Modern Family
When a Tree Falls
TV Flash files “When a Tree Falls” as hour 81 of 250 in the TV Flash guide — Modern Family (2009–2020) on ABC, season 4, episode 9, aired 2012-11-28, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E09: listed hour 81 of 250 in the Modern Family guide, hour 9 of 24 in season 4. It aired 2012-11-28 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Mistery Date” (S04E08). Next is “Diamond in the Rough” (S04E10).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
With some urging, Mitch joins in on Cam's efforts to save an old tree in the park, but just how far will they go? Jay and Manny are each pushed beyond their comfort zones when they attend a kid's Olympics-themed birthday party, and Claire brings Gloria along on a Costco run -- but add in a "pregnancy brain" and it makes for quite an eventful trip -- .
Viewer FAQ
Where does When a Tree Falls sit in the Modern Family guide?
S04E09 is listed hour 81 of 250 — hour 9 of 24 in season 4, season 4 episode 9.
When did Modern Family S04E09 air?
When a Tree Falls aired 2012-11-28 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
Ed O’Neill’s Al Bundy made Married… with Children a shoe-salesman religion of misery — 1980s catalog Fox sneer, then Modern Family recasting the slouch as Jay Pritchett’s blended-household deadpan. TV Flash files him as the couch that…
- 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…