ABC's Modern Family is putting a new spin on product placement when the show's Feb. 25 episode will be set entirely within Apple devices and displayed on a MacBook Pro screen (see image above).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the episode, titled "Connection Lost," will center on Claire's (Julie Bowen) trip away from home. Unable to get in touch with her daughter Haley (Sarah Hyland), Claire turns to FaceTime, setting up an entire installment of the show visualized through various Apple interfaces: MacBook Pro, iPhone, FaceTime, iMessage, etc.
While product placement has become a reality of modern television, the show's co-creator Steve Levitan insists the episode was inspired by his own experience FaceTiming with his daughter while checking email and browsing the Web. "I realized that on that screen, you can tell so much about life," he recalled.
The entire episode, which was also influenced by the 2013 short film Noah and its screen-within-a-screen storytelling, was shot entirely on iPhone 6, iPad and MacBook Pro cameras. And while 95 percent of the footage was produced in two days, Levitan describes it as "the most easily labor-intensive [episode] that we’ve ever done."
Despite the abundance of the Apple brand featured, Levitan says there was no monetary exchange between the show and Apple for use of the latter's products.