The beloved comedy got real in last night’s episode. The show has always been lighthearted but isn’t afraid to touch on some issues that arise in everyday life especially with families. But this past episode was the first time a Modern Family death of a major character in the show happened.
Modern Family death: Find out which character was killed off
There were hints before the episode aired that a character was going to pass away, and many fans were speculating who it could be. The rumors of a Modern Family death became a hot topic. The show’s co-creator Christopher Lloyd told EW in September that a “significant character” will die and it “will be a moving event — an event that has repercussions across several episodes.”
“We do deal with a death, which is certainly a topic that families have to deal with, and on television, it’s not easy to do because that’s a heavy subject,” Lloyd said. “But at the same time, it would seem unusual for a family not to go through it.”
Finally, the Modern Family death rumors were confirmed and the character was revealed; DeDe Pritchett, the character played by recurring guest star Shelley Long passed away in her sleep while on a trip with her woman’s group.
The episode starts out with the bombshell being dropped to Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) who gets a call from her step-father informing her about her mother. The whole family then reacts to the news differently. Claire and Mitchell (Jessie Tyler-Ferguson) try to let loose on a fun Halloween night to cope with their mother’s passing. Their spouses Phil (Ty Burrell) and Cam (Eric Stonestreet) try their best to cheer them up.
Co-creator and co-showrunner Steve Levitan opened up about why the show decided to say goodbye to DeDe to the Hollywood Reporter. “It occurred to us that death is a giant part of the family experience and while Phil (Ty Burrell) had lost his mother in a previous episode, we’ve never seen the entire family have to deal with such a loss,” Levitan told The Hollywood Reporter. “It seemed like an interesting thing to have happen.”
“She’s directly involved with three of our characters and she touched everybody’s life in some interesting way,” Levitan said. “It seemed like the right character to put everybody through something. She seemed like right character because she so directly affects so many of our characters.”
