Voting is encouraged, unless you don’t agree with me – then you can go pound sand. That’s essentially the message ABC TV producer Danny Zuker tweeted on October 26. “Next Tues. please vote,” the “Modern Family” writer tweeted. “Unless you're a racist/homophobic/evolution denier. U should probably just go to the dentist.”
Zuker, whose Twitter profile states he is a “TV writer/producer” who is “currently working on ABC's “Modern Family,” frequently tweets about the show, its characters, and the actors on the show. Odd, that a very politically intolerant tweet would appear from a writer of an extremely tolerant, progressive, sitcom.
Only in its second season, “Modern Family” is a hilarious comedy that has picked up six Emmy’s including “Best Comedy Series” “Writer’s Guild Award” and “Director’s Guild Award.” The show follows the interactions of a 21st century “modern” family complete with a gay couple (who are recent adoptive parents), an intact nuclear family, and an interracial couple with a significant age gap.
The show’s gay couple was praised by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for the recent on-screen kiss shared between actors Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet. It has been called "groundbreaking" by the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
“Modern Family,” with its six Emmies and heaps of praise from critics, is enjoying broad commercial success. Beyond toleration, mass audiences have accepted and embraced its off-beat take on the modern American family. Sad that Zuker wouldn’t show the same good will to those with opposing viewpoints. (h/t to Greg Ray)