Halloween (Modern Family)

Facts from the original

• "Halloween" is the sixth episode of the second season of Modern Family.
• The episode originally aired October 27, 2010 on the ABC network.
• It was the first Halloween-themed episode and the 30th episode overall for the series.
• In the episode, Cameron cannot shake a childhood trauma related to the holiday and hates it.
• Mitchell has a terrible day at work.
• Gloria acts weird after Jay and Manny tease her about her accent.
• Phil fears the same thing might happen to him and his wife Claire.
• Phil assumes Claire's concentration on completing the haunted house is a sign she isn't loving him anymore.
• Phil does the opposite of what Gary did, which caused the demise of Gary's marriage (being spontaneous), and all of Phil's attempts fail.
• Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) gets excited when he learns about a costume-related work event, then learns that only "tools" and "douches" wear costumes.
• Mitchell tries to get out of the costume but is pulled into meetings and is not given the chance to take it off.
• At Claire's finished haunted house everything goes wrong: Jay is late at activating the effects, Gloria speaks in her "english" voice, and Cameron won't stop talking about his "traumatic" Halloween story.
• Claire becomes furious and walks out of the haunted house.
• Phil asks Claire if she's tired of him, and she responds that they're stuck together.
• While they talk, the rest of the family finishes the haunted house perfectly, to Claire and Phil's happiness.
• "Halloween" was directed by Michael Spiller.
• It was the first episode Jeffrey Richman wrote for the series since joining the writing staff at the beginning of the second season.
• Parts of the episode were filmed on October 6, 2010 and October 8, 2010.
• The idea for the episode was pitched by cast member Eric Stonestreet and was accepted by the producers.
• Many of the cast members' costumes were revealed on the first day of filming by script coordinator Clint McCray through Twitter.
• The episode received a Nielsen rating of 7.8 rating/12% share.
• It scored a 5.1 rating/14% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49.
• The episode marked a nine percent rise from the previous episode, "Unplugged".
• It became the most viewed episode of the series in total viewers.
• It tied with "The Old Wagon" as the series' highest rated episode in the 18-49 demographic.
• It later became the second highest rated show of the week and the week's highest rated scripted program in the 18-49 demographic.
• The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics, with Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club comparing it to the first season's critically praised episode "Fizbo".
• Joel Keller of TV Squad praised the development of Claire and felt that her "losing it" helped "soften her character".
• Joye Eng of TV Guide named Gloria's storyline the best moment of the week the episode premiered.
• Eng named Gloria's "reaction shot when he inevitably unwraps a package of tiny Jesus figurines" and "Sofia Vergara's version of a typical American accent" the most "fun".
• Kara Klenc of TV Guide called it a "great episode".
• TV Guide later named it the eleventh best television episode of 2010.
• The A.V. Club later named it, along with "Fifteen Percent" and "Truth Be Told", among the best 2010 episodes of Modern Family.
• Michael Slezak gave the episode a negative review.
• Jesse Tyler Ferguson submitted the episode for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and was nominated, competing against costars Eric Stonestreet, Ty Burrell and Ed O'Neill.
• The episode appears to have aired during sweeps.
• The article "Halloween (Modern Family)" was nominated for Good Article status on May 13, 2011 and on September 5, 2011; both reviews resulted in "Not listed".
• The article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale and is a former good article nominee.
• The actor playing the character Gary is not named in the article, and the reviewer accepted that he is a one-time or very small character.
• The article falls within WikiProject California (Los Angeles area task force), WikiProject Comedy, WikiProject Holidays (Halloween task force), WikiProject LGBTQ+ studies, WikiProject Television (Episode coverage task force) and WikiProject United States (American television task force).