Dude Ranch (Modern Family)
Encyclopedia
"Dude Ranch" is the third season
Modern Family (season 3)
Modern Family was officially renewed for a third season on January 10, 2011. The season began with a one-hour premiere September 21, 2011 on ABC in the United States...

 premiere of the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 sitcom Modern Family
Modern Family
Modern Family is an American television comedy series created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan, which debuted on ABC on September 23, 2009. Lloyd and Levitan serve as showrunner and executive producers, under their Levitan-Lloyd Productions label...

and the 49th episode overall. The episode originally aired on September 21, 2011 on American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 (ABC) and ran back-to-back with "When Good Kids Go Bad
When Good Kids Go Bad
"When Good Kids Go Bad" is the second episode of the American sitcom Modern Familys third season and the 50th episode overall. "When Good Kids Go Bad" premiered on September 21, 2011 after "Dude Ranch" in a one-hour timeslot...

". The episode was written by Paul Corrigan, Brad Walsh and Dan O'Shannon and directed by Jason Winer
Jason Winer
Jason Winer is an American director, producer, writer, actor and comedian. He is best known for being one of the directors on the award-winning series Modern Family on ABC.Winer was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland...

. It featured guest stars Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson is an American director, writer, singer, and actor.-Early life:Nelson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Ruth Kaiser Nelson, who is a noted social activist and philanthropist in Tulsa, and a geologist father...

 as Hank and Reid Ewing
Reid Ewing
Reid Ewing is an American actor best known for his recurring guest role as Dylan on the ABC comedy Modern Family.-Life and career:...

 as Dylan. The episode revolves around the three families going to a dude ranch in the first part of the one hour season premiere.

"Dude Ranch" received positive reviews from critics with many praising Nolan Gould
Nolan Gould
Nolan Gould is an American child actor best known for his starring role as Luke Dunphy on the ABC comedy Modern Family. He is the brother of Aidan Gould-Acting career:...

's performance as Luke Dunphy, with Alan Sepinwall calling him the MVP of the episode. The episode was viewed by more than 14.54 million viewers and received a 6.1 rating/5% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, marking an 18-percent rise from the second season premiere, "The Old Wagon
The Old Wagon
"The Old Wagon" is the second season premiere of the American sitcom Modern Family and the 25th episode overall. "The Old Wagon" premiered on September 22, 2010.. The episode was written by Bill Wrubel and was directed by Michael Spiller...

". The episode also became the highest rated and most viewed episode of the series. It also ranked as the highest-rated ABC series for the week of broadcast and fourth overall.

Plot

The three families travel to a dude ranch in Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

. In the Pritchett family storyline, Gloria (Sofía Vergara
Sofía Vergara
Sofía Margarita Vergara Vergara is a Colombian actress, comedian, television hostess and model.Vergara had been widely known for co-hosting two TV shows for Univisión in the late 1990s. Her TV career opened up for her a window of exposure to North American audiences prior to her first notable...

) experiences hearing difficulty following the plane ride while a cowboy, Hank (guest star Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson is an American director, writer, singer, and actor.-Early life:Nelson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Ruth Kaiser Nelson, who is a noted social activist and philanthropist in Tulsa, and a geologist father...

), flirts with her. Gloria's husband, Jay (Ed O'Neill
Ed O'Neill
Edward Phillip "Ed" O'Neill, Jr. is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the main character, Al Bundy, on the Fox Network sitcom Married... with Children, for which he was nominated for two Golden Globes...

), takes notice of, but Gloria doesn't notice. Later, Hank grabs Gloria's butt leading to Jay coming to tell him to back off, which he does.

Meanwhile, in the Dunphy family, Dylan (Reid Ewing
Reid Ewing
Reid Ewing is an American actor best known for his recurring guest role as Dylan on the ABC comedy Modern Family.-Life and career:...

), Haley's boyfriend, tags along on the trip, much to Claire's chagrin, but Phil (Ty Burrell
Ty Burrell
- External links :*...

) eventually convinces her that she should try to get to know Dylan. She attempts to when Dylan proposes to Haley (Sarah Hyland
Sarah Hyland
Sarah Jane Hyland is an American actress, currently starring as Haley Dunphy on the ABC comedy Modern Family.-Life and career:...

) around the campfire one night, which causes Claire (Julie Bowen
Julie Bowen
Julie Bowen is an American film and television actress. She played Carol Vessey on Ed and Denise Bauer on Boston Legal. She is best known for playing Claire Dunphy on the sitcom Modern Family, for which she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2011...

) to instantly say no for Haley, leading to Dylan running away. The families go off and look for him, where Haley reveals she wouldn't have accepted Dylan's proposal. It is also revealed that Dylan gets a job at the ranch and decides to permanently stay in Wyoming, breaking up with Haley. Also, a teenage boy named Jimmy flirts with Alex Dunphy (Ariel Winter
Ariel Winter
Ariel Winter Workman , known in television shows and films as Ariel Winter, is an American teen actress and singer. Winter is best known for her current role as Alex Dunphy in the TV series Modern Family, for which she has won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series, along...

) and later kisses her, angering her that he took her first kiss, but she reciprocates the kiss back to him.

Cameron (Eric Stonestreet
Eric Stonestreet
Eric Stonestreet is an American actor, known for his starring role as Cameron Tucker on the ABC comedy Modern Family. Stonestreet has received critical acclaim for his performance in Modern Family and won the 2010 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his...

) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Jesse Tyler Ferguson
Jesse Tyler Ferguson is an American actor who portrays Mitchell Pritchett on the ABC sitcom Modern Family. Previously he played the role of Richie Velch in the CBS sitcom The Class. He is openly gay.-Life and career:...

) reveal that they are adopting a boy from the United States. Mitchell worries that he won't be able to do all the father/son things because of his sexuality and his inability to do "manly" stuff like catching and shooting. Despite this, he reassures himself after he blows up a birdhouse with a firecracker
Firecracker
A firecracker is a small explosive device primarily designed to produce a large amount of noise, especially in the form of a loud bang; any visual effect is incidental to this goal. They have fuses, and are wrapped in a heavy paper casing to contain the explosive compound...

 with Luke (Nolan Gould
Nolan Gould
Nolan Gould is an American child actor best known for his starring role as Luke Dunphy on the ABC comedy Modern Family. He is the brother of Aidan Gould-Acting career:...

).

Production and themes

"Dude Ranch" was written by Paul Corrigan, Brad Walsh and Dan O'Shannon. The episode was also directed by Jason Winer, his first director's credit since the first season. It aired on September 21, 2011, back-to-back with the "When Good Kids Go Bad
When Good Kids Go Bad
"When Good Kids Go Bad" is the second episode of the American sitcom Modern Familys third season and the 50th episode overall. "When Good Kids Go Bad" premiered on September 21, 2011 after "Dude Ranch" in a one-hour timeslot...

". "Dude Ranch" was filmed between August 17 and August 19, 2011 on location in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Other cities that were under consideration were Tucson, Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson is a city in and the county seat of Pima County, Arizona, United States. The city is located 118 miles southeast of Phoenix and 60 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border. The 2010 United States Census puts the city's population at 520,116 with a metropolitan area population at 1,020,200...

 and Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman, Montana
Bozeman is a city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The 2010 census put Bozeman's population at 37,280 making it the fourth largest city in the state. It is the principal city of the Bozeman micropolitan area, which consists...

. Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson
Tim Blake Nelson is an American director, writer, singer, and actor.-Early life:Nelson was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Ruth Kaiser Nelson, who is a noted social activist and philanthropist in Tulsa, and a geologist father...

 guest starred in the episode as a cowboy who "intimidates the guys and sends the girls' hearts a-twitter". Reid Ewing
Reid Ewing
Reid Ewing is an American actor best known for his recurring guest role as Dylan on the ABC comedy Modern Family.-Life and career:...

 returned as Dylan, in his final appearence for the series. Near the second season, there were rumors of the producers recasting the role of Lily, and change her age from a baby to a toddler. In July 2011, a casting call for a "3- to 4-year-old daughter of Mitchell and Cameron" was put out by the producers. Co-creator and executive producer Steven Levitan
Steven Levitan
Steven E. Levitan is an American director, screenwriter and producer of television comedies. He has created such TV series as Just Shoot Me!, Stark Raving Mad, Stacked, Back to You, and Modern Family....

 stated that:

"It was a hard decision, and this was not remotely having to do with us wanting to upgrade the acting ability or jump the character in age. The twins who play the part (Jaden and Ella Hiller) were not happy. We started feeling like we were just being mean to these little girls, making them come to the stage. And the character is reaching an age where she would talk, and that was going to be an asset to us to have Cam and Mitch communicating with her."


They eventually cast Aubrey Anderson-Emmons to play the toddler-aged, Lily, replacing Jayden and Ella Hiller. The episode also features the addition of two new writers, Ben Karlin
Ben Karlin
Ben Karlin is an American television producer. He is an eight time Emmy-winning American writer and executive producer best known for his work in The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. He is one of three co-creators of The Colbert Report along with Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart...

 as a consulting producer and Cindy Chupack
Cindy Chupack
Cindy Chupack is a screenwriter and executive producer who worked on Sex and the City. Four episodes she produced were nominated for WGA and Emmy awards....

 as co-executive producer.

The episode mainly deals with the male characters in the episode and "the flaws and foibles of the menfolk", hence the episode title, "Dude Ranch". Mitchell deals with being not manly enough to raise a boy while Jay deals with the cowboy flirting with Gloria. Phil attempts to gain Jay's respect, a recurring theme in several other episodes. Eventually, all the characters gain their confidence with Mitchell blowing up a birdhouse with Luke, Jay standing up to the cowboy and Phil standing up to Jay.

Ratings

In its original American broadcast, "Dude Ranch" alongside the following episode, "When Good Kids Go Bad
When Good Kids Go Bad
"When Good Kids Go Bad" is the second episode of the American sitcom Modern Familys third season and the 50th episode overall. "When Good Kids Go Bad" premiered on September 21, 2011 after "Dude Ranch" in a one-hour timeslot...

", was viewed by an estimated 14.54 million households and received a 6.1 rating/15% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. This means that it was seen by 6.1% of all 18–49 years olds, and 15% of all 18–49 year olds watching television at the time of the broadcast. This marked an 18% rise in the ratings from the second season premiere, "The Old Wagon
The Old Wagon
"The Old Wagon" is the second season premiere of the American sitcom Modern Family and the 25th episode overall. "The Old Wagon" premiered on September 22, 2010.. The episode was written by Bill Wrubel and was directed by Michael Spiller...

", making it the highest rated and most-viewed episode of the series and became ABC's top-rated season premiere in six years. The episode also ranked first in its timeslot, beating the highly-promoted new Fox
Fox
Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...

 reality series The X Factor
The X Factor (U.S.)
The X Factor is an American television music competition to find new singing talent. The show is produced by creator Simon Cowell's company SYCOtv. It premiered on September 21, 2011 on Fox....

, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 drama series Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds is an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The BAU is part of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime...

, NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 drama series Harry's Law
Harry's Law
Harry's Law is an American legal comedy-drama television series created by David E. Kelley. which premiered on January 17, 2011.On May 12, 2011, NBC renewed the show for a second season, which premiered Wednesday September 21, 2011...

and CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...

 reality series, America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model
America's Next Top Model is a reality television show in which a number of women compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry....

. Added with DVR
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...

 viewers, who viewed the episode within three days of the original broadcast, the episode received a 7.7 rating in the 18-49 demographic, adding a 1.7 rating to the original viewership. "Dude Ranch" was the third most-watched scripted show for the week of broadcast among adults aged 18–49 and the eleventh most watched show among all viewers.

Reviews

The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics. Maris Kreizman of New York
New York (magazine)
New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...

called the episode "not all that surprising and a little sentimental, but charming nonetheless." She also complemented the development of Alex's character commenting that it "was nice to see a bit of real character development for Alex.". The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...

reviewer Donna Bowman compared the episode to the second season episode, "Halloween
Halloween (Modern Family)
"Halloween" is the sixth episode of Modern Familys second season. It originally aired on October 27, 2010 on the ABC network in the United States. The episode was written by Jeffrey Richman and directed by Michael Spiller and was based on an idea by cast member Eric Stonestreet...

" and ultimately gave the episode a B+. HitFix
HitFix
HitFix, or the HitFix.com is an entertainment news website that launched in December 2008 specializing in breaking entertainment news, insider information and providing reviews and critiques of film, music and television...

reviewer Alan Sepinwall commented that "Sitcom vacation episodes, as a rule, tend to not be very good. There have been exceptions[...]"Dude Ranch" was unfortunately not one of them". Despite this, he complimented the subplots for the kids, but criticized the plots for the adults calling them "much less memorable". He eventually called it the weaker episode of the hour. Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...

writer Sandra Gonzalez praised the episode, saying it proved the show deserved the second Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series
The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series is an Emmy given to the best television comedy series of the year.-Winners and nominees:...

. Despite her mainly positive review, she criticized the Gloria storyline, writing that she "wish she [Sofia Vergara] had more to do than scream the entire episode".

Henry Hanks of CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

said the episode was equal to the first-season episode, "Hawaii
Hawaii (Modern Family)
"Hawaii" is the twenty-third episode of Modern Family on the first season. The episode originally premiered on May 12, 2010 on American Broadcasting Company ....

" saying that the episode "[showed] once again why it's one of the most consistently funny shows on TV. He also noted that his favorite moment "had to be Jay's struggles with the horse" and called Jay the MVP of the episode, saying Ed O'Neill deserved to win the Emmy over Ty Burrell
Ty Burrell
- External links :*...

. Paste
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...

writer Christina Ziemba said that the episode proved that the series deserved to win at the Emmy's saying it was "rife with great gags, jokes and one-liners". She ultimately gave this episode and "When Good Kids Go Bad" a 8.5/10 calling it "commendable". Zac Oldenburg of Television Blend criticized the Phil-Jay subplot for repeating ideas. He eventually called the episode a "rough start" and considered it worse than the following episode. Multiple critics praised Nolan Gould
Nolan Gould
Nolan Gould is an American child actor best known for his starring role as Luke Dunphy on the ABC comedy Modern Family. He is the brother of Aidan Gould-Acting career:...

's performance in the episode, as Luke. Sepinwall called him the MVP of the episode. Other critics also called the episode superior to the second half-hour, "When Good Kids Go Bad".

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK