One of the things I think is really interesting about Modern Family is how the kids on the show are portrayed. Modern Family is a sitcom that has I think majorly an adult audience, yet the kids on the show play a pretty large part. Each kid has their own different personality, yet in the end even they all view themselves as a large family. It is especially amusing when the kid's end up knowing more than the parents. Take the character of Luke, for example. He is the youngest of the Dunphey clan and generally considered to be not very bright. In one of the first episodes he gets his head stuck in a banister and he is constantly not understanding what is going on in various situations. Yet, when his father really wanted an iPad for his birthday and Claire failed, Luke was the one who was able to obtain the coveted object for his father. Luke can be the savior of the family, even when nobody really believes he can do anything. Ironically, the actor who plays Luke is actually very intelligent and is a member of Mensa.
Of the other kids, the oldest Haley, is your typical popular teenager. She is pretty, popular, obsessed with boys and herself, pays little attention to her schoolwork, and is constantly rebelling against what her parents say. The middle child, Alex, is almost the exact opposite. She is studious, usually does what her parents tell her to do, and a bit of a tomboy. The two sisters clash in ways that you'd think two sisters so opposite would clash, yet the show also lets there be different sides to the characters. In one episode Haley is worried her parents are going to break up (when in reality Claire is trying to convince Haley to break up with her current boyfriend) and Haley actually shows she cares about others. There are episodes where Alex goes to Haley for advice about boys and shows that she is growing as a character as well. The sisters fight, but you can really see the love between them as well.
The other child, Sophia's son Manny, is interesting because he is as unlike a stereotypical boy his age as you can get. He's what you might call an old soul. He likes to wear ascots, sip tea, and constantly speaks with a vocabulary beyond his years. This becomes a source of conflict between him and his stepfather Jay (the patriarch of the family) as Jay is more of a traditionally masculine character. Manny is never one sided, however, and is constantly helping Jay out of jams and in one episode even has a crush on Haley. He goes through real emotional turmoil when his biological dad comes to visit and promises him things that never come to fruition. Jay is a real father to Manny even though they are so different.
And that's what I like about this show. In a lot of shows that have kids you find that the kids are very one dimensional. They are there for the cuteness factor, or so that the parents have something they have to deal with like going into see the principal. It is a little rarer to find a show that has kids with actual personalities going through their own drama, tying neatly into the drama their parents and other family members are going through. (The Cosby Show comes to mind when I try to think of a similar show). The kids really are a part of the family and the show, both on and off the set, which I think is important to the show. We feel the love of these families because they are so close off the set as well. For example, here is an interview from Entertainment Weekly with the kids and the adults. You can really see how close they are to each other and how they feed of each others' energies.
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