Qantas Flies in Modern Family to Australia for 2-Week Filming of Popular TV Show (VIDEOS)
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The cast and crew of Emmy Award winning-show Modern Family is coming to Australia in February to film episodes for two weeks, Australian Capital Territory Deputy Chief Minister Andrew Barr disclosed on Thursday.
The show will have the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan take a vacation to the Land Down Under.
The group will fly via Australian carrier, Qantas, from Los Angeles to Australia. The publicity it will provide the financially troubled flag carrier would hopefully boost the fortunes of Qantas which last week received the second downgrade of its stocks from Moody's to junk.
20th Century Fox, the U.S. studio of Modern Family, confirmed the travel arrangements with Qantas which will cover the cost of the trip.
The American comedy series, which debuted on ABC in September 2009, is on its fifth season and continues to gain the critics' nods as well as harvest awards, garnering the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series the past four years.
It features the story of Jay Pritchett, his second wife, stepson, their infant son and two other adult children with their families, portraying the modern family of today with its different structures from the traditional family. Ed O'Neill stars as Jay, while Sofia Vergara plays Gloria, the wife, and his adult children are Julie Bowen as Claire and Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell.
Steve Levitan, the show's executive producer said in September at the start of the fifth season that he wanted to bring the show to Australia because of its strong fan base in the country.
"We promise not to do any 'Down Under' jokes ... We loved the family vacation episodes we show in Hawaii and Wyoming (and) this one is certainly our most ambitious yet.
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"We promise to feature a kangaroo, a koala and a boomerang. I'm sure there will be lots more, but so far that's all we know about Australia - our American school system is a disaster," Mr Levitan was quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald.
Locations where the cast would film has not yet been finalised, but it would possibly include Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Great Barrier Reef. The producers are coming ahead this January to look for locations and even seek out potential storylines.
Canberra, a gay-friendly city which made Australian history by being the first to approve same-sex marriage in late 2013, would probably be the short stopover of two of the most popular characters in Modern Family - gay partners Mitchell and Cameron, played by Eric Stonestreet.
The Australia episode will air toward the end of the fifth season. It is screened on the Ten Network and Foxtel.
