Jesse Tyler Ferguson Spills The Wildest ‘Modern Family’ Set Story

“Modern Family” may be long over, but Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet are proving the show’s funniest moments didn’t always happen on camera. Ferguson recently welcomed Stonestreet on his “Dinner’s On Me” podcast, and the longtime TV spouses took a trip down memory lane, revisiting what they say is one of the most ridiculous moments in the show’s filming history. The pair, who played Mitchell Pritchett and Cameron Tucker for all 11 seasons, were discussing what they “missed most about doing the show” when their conversation landed on a behind-the-scenes incident so memorable it apparently lived on… literally.

While reflecting on their favorite memories from set, Stonestreet immediately knew what topped the list. “Craft service. Jeff Greenberg walking into the glass that day. It’s the greatest moment ever,” Stonestreet said on the episode.

The “Jeff” in question was the show’s casting director, Jeff Greenberg, and according to both actors, his accidental collision with a glass wall became instant legend among the cast and crew. “We taped off his face mark, remember? His face mark lived that whole season,” the 54-year-old actor added.

That single detail alone had Ferguson spiraling. Upon mention of the on-set gaffe, Ferguson replied through giggles, “I can’t believe that happened. He just walked right towards us.”

According to Ferguson, the only reason the moment was even possible was because the show’s craft service area was positioned in the most chaotic location imaginable. Ferguson explained that the moment came about because the show’s craft service area, which is often in a corner out of the way, was built in “this tiny little glass box in the middle of the stage.”

The “box” wasn’t a small partition either, it was essentially a fully transparent room. The area featured a kitchen, a coffee machine and a space for people to sit and have a meal but was essentially “a glass box with doors and windows.” And one day, the whole cast was eating breakfast inside the box when their “brilliant casting director came strutting across the way, walking towards us,” Ferguson recalled, “and face planted into the glass.”

The funniest part? They say it wasn’t a sudden surprise. It was slow-motion comedy. “And we watched it coming from a mile away and didn’t do anything about it!” Stonestreet admitted through laughter.

If you’re wondering whether anyone felt guilty, Stonestreet made it clear the timing was just too perfect. He added, “No better person could have walked into that glass in that moment than Jeff.”

“His face print was still on the glass, so we blue-taped his face print, and it just lived in memoriam for months,” Stonestreet added.

Ferguson and Stonestreet played Mitchell and Cameron for all 11 seasons of the ABC hit, which ran from 2009 to 2020 and became one of the most successful sitcoms of its era. Ferguson previously opened up about how “Modern Family” has sparked plenty of conversation about representation, especially when it came to how Mitchell and Cameron were portrayed.

“One of the pressures I’ve always felt, specifically after being on a show like ‘Modern Family,’ where I’m portraying a gay man on a television show on a network that is as popular as it is,” Ferguson said on an episode of his podcast last year. “You receive criticism, as you do with anything you do, but the criticism that I think I heard the loudest was always from the gay community.”

He later recalled hearing criticism over the years and said the feedback, as he took it, was that “maybe I didn’t represent their idea of what a gay relationship was, or a gay man was.”

Rather than trying to carry the weight of every expectation placed on the show, Ferguson said he stayed focused on the job in front of him. “I’m representing one person,” he reasoned. “I’m in charge of this one character.”

And for Ferguson, that character wasn’t some manufactured version of “gay TV.” He said Mitchell was personal, someone he recognized in himself. The actor explained he viewed Mitchell as “a shade of who I was” and joked, “If it’s stereotypical, I’m basically playing myself, so, I guess, guilty as charged.”