‘Modern Family,’ Iranian-Style, Leaves Out Gay Parents (VIDEO)

Modern Family… but by whose standards?

Iranian audiences are being treated to a verbatim, state-sanctioned adaptation of the Emmy-winning American sitcom Modern Family. But where’s Cam and Mitchell?

The show’s gay parents, played by actors Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet, are conspicuously absent from the first two episodes of Haft Sang (or Seven Stones) that have aired, according to Slate, even though the rest of the episodes are near-identical copies of Modern Family originals.

The country’s Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting network (IRIB) doesn’t have permission from 20th Century Fox Television to make duplicates of the shows, according to Variety. But when has Iran ever cared about that kind of thing?

Here’s the deal: Elham and Behrooz are the Iranian Cam and Mitchell. They are husband and wife and have just adopted a baby because of Behrooz’s infertility.

The Iranian who posted the video to YouTube, a video editor named Sina Haghighi, told Slate‘s Aisha Harris that he was able to recognize the similarities because Modern Family is his household’s favorite sitcom.

He tells her: “Downloading and watching American series with or without Farsi subtitles is widely common in Iran, so it won’t be more than a couple of hours after a show is broadcast in the U.S. that people start downloading and sharing the show with each other back here in Iran.”

Satellite receivers may be illegal in Iran, Haghighi says, but that doesn’t mean Iranians don’t use them. Many do, he says — signaling a slow melding of all the world’s cultures. Which television shows are most popular among Iranian audiences? Haghighi’s view: Game of Thrones, Modern Family, Breaking Bad, and The Office.

Hail Internet! How else could we so easily spot our common ground?

Though the plot points in the Iranian version closely resemble the Modern Family originals, many differences still remain. You can’t show alcohol on-screen. Boys and girls can’t be friends. And, as Haghighi notes: “No man would ever touch a lady even if he plays her dad or brother or husband. No matter what.”

Here’s the video of the new sitcom adaptation:

[Image courtesy of TelQuel]