'Why can't we go forever like 'Law & Order'? Why do we have to end?' Sofia Vergara asks.
It's time to say farewell to Modern Family.
After 11 seasons and 250 episodes, ABC's groundbreaking family comedy writes its final chapter with Wednesday's hour-long series finale. But before we say goodbye for good, the cast and creative team behind the series reflected on their monumental run and got emotional talking about letting go.
"I can't even imagine how it's going to be a part of this world where Modern Family has happened but I don't get to see those people every day," Jesse Tyler Ferguson says in Modern Family: A Modern Farewell, getting choked up as he talked about the final episodes. "I was at a table read just a few weeks ago, where I came across the line, 'Let's just enjoy each other--' See, I'm crying just saying it... 'Let's all just enjoy each other while we still can,' and I just burst into tears at the table read because I had been burying a lot of that emotion and I just wasn't ready to deal with it. And it all just came rushing at me."
"We've really have been through so much together as a unit and we have been each other's support system and that's just what family does," Ferguson continues.
The hour-long farewell special showed footage from Modern Family's final table read ever, with the room packed to the brim as everyone hung on to every word in the script. "We've come full circle," the camera captures Ty Burrell saying to Ferguson. While it didn't reveal clues from the series finale, the cast was visibly emotional afterward, giving each other hugs and wiping away tears.
"I've never expected that I was going to be a part of something this good and special. I complain all the time, 'I don't understand, why can't they write like Law & Order? Why can't we go forever like Law & Order? I don't understand it. Why? Why do we have to end?'" Sofia Vergara says, a bit verklempt as she shrugs her shoulders.
Vergara's co-stars fondly remembered their 11-year run and how far they've all come since beginning this journey together in 2009.
"Eleven years ago, we were all feeling so lucky just to have a steady job," Burrell reminisces.
"And 11 years later, here we are," says Sarah Hyland, whose fiance, Bachelor Nation's Wells Adams, sought out her TV parents' permission before proposing. "We've been through very high moments and we've been there for each other at the lowest moments of our lives."
"Ty's had children since we've been doing this show. I've gotten married. There's been breakups, there's been health scares," Ferguson expresses. "We really have been through so much together as a unit and we have been each other's support system."
"I've watched my children get through most of elementary school. I have buried my cousin. I have gone through a divorce on this show and this has been a place for me to come, so if this is my best job, I'll take it," Julie Bowen emotionally recalls.
The retrospective ends on a special moment with the Modern Family cast and crew taking one last group photo in front of Stage 15. As a marker of the end, the plaque that tracks all of the famous television productions that have filmed on that same stage closes the hour-long special with the updated dates for Modern Family: 2009-2020.
"I've never had anything like this go away, so I don't know what it's going to feel like. I want to just live this moment. We all are going to go on and do our own things so it's reasonable to say I may not see some of these people for a long time. Some of the crew I may never see again," Eric Stonestreet says, as he begins to cry. "You develop 120, 130 different interpersonal relationships with people over the course of 11 years. And then to say, 'Thank you and... goodbye.'"
In March, ET sat down with Ferguson, who was preparing for a starring role in the upcoming Broadway revival Take Me Out, where he opened up about the surreal feeling of the end of the Modern Family era.
"There’s a great freedom that comes with finishing up an 11-year run of something artistically. I can do whatever I want to do. But the reality of the situation is we all really love each other," Ferguson told ET. "When August comes around and it's a time that we would be going back to work after our summer hiatus, I think we're all gonna feel a void."
For more on the end of Modern Family, watch ET's interview below.
The one-hour series finale of Modern Family airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
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