Modern Family's Steven Levitan On PowerPoint Pitches, the Efficiency of Mockumentary Comedy and Why ABC Feels Like Home

This fall, ABC unveiled four new series designed to refocus the Walt Disney network on family-friendly programming while establishing a brand of comedy that could directly rival NBC's Thursday night line-up. The most anticipated of ABC's new shows, Modern Family, premiered two weeks ago as the lynchpin in the network's brand new Wednesday Comedy Night and immediately stomped out its mockumentary competition, The Office and Parks & Recreation in ratings.

Two months ago, at the mythic Television Critics Association event, we spoke to Modern Family's co-creator Steven Levitan about pitching comedies via PowerPoint, the stresses of working on such a buzzed program and the surprising advantages of shooting a mockumentary-style. Levitan, who has written for, executive produced or directed (or all of the above) The Critic, The Larry Sanders Show, Just Shoot Me, Frasier and most recently, Back To You, obliged us by sharing which networks wanted his latest project and wisely predicting that even with the critics' favor on his side, there are always "new mistakes to make."

How is running Modern Family different than the shows you've run in the past? How have you modified the process?

Well, I'm running it with Christopher Lloyd, so that's automatically different. We're sharing the leadership so we have to constantly check in with each other and sometimes battle it out, you know, "Which way are we going to go here?" But otherwise, you hope to make fewer mistakes with time but there are always new mistakes to be made. I'm not as freaked out by all of this as I was at the beginning. It's becoming more natural to me. We're just trying to get as far ahead as possible. I always say, that breaking stories is like Indiana Jones and the big ball. You try to get as far ahead as possibly but by the end of the season, that boulder is right behind you.

How long does it take to shoot an episode?

Five days.

In terms of the kinds of production decisions you've made, because the show is documentary style, are you able to just light once and shoot?

Yeah, I don't care if it's beautiful. I don't want it to be beautiful. I want it to be raw. I tell hair and make-up, you know, "Stop fixing their hair," and that kind of stuff all the time. We told our DP, "If we're waiting for you to light, we're going to be pissed. You better be able to turn it around in five minutes or we're going to be mad."

At the same time, we have to say to everybody, "It's okay." Everybody just wants to do a good job and cover their butts a little bit and we're saying, "It's okay. We want it to be rough. Don't worry."

Modern Family and FlashForward are getting the most positive buzz among ABC's new programming. Does that lessen your worries about ratings at all, at least for now?

Here's the deal, the first day will come. We had all of this good buzz now. It's really exciting. If we come out of this, and Modern Family tanks, it'll be like a punch to the stomach. I expect we're not going to win in the beginning because we're on a new night (Wednesday) so we're going to lose. I guarantee you we'll lose. But in time, as people start to watch the show, I think they'll flock to it. As long as ABC is patient, which I think they will be, I think Steve [McPherson, President of ABC Entertainment Group] gets it, I think we'll be a good show.

How do you quantify network patience? Is that only getting one phone call a week?

No, it means, "Don't move us. Don't panic. Just let us find an audience." People don't follow the schedule. It takes them awhile because there are too many things on television these days, too many channels. I barely know where my own show is let alone everybody else's. Let it sit there, let people get used to it. ABC Wednesday Night Comedy is going to take awhile to sink in. It took CBS years to get Monday night going.

In terms of you being co-showrunner, do you and Christopher Lloyd work from the same office, adjacent offices, constantly yelling at each other?

No, no, no. We're much more contentious than that. We see things very differently and that's where, I think, the good show came from. We're long-time friends though so it's not an issue. From where our differences are, often times that's what leads to the best stuff.

Did you have a sense while writing the pilot that ABC was the best place for the show?

We wanted to do a show about family and we thought ABC was the right place for it. We pitched it around and several people wanted it. ABC wanted it the most and we took it there. We're not really good at filling orders. We feel like it's got to come from our hearts and what we want to write about and then you find the right place for it.

And when you pitched it, did you already have the script?

Actually, for the first time ever, for me, I did a Key Note presentation on the computer because we had so many characters. I thought it would be too confusing otherwise for people to keep it all straight. So I used actors that I wanted or liked or pictures of people that looked like what was in our heads and we took it in and said, "This is our show," and did a five minute Key Note.

Wow. A PowerPoint.

Yeah, the Mac version of PowerPoint. It was cool. We pitched it three places and three places wanted it. It worked.

The biggest concern was, where does this have the best chance of succeeding. ABC, NBC and CBS wanted it. We didn't pitch it at FOX. And Steve [McPherson] really wanted it and you know, he's an old friend, and the series just felt like ABC.

So there was a distinct ABC feeling. What to you is the CBS feeling?

Well, multi-cam. And NBC already had a lot of the mockumentary format programming (_The Office_, Parks & Recreation), so it felt like too much. They wanted it but they said they didn't want another mockumentary, so if we could get rid of that, and we said, "No."

Not to jog your memory too much but you've written some of my favorite episodes of The Critic, which are now airing on Reelz. I hope you're still getting residuals.

I do get residuals and I'll be lucky if they cover parking tonight.