Modern Family welcomes a new member to the cast, as revealed in last night’s episode, “Party Crasher.” Spoilers are included.

 

 

Modern Family has been hinting for several weeks at Gloria’s impending birth of her and Jay’s first child together. Yesterday evening, fans of Modern Family that tuned in to ABC recieved a warm welcome to the newest member of the Modern Family cast, a newborn baby boy, who has yet to be named.

This episode was in fact filmed in October, and surprisingly, the filming had a bit of a shock to the rest of the cast and crew. Ed O’Neill was quoted as saying, “It is a little emotional [and] it took me by surprise,” during a break in shooting.

This is definitely a reaction to the scene where Jay and Gloria spend their first few moments with their newborn son, and even Christopher Lloyd noted the moment on-screen. “It kind of took everyone’s breath away,” he said. “Obviously, we weren’t literally surprised. We knew it was coming. We wrote this script. But, suddenly, there it is. And it’s an actual baby. And then the rest of the family comes. It once again reinforced how much these people love each other.”

But Sofia Vergara always had to see this in a completely different light in comparison to Ed O’Neill and Christopher Lloyd. “It was fun. It was a great episode. You know how they do everything in ‘Modern Family’ – very funny.”

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With the newborn Pritchett, Modern Family has opened up new opportunities to venture the storyline in a different direction. Fans will be asking questions of what’s next for Manny? Will Jay still be a fantastic father for the third time after such a long wait? Will this bring Gloria and Jay together more, or add more tension?

An interesting comment from Christopher Lloyd is that he states, “Our show is called Modern Family, and it seems sort of natural to expand the family.” Could Modern Family be set for more additions further down the road?

Modern Family returns with “Fulgencio” next Wednesday over on ABC at 9 p.m. ET/PT.