Modern Family season 5

On May 10, 2013, Modern Family was renewed for a fifth season. The season premiered on September 25, 2013 and ended on May 21, 2014.

Main cast

 * Ed O'Neill as Jay Pritchett
 * Sofía Vergara as Gloria Pritchett
 * Julie Bowen as Claire Dunphy
 * Ty Burrell as Phil Dunphy
 * Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell Pritchett
 * Eric Stonestreet as Cameron Tucker
 * Sarah Hyland as Haley Dunphy
 * Ariel Winter as Alex Dunphy
 * Nolan Gould as Luke Dunphy
 * Rico Rodriguez as Manny Delgado
 * Aubrey Anderson-Emmons as Lily Tucker-Pritchett

Recurring cast

 * Adam DeVine as Andy Bailey
 * Nathan Lane as Pepper Saltzman
 * Christian Barillas as Ronaldo
 * Reid Ewing as Dylan Marshall
 * Dana Powell as Pam Tucker
 * Celia Weston as Barb Tucker

Guest cast

 * Justin Kirk as Charlie Bingham
 * Andrew Daly as Principal Brown
 * Diane Farr as Diane
 * Spenser McNeil as Reuben
 * Fred Willard as Frank Dunphy
 * Jordan Peele as Derrick
 * Ann Guilbert as Cameron's grandmother
 * Elizabeth Peña as Pilar Ramirez
 * John Benjamin Hickey as Dr. Clark
 * Jane Krakowski as Dr. Donna Duncan
 * Jesse Eisenberg as Asher
 * Chazz Palminteri as Shorty
 * Rob Riggle as Gil Thorpe
 * John Heard as Gunther Thorpe
 * Aisha Tyler as Wendy
 * Will Sasso as Señor Kaplan
 * Alyson Reed as Angela
 * Marc Evan Jackson as Tad
 * Patton Oswalt as Ducky
 * Fred Armisen as Langham
 * Stephen Merchant as Leslie Higgins
 * Rhys Darby as Fergus Anderson
 * Elizabeth Banks as Sal
 * Barry Corbin as Merle Tucker
 * Kevin Daniels as Longines
 * Colin Hanlon as Steven

Production
The first episode of the season, "Suddenly, Last Summer", which premiered on ABC on September 25, 2013, made reference to the newly legalized same-sex marriage in California. The writers said that a wedding for Mitch and Cam was a "real possibility". In January 2014, it was announced that Modern Family's vacation episode would take place in Australia this season. The season was produced by Steven Levitan Productions and Picador Productions in association with 20th Century Fox Television, with creators Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd as showrunners.

Reviews
The fifth season of Modern Family received mixed reviews from television critics. While episodes like "Larry's Wife", "Australia" and "Sleeper" were negatively received, others like "The Old Man & the Tree," "Las Vegas," and "Message Received" premiered to high acclaim, with the latter two frequently cited among the show's best episodes.

Reviewing the season's first eight episodes, Matthew Wolfson of Slant Magazine wrote that the show "appear[ed] to have finally arrived at the depressing and predictable low point toward which it [had] been trending for the past two years." He also went on to say that the show had "turned into a shrill pastiche of stereotypical characterizations and superficial banter lacking both feeling and wit", assigning it a rating of 1.5/4 stars. Different writers for The A.V. Club rated, in total, a majority of the former-half episodes with a "B−" grade or less. One writer for the magazine, Joshua Alston, gave "ClosetCon '13" a "C+" and remarked that "Modern Family becomes a high-wire act when it separates its characters into three storylines with no overlap between them." The second half was more warmly received, with three episodes rated an "A−" or higher.

Despite the somewhat mixed reception for the season, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons's performance as Lily received positive reviews. In his review of "The Help", Joe Reid, writing for The A.V. Club, called Lily a "veritable one-liner machine". Reviewing the same episode, Leigh Raines of TV Fanatic said that the funniest part of the half-hour was "Lily at the end rolling her eyes and banging her head on the table listening to Cam, Mitchell and Pepper arguing over wedding plans".

Primetime Emmy Awards
The fifth season received ten nominations at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards in total, including its fifth consecutive nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series. The ceremony for the Primetime Awards aired on August 25, 2013 on NBC while the Primetime Creative Arts Awards took place on August 16, 2013.