Eric Stonestreet Says He and Jesse Tyler Ferguson Were 'Hurt' by Pass on Modern Family Spinoff: Would've 'Been a Slam Dunk'

Eric Stonestreet and Jesse Tyler Ferguson would love nothing more than to continue Cam and Mitchell’s story.

Stonestreet, who played Ferguson’s TV husband 11 years later Modern familylooked back on what could have been a spinoff series that was very seriously considered after the sitcom ended in 2020.

Specifically, Stonestreet said the spinoff would pick up after the finale revealed Cam (Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Ferguson) moving to Missouri with their daughter Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) and young son Rexford.

“Chris Lloyd and a couple of screenwriters wrote a really great script that took Jesse and I out of our lives in Missouri, and they said ‘no.’ They just said, ‘We don’t want to do it,'” Stonestreet, 53, recalled during an interview with by Graham Bensinger on September 18.

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He admitted that the network airing the spinoff “hurt Jesse and I’s feelings,” as well Modern family co-creator Lloyd’s.

“I think Jesse and I felt like we were considered old men or something, which didn’t seem worth maintaining those characters. It was just a little painful,” he continued, adding, “I love my character. I love the show. We had great working relationship, we had amazing chemistry.”

Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet in ‘Modern Family’. Tony Rivetti/Getty

Not only was ABC’s passing on the spinoff script hurtful, but Stonestreet also thinks they missed the mark.

“I think that would be a slam dunk,” he told Bensinger. “I don’t think it would have been successful, because you had one of the creators — who really cared about making the show great for so long — willing to do it. It wasn’t like two assistant writers just saying, ‘Hey, we’re here asking for money and we want to do a spinoff, and if it takes a year, whatever, we’ve made a few hundred thousand dollars.'”

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Ferguson, 48, has also previously spoken about a potential Cam and Mitchell spinoff, as he told Andy Cohen on Watch what’s happening live 2022 that there were “discussions” but “the network decided against it.”

“I think they were just wondering if this was the right family to keep telling that story,” Ferguson explained. “We were there for 11 years, I think they were ready to go in a different direction.”

Aubrey Anderson-Emmons as Lily Tucker-Pritchett, Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell Pritchett and Eric Stonestreet as Cameron Tucker in ‘Modern Family’.

Robert Ashcroft/Getty

Although a spinoff was seemingly not in the cards for Cam and Mitchell, Ferguson and Stonestreet must return to Modern family set up in May – alongside Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell – to film a WhatsApp ad as their beloved characters.

The ad opens with Phil (Burrell), Claire (Bowen) and Cam reacting to a photo Haley (Sarah Hyland) sent to a family group chat, only to accidentally upset Mitchell who walks in and finds out he’s not in said group chat chat. .

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All nine seasons Modern family can be streamed on Hulu.

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