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The Not So Modern Problem With Haley Dunphy
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Mar 31, 2025
Throughout the run of Modern Family we saw our lovable cast of characters grow up right before our eyes. Something like this hasn't been done before, and should have been a story about change and development. Though it seems the Modern Family creators fell short with the character of Haley Dunphy. She seems to grow past the immature demeanor early in the show, only to divert right back to where she was before Modern Family's final episode.
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Haley Gwendolyn Dunphy, will you do me the honors of being my lawfully wed
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No, no, no, no, no, no, no, mom! You're still in high school! This is Haley Dunphy
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Dylan Stardust, Marshall. Will you marry me? This is also Haley Dunphy
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Throughout the series of Modern Family, her character seems to bounce around through a series of ever-changing motivations
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all of which come to a screeching halt the moment she gets pregnant and begins her journey into motherhood
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The character of Hayley Dunphy was doomed from the very beginning of Modern Family, and that's primarily because the character didn't feel modern at all
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Sorry I missed the first part, but I'll drink to whatever you're toasting. Tap me off. Hayley Dunphy is the eldest child of Claire and Phil Dunphy
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Due to the fact that audiences were essentially going to be growing up alongside the cast members
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casting was incredibly important. Sarah Hyland was selected to play Hayley from her work on the short-lived series Lipstick Jungle
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in which she played Brooke Shields' daughter, Maddie Healy. Paul is too old for you
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Fine, put the ankle bracelet on me since you couldn't put it on dad. The two characters are nearly identical in the sense that they both demonstrate a gradient of the same character trope
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The somewhat ditzy and overprivileged popular girl who deals with struggles surrounding adolescence in the 21st century
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Where most of the characters in Modern Family feel like sitcom tropes that have received a software update
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Hayley Dunphy's character, at first, feels a lot like she was left behind in the 80s or 90s
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I can't believe I'm getting a car! The rebellious daughter is a trope that has been rehashed time and time again
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We've had our Kelly Bundys, Jackie Burkharts, and Darlene Connors throughout the years
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and Haley doesn't necessarily bring anything new to the table as far as TV daughters go
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She sneaks out, lies to her parents, manipulates them to get her way
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and acts like any typical popular entitled kid tends to act. Her relationships seem to pivot at the drop of a dime Throughout the show she bounces back and forth between romantic partners so often that it becomes difficult to track who she dated and when
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Who's this? I'm the guy before you and he's the guy before me. She is
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She begins the series in a relationship with Dylan, who isn't necessarily the worst boyfriend
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but does set up yet another's familiar trope within the realm of television sitcoms
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this disapproved of boyfriend. In many ways, Dylan represents the antithesis of what the Dunfeet family is all about
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He's kind of a burnout. Normally, it's the patriarch of the family who seemingly looks down their nose
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at the potential suitors for his daughter. In the case of Modern Family, Phil actually admires Dylan
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and it's Claire who comes off as disapproving. This shakes up the family dynamics enough
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to hook viewers into something that really feels fresh. I got a place with an old friend of mine
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Well, not so much of a friend as a raccoon. Good to know you'll have company
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As the series matures, Haley doesn't. She stagnates quite a bit until the writers make the decision to shake her foundations
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by throwing her into a variety of different situations to see if anything will eventually stick
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This is all done in an attempt to show how this character is maturing by constantly trying
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to better herself. But when you really start to yze the machinations behind her development, it feels more like
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the writers were trying to force Haley's character into specific scenarios without taking any
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of her natural motivations into account. For a little while, she's partying too much
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Then she's bouncing around through odd jobs. It's hard not to interpret this as the writers having struggles in finding something interesting
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for Hayley to do that would stick beyond her relationships with various men
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As Hayley's on-again-off-again relationship with Dylan starts to fizzle out somewhere around season three, Hayley morphs herself into kind of an usher for guest star boyfriends
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to show up and shake up the Dunphy family dynamics. Season four introduces us to Kenny played by Jason Manzoukas I made my bones in men apparel and now I working with these local boutiques trying to get into girls jeans Kenny serves as a vehicle for making Haley father extremely uncomfortable
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which is kind of Haley's goal from the beginning. And he also demonstrates to the Dunphy family
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that Dylan was never really that bad to begin with. Aside from allowing Haley the opportunity to figure out a relationship on her own terms
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this relationship doesn't give her anything meaningful to hold on to that will strengthen her role as an individual on the show
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The writers have her go through a few more potential suitors until she meets Andy, played by Adam Devine
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Who are you? I'm your Manny. Nice try. I know they're Manny and you look nothing like him
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Oh, you're Haley. Andy worked with Haley's father as a real estate assistant
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and was a nanny to the Pritchett family for years. Haley's relationship with Andy is one of the first times
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that she begins to feel like an actual adult. But the issue here is that it took over six seasons
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of television to get to this point. This relationship feels complicated and interesting
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and it does a lot to develop Hayley's character. Throughout season six and seven, Hayley and Andy
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both have their own complicated love triangles that seem to crash into one another quite frequently
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Andy is very much in a committed relationship with his long-distance girlfriend, Beth
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when he and Hayley begin to develop feelings for one another. When Andy proposes to Beth in an
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attempt to fix their glaring relationship issues, Hayley shows up to stop it, but arrives just
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seconds too late. I guess it's decided for me. I feel like such an idiot. The knowledge of Haley's
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feelings for Andy leads him to eventually cheat on his fiance with Haley repeatedly. Andy and
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Haley have a relationship that feels so wrong and so right at the same time. However, this rich
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exploration of Haley's character only lasts for about two seasons. Andy leaves for a job opportunity
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in Utah leading to a somewhat emotional climax to the relationship The writers could have utilized Haley newfound emotional depth to their advantage but instead they make the choice to have Hayley jump right back into having jokey rebound relationships with older guest stars
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Nathan Fillion shows up as the aptly named Rainer Shine, a local TV weatherman, whom Hayley gets
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engaged to for approximately seven minutes. Maybe you're right. Maybe we should rethink this whole
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marriage thing. I don't remember saying that. While their relationship was incredibly brief
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It did feel like dating an older, respectable man was a logical choice for Hayley after Andy
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Hayley inevitably ends up with Dylan, who had just sort of been relegated to brief cameos in the show's later seasons
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In season 9, he tells Hayley to move on and find happiness because he's married
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And then, in season 10, he hastily describes his divorce before the two get back together again
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Dylan has changed a great deal in the years since we last saw him, And much to the shock and dismay of the Dunphy family, Dylan and Haley end up having twins together and getting married
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And that's really about it. This is Poppy because that's my favorite flower
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And this is George because he came out looking curious. Dylan and Haley kind of disappear in Modern Family's 11th and final season
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They needed more time with the other characters who they developed beyond a stereotype
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The problem with Haley Dunphy, now Haley Marshall, is that her character's existence is completely codependent
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When your character's strongest traits are the relationships they have with other people
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then you don't have a very strong character at all. There were definitely moments in which she felt like she was moving toward becoming her
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own person, but the writers consistently end up taking the easy way out with her
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Her character started out as a somewhat exhausted trope of a rebellious daughter and moved into
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the somewhat exhausted trope of you won't believe who she's dating now
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The show might have been better off if Hayley had been written off to go to college, but
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Instead, they treat her exactly the way she lives toward the end of the show, living in
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a basement and coming out once in a while just to remind us that she's still there
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