Halloween

From the original

The episode was written by Jeffrey Richman, directed by Michael Spiller, and pitched by cast member Eric Stonestreet. It follows Claire's love of Halloween, which drives her to turn the Dunphy house into a haunted house for trick-or-treaters. Phil learns his neighbor Jerry has divorced and begins to fear the same fate for himself and Claire, reading her fixation on the haunted house as a sign she no longer loves him; his spontaneous attempts to fix things all fail. Mitchell is excited that his new law firm allows Halloween costumes and wears a Spider-Man suit to work, only to discover too late that 'only tools and douches wear costumes'; he pulls a suit over the costume but is dragged into meetings and can't remove it. Cameron can't shake a childhood Halloween trauma, and Gloria is offended after Manny and Jay correct her accent, so she starts acting oddly and speaking differently. At the finished haunted house, everything goes wrong: Jay activates effects late, Gloria uses her 'English' voice, Alex imitates a prisoner poorly, and Cameron keeps retelling his traumatic story. After two failed scares, Claire and Gloria storm out. Jay tells Gloria that the sound of her accented voice made him fall in love with her the day they met, reassuring her, and Phil and Claire reaffirm their marriage while the rest of the family perfects the haunted house.