Modern Family did the best bottle episode ever.

Modern family did many things great, but that episode was meh to me

Generally considered one of the worst episodes of that show.

Only episode I turned off

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Clever modern subversion of the classic bottle ep that had become somewhat trope by outright acknowledgment of it like Community started

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What does this mean?

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Modern Family did the best bottle episode ever.

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That would be Seinfeld when Kramer and Newman did the Michigan bottle scam

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What the hell is a bottle episode?

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It is (generally) done for budget purposes, to get the average cost per show down. You use existing sets and/or limit to a single location. Very small number of guests (sometimes none).

It has become a trope so modern shows sometimes use the bottle format as a creativity challenge. They've always been used to give some of the regular and recurring cast a break that many of them can enjoy together, often focusing on just 2 or 3 cast members and perhaps a guest or two.

BB's "The Fly" was almost an inversion - taking the bottle episode to the absolute extreme. Something like Mad Men's "The Suitcase", The Soprano's "Pine Barrens" or Seinfeld's "The Chinese Restaurant" are great examples of bottle episodes of top tier shows.

“Pine Barrens” is my favourite Sopranos episode.

I’m guessing “The Chinese Restaurant” episode from Seinfeld is an example of this. The episode is basically one long scene on a single set. Kramer doesn’t even appear in the entire episode.