Manny Get Your Gun
Encyclopedia
"Manny Get Your Gun" is the eighth episode of the second season
of the sitcom, Modern Family
and the 32nd overall. It originally aired November 17, 2010 on the American Broadcasting Company
(ABC). The episode was written by Danny Zucker, from a story by Modern Family co-creator, Christopher Lloyd
and was directed by Michael Spiller
.
In the episode, everyone gathers at a restaurant for Manny's birthday when Manny (Rico Rodriguez II
) has a mini-life crisis of getting older, Phil (Ty Burrell
) and Claire (Julie Bowen
) have a race to see who can get there faster, and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson
) and Cam (Eric Stonestreet
) get stuck at the mall looking for a gift.
"Manny Get Your Gun" received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics with Joel Keller of TV Squad naming it "one of the better ones of the season. According to the Nielsen Media Research
, the episode received the same ratings as the previous episode, "Chirp
" and became the second highest rated scripted series of the originally week it aired.
Meanwhile, Mitchell and Cameron are walking through the mall looking for a present for Manny. While there, Cameron stops to help an elderly man named Donald (Norman Lloyd
) to convince an old lady to take him back, despite Mitchell's protests that they are running out of time. Cameron is initially delighted to help before realizing Donald is an adulterer. Cameron and Mitchell soon continue their fight about Mitchell not being spontaneous but in the middle of the discussion, Mitchell takes part in a flash mob
with a bunch of people to "Free Your Mind". Mitchell initially thinks Cameron will be happy, but Cameron becomes angry that Mitchell kept it a secret from him. They soon have another fight in their car.
In the Pritchett house, Gloria and Jay have a fight over Gloria's habit of losing everything and currently losing her keys. Jay initially believes he is right before finding the keys in his pockets, but instead of confronting Gloria he puts the keys in her purse. Meanwhile Manny becomes depressed after Jay informs him he never truly acted like a kid. He tries to live his life as a kid before the party with bad prank calls and mixing sodas. He then opens his old Christmas present (a flotation device) and putting it in a pool. A furious Gloria angry at Manny not wanting to go his own party shoots the flotation device with a BB gun
Jay gave him. In the car, Jay finally tells Gloria the truth making her furious. After all the family members see that they are about to arrive late, they race to the restaurant, coming close to crashing into each other. The scene then goes to Manny finishing his speech saying that he has enough time to act like a kid, as his older family members still do.
s co-creator, Christopher Lloyd
. The episode marked Zucker's fifth writing credit for the series and Lloyd's first story credit. The episode was also directed by Michael Spiller
, his eighth directors episode. "Manny Get Your Gun" originally aired on November 17, 2010. The episode was filmed on October 20, October 21, and October 27, 2010.
The episode was originally titled "Dash, Flash, Crash" in the original press release, the episode's title was later formally changed to "Manny Get Your Gun". Part of the episode's plot is based on Steven Levitan
's personal experience. He stated in an interview "My wife and I have a constant argument about when we're in a restaurant, which way to take home - which is the faster way home." On October 15, 2010, William Keck of TV Guide
reported that Norman Lloyd
of St. Elsewhere
was to guest star as a senior citizen who Cameron befriends. He filmed his appearance on October 21, 2010. The episode was later put in for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series
along with "Caught in the Act
", "The Musical Man
" and "Mother's Day
".
". The episode became the second highest rated scripted series of the week it aired after Glee
.
's TV Squad called the episode "one of the better ones of the season". Despite this, he felt that the Mitch and Cam storyline while "funny" it was "not as funny as they usually are" He also commented that "It's just that sometimes Cam is too much Cam for his, or the audience's, own good." The A.V. Club
's Donna Bowman gave the episode an A- rating. She felt "this episode is a bit less than the sum of its parts; or maybe the jigsaw pieces have been forced into place a little too emphatically." Rachel Maddux of New York
gave the episode a positive review. She felt that the episode brought the series "out of [its] slump" and also commented "This kind of episode is pretty much why we started loving this show in the first place".
Kara Klenk of TV Guide
called it "another great episode." Matt Roush called the episode "comic gold" and felt the episode was "firing on all cylinders". James Poniewozik of Time
gave the episode a positive review. He felt that "This episode may not quite have reached the level of "Fizbo
," but by the time it built to its near-four-car-pileup, it had strung together quite a run of funny and sweet moments." HitFix
writer Alan Sepinwall , who is often critical of the series's second season praised the episode commenting that "nearly everything was clicking". He also positivelly compared it to a season one episode of the series when "where everything came together at the end in the style of the strongest season one episodes
".
Modern Family (season 2)
The second season of the comedy television series, Modern Family premiered September 22, 2010 and ended on May 25, 2011 on the American Broadcasting Company in the United States. The series is produced by 20th Century Fox Television and Lloyd-Levitan Productions with creators...
of the 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 32nd overall. It originally aired November 17, 2010 on the 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). The episode was written by Danny Zucker, from a story by Modern Family co-creator, Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd (screenwriter)
Christopher Lloyd is an American TV screenwriter and producer of Wings, Frasier, Out of Practice, Back to You, and Modern Family...
and was directed by Michael Spiller
Michael Spiller
Michael Alan Spiller is an American cinematographer and television director.Spiller has directed on numerous series and has also served as a cinematographer prior to directing and worked frequently with Hal Hartley. He was a regular director on the HBO series, Sex and the City where he also served...
.
In the episode, everyone gathers at a restaurant for Manny's birthday when Manny (Rico Rodriguez II
Rico Rodriguez II
Rico Rodriguez is an American actor.Rodriguez currently plays the role of Manny Delgado on the ABC sitcom Modern Family. He is the younger brother of actress Raini Rodriguez.-Acting career:...
) has a mini-life crisis of getting older, Phil (Ty Burrell
Ty Burrell
- External links :*...
) and 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...
) have a race to see who can get there faster, 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:...
) and Cam (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...
) get stuck at the mall looking for a gift.
"Manny Get Your Gun" received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics with Joel Keller of TV Squad naming it "one of the better ones of the season. According to the Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
, the episode received the same ratings as the previous episode, "Chirp
Chirp (Modern Family)
"Chirp" is the seventh episode of the second season of Modern Family and the 31st episode overall. It originally aired on the American Broadcasting Company in the United States on November 3, 2010...
" and became the second highest rated scripted series of the originally week it aired.
Plot
The episode begins with Manny starting his birthday speech to a table filled with angry family members. The episode then goes 30 minutes earlier showing Claire hurrying everyone to get to the party on time, this prompts a contest between Claire and Phil to see whose route is quicker, Phil rides with Alex and Haley, and Luke with Claire. In Claire's car, Luke asks Claire why she's separating from Phil misunderstanding Claire's earlier statement of the two parents were "separating". Claire becomes angry because Luke wanted to go with Phil instead of her. She stops the car to have a talk with Luke which makes her sadder, but Luke makes her happy by telling her that her route is faster than Phil's. In Phil's car, while he tries convincing the girls the race is not a waste of time, the car's wheels go out. After fixing it, Haley and Alex tell him that they do not want to go to family camp. This causes Phil to cry which in turn causes Haley and Alex to cry. This saps Phil's motivation to beat Claire, but Haley and Alex eventually restore his motivation to win.Meanwhile, Mitchell and Cameron are walking through the mall looking for a present for Manny. While there, Cameron stops to help an elderly man named Donald (Norman Lloyd
Norman Lloyd
Norman Lloyd is an American actor, producer, and director with a career in entertainment spanning more than seven decades. Lloyd, who currently resides in Los Angeles, has appeared in over sixty films and television shows....
) to convince an old lady to take him back, despite Mitchell's protests that they are running out of time. Cameron is initially delighted to help before realizing Donald is an adulterer. Cameron and Mitchell soon continue their fight about Mitchell not being spontaneous but in the middle of the discussion, Mitchell takes part in a flash mob
Flash mob
A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, artistic expression...
with a bunch of people to "Free Your Mind". Mitchell initially thinks Cameron will be happy, but Cameron becomes angry that Mitchell kept it a secret from him. They soon have another fight in their car.
In the Pritchett house, Gloria and Jay have a fight over Gloria's habit of losing everything and currently losing her keys. Jay initially believes he is right before finding the keys in his pockets, but instead of confronting Gloria he puts the keys in her purse. Meanwhile Manny becomes depressed after Jay informs him he never truly acted like a kid. He tries to live his life as a kid before the party with bad prank calls and mixing sodas. He then opens his old Christmas present (a flotation device) and putting it in a pool. A furious Gloria angry at Manny not wanting to go his own party shoots the flotation device with a BB gun
BB gun
BB guns are a type of air gun designed to shoot projectiles named BBs after the birdshot pellet of approximately the same size. These projectiles are usually spherical but can also be pointed; those are usually used for bird hunting. Modern day BB guns usually have a smoothbore barrel, with a bore...
Jay gave him. In the car, Jay finally tells Gloria the truth making her furious. After all the family members see that they are about to arrive late, they race to the restaurant, coming close to crashing into each other. The scene then goes to Manny finishing his speech saying that he has enough time to act like a kid, as his older family members still do.
Production
"Manny Get Your Gun" was written by Danny Zucker, but was based on a story by Modern FamilyModern 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...
s co-creator, Christopher Lloyd
Christopher Lloyd (screenwriter)
Christopher Lloyd is an American TV screenwriter and producer of Wings, Frasier, Out of Practice, Back to You, and Modern Family...
. The episode marked Zucker's fifth writing credit for the series and Lloyd's first story credit. The episode was also directed by Michael Spiller
Michael Spiller
Michael Alan Spiller is an American cinematographer and television director.Spiller has directed on numerous series and has also served as a cinematographer prior to directing and worked frequently with Hal Hartley. He was a regular director on the HBO series, Sex and the City where he also served...
, his eighth directors episode. "Manny Get Your Gun" originally aired on November 17, 2010. The episode was filmed on October 20, October 21, and October 27, 2010.
The episode was originally titled "Dash, Flash, Crash" in the original press release, the episode's title was later formally changed to "Manny Get Your Gun". Part of the episode's plot is based on 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....
's personal experience. He stated in an interview "My wife and I have a constant argument about when we're in a restaurant, which way to take home - which is the faster way home." On October 15, 2010, William Keck of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
reported that Norman Lloyd
Norman Lloyd
Norman Lloyd is an American actor, producer, and director with a career in entertainment spanning more than seven decades. Lloyd, who currently resides in Los Angeles, has appeared in over sixty films and television shows....
of St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
was to guest star as a senior citizen who Cameron befriends. He filmed his appearance on October 21, 2010. The episode was later put in for Primetime 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:...
along with "Caught in the Act
Caught in the Act (Modern Family)
"Caught in the Act" is the thirteenth episode of the second season of the American television comedy series, Modern Family and the 36th overall episode of the series. Co-creator Steven Levitan and Jeffrey Richman wrote the episode, and Michael Spiller directed it. The episode originally aired on...
", "The Musical Man
The Musical Man
"The Musical Man" is the nineteenth episode of the American comedy television series, Modern Familys second season and the 43rd episode overall. It originally aired on April 13, 2011 on American Broadcasting Company...
" and "Mother's Day
Mother's Day (Modern Family)
"Mother's Day" is the twenty-first episode of the American comedy television series, Modern Familys second season and the 45th episode overall of the series. It original aired on the American Broadcast Company on May 4, 2011...
".
Ratings
In its original American broadcast, "Manny Get Your Gun" was viewed by an estimated 12.092 million households and received a 7.1 rating/11% share Nielsen rating meaning that the episode was watched by an average of 7.1% of households and 11% of all televisions were tuned to the episode when it was broadcast. The episode received a 4.8 rating/13% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, tying with the ratings from the previous episode, "ChirpChirp (Modern Family)
"Chirp" is the seventh episode of the second season of Modern Family and the 31st episode overall. It originally aired on the American Broadcasting Company in the United States on November 3, 2010...
". The episode became the second highest rated scripted series of the week it aired after Glee
Glee (TV series)
Glee is an American musical comedy-drama television series that airs on Fox in the United States, and on GlobalTV in Canada. It focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationships, sexuality and social issues...
.
Reviews
The episode received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics. Joel Keller of AOLAOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
's TV Squad called the episode "one of the better ones of the season". Despite this, he felt that the Mitch and Cam storyline while "funny" it was "not as funny as they usually are" He also commented that "It's just that sometimes Cam is too much Cam for his, or the audience's, own good." 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...
's Donna Bowman gave the episode an A- rating. She felt "this episode is a bit less than the sum of its parts; or maybe the jigsaw pieces have been forced into place a little too emphatically." Rachel Maddux 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...
gave the episode a positive review. She felt that the episode brought the series "out of [its] slump" and also commented "This kind of episode is pretty much why we started loving this show in the first place".
Kara Klenk of TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
called it "another great episode." Matt Roush called the episode "comic gold" and felt the episode was "firing on all cylinders". James Poniewozik of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
gave the episode a positive review. He felt that "This episode may not quite have reached the level of "Fizbo
Fizbo
"Fizbo" is the ninth episode of the first season of the American comedy series, Modern Family. It originally premiered on American Broadcasting Company in the United States on November 25, 2009...
," but by the time it built to its near-four-car-pileup, it had strung together quite a run of funny and sweet moments." 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...
writer Alan Sepinwall , who is often critical of the series's second season praised the episode commenting that "nearly everything was clicking". He also positivelly compared it to a season one episode of the series when "where everything came together at the end in the style of the strongest season one episodes
".
External links
- "Manny Get Your Gun" at ABC.com