Modern Family Had a Chance to Do This Character Justice — And Blew It Completely
This show would often challenge stereotypes, but not this time, apparently.
Modern Family is a great choice when you need a comfort show, but it also managed to deliver some good and heartwarming storylines by following the life of a large family divided into three households. Over its eleven-season run, the show managed to wrap up pretty much every storyline beautifully... except one.
Haley Dunphy was the girl not even her parents had high hopes for. From the beginning of the show, she was "the pretty one," while her sister Alex was more likely to have a successful career, and her brother Luke was too young (and too into aliens and robots) to even compete.
In the series finale, we see Haley... as a housewife, so nothing new here. She would always see relationships with boys as her main focus, but according to many fans, the show could have made her into so much more than that.
"Maybe ending up as more than a housewife would have been a nice thing when she was belittled by everyone for 11 seasons," Redditor veronica420mars noted.
There were many times throughout the show when we could clearly see that Haley was not as myopic and simple as she seemed at first. She was perfectly capable of being smart, cunning, and ambitious.
"She would have been such a great businesswoman too. Like her photography, the fashion blog, and then assistant fashion designer? She succeeded in all of her jobs but she never seemed to keep up with them for long enough," Redditor indiigomoon said.
Even the final choice of her partner (which was Dylan, her first boyfriend) does not sit well with many fans, who believe that Haley ending up with Dylan was more of a production mishap than something that was actually planned story-wise. Some fans suggest that Haley and Andy were supposed to be the endgame, but Adam DeVine, the actor who portrayed him, refused to stick around until the end of the series.
The fact that Haley ended up as a housewife and not some sort of fashion influencer still bothers fans to this day. According to the fandom, this girl definitely deserved something better than basically returning to step one of her character development.
Modern Family ran for 11 seasons on ABC from 2009 to 2020.