Modern Family
Dude Ranch
TV Flash files “Dude Ranch” as a desk essential hour — Modern Family (2009–2020) on ABC, season 3, episode 1, aired 2011-09-21, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E01: listed hour 49 of 250 in the Modern Family guide, first listed hour of season 3. It aired 2011-09-21 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The One That Got Away” (S02E24). Next is “When Good Kids Go Bad” (S03E02).
Essential hour: “Dude Ranch”. Dude Ranch relocates the mockumentary circus: season-three premiere as vacation episode, the blended-family machine proving it travels.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Returns for its third season with a special one-hour event on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 on the ABC Television Network. In the first part of the hour, entitled "Dude Ranch", our favorite family decide to don their cow boots and hats and head to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for some fun and adventure in the great outdoors. While vacationing on Lost Creek Ranch, they try their hands at a little cattle herding, skeet shooting and horseback riding; there are also some big firsts, a huge surprise and an actual face off between Jay and a foe - a cowboy named Hank! In the second half of the hour, entitled "When Good Kids Go Bad", Mitch and Cam plan a nice evening with the whole family to break the happy news that they're looking to adopt another child. However their parade is rained on when they realize Lily may not take well to another baby in the house. Meanwhile, Claire and Jay are each consumed with proving a certain point.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Dude Ranch sit in the Modern Family guide?
S03E01 is listed hour 49 of 250 — first listed hour of season 3, season 3 episode 1.
When did Modern Family S03E01 air?
Dude Ranch aired 2011-09-21 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Do I need all eleven seasons of Modern Family?
It ran 2009–2020 as ABC's comedy flagship. The three-household mockumentary is clear from the premiere; later years are more of the blended-family machine.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Talking-head confessionals, three households, and a joke speed that made ABC's comedy wing look current again. Modern Family swept Emmys on blended-family logistics: Phil Dunphy's dad Olympics, Gloria's comic voltage, and warmth that never parked the punchlines.
2009, ABC drops a three-household mockumentary into the comedy grid and **quickly sweeps the comedy Emmys** — late-decade launch that made the network's comedy wing look current again without waiting for a nostalgia panel to explain family sitcom. Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan braid marriages, kids, and cultural collisions through talking-head confessionals: Ed O'Neill, Sofia Vergara, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell's Phil Dunphy, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet. Warmth without losing joke speed. Phil…
Filed against
- Ed O'Neill as Jay Pritchett
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- Sofia Vergara as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett
Sofia Vergara detonated Modern Family as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett — comic voltage in ABC's talking-head confessional machine, three households, a joke speed that made blended-family logistics look current again. Warmth that never parked…
- Julie Bowen as Claire Dunphy
Julie Bowen’s Claire Dunphy ran Modern Family’s talking-head logistics — three households, joke speed that made ABC’s comedy wing look current again, Emmy-sweep blended-family farce. Phil’s dad Olympics, Gloria’s comic voltage, warmth…
- Ty Burrell as Phil Dunphy
Ty Burrell’s Phil Dunphy ran Modern Family’s dad Olympics — talking-head confessionals, three households, a joke speed that made ABC’s comedy wing look current again. Gloria’s comic voltage, blended-family logistics, warmth that never…
- Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell Pritchett
Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Mitchell Pritchett kept Modern Family’s talking-head confessionals gay, anxious, and funny — three households, ABC joke speed, blended-family logistics, warmth that never parked the punchlines. TV Flash files him as…
- Eric Stonestreet as Cameron Tucker
Eric Stonestreet played Cameron Tucker on Modern Family — talking-head confessionals, blended-household logistics, and ABC comedy that treated a theatrical dad as warmth that never parked the punchlines. TV Flash files him as 2000s…