SEASON PREMIERE

SEASON FIVE OPENS WITH SOMETHING SO BIG, YOU'LL WANT TO SPEND A FULL HOUR WITH "MODERN FAMILY" -- AND CAN - WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 ON THE ABC TELEVISION NETWORK

ABC's acclaimed hit comedy, "Modern Family," returns for its fifth season with a special one-hour event, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. In the first half of the hour -- "Suddenly, Last Summer" -- the family is in the throes of summer activities: Phil and Claire are trying to orchestrate a kid-free week by coordinating Luke's camp with Haley's beach trip and Alex's volunteering excursion; Jay and Gloria are getting Manny ready for his first solo trip back to Colombia; and Mitch and Cam make it a summer to remember. In the second half-hour - "First Days" -- Luke and Manny have their first day at high school, which proves to be harder for Phil and Gloria than for the boys. Elsewhere, Claire makes her big return to the workforce at Jay's closet company and is a little rusty on her first day, and Cam starts a new substituting gig at the high school, leaving Mitch to try to juggle Lily's first day of pre-school and a very important meeting at work.

"Modern Family" stars Ed O'Neill as Jay, Julie Bowen as Claire, Ty Burrell as Phil, Sof�a Vergara as Gloria, Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell, Eric Stonestreet as Cameron, Sarah Hyland as Haley, Nolan Gould as Luke, Ariel Winter as Alex, Rico Rodriguez as Manny and Aubrey Anderson-Emmons as Lily.

Guest cast for "Suddenly, Last Summer" includes Lauren Pritchard as waitress, Courtney Grosbeck as Carly, Jill Matson-Sachoff as Kate, aka Carly's mom, Phil Young as man. "Suddenly, Last Summer" was written by Jeffrey Richman and directed by James Bagdonas.

Guest cast for "First Days" includes Justin Kirk as Charlie Bingham, J.P. Manoux as Todd, Andrew Daly as Principal Brown, David Haydn-Jones as director, Mitchell Edmonds as Albert, Nicholas Hormann as Roy, Craig Welzbacher as office worker, Marsha Kramer as Margaret, Evan Hofer as big guy, Kenny Ridwan as student, Zachary Mitchell as Tyler and Caleb Thomas as freshman boy. "First Days" was written by Paul Corrigan and Brad Walsh, and directed by Steven Levitan.

""Modern Family" is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC's Selected HD Format, with 5.1 channel surround sound. This program carries a TV-PG,D,L parental guideline.

For more information on "Modern Family," visit ABC.com/ModernFamily