Breaking: Fox's "Virtuality" fails to lift-off while ABC's "Modern Family" gets early pick-up

Ed O'Neill, Rico Rodriguez, Sofia Vergara, Nolan Gould, Julie Bowen, Arile Winter, Ty Burrell, Saray Hyland, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet

Good news and bad news on the gay television front yesterday. On the positive side of the ledger, ABC is so enthusiastic about their new sitcom Modern Family (formerly known as An American Family) that they've gone ahead and ordered thirteen episodes. That's great news, as is the positive reception the show reportedely generated when screened.

Family follows three American families through the eyes of a Dutch filmmaker and one of the families includes a gay couple — played by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet (pictured above) — who have just adopted a baby from Vietnam.

The show looks promising for all sorts of reasons. Given what a hot topic gay families and same-sex marriage are right now, having millions of viewers watching a gay couple raising a kid is nothing but good. I also love the fact Jesse and Eric look like actual guys. Kudos to ABC for making their schedule even more diverse (though some gay men of color would be even better!). Even if the Alphabet network isn't perfect, it is lightyears ahead of every other network.

Proving that point is the sad news that it looks the Fox sci fi show Virtuality has imploded on the launching pad. FutonCritic.com reports that Fox has decided to air the Ron Moore/Michael Taylor penned series on July 4th, which happens to be on a Saturday night. That should pull an audience of about twelve.

The show, about a deep space trip where the crew spends much of their time in virtual reality, had included a married gay couple. Word last year was the show had undergone work to make it more "mainstream", something that sounded suspiciously like code for axing the gay couple. 

Fox entertainment president Kevin O'Reilly told me at the TCA last July that wasn't the case, that they were just re-editing. I guess will find out in July if the gay couple survived the edit, not that it will matter now anyway. 

I guess when Fox closes one window, ABC opens another.