‘Modern Family’ concludes run after 11 years; Abraham Higginbotham reflects
At left, Abraham Higginbotham, a Trinity High School graduate who served as a writer and executive producer for “Modern Family,” is shown on set with Nathan Lane, center, and Ty Burrell. The show wraps its 11-year run tonight.
Abraham Higginbotham, left, is shown with Ty Burrell, center, and Nathan Lane on the set of “Modern Family.” Higginbotham, a native of Washington, served as writer and executive producer for the Emmy Award-winning series.
After a remarkable 11-year run, “Modern Family” concludes tonight with a two-hour series finale starting at 8 p.m. on ABC.
And Trinity High School graduate Abraham Higginbotham, a writer and executive producer for the award-winning TV show, will be watching the final episode, along with fans, for the first time.
Higginbotham thinks viewers will be satisfied with the ending.
“We kept wanting to get it right,” said Higginbotham of the show’s writers. “I don’t know that we got it 100% right, but I am (satisfied).”
The show’s conclusion comes during one of the most challenging times in American history, as the novel coronavirus pandemic continues to spread.
“It’s so surreal to me,” he said in a phone interview this week from his home in Los Angeles. “I keep getting hit with the reality of our lives right now,” said Higginbotham, who had just completed a three-hour grocery shopping trip – a once routine activity that now feels dangerous – that concluded with him scrubbing fruits and vegetables in soap and water and disinfecting cans and boxes.
Earlier this week, Higginbotham texted a friend, a nurse in Washington, to check on her. He’s worried about his sister, Anastasia Higginbotham, an author and activist in Brooklyn, N.Y., the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, and her husband, a child life specialist in a Brooklyn hospital.
“It’s overwhelming,” said Higginbotham. “I’m so grateful to the health care workers and first responders. I don’t know how people who are in law enforcement, who are paramedics, nurses, doctors, do this at all. I have unbelievable respect and admiration, and my heart breaks for them because I cannot imagine what they’re going through.”
“Modern Family” fans can set aside their fear and anxiety – at least for a little while – when they tune in to say goodbye to the Pritchett and Dunphy families after 250 episodes and 22 Emmy awards, including five consecutive Emmys for best comedy series.
In addition to earning the best comedy series Emmys, Higginbotham collected two Humanitas prizes, two Writers Guild awards, and three Producers Guild awards over the course of the show.
For Higginbotham, who has written and produced some of the smartest and insightful television shows in history, including “Arrested Development,” “Will & Grace,” and “Ugly Betty,” “Modern Family” was special, both personally and professionally.
“All those other shows, I joined later. With “Modern Family,” I got to be there in the beginning. There was such a sense of family on this show. There were so many things we went through together,” said Higginbotham. “The cast and crew were great the entire way through. There was such a bond. We were all acutely aware of what a special moment it was, for us and for the audience.”
The diverse, blended clan – a gay couple with a child, a stepfamily, a nuclear family – included characters, relationships, and socially relevant story lines the audience cared about.
“I think that’s why I was able to stay for 10 years,” said Higginbotham, who graduated from Boston University in 1992 and pursued acting in New York City before heading to Los Angeles, where he began his career in comedy writing. “I do think there was an absolute desire from the beginning to just tell the story of these people and let it be what people interpret it to be. We embraced the same-sex marriage debate, we tried to address race with Sofia (Vergara, who played Gloria), and sexism with Alex (Ariel Winter), and all of the isms based on the cast we had.”
He especially enjoyed the development of Mitchell and Cameron’s relationship throughout the series, which included the couple’s wedding after gay marriage bans were struck down in 2013.
“So much of what happened in my life went into Mitch and Cam,” said Higginbotham, who is openly gay and won the Humanitas Award for writing the episode “The Kiss,” which tackled Mitchell’s reluctance to kiss Cam in public.
Higginbotham and his partner are the parents of a 5-year-old son and 4-year-old twin daughters.
“I do love being a dad. I adore them all,” said Higginbotham. “The amount of time I get to spend with my children right now is the only positive part of this pandemic.”
Right now, his days are spent writing, cleaning, cooking and enjoying time with the kids. Higginbotham, though, confesses to being anxious in most circumstances, so he finds himself on the verge of panicking about social distancing on brief outings in their neighborhood.
“There’s a hike at the end of my street, and if we pass people, I push my kids into the woods. I can’t help myself,” he said.
Television has changed since “Modern Family” launched in 2009, Higginbotham noted, with viewers tuning into niche shows on Netflix, Amazon, and other streaming channels.
“Modern Family” got away with jokes on Season 1 that writers couldn’t get away with on network television during Season 11, he said.
As a result of political polarization, “we’re so constrained now in a way you weren’t before. Somebody’s going to be offended,” said Higginbotham.
Television, though, has the power to connect people, Higginbotham pointed out, especially in difficult times.
“It’s community. It’s how we all come together,” said Higginbotham, noting with a laugh how “Tiger King” created buzz when it was recently released. “The arts are a salve on the soul.
“I hope (the arts) help to entertain right now and to take our minds off of what’s happening and brings us together,” said Higginbotham. “We’re having this shared experience of something emotional, something entertaining, something fun.”
Higginbotham said he will miss working with the cast and crew, who collectively developed close friendships. At his 50th birthday party earlier this year, Julie Bowen (Claire), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Mitchell) and Eric Stonestreet (Cam) – no name-dropping intended – were among those who joined Higginbotham and his family to celebrate.
But after dedicating the past decade to “Modern Family,” Higginbotham is ready for new challenges.
Earlier this week, he completed a rough draft for a new series with “Modern Family” co-creator Steve Levitan and “Modern Family” producer and writer Jon Pollack. The trio, confined to their own homes, held Zoom conferences and wrote five days a week.
He’s also taking on other projects.
“Modern Family,” though, will remain among his best achievements.
“What a rare, rare gift it was,” said Higginbotham. “It was a cultural milestone, and I feel fortunate to have been part of it. I feel gratitude, I feel grateful for the whole experience. It was such a privilege.”