When I heard that Danny Zuker was coming to Syracuse, I knew that I needed to go. I remembered Mr. Zuker from the special features on the Modern Family DVD, specifically as the source for one of the funniest storylines in season one, which involved Phil (Ty Burrell) suffering from kidney stones. What I didn’t know, however, was that Mr. Zuker was a Newhouse alum, which made attending his presentation all the more important to me.
Before going to the panel, I expected Mr. Zuker to be sitting at the head of the room, essentially spearheading the conversation by himself. But it turned out to be a discussion that was led by two other writing professors (the presentation was for their respective writing classes, but open to other students), which ended up working out well. Not only was the lecture a great opportunity to hear from Mr. Zuker and his writing experiences on Modern Family as well as his previous shows, but it was also a great lesson in writing for television overall, especially with the input the other two professors contributed.
I will admit, however, that I wish we could have spent more time talking about the behind-the-scenes aspect of Mr. Zuker’s work on Modern Family, but as one of the writing professors said, we were at a lecture for writing, not a lecture for Modern Family. Yet in spite of this, it was a rewarding and insightful presentation to attend, especially for someone like me, who isn’t a TRF student but has always been interested in TRF and screenplay writing, specifically.
