Sofia Vergara became a household name due to her role as Gloria in Modern Family. The groundbreaking sitcom ran for 11 seasons, and it still continues to gain new fans everyday. Vergara’s performance obviously is a huge reason behind that.
However, there is another character that seems to have been on par with her. In fact, many think that if it wasn’t for said character, Modern Family wouldn’t have become such a huge hit or be sustained for that long.
That character, of course, is Ed O’Neill’s Jay Pritchett. Interestingly, O’Neill initially didn’t want to play the role, but fate had different plans for him.
Sofia Vergara attracted fans to Modern Family, Ed O’Neill made them stay
While Sofia Vergara’s Gloria made Modern Family famous, it was her onscreen partner Jay Pritchett, played by Ed O’Neill, who carried the show on his back. Although the show has an ensemble cast, with all the characters being played by masterful actors who took no prisoners to show their skills, O’Neill still stood out.
Many fans would agree that the Dutch actor was one of the main reasons that made the show so entertaining to watch. While at first O’Neill’s character came off as a grumpy old man, stuck in his ways, and refusing to adapt, slowly the depth of his character started becoming visible.
For example, although he had opinions about his son Mitch (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cam’s (Eric Stonestreet) relationship and marriage, he slowly but steadily made peace with it and became happy for them.
Jay’s gradual shift from being an unhappy, hard-to-deal-with old man to being an understanding father to Mitch and Claire (Julie Bowen), and husband to Gloria had truly been one of the most satisfying character arcs to witness.
Moreover, his dynamic with Gloria’s son Manny (Rico Rodriguez) too changes into one of the most wholesome relationships over time.
What makes his progression even more endearing is that throughout it all, he still maintains his grumpy demeanor and snarky one-liners that crack the audience up all the time.
To be fair, Sofia Vergara’s Gloria had been a huge part of the shift in his character. However, what made things believable were Ed O’Neill’s top-notch performance and phenomenal writing.
Fans hail Ed O’Neill’s Jay Pritchett for holding the Modern Family together
As stated above fans have loved Sofia Vergara’s performance as the over-dramatic, fiery, yet kind-hearted Gloria for 11 whole years. In fact, the actress is still one of the major reasons behind the show continuing to gain more fans.
However, Ed O’Neill‘s Jay Pritchett seems to have a similar hold over the fandom as well. User GanaNayaka9999 posted an analysis of what makes the show tick so well on the r/Modern_Family subreddit.
While they praised the pace and the apt performances every actor brought to their characters, they expressed gratitude towards O’Neill and Modern Family in general for bringing such an authentic character on TV.
We Love You, Ed O’Neil and Modern Family for giving this masterclass of a character whom I guess people once hated in the start of series, but as the series goes on you can hate anyone, but you just can’t hate Jay.
Interestingly, more fans seem to agree with them. While some noted how they appreciated how O’Neill portrayed the subtle way Jay showed care to his loved ones, others commented that Jay became their favorite character in the show.
Another fan also stated, “Ed O’Neill is the absolute master of comedic timing”, and very few people can come even close to his level in comedy.
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Interestingly, Ed O’Neill initially did not want to play the role at all, until he got the scripts in his mail and realized that this was a character he had to play. Unfortunately by then, the showrunners had decided to proceed with Craig T. Nelson.
In a twist of fate, though, the deal with Nelson fell through and O’Neill jumped at the chance. If anything, fans couldn’t be happier for things to have turned out the way they did with Modern Family.
Modern Family is streaming on Hulu.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
