Eric Stonestreet Was Hurt After ABC Rejected Modern Family Spinoff

Modern Family star Eric Stonestreet has some hurt feelings over a rejected spinoff focusing on Cameron Tucker and Mitchell Pritchett.

The proposed spinoff to the hit sitcom, which concluded in 2020 after 11 seasons, would have followed Cam, Mitch (played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and their daughter, Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons), adapting to life in Missouri. The family left California for Missouri, where Cam got a job as a college football coach, in the final season.

According to Stonestreet, ABC rejected the idea at the time and he doesn’t think it will be resurrected.

“I don’t think it’s potential anymore,” he said on the Wednesday, September 18, episode of the “In Depth With Graham Bensinger” podcast. “They had their chance. [Cocreator] Chris Lloyd and a couple of the writers wrote a really great script that spun Jesse and I off in our life in Missouri. They said no. They said, ‘We don’t want to do it.’”

“I think it hurt Jesse and I’s feelings. I think it hurt Chris Lloyd’s feelings,” Stonestreet continued.

“I think Jesse and I maybe felt they thought of us as the old guys that didn’t seem worthy of keeping those characters going. It felt a little hurtful,” he added.

Stonestreet said that had ABC said yes to the spinoff, “I think it would have been a slam dunk.”

“I don’t think it would have not been successful, because you had one of the creators who had really taken such great care of making sure that show was great for so long willing to do it,” he explained.

Although Lloyd was involved in the spinoff, cocreator Steve Levitan decided against pursuing it. “Steve’s concern is [that] it has to be great. We can’t dilute the brand by doing something just to do it,” Stonestreet said.

However, the Emmy winner is convinced that the show would have been a hit.

“My point was always like, we have the right people in place, it would have been great … if ABC would have said, ‘Let’s do it,’ I think we’d be on right now,” he said.

Stonestreet said that he and Ferguson, who played his husband Mitch, didn’t know each other before Modern Family started in 2009, but he loved working with his longtime costar.

“I love my character. I love the show. I love Jesse. We had a great working relationship. We had great chemistry. We didn’t know each other and we built these characters that Steve and Chris wrote and cultivated,” he said.

Instead of a spinoff, Stonestreet said he’d love to see the entire gang return for one-off holiday specials.

“I wish we would do a Christmas special. There’s been talk of that,” said the actor.