Haley Gwendolyn Dunphy, will you do
me the honors of being my lawfully wedded--
No, no, no, no, no.
Mom.
You're still in high school.
This is Haley Dunphy.
Dylan Stardust Marshall, will you marry me?
This is also Haley Dunphy.
Throughout the series of Modern Family,
her character seems to bounce around
through a series of ever changing
motivations, all of which come to a screeching halt
the moment she gets pregnant and begins her journey
into motherhood.
The character of Haley Dunphy was
doomed from the very beginning of Modern Family.
And that's primarily because the character didn't feel modern
at all.
Sorry I missed the first part.
But I'll drink to whatever you're toasting.
Top me off.
Haley Dunphy is the eldest child of Claire and Phil Dunphy.
Due to the fact that audiences were essentially
going to be growing up alongside the cast members,
casting was incredibly important.
Sarah Hyland was selected to play Haley from her work
on the short lived series Lipstick
Jungle, in which she played Brooke Shields'
daughter, Maddie Healy.
Paul is too old for you.
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, the somewhat ditzy and overprivileged popular
girl who deals with struggles surrounding adolescence
in the 21st century.
Where most of the characters in Modern Family
feel like sitcom tropes that have received a software
update, Haley Dunphy's character at first
feels a lot like she was left behind in the '80s or '90s.
I can't believe that I'm getting a car.
The rebellious daughter is a trope
that has been rehashed time and time again.
We've had our Kelly Bundys, Jackie Burkhardts, and Darlene
Connors throughout the years.
And Haley doesn't necessarily bring anything new to the table
as far as TV daughters go.
She sneaks out, lies to her parents,
manipulates them to get her way, 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's dated and when.
Who's this?
I'm the guy before you, and he's the guy before me.
Cheers.
She begins the series in a relationship with Dylan, who
isn't necessarily the worst boyfriend, but does
set up yet another familiar trope
within the realm of television sitcoms, this disapproved
of boyfriend.
In many ways, Dylan represents the antithesis
of what the Dunphy family is all about.
He's kind of a burnout.
Normally, it's the patriarch of the family who seemingly
looks down their nose at the potential suitors
for his daughter.
In the case of Modern Family, Phil actually admires Dylan,
and it's Claire who comes off as disapproving.
This shakes up the family dynamics enough to hook viewers
into something that really feels fresh.
I got a place with an old friend of mine.
Well, not so much of a friend as a raccoon.
Good to know you'll have company.
As the series matures, Haley doesn't.
She stagnates quite a bit until the writers
make the decision to shake her foundations by throwing her
into a variety of different situations
to see if anything will eventually stick.
This is all done in an attempt to show
how this character is maturing by constantly
trying to better herself.
But when you really start to analyze the machinations
behind her development, it feels more
like the writers were trying to force Haley's character
into specific scenarios without taking
any of her natural motivations into account.
For a little while, she's partying too much.
Then she's bouncing around through odd jobs.
It's hard not to interpret this as the writers having struggles
in finding something interesting for Haley
to do that would stick beyond her relationships
with various men.
As Haley's on again, off again relationship with Dylan
starts to fizzle out somewhere around season three,
Haley morphs herself into kind of an usher for guest star
boyfriends to show up and shake up the Dunphy family dynamics.
Season four introduces us to Kenny,
played by Jason Mantzoukas.
Made my Bones and Men's apparel.
And now I'm working with these local boutiques
trying to get into girls jeans.
Kenny serves as a vehicle for making Haley's father extremely
uncomfortable, which is kind of Haley's
goal from the beginning.
And he also demonstrates to the Dunphy family
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,
this relationship doesn't give her anything
meaningful to hold on to that will strengthen her role
as an individual on the show.
The writers have her go through a few more potential suitors
until she meets Andy, played by Adam Devine.
Who are you?
I'm your Manny.
Nice try.
I know their Manny.
And you look nothing like him.
Oh, you're Haley.
Andy worked with Haley's father as a real estate assistant
and was a nanny to the Pritchett family for years.
Haley's relationship with Andy is one of the first times
that she begins to feel like an actual adult.
But the issue here is that it took
over six seasons of television to get to this point.
This relationship feels complicated and interesting.
And it does a lot to develop Haley's character.
Throughout season six and seven, Haley and Andy
both have their own complicated love triangles
that seem to crash into one another quite frequently.
Andy is very much in a committed relationship
with his long distance girlfriend Beth
when he and Haley begin to develop
feelings for one another.
When Andy proposes to Beth in an attempt
to fix their glaring relationship issues,
Haley shows up to stop it, but arrives just seconds too late.
Guess it's decided for me.
I feel like such an idiot.
The knowledge of Haley's feelings for Andy
leads him to eventually cheat on his fiancee with Haley
repeatedly.
Andy and Haley have a relationship
that feels so wrong and so right at the same time.
However, this rich exploration of Haley's character
only lasts for about two seasons.
Andy leaves for a job opportunity in Utah,
leading to a somewhat emotional climax to the relationship.
The writers could have utilized Haley's
newfound emotional depth to their advantage.
But instead, they make the choice
to have Haley jump right back into having jokey rebound
relationships with older guest stars.
Nathan Fillion shows up as the aptly
named Rainer Shine, a local TV weatherman,
whom Haley gets engaged to for approximately seven minutes.
Maybe you're right.
Maybe we should rethink this whole marriage thing.
I don't remember saying that.
While their relationship was incredibly brief,
it did feel like dating an older,
respectable man was a logical choice for Haley after Andy.
Haley inevitably ends up with Dylan,
who had just sort of been relegated
to brief cameos in the show's later seasons.
In season nine, he tells Haley to move on and find happiness
because he's married.
And then in season 10, he hastily
describes his divorce before the two get back together again.
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.
And that's really about it.
This is Poppy because that's my favorite flower.
And this is George because he came out looking curious.
Dylan and Haley kind of disappear in Modern Family's
11th and final season.
They needed more time with the other characters who they
developed beyond a stereotype.
The problem with Haley Dunphy, now Haley Marshall,
is that her character's existence
is completely co-dependent.
When your character's strongest traits
are the relationships they have with other people,
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 own person.
But the writers consistently end up taking the easy way out
with her.
Her character started out as a somewhat exhausted trope
of a rebellious daughter and moved
into the somewhat exhausted trope of,
you won't believe who she's dating now.
The show might have been better off
if Haley had been written off to go to college.
But instead, they treat her exactly the way
she lives toward the end of the show, living in a basement,
and coming out once in a while just to remind us
that she's still there.
And hey, that's it for this one.
Don't forget to let us know what you think in the comment
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And thanks for watching Nerdstalgic.