Modern Family’s gay dads could get their own spin-off series

It’s only an idea so far but Modern Family’s much-loved gay dads Mitchell and Cameron could get their own spin-off series.

The hugely popular comedy finished its 11th and final season on Wednesday night.

But some of the show’s creative team are not quite ready to give up on the gay couple played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Mitchell) and Eric Stonestreet (Cameron).

Co-creators Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd talked about a spin-off with Deadline as the show ended.

They said they weren’t moving forward with a spin-off yet. But they thought that Ferguson and Stonestreet’s story was the most likely to work separately to the rest of the show’s families.

At the end of the series, Mitchell and Cameron move away from the wider family to Missouri. This gives them a natural break with the other Modern Family characters.

Levitan said: ‘I think that there are a couple of writers who are thinking about well, is there a Mitch and Cam spin-off?

‘But they are literally just thinking about it. They’re using this time that we have now to think about it, if there’s something there.

‘I’m not driving this but I’m a huge fan of Jesse and Eric, and those characters are of course very near and dear to me. And I certainly think that they’re strong enough to carry a show.’

‘We would be dumb to not explore it’

Lloyd meanwhile explained why the show ended with Mitchell and Cameron relocating.

He said: ‘We wanted to have them off on a new journey. And it seemed symmetrical to have Mitchell follow Cam some place and maybe be around Cam’s family because Cam had played that role in Mitchell’s life for the last 11 years.

‘Cam had this opportunity to do something wonderful and exciting. Mitchell felt okay, that makes my obligation to let him chase his dream and I will go with him and see what that life is like for me.’

Lloyd is also cautious about a spinoff but likes the idea. He added:

‘Will that happen? I’m not sure but we would be probably dumb to not explore it.

‘However doing a spin-off is fraught in a lot of ways and we won’t do it unless we feel confident there’s something there.

‘I don’t want to say it’s a long shot, it’s under discussion but we’ll see. We don’t want to jump into something like that, particularly because Modern Family is a tough act to follow.’

Mitch and Cam’s influential family

Modern Family was ABC’s longest-running comedy series. It was also a critical success, securing a total of 22 Emmy awards from 75 nominations.

Audiences fell in love with the ensemble cast who portrayed three related families and added a mockumentary style to accent the comedy.

But beyond that, Cameron and Mitchell’s storyline has also been hugely influential in how people view LGBT+ relationships.

Viewers have been able to follow them through as they won the right to equal marriage and became dads by adopting a child, Lilly.

They are a fairly ‘tame’ LGBT+ couple, who rarely touch in public or talk about sex. However, that ‘safe’ portrayal of a same-sex family may have shifted attitudes in the US. Some have dubbed increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage post 2009 the ‘Modern Family Effect’.