Our readers will feel right at home while viewing an upcoming episode of ABC’s “Modern Family,” as the episode was shot using only Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2 devices, and it plays out on a Mac’s desktop.
The episode revolves around Claire Dunphy, a working mother of three played by Julie Bowen, who is stuck in an airport and desperate to reach her daughter, Haley, to reconcile after a fight. The story plays out on her Macbook, as she employs all the forms of modern communication at her disposal, from email to FaceTime to Facebook, in an attempt to locate her eldest child, played by Sarah Hyland.
The episode, titled “Connection Lost,” was shot entirely on Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2 devices.
“Modern Family’s” co-creator and executive producer, Steven Levitan, says the story is based on how he and his own daughters communicate while they’re away at college.
“We all had that reference in our heads — this is how families are communicating today,” Levitan said. ” How do we use this to tell a story?”
In order to make it more realistic, and to produce footage readable on a television screen, the show’s post-production team worked for months creating a replica of Apple’s OS X Yosemite operating system.
“Basically, what you’re seeing on screen is all hand-made,” said John Brown, the show’s motion graphics producer.
Alert viewers will catch Easter Eggs the producers threw in. We won’t mention them and spoil the surprise, but one of them makes a callback to a movie in a season 2 episode.
While Apple furnished devices for use in the episode, the company didn’t pay for any product placement.
This isn’t the first episode to prominently feature Apple products, as a 2010 episode saw featured character Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrel) excited about waiting in line for the new iPad.
“We had an episode where Phil needed to be waiting in line for something new,” Levitan recalled. “I’d been tracking the iPad, because I knew it was coming out, so I contacted Apple. One day, a couple of months before it came out, a guy came down with the iPad. Outside of captivity at Apple, we were among the first people in the country to ever touch it.”
The Apple-centric “Modern Family” episode will air at 9PM Eastern Time, on Wednesday, Feb. 25, on ABC.
