Modern Family should end with a wedding, not a funeral

“Just drop it!” Mitch snaps in an uproariously misconstrued fit of frustration during Modern Family’s eighth-season premiere.

Mitch had solely witnessed the passing of his grandmother-in-law, who made two appearances on the series.

His rocky relationship with Grams locks him in a near no-win situation. In turn, our highlight and his lowlight of the funeral is when his poor volume and diction with Cam literally turns heads and evokes more sobs.

That was the last time the living-legend ABC sitcom dealt with death. For the moment, anyway, “last” means “most recent.” But the show’s deciders would be shrewd to ensure it also comes to mean the final time.

Anything else would risk fumbling this legendary program’s precedent on its last lap. So much so that series mastermind Steve Levitan’s mere suggestion that the saga could go there should prompt appalled shudders.

The subplot of “A Tale of Three Cities” would have been different if a more developed character had passed. Modern Family has raised the profile on other members of Cam’s bloodline, particularly Pam, of late. As such, it cannot get away with killing off anybody else from that branch.

Now halfway through Season 9, the series has built only two other storylines around a character’s death. None of the characters in question saw substantial action beforehand.

Season 3’s “The Last Walt” revolved around Luke’s surprisingly stoic reaction to and Claire’s strange coping with their neighbor’s passing. The elderly, curmudgeonly Walt had appeared all of three times.

The next year, the show capped its fourth season in Florida, where everyone paid their respects to Phil’s mother. Despite mentions in multiple episodes, Grace Dunphy had been an unseen character through her full existence.

Those limitations on tragedy are part of what has made Modern Family a stratospherically sensational sitcom. Other programs of the genre may throw in special, heavy episodes without straying from their DNA. But to date, the show that many consider the greatest has stuck to its squirt guns.

As of last week, that has been a constancy for 200 episodes. Yet going into the milestone, Levitan admitted that a great, last-moment deviation is on the table.

Per Jean Bentley of the Hollywood Reporter, Levitan thought back to his Frasier days. He cited “the Shakespearean route” that calls for a saga to end with “a birth, a death or a wedding.”

Continuing with the Frasier template, he noted, “we managed to effectively do all three in the final episode.” Indeed, in “Goodnight, Seattle,” the title character becomes an uncle, officiates his father’s re-marriage and succeeds a late radio host in San Francisco.

Assuming that is the kind of death Levitan has in mind for Modern Family, there will be no real problem. But after Phil’s health scare and the ensuing discussions about death in Episode 200, concern flickers.

The aforementioned Walt’s second of three appearances — “Lifetime Supply” — also dealt with momentary anxiety over Phil’s health. That plot unfolded as a classic case of comically overblown concern. Nonetheless, the pattern places more magnets for speculation on Levitan’s comments.

And then there is the emphasis on Jay’s crossing into septuagenarian territory. Even as early as the first-season finale, the title clan’s patriarch has confronted his mortality, albeit from a distance. Reminded of his father’s 63-year lifespan, he turns a hasty 180 on his diet and activity.

Then he started the current season obstinately bent on making once-in-a-lifetime memories for everyone. His characteristic spillover of frustration stems from a perceived lack of a legacy.

Levitan will understandably not let too much on here. In fact, he and his colleagues have not formulated any finale material yet. Although, in his interview with Bentley, he made it plain that this is the penultimate season. The spigots of speculation over the finale are irreversibly open.

“Our plan is to end it at 10,” Levitan told Bentley. “If we can leave with most of our audience wanting more, I think that’s the right way to do it.”

The best first step toward that is to alleviate inevitable fretting over the fate of any Dunphys, Pritchetts or Tuckers. Amidst that, one or both of the other options from “the Shakespearean route” would instill sufficient curiosity.

Haley Dunphy is the easiest potential centerpiece for a wedding or birth. The best way to go would be the former, along with the understood eventuality of that latter. This way, we could recall that Claire and Phil had already conceived when they tied the knot.

How much more, therefore, could Haley turn out like her parents? Why not leave that mystery up to the viewer?

Incidentally, that approach would amplify a crisp distinction with the other major mockumentary of our time.

Assuming Levitan and company follow through on his timetable, Modern Family will wrap up in the twilight of the 2010s. It will have been four years since another classic 2009 debutant, Parks and Recreation, closed its book.

There is no universal “right way” to go about a sitcom or any subgenres. With that said, Parks and Rec borrowed a bit much from a contemporary program’s playbook in its dusk. The entire final season leapfrogged two-plus years, and “One Last Ride” was quite How I Met Your Mother-esque with its frequent flashforwards.

For its swan song, Modern Family must not be Frasier. It needs to be even better. And it must be distinct from fellow contemporary mockumentary Parks and Recreation.

And this was barely 10 months after HIMYM’s “Last Forever.” Remember what happened there? (Some prefer not to.)

The polarizing passing of Tracy may have been the smoothest means of enabling a Ted-Robin rekindling. But given her development over the year after her on-camera introduction, it was hardly without sorrow. The kind of sorrow Modern Family could dodge with Walt, Grace and Grams.

Only through a distant flashforward could Modern Family even hope to get away with killing off a core character. That was the approach Parks and Rec took with Jerry Gergich, who lives to be 100.

But therein sits one of the kickers. This tactic has already been used of late by top-shelf, but not quite the very best shows of their time. As such, the former five-time Emmy-winning dynasty and monarch of this era must stay grounded to ensure a solid finale.

For its swan song, Modern Family must not be Frasier. It needs to be even better. And it must not be Parks and Rec or HIMYM.

Instead, it should be what it has been for the better part of its run. The greatest can only achieve an all-time great finale by sticking to its strengths.

That means bringing everyone you see during the theme sequence together, both in body and spirit. And if we get assurance that a fourth generation is in development, so much the better.

Go nuts with the mishaps, setbacks, misunderstandings and overreactions along the way, as you always have. But as for the pondering of bona fide grave matters, Mitch said it best.