SPLAININ TO DO: DE-ZONKING "MODERN FAMILY"

This DVR summary popped up for an episode for 'Modern Family' and I found it puzzling.

They've been to Australia, but when has the show ever gone to Spain?

I wouldn't be surprised if one day a Spanish version of the show did pop up on a Spanish TV network, either in the mother country or down South in Latin America.  The format of the sitcom lends itself to foreign remakes, no matter the language.  Already there is a Greek version:

'Moderna oikogeneia'

The Greek version of the award-winning series Modern family. Three modern families face the usual and sometimes strange problems and compose a complex scene full of madness and love.

And from Israel, I found this reference listed in the IMDb for connections to 'Modern Family':

Eretz Nehederet: 

Episode #9.3 (2012)
The name of the show spoofing "Sabri Maranan" is called "Not Modern Family"

So I looked up 'Sabri Maranen' and found this:

The series follows Shay and Shani who go to Friday dinner. Shani's family is a Mizrahi Family, and Shay's family is an Ashkenazi family. There are episodes that they go to Shay's family the Rosens, and there are episodes that they go to Shani's family the Hassons.

I can see that being basically the 'Modern Family' format, giving it just enough of a twist so that it's not an exact copy.

'Modern Family' at its most basic is just generic enough that there could be variations all over the world and none of them would have to be tossed out to another TV dimension.  Unless of course they never bothered to change the names of the characters - that's why I had to relegate the American version of 'Shameless' to the Land O' Remakes.

Best thing about 'Modern Family' is that it is virtually Zonk-proof on its own.  (They do a lot of Zonking themselves in referencing other TV shows.)  

Here are three examples in which 'Modern Family' was referenced in other shows:

Raising Hope: 

Baby Monitor (2011)
Virginia says, "I've seen this on 'Modern Family' and countless other sitcoms."

Entourage: 

Home Sweet Home (2011)
Lloyd tells Ari that 'Modern Family' creator Steven Levitan is looking for a new agent.

Entourage: 

Out with a Bang (2011)

Lloyd: I had my breakfast meeting with Steven Levitan this morning.
Ari: Congrats. You gonna be the new gay on 'Modern Family'?

These are not insurmountable.  The televersion of Levitan created Toobworld's 'Modern Family' as a reality show, like 'Chrisley Knows Best' and just as manipulated.  "Fake Reality".  The characters are always talking to the camera, making sideway glances at the camera, etc.

It would come off as so contrived that Ari might think that new "characters" could be added in.  And Virginia, not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to the Chance family (although she is better than her son and husband!) could mistake the reality show about the extended Pritchett family as being a sitcom.  They always are in laughable situations, after all.

BCnu!