On April 8, the Modern Family Series finale premiered. After 11 years of filming, and many Emmy and Golden Globe awards, the show has ended. Here are some things you might not have known about the show.

Julie Bowen, who played the character of Claire Dunphy, was pregnant during the filming of the pilot episode. In order to hide this, Claire carried lots of laundry baskets, sat behind pillows, and cereal boxes were placed in front of her as she stood in the kitchen. 

When Cam Tucker, played Eric Stonestreet, first makes his appearance as the clown Fizbo, he says “Hello old friend”. This is because Stonestreet had a desire to be a clown in real life. He said that “From as far back as I can remember, all I ever wanted was to be a clown in the circus. My dad named me Fizbo, my grandma made all my clown suits, and my parents allowed me to be the kid that raised pigs, played drums, took karate, played football, AND put makeup and wigs on from time to time.” The clown Fizbo then became a recurring character that Cam portrays throughout the show. In fact he even won an Emmy for his performance in season 1; episode 9, “Fizbo”.

Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who plays Mitchell Pritchett, said that the portrayal of a gay couple as a normal family created a lot of empathy in his family as before it was very difficult for his father to accept his sexuality. In fact the wedding between Mitchell and Cam took place before gay marriage was legal. 

Sofia Vergara was especially sad that the show was ending. She shared her thoughts and said, “Why can’t it be Law & Order? It was my  dream job and if I could do it all again I would and I wouldn’t change anything. Everything was perfect – the scripts, the cast, the writers… We became a family so it’s hard to say goodbye.” Regardless of the sad ending, Sofia was proud to play such a strong Latino woman. She said that sometimes it was hard to read the script as she would pronounce many words wrong, yet the cast would laugh it off with her.

Ed O’Neil, who played Jay Pritchett, had previously starred in Married with Children. So after Modern Family, his fans are wondering what his up next for him. However, he says he has no plans as of now.

The kids of Modern family truly grew up through the show-

During the episode “Caught in the Act” where Claire and Phil were well, caught in the act, Nolan Gould, who plays Luke Dunphy, was so innocent he actually did not know what was going on. 

Rico Rodrigez had his actual first kiss on set when Manny has his first kiss. 

When Sarah Hyland’s (Haley Dunphy) now husband, Wells Adams proposed, he asked Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell (Claire and Phil Dunphy) for their permission along with Sarah’s real parents. 

The director marked the kid’s height on a wall on the set throughout the show.