AY, JAY!

‘Married...With Children’ Star, 80, Makes Rare Appearance at Sitcom Reunion

One of television’s favorite dads is back.

Modern Family star Ed O’Neill, 80, reunited with his on-screen kin for the first time in years over the weekend.

The Emmy-nominated actor, who originally rose to fame as Al Bundy on the late-1980s sitcom Married...With Children, joined his Modern Family co-stars Sofía Vergara, Julie Bowen, and Jessy Tyler Ferguson for a reunion dinner at SUSHISAMBA in Los Angeles.

The get-together marked one of the actor’s rare public appearances since the long-running ABC sitcom, in which he played family patriarch Jay Pritchett, ended in 2020.

Vergara, 54, who played his on-screen wife Gloria Pritchett, shared photos from the gathering on Instagram on August 31.

The post included group shots with O’Neill, Bowen, and Ferguson as well as a photo of herself with her former TV husband. Modern Family co-creator Christopher Lloyd also joined the dinner.

“With my American family!!! ❤️❤️,” she wrote in the caption. “I can’t believe it’s been 6 years since the Modern Family finale!!!😫😫 I miss u guys!!!”

Bowen also shared photos from the dinner, including a group shot where O’Neill is hugging her.

“I love my fake dad… (and my real dad, but he wasn’t at dinner last night…),” she captioned the Instagram post.

Bowen played Claire Dunphy, the daughter of O’Neill’s character.

For O’Neill and Vergara, the reunion brought back one of television’s most famous age-gap couples. The actors—and the characters they portrayed—had a significant age difference, with O’Neill being 26 years older than Vergara in real life.

Jay and Gloria remained central to the series throughout its 11-season run, even unexpectedly welcoming a son in Season 4.

Fans also had plenty to say about O’Neill’s appearance.

One commenter wrote, “Ed O’Neill looks younger than in the series,” while another said, “Jay is still the same.”

Another even asked what the actor did to maintain a youthful look: “What’s Jay’s skincare routine omg???”

O’Neill has kept a low profile since Modern Family wrapped. He has no public social media presence, so glimpses of the actor’s life have mainly come through his former co-stars’ posts.

This isn’t the first time the show’s cast has reunited. The stars have continued to get together in smaller groups over the years.

Still, the full ensemble has not appeared together since November 2023, when Vergara hosted her on-screen family at her Los Angeles home. But Ty Burrell, who played Phil Dunphy, was notably absent due to a medical procedure.

Meanwhile, the six main adult stars—O’Neill, Vergara, Bowen, Ferguson, Burrell, and Eric Stonestreet—appeared together at the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards, where they presented the award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series. The show had won that category four times during the sitcom’s run, winning consecutively from 2011 through 2014.

Younger cast members—Sarah Hyland, Ariel Winter, Rico Rodriguez, Nolan Gould, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, and Jeremy Maguire—were not present.

Modern Family premiered in September 2009 and concluded in April 2020 after 11 seasons and 250 episodes. The sitcom earned 85 Emmy nominations and won 22 Emmys, including five consecutive Outstanding Comedy Series awards from 2010 through 2014.

At the 2011 Primetime Emmy Awards, actress Jane Lynch called the event “the Modern Family Awards” after the sitcom swept the first four major comedy categories of the evening right out of the gate.

O’Neill was nominated for three Emmys for his performance as Jay in 2011, 2012, and 2013, but didn’t win for the role. Vergara received four consecutive Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress for playing Gloria, from 2010 through 2013, but also did not win.

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The show received 12 Golden Globe nominations and won once, though neither O’Neill nor Vergara took home an award for their individual performances.

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