10 Biggest Character Developments In Modern Family From Season 1-10

One of the best sitcoms of this generation is Modern Family. It first aired in 2009 and is currently wrapping up its 11th and final season.

Through the mockumentary-style family sitcom, we follow the Pritchett family and their respective homes as they deal with life, love, and everyday hijinks. A lot has happened through the 11 seasons to date. We’ve seen the kids grow into young adults, the patriarch retire, and the stay-at-home moms take a stab at having careers.

But which characters have changed the most? Here’s a look.

10 Claire Dunphy

When the series started, Claire was an uptight housewife with three young kids. And sure, while she’s still uptight and back to being a housewife on the popular sitcom, she has had a major change. Her children have grown, and, by season 11, she is a grandmother to twin babies from her eldest Haley.

But the move that changed her the most was her decision to go back to work running her father’s company. She realized after, however, that while she loved the power and being back in the workforce, she missed her family and the time she had at home. Currently at a crossroads, it’s unknown which route she’ll take before the show ends.

9 Jay Pritchett

While Claire went from stay-at-home mom to powerful CEO, her father Jay went the other route. He finally decided to wind down from work and hand the reins over to his daughter. And while it was a tough adjustment for him, he seems to be managing now.

Part of that might be because he’s filled the hole by coming up with a new business venture: cute themed dog beds. He has also gone from a grumpy old man to, well, a grumpy old man who shows his softer side more often. Part of this might be thanks to his dog Stella, whom he treats like his child, as well as his own new school-aged son Joe with his second wife Gloria.

8 Mitchell Pritchett

Mitchell is still uptight and anxious but he has mellowed a lot over the seasons. He has also become more confident with himself. While he seemed less comfortable in his own skin at the beginning of the series, he has come out of his shell over the years.

He developed a better relationship with his father, who fully accepts his sexual orientation, and his father also gets along better with Mitchell’s husband Cameron, partially because they share a mutual love of football. Meanwhile, Mitchell has also become an overall stronger person thanks to his now teenage daughter Lily.

7 Manny Delgado

Manny has always been an adult in a child’s body, mature well beyond his years. Now in college, he has come into his own. Still as confident and intelligent as ever, he remains a big dreamer.

He has also evolved into a budding filmmaker, has learned from many loves gained and lost, and has come out from under his mother’s thumb, finally living on his own. He has become a more independent young man who is ready to conquer the world.

6 Luke Dunphy

Arguably one of the most changed, Luke has gone from a mischievous young boy to a promiscuous young man. This season, he has been seen having a relationship with a divorced older woman, and even stealing Manny’s ex-girlfriend.

The biggest change with Luke, however, is that it appears he isn’t so unintelligent and lost as everyone thought he was. While it doesn’t happen until season 11, he has an amazing business idea up his sleeve and found an investor to help make it happen. Could Luke become the mogul of the family when he was the one they were most worried about all along?

5 Haley Dunphy

Haley is still, well, Haley. But she has matured tenfold since the beginning of the series. She started as a rebellious teenager who skipped school and hung out with bad boys, including Dylan. She went through a crisis of self, trying to figure out what to do with her life. She lived in her parents’ basement, dropped out of a college, and was running online social businesses.

But she finally found a job she liked and was good at, toned down the partying, and began dating men who were smarter and better for her. While she went full circle and is back with Dylan again, he has changed as well, trying to put his life together. Now married with two newborns, she’s still the same woman but has grown leaps and bounds.

4 Lily Tucker-Pritchett

On a hilarious note, Lily represents the biggest character development because, well, she went from being an infant to a teenager in just a few years. It was one of those magical aging processes that can only happen on television.

While Lily should really only be seven or eight by now, she’s already a teenage girl providing sarcastic remarks, rolling her eyes at her dads, and doing typical teenage girl things. She’s the most developed because when she began just a few short years ago, she couldn’t even talk!

3 Dylan Marshall

Dylan, as noted, was Haley’s bad-boy high school boyfriend. He skipped school, didn’t appear to be too smart, was generally clueless to jokes, and wanted to become a singer. But now, as Haley has reconnected with him, he’s trying to make something of his life. He is in nursing school where he has said he hopes to heal people now with his hands instead of his voice as he had originally intended to do.

He won’t have a choice as he has now officially captured Haley’s heart and they are married with twin babies. And so far, he has proven himself a great, albeit still ditzy, dad.

2 Gil Thorpe

He started off as Phil’s biggest rival in the realtor business. A frenemy, if you will. And while he and Phil still give one another long, beady-eyed stares whenever they run into each other, boy has Gil ever changed.

After Mitchell and Phil accidentally run into Gil in a gay bar, they realize he is, in fact, gay. Gil struggled through the reality as Mitchell helps him, and he finally admitted it to himself. Now divorced, Gil seems to have softened a bit and isn’t so hellbent on pulling one over on Phil. He’s too focused on figuring out his own life.

1 Sal

Sal is the wild party girl that swoops in every once in a while to hang out with her friends Mitchell and Cameron. She drinks heavily, parties hard, and doesn’t hold back when it comes to her opinions, including about Lily. She was mainly jealous of Lily for taking her friends away from her.

However, when we later see her, she is heavily pregnant. Then she returns again, now as a single mother trying to clean up her act. While she’s still a party girl at heart, she has changed dramatically since when we first saw her in season one.

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