Jesse Tyler Ferguson on the Return of “Modern Family”

Sure, “Modern Family,” you took home a boatload of Emmys for last season’s hilarity. But whaddaya got THIS season?

Take it away, Jesse Tyler Ferguson:

“We've shot about six episodes now and they've all been really hilarious,” Ferguson tells PopcornBiz. “And the storylines are very intricate, so it's sort of hard to separate a scoop for you because I think the writers are doing a really great job of sort of creating a really nice arc for us this season.”

That arc kicks off with a deceptively simple-sounding setup that nevertheless sounds like something Ferguson and on-screen life partner Eric Stonestreet will knock out of the park: "Mitchell and Cam go on a juice fast, which is kind of hilarious,” says Ferguson. “This season really is about Mitchell and Cameron kind of figuring out how they're maybe going to adopt a second baby, and that's sort of where our storyline has been going. So they go on a juice fast to try and figure it out that way. As is expected.”

The actor says he’s also excited for the show to develop Cam and Mitchell’s daughter Lily in fresh, funny ways, now that the character is being played by four-year-old Aubrey Anderson-Emmons (twins Jaden and Ella Hiller held the role for the first two seasons).

“We have a new actress playing Lily this year, which is awesome and great,” says Ferguson. “We were very sad that we had to say goodbye to the twins. I hope that the fans understand that we did it in their best interest. They were sort of exhibiting signs that this was not something that they wanted to do, and we certainly don’t want to force them to be in show business. I mean, sometimes I want to run away from show business, so I'm so thrilled that they were able to go off and be the little girls that they want to be. This new Lily, she really is thrilled to be on set every day – and she's hilarious. One of the first things she said on set to us was, 'Are you real people? Because you live in a fake house.' So she's vey intuitive and she's very smart.”

Ferguson says the older Lily will cast his character’s household in a new comedic light. “The Mitchell and Cameron always sort of had this baby who was sort of a master of the deadpan,” he says, “and now we're incorporating a third character and I think you're going to start seeing that storyline through the eyes of their kid, which I think is a really important facet. We have to get to that: the Dunphey kids are definitely three other eyes into the Dunphey household, and Manny is another eye into the Gloria-Jay household. And I think we need the eyes into the Mitchell-Cameron household, and I think she's going to provide that really beautifully.”

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