Christopher Lloyd also drops a hint about the series finale.
Father-son bonding time turned out to be far more impactful than expected onModern Family.
Turns out, ol' Funpa was fineno dementia thereuntil he wasn’t.
Richard Cartwright/ABC
Keeping life light, making it fun for everybody."
Phil responded, “I learned from the best,” prompting father to squeeze the arm of son.
“I just didn’t know it would be the last.”
PETER “HOPPER” STONE/ABC
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The grim reaper has visited the show again.
Why did you decide to have Phil’s dad dieand how tough was that decision?
And I’ve always loved that character.
Phil has, in many ways, been really dead-center of the heart of the show.
But he’s a little bit of this manchild.
It was a chance to lend some dimension to that.
That isn’t just Phil being goofy, that’s actually a choice.
That’s what he grew up seeing his dad do.
Fred brought such an optimism, can-do spirit, quirkiness and daffiness to this role.
There was no doubt that this apple fell close to the tree.
What did you appreciate most about Fred’s comedic contributions to the show and that character?
He’s really a consummate comedic actor, and we’ve been a fan of his for decades.
I’ve worked with him on shows previous to this one.
No one makes Ty laugh funnier than Fred Willard, really.
So we always loved having him on the show.
He just has a light touch with comedy, but there’s nothing easy about it for him.
Fred rehearses and practices in his trailer endlessly.
So he makes it look easy by working very, very hard.
He found a way to really find fun in the mundane.
And we’ve seen that in the character from the beginning.
So much was communicated in that one brief conversation.
Were there other ways that the writers discussed handling his death?
And how did you ultimately land on this way?
We didn’t really discuss other ways.
I just never knew it would be the last"?
And that Phil’s tribute to his dad would be to leave those footprints one last time.
Is there a chance that we might see Frank in flashbacks in the final run of episodes?
There are no plans [to film new scenes with him].
If I were guessing, that was his swan song.
How did Fred and Ty react when you told them the plan for this episode?
Ty really liked it.
He said, “This relationship in this episode made me think of my own dad.”
It felt like the first of a few that we’ll be going through.
Look, Fredis a veteranand he knows the series is ending.
And he welcomed it, as far as I could tell.
I mean, he’s just a very dear man who is always game for anything.
And it was really great to have him amongst us one last time.
Did you joke about having him meet his maker via thePresto Jack?
Because that was a pretty amazing inventionand it would have been a way to go.
[Laughs] But I hope people don’t think we faked that stunt.
That car actually flipped.
What did you hear from people over the years about how uncanny and credible this casting was?
It just made so much goofy, humane sense.
I mean, they are both great.
They look like one another."
And that seems exactly what Fred Willard’s rule of life is.
So they just clicked right away.
No one is safe!
In fact, we obviously didn’t even promote it that way.
It’s just a thing that happens in life.
We all know parents get older, and that is a thing that people face.
What resonates with you as you think about that looming finale episode?
My byword on that is that endings need to be beginnings.
And the audience can create those journeys for them.
But we have to find the right paths to put everybody on to allow for that to happen.
