"Modern Family"'s Eric Stonestreet and Steven Levitan Don't Take Anything For Granted — Especially Not Kissing

Eric Stonestreet is taking nothing for granted about his suddenly charmed life. Not starring on last season's breakout hit — ABC's Modern Family. Not having the show earn both criitcal praise including Stonestreet himself snagging a Supporting Actor Emmy nor the show earning 14 nominations. 

Nor is Modern Family's creator Steve Levitan taking things for granted. Indeed, he's fearful of the show suffering a sophomore slump or having to endure the moment when the show has its first "clunker episode."

Steven Levitan

Judging from the reaction of the critics during a TCA chat with the Stonestreet, Levitan and the rest of the Modern Family cast (Jesse Tyler Ferguson who plays Mitchell was unable to attend), Levitan has very little to be worried about.

Levitan chatted with AfterElton.com about the upcoming season, including the episode that will deal with why Mitchell and Cameron have yet to kiss on the show. That lack of a kiss between the two men led to speculation from some gay viewers that the show was purposefully keeping them from being intimate. 

Last May, the network issued a statement to AfterElton saying that wasn't the case and the lack of the kissing would be explained in the second season.

Levitan confirmed that was still the case on Sunday saying, "It was a story we were talking about way before the big kiss controversy came about. It's an episode that deals with how Mitchell's not comfortable with public displays of affection. Primarily in dealing with his father and that came up in the pilot. You might recall where Jay would always ring the bell and knock, and we finally get to the heart of that issue and it explains why Mitchell is not  a big sort of emotionally public, open person."

The criticism certainly didn't go unnoticed in Modern Family's writers room. "I can't tell you the numbers of hours of conversation we've had about this, especially since the kiss thing," says Levitan.

In fact, two of the shows writers who happen to gay men took very different positions on public displays of affection. Levitan:

Two of the writers on our show who are gay we're explaining their very different points of view. And one of them is very comfortable [with it]. The picture was shown of the two couples kissing in the airport [from the Hawaii episode] and he said "I would never ever kiss my partner in the airport." And I asked why. And he said "I would feel like I would have that red dot on my head like someone was going to shoot me."

That's his thing. That's his point of view. That's a legitimate thing. And that's what we get into -- what is making Mitch so uncomfortable. It goes to a very surprising place. 

Viewers almost didn't get to see that "surprising place" because Levitan considered not doing the episode. "If we didn't have the ending we have," says Levitan, "I would even be tempted to not do the episode because it would feel like were answering the criticism, but I think it goes to such a wonderful ending, people are going to really love it.