You Can Only Watch “Modern Family” on a Mac Screen!

Disclaimer: the above headline is 100% true, but admittedly misleading.  I’m indulging myself — as the studio & network have done a great PR job on this one — and headlines about this fun stunt abound.  The Modern Family episode, entitled “Connection Lost” airs Wednesday, February 25 on ABC.  The trick here is that the entire episode never leaves the screen of a MacBook Pro – regardless of where YOU watch it.

Not since Modern Family caused a stir in 2010 with Phil Dunphy obsessing about a new iPad, has Apple so dominated a major “Primetime” series episode.

And it’s a pretty cool idea.

Not only can we count on the folks at Modern having their insightful wit reading middle america’s pulse — but also we can rely on them to inject the sitcom formula with innovation.

If you are into BTS – try the links below — there are details about how Steve Levitan was inspired by his own family’s use of tech — and how the show spend a great deal of time mocking up the various Apple tech environments to make the show as realistic as possible.

There are questions about commercialization, features FaceTime doesn’t really have — yada yada. The point is it looks to be a really fun episode.

Here’s an idea: let’s  try something crazy — for this first all computer screen episode — let’s commit to watching it old school – “live” on the nearest television set.  For that one half-hour — let’s reverse the trend. I image that’s exactly the sort of event Phil would orchestrate in the Dunphy home.

Read it 1st hand:  AP Television writer, Lynn Elber, was one of the first to break the details of the special episode.

Read it 1st hand:  Bryan Bishop at the Verge offers up more technical insights

Read it 1st hand:  As fans of re/code — we can’t forget Dawn Chmielewski

Read it 1st hand:  Want to relive the debate about the iPad episode in 2010? All I can say was that I loved the episode (but I also stood in line for an iPad that week)  LA Times    AdAge