The Modern Family Comedy Half Hour (c) 1957

28 Comments

1. Damn straight.

2. man it looks so unwieldly.

   and that guy looks like a wizard.

   • A Macromancer perhaps? (Joke stolen blatantly from Joel)

3. I've never logged in to make a comment before, but this one made me do so. Funniest freaking thing I've seen all day (and I've been watching Zero Punctuation reviews all day).

   • thanks! I appreciate the feedback and welcome a new commenter.

4. Phil had a lot of good lines, including the "early adopter" joke. Mitch's storyline was pretty good, too. The rest of the show was good, but not as memorable as the others.

5. I'm guffawing. So is my wife. Is that ironic?

   • I think we're far enough removed from the sexism of 50's tv to laugh at it now. What IS ironic is that Lucy was the producer of that show. She was the boss.

     • @ hijinksensue

       According to a copy of a stag film starring a "pre-fame" Ms. Ball, that's not the only place she's the boss if you catch my drift…

6. Damn it…I'm actually kind of amused by blatant product placement and watch that show but don't have a ton invested in it but I was bringing back my dvr to the cable company so they couldn't continue to rape me with the cost of cable and I had to not watch that episode. 🙁 DAMN YOU CHARTER! YOU BLEW UP MY WALLET DAAAAMN YOOOOUU!

   • Hulu.com? ABC.com? You can watch it if you want. It's legal and free.

     • Well that's my only option now that I canceled my cable. Hulu the other networks websites and eventually gonna sign back up for Netflix

7. Probably one of the weakest episodes of the series. The worst part was that there were so many things they could have done to make it funnier, yet they missed some golden opportunities.

8. Hah, this is great. Haven't seen the thing it's referencing, but I loved it anyway. “Apple – As American as Apples” made me nearly fall off my chair, nice.

   • Its an episode of the show "Modern Family". The main clips with the iPad are all on Youtube if you are interested.

9. "But darling, I was interesting in the College's 'Catering to your Husband's Every Whim' course."

   "Well, alright. As long as they go into those new fangled sexual positions. Those things damage your soft womanly brains."

   • or womanly softbrains.

   • They should totally have classes like that at college!

     • Deal, but only after each husband completes the "Find the Clitoris" Course.

       • I could teach that class….as well as hitting the "G spot 101." Of course I will be needing female volunteers to demonstrate on…

10. ahh a simpler time

11. The "this wasn't product placement" articles are all overly-specific. This wasn't *paid* product placement (every one of the articles makes that specific distinction).

    ABC has a stake in the iPad, being one of the companies hoping to turn it into a revenue source. Steve Jobs is on Disney's board of directors, and it's a sure bet a lot of the execs and bigwigs at ABC are Apple stock holders. Plus Apple could simply offer non-cash rewards for placement (better iTunes Store listings for episodes and apps, etc).

12. I know some companies have sued for trademark infringement over voluntary product placement like this, and I always wondered why they'd do that instead of accept the free plug. Now I think I understand. Companies that aren't shameless enough to buy blatant product placement would also prefer not to be falsely accused of it.

    • @ Steve the Pocket

      That and a high profile lawsuit gets the name into peoples heads much better than any ad ever could.

13. This kinda remind me of Fallout series (except the post apocalypse or retrofuturistic technology)!
    HEY! Do u think you can make 1950's or Fallout version of I pad or I phone!
    http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Pip_Boy

14. 50s man has 50s Joel-fwoosh.
    This comic reminds me of my abiding wish for an episode of "I love Lucy" where she gets a sex change. Waaaaaaaah.

15. So, has anybody ever actually found I Love Lucy funny? I mean, it's always held up as this exemplar of 50s comedy, but it really is less funny than "Archer" and "Two And A Half Men" combined.

    • I imagine with the way the censors controlled tv back then it was really hard to be funny and not get fined or canceled.