['Modern Family' - 'The Musical Man']

Handled the wrong way, two of the three plots in this episode could have been seen as derivative and sitcommy. If you heard just the two plots -- Cam takes over the middle school musical and drives the kids crazy, and Jay finally has a heart-to-heart with his brother and finds out some bad news -- without knowing the show, you might have rolled your eyes in a "not again!" fashion.

But because the show is 'Modern Family,' the two plots were equally funny parts of one of the best episodes of the season. In those two plots, all the humor hinged on the personalities of the characters, which is a comfortable place that a show can slide into after almost two high-ly-acclaimed seasons.

The third plot, about a misguided ad for Phil's real estate business, was funny because it was just plain silly. But it had its own character-based moments.

When Phil showed his family the ad, you had to know its weird layout, with Claire and Haley bookending the family, but separated from the three Dunphys, would come into play. But the visual of Claire on the side of the van with the words "I CAN'T BE SATISFIED" with a phone number to call was hilarious. The kicker was the other side of the van, with Haley going "Let me make your dreams come true!" next to the same phone number. Either the place that applied the shrink wrap to the minivan made a mistake or Phil just didn't realize how the ad would look wrapped around a van. I'd vote for the "poor planning by Phil" option.

Especially funny was Phil fielding the calls. "I don't know if the carpet matches the drapes, but I can check" was among the not-so-subtle statements he made when he thought that the people calling were talking about houses and not his wife and oldest daughter. You can actually understand how Phil couldn't catch on, because he was just so damn interested in selling houses. Luckily Facebook exists, else Alex would have never pulled up that pic of the van from her friend.

But the character moments came when Claire tried to convince Haley to go to college, she related it back to what she felt was a "golden" age for her, when guys thought she was cute and she would do everything but study. "Maybe you should go back to college," Haley told her. Luckily for her, the "pigs" that called Phil were more interested in "the hot blond" by a two-to-one margin. Of course, when you look like Claire (or Julie Bowen, for that matter), you have nothing to worry about.



Over to Jay and his brother Donnie. Of course the two of them would have a loving but emotionally cold relationship. They're old-school guys that don't talk about their feelings to their wives, much less to each other. Jonathan Banks was a great choice to play Donnie; his recent run on 'Breaking Bad' has shown that he can play a tough guy with a human side, not just a thug. Would it have been funny if Jay's brother was a sensitive guy? Sure, but Mitchell fills that bill nicely. These are guys who spent their childhoods beating on each other, then teaming up to beat on whoever threatens them, as we heard when Jay recalled the story about the kid they dunked in the ice.

Brothers just don't tell each other anything, so the dynamic between Jay and Donnie rang true. Donnie doesn't tell Jay about having prostate cancer because he didn't want his older brother to treat him differently. And if it weren't for the prodding of Gloria, who can name all 29 of her cousins, Jay would have never probed enough to find out. Heck, he didn't even remember where his brother lived. "I want to say Buffalo..."

Finally, Cam as "Bob Fussy," as Mitchell called him. It was pretty predictable that after taking over the musical revue in Manny and Luke's school he would become insufferable and the revue would be a disaster. But the degree of insufferableness -- "When the kids look back, they'll remember that I Sondheim-ized them." -- and the degree of disastrousness -- Song lyrics about Jackie Chan, Luke hanging up so long he can "feel my heart beating in my eyes," and a finale where the kids spell out "WE LOVE THE F WORD" -- was one of those classic farcical moments where every little element came together to a really funny crescendo.

More fun stuff:

-- A lot of funny Manny stuff, even if it was in passing. "Must you always be on?" he says to Gloria when she responds literally to him saying "Why don't you call me, Emma?" Then, as Luke did his imitation of a short-armed dragon (or was it a dinosaur?) all Manny could say was, "That's a great way to stretch out your shirt!"

-- Of course Emma is going to go for the funny Luke instead of the thoughtful Manny. Women love a sense of humor, right? Also, she's only 12, and Manny acts like he's 60.

-- Alex after Haley says she might not go to college, "We took the scenic route, but we got there eventually." She was almost afraid, after seeing Haley's standardized test scores, that she won't be a disappointment, after all.

-- Great physical bit by Ed O'Neill: Jay absentmindedly sits in the chair he sabotaged after finding out Donnie had cancer, and falls on his ass.

'Modern Family' airs Wednesdays at 9PM ET on ABC.

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