January. “I think Ariel is such an amazing woman and has always been so mature and handles it with such grace and poise. And I think between the two of us we really have gone and tackled them with all of our spite and wit.” Scroll through the gallery below for some of the most emotional quotes the cast has given about the end of the show. [podcast_block]

Credit: ABC/Jill Greenberg

Jesse Tyler Ferguson

“The end of Modern Family has been very emotional for all of us,” he told Us in August. “We're all very clingy and there are a lot more group texts from people. It's been 11 years and it's going to be really hard to say goodbye. ... It's something I can't even wrap my mind around. They mean so much to me and they truly are an extended family, so the idea of not seeing them everyday — even summers, our hiatuses when we don't see each other for three or four months is really hard. I just hope that we all stay close.”

Credit: ABC/Jill Greenberg

Julie Bowen

“That first day [filming this season] I couldn’t catch my breath,” she told Us Weekly in November 2019. “I kept sobbing. It was sort of the beginning of the end. Now we’re in the groove it’s hard to imagine. It’s like your last year of college or something you’re like, you’re almost done. You’re like ‘Really? it doesn’t feel like it. Talk to me after I finish that final exam and then I’ll be sobbing.' ... I love my fake children. I love them so much.”

Credit: ABC/Jill Greenberg

Nolan Gould

“There are these moments where like, we shoot our final Christmas episode, where it hits you like, ‘Oh, this is the last time we do this specific thing.’ Or ‘this time next year, we're not all going to be together here for this,’” Gould told Us in January. “I'll never be able to find something quite as special and cool as Modern Family.”

Credit: ABC/Jill Greenberg

Ty Burrell

“This show does kind of ruin you,” Burrell said in January. “Everybody’s going to go on to do great stuff but … the people, the quality of the material, the hours — frankly, everything about it is going to make it hard to follow this job.”

Credit: ABC/Jill Greenberg

Ed O'Neill

The Married ... With Children alum told USA Today in February that the finale is “perfect, just the right amount of sentiment, but not too much. It was very good and very funny." He also noted that after the finale table read he “just stood up and started applauding the writers. Everybody was doing it and that lasted for, like, five minutes."

Credit: ABC/Jill Greenberg

Sofia Vergera

“Sad because it’s ending but so grateful and happy to have been able to be a part of this family,” the actress wrote on Instagram at the final table read in February.

Credit: ABC/Jill Greenberg

Eric Stonestreet

“Thank you Modern Family for allowing me to fulfill my dream of being a clown in the biggest circus of them all. Hollywood,” Stonestreet wrote on Instagram when he played Fizbo the clown one last time in February.

Modern Family‘s finale airs on ABC Wednesday, April 8, at 8 p.m.