'Modern Family' Stokes Non-Controversy Over F-Bomb

ABC’s “Modern Family” represents the very best of the current broadcast television lineup.

Smart scripts. Singularly great characters. Big laughs buffeted by an array of smaller ones.

So why are two of the show’s cast members trying to milk a controversy that doesn’t exist in the first place? Tonight’s new “Family” episode features gay parents Cam and Mitchell (Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson) freaking out when their adopted daughter says the F-word.

It’s a scenario many parents have faced, especially those who accidentally swear in front of their wee ones. How do you respond when your young child says a naughty word? Ignore it? Scold the child?

News outlets picked up the episode’s theme as if it were something truly revolutionary. Had the child actually uttered the word on-air, that would be a step in a more libertine direction.

That isn’t the case.The offending word will be bleeped during the broadcast. But both Stonestreet and Ferguson have been using their Twitter accounts to blast anyone offended by the storyline.

For now, the outrage appears to be restricted to a Brigham Young University student and some mild chastisement from the Parents Television Council.

“Modern Family” is a critics’ darling and a ratings winner. It’s only in its third season, and the show’s quality meter hasn’t dipped yet, unlike NBC’s ridiculously hyped “30 Rock.”

So why invent a controversy where none actually exists? That’s the kind of behavior seen for a series on its last legs, not one still at the height of its entertainment powers.