1 00:00:02,189 --> 00:00:05,443 [Ferguson] To have a show last for 11 years is just unheard of. 2 00:00:05,526 --> 00:00:09,280 It's the greatest job security I've ever experienced as an actor. 3 00:00:09,363 --> 00:00:10,573 Those little things. 4 00:00:10,656 --> 00:00:12,783 Knowing that right now I could call for, say... 5 00:00:12,867 --> 00:00:14,243 I could have a piece of banana bread. 6 00:00:14,326 --> 00:00:17,038 Yeah. I'd like a piece of banana bread and an Advil! 7 00:00:17,121 --> 00:00:18,372 -And it will appear. -It'll appear. 8 00:00:18,456 --> 00:00:19,707 -It'll appear. -It might take a while. 9 00:00:19,790 --> 00:00:21,292 -Might take before this docu-- -And they're gonna think 10 00:00:21,375 --> 00:00:22,877 we're crazy for asking for that, but... 11 00:00:23,669 --> 00:00:25,463 someone will get it. [chuckles] 12 00:00:38,809 --> 00:00:40,853 [Lloyd] All right, let's go. Let's do it. 13 00:00:40,936 --> 00:00:43,189 [applause] 14 00:00:47,109 --> 00:00:49,111 [cheering] 15 00:00:52,239 --> 00:00:54,116 What's great about the table read is 16 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:57,745 there's, sort of, an ever growing audience of people that come to our table reads. 17 00:00:57,828 --> 00:01:00,998 So it's a chance for us to learn how the scripts feel in front of an audience, 18 00:01:01,082 --> 00:01:02,208 almost like a play. 19 00:01:02,291 --> 00:01:05,961 That feedback from our, sort of, audience that comes in the way 20 00:01:06,045 --> 00:01:08,255 that multi-cam that's done in front of a live audience, 21 00:01:08,339 --> 00:01:10,883 you get that gratification of seeing the audience's response. 22 00:01:10,966 --> 00:01:12,802 That's our version of it. 23 00:01:12,885 --> 00:01:14,929 [Stonestreet] "His career is on life support." 24 00:01:15,262 --> 00:01:17,765 "Your glee at another man's misfortune should trouble me, 25 00:01:17,848 --> 00:01:19,642 but there's also something sexy about it." 26 00:01:19,725 --> 00:01:20,893 [Stonestreet] "Power's an aphrodisiac." 27 00:01:20,976 --> 00:01:22,061 [Lloyd] "Mitch approaches Cam." 28 00:01:22,144 --> 00:01:24,772 "Hmm. Maybe later you could be the principal, 29 00:01:24,855 --> 00:01:27,274 and I could be the student who's a few credits short. 30 00:01:27,858 --> 00:01:31,112 I'm a bad, bad boy who needs to be taught right from wrong. 31 00:01:31,195 --> 00:01:33,239 Because I grew up in a broken home, 32 00:01:33,322 --> 00:01:35,866 where social workers and fights about money were constant-- 33 00:01:35,950 --> 00:01:37,034 Oh, now I'm just sad." 34 00:01:37,118 --> 00:01:39,995 [laughing] 35 00:01:40,079 --> 00:01:42,623 [Stonestreet] People that come to the table read get to see 36 00:01:42,707 --> 00:01:45,292 it's the writers hearing their words for the first time. 37 00:01:45,376 --> 00:01:48,879 It's, a lot of times, as the show's gone on, our first time really reading it, 38 00:01:48,963 --> 00:01:51,590 because, you know, 200 and some episodes in, 39 00:01:51,674 --> 00:01:53,718 the scripts come out a little later sometimes. 40 00:01:53,801 --> 00:01:56,053 I got that script just last night. 41 00:01:56,137 --> 00:01:59,098 It's really that energy of creativity that's happening. 42 00:01:59,598 --> 00:02:02,601 [Ferguson] For me, it's always been the one opportunity during the week 43 00:02:02,685 --> 00:02:04,478 that we're guaranteed to see the rest of the cast 44 00:02:04,562 --> 00:02:07,273 because we shoot so many things separately, 45 00:02:07,356 --> 00:02:09,900 and if we're not integrated as a full family, we don't see each other, 46 00:02:09,984 --> 00:02:13,863 so it is that one opportunity to sort of come together as a group, 47 00:02:13,946 --> 00:02:15,740 and just sort of check in with each other. 48 00:02:16,115 --> 00:02:17,992 [laughing] 49 00:02:18,075 --> 00:02:19,869 [Lloyd] It just is a learning experience. 50 00:02:19,952 --> 00:02:22,663 You sort of have an idea about what jokes are gonna work, 51 00:02:22,747 --> 00:02:24,790 or how a story is gonna play, 52 00:02:24,874 --> 00:02:29,128 but you don't really ever know until you go to a third dimension on it, 53 00:02:29,211 --> 00:02:32,006 which happens with the actors actually performing it out loud, 54 00:02:32,089 --> 00:02:34,592 and you hear a whole different rhythm. 55 00:02:34,675 --> 00:02:35,676 So we learn a lot, 56 00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:39,722 but it's also mostly just a really fun experience to go through. 57 00:02:39,805 --> 00:02:41,891 [O'Neill] "The Brylcreem kid was me." 58 00:02:41,974 --> 00:02:44,101 [laughing] 59 00:02:44,185 --> 00:02:46,437 And from that point we do another rewrite on it, 60 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:48,147 to develop our final draft 61 00:02:48,230 --> 00:02:51,442 and that's what we bring down to the stage and becomes our shooting draft. 62 00:02:55,196 --> 00:02:56,739 We move fast around here. 63 00:02:57,448 --> 00:02:59,241 -Nice to see you again. It's been a while. -Yeah. 64 00:02:59,325 --> 00:03:00,242 [Levitan] We come in, 65 00:03:00,326 --> 00:03:02,536 and we'll immediately have a rehearsal of the first scene up. 66 00:03:03,037 --> 00:03:05,873 We'll just walk through it, get a sense if the scene's working, 67 00:03:05,956 --> 00:03:09,251 and then the actors go off, get in hair and makeup, 68 00:03:09,335 --> 00:03:12,546 while the crew takes usually about 20 minutes or so 69 00:03:12,630 --> 00:03:15,883 to get the place all lit properly and set up. 70 00:03:15,966 --> 00:03:17,093 -[man 1] Steven. -[man 2] That'll get you going. 71 00:03:17,176 --> 00:03:18,219 And then we shoot it. 72 00:03:18,302 --> 00:03:20,596 [alarm blaring] 73 00:03:20,679 --> 00:03:21,931 [woman] All right, here we go, guys. 74 00:03:22,681 --> 00:03:23,682 [woman clears throat] 75 00:03:23,766 --> 00:03:25,101 [crew member shouting] 76 00:03:25,643 --> 00:03:26,644 [director] And action. 77 00:03:26,727 --> 00:03:29,522 I still can't find any '90s thing that rhymes with Michael Bay. 78 00:03:30,439 --> 00:03:32,024 Dr. Dre, Ellen's gay, Y2K? 79 00:03:32,108 --> 00:03:35,152 Don't you have someplace to be? It's boys' night. No chicks allowed. 80 00:03:35,236 --> 00:03:39,407 [Levitan] We're shooting at the same time. We're editing at the same time. 81 00:03:39,490 --> 00:03:43,494 We're doing all sorts of things, so it's kind of a three-ring circus around here. 82 00:03:43,953 --> 00:03:47,289 There's all kinds of, like, fun secret hidden things 83 00:03:47,373 --> 00:03:48,541 that people don't know about. 84 00:03:48,624 --> 00:03:51,460 For example, when we need to memorize our lines, 85 00:03:51,544 --> 00:03:52,586 we have these little sides, 86 00:03:52,670 --> 00:03:55,256 and we just stash them in drawers when we're done with them. 87 00:03:55,339 --> 00:03:59,343 We literally have old scripts from just years ago. 88 00:03:59,427 --> 00:04:00,594 You guys wanna follow me back here, 89 00:04:00,678 --> 00:04:02,471 I actually have something really cool to show you. 90 00:04:02,555 --> 00:04:07,143 So, for the ten seasons our show has been on, coming on 11, 91 00:04:07,226 --> 00:04:10,062 we've been marking off our heights, just like a real family, 92 00:04:10,146 --> 00:04:11,856 on one of our door jambs. 93 00:04:11,939 --> 00:04:15,276 You can see this is when I was 12. 94 00:04:15,359 --> 00:04:17,445 So, two seasons into the show, 95 00:04:17,528 --> 00:04:20,406 I'm here and Ariel I think is-- Yeah, right here. 96 00:04:20,489 --> 00:04:23,075 So you can see how much taller she was than me. 97 00:04:23,159 --> 00:04:25,703 And then at a certain point, we kind of even out, 98 00:04:25,786 --> 00:04:30,082 and then she stays here, and here I am up here. 99 00:04:30,166 --> 00:04:32,877 Get a couple, get a couple extra inches. There we go. 100 00:04:35,379 --> 00:04:38,632 If there's one thing that I'm gonna take from the show when it ends, 101 00:04:38,716 --> 00:04:40,426 it's gonna be this entire door frame. 102 00:04:40,509 --> 00:04:42,720 I don't know what I'm gonna do with it, but it's such a special memory, 103 00:04:42,803 --> 00:04:45,139 I'll install it into my house or something. 104 00:04:46,432 --> 00:04:50,102 It sounds a little clichéd, but we are like one giant modern family. 105 00:04:50,186 --> 00:04:53,564 And I'd have to say that my favorite part about coming into work every day is, 106 00:04:53,647 --> 00:04:56,817 you know, getting to see the people that I basically grew up with 107 00:04:56,901 --> 00:04:58,944 and became a whole second family to me. 108 00:04:59,403 --> 00:05:01,530 [Levitan] What I love most about this job is coming in 109 00:05:01,614 --> 00:05:03,949 and being surrounded by funny people. 110 00:05:04,033 --> 00:05:06,994 [groaning] 111 00:05:07,995 --> 00:05:09,121 -Thank you. -There's no banana bread. 112 00:05:09,205 --> 00:05:10,373 -Okay. -What is this? 113 00:05:10,456 --> 00:05:11,457 A piece of bread and banana. 114 00:05:11,540 --> 00:05:13,334 Okay, that's just white bread and a banana, but... 115 00:05:13,417 --> 00:05:14,460 But we do have the Advil. 116 00:05:14,543 --> 00:05:17,421 -Okay. -See? We told you this would happen. 117 00:05:18,881 --> 00:05:20,883 -We asked... and they delivered. -They improvised. 118 00:05:20,966 --> 00:05:23,219 You know, even in your hardest day, 119 00:05:23,302 --> 00:05:27,932 you're sitting around a room with 12 of the funniest people that you know. 120 00:05:28,015 --> 00:05:30,559 The main goal of that day is to try to make each other laugh, 121 00:05:30,643 --> 00:05:33,312 and that's a pretty crazy job.