Yahoo News Matt LeBlanc almost played Phil on Modern Family
Can you imagine anyone else playing Phil Dunphy on Modern Family other than Ty Burrell? Well the role could have gone to Matt LeBlanc.
Yup Joey from Friends was offered the role way back when, but didn't think he was the right guy to play dad to Haley, Alex and Luke and felt he needed a bit of a break from TV for a while.
He told USA Today that the script "came across my desk with an offer to play Ty Burrell's role", but he ultimately turned it down.
"I remember reading it thinking, this is a really good script, (but) I'm not the guy for this," he revealed.
"I'd be doing the project an injustice to take this. I know what I can do – I know what I can't do. Plus, I'm having too much fun laying on the couch."
Also, he said it felt like the role had already been written with someone else in mind and sure enough it was for Ty, who was having some problems with ABC bosses at the time.
Thankfully, everyone at ABC got a grip and Phil Dunphy is one of the funniest TV dads ever.
Modern Family has just been confirmed for two more seasons and the cast have been given HUGE pay rises.
Sarah Hyland (Haley), Ariel Winter (Alex), Nolan Gould (Luke) and Rico Rodriguez (Manny) will pocket more than $100,000 each per episode for season nine and ten.
This follows fellow cast members Ed O'Neill, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet and Sofia Vergara closing new two-year deals on Modern Family, lifting their salaries by over 40% from around $350,000 per episode to around $500,000.
Modern Family airs on ABC in the US and Sky1 in the UK.
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