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"Fred Willard has revealed that he will be returning to Modern Family next season. The actor has appeared in two episodes of the show as Frank Dunphy, the father of Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell). Speaking to TV Guide Magazine, Willard said: &amp;quot;They said that I should be back, because they asked me for my photo to put in the hallway there on the set - that I&amp;#039;m part of the family now!&amp;quot; Willard also revealed that Burrell helped him to get a role in the show because they have worked together before. &amp;quot;I worked with Ty on Back To You with Kelsey Grammer and I&amp;#039;d never seen him before - and I loved him!&amp;quot; Willard explained. &amp;quot;He made me laugh so much. He was the on-the-spot reporter, and I got to be quite friendly with him. He&amp;#039;s an awfully nice guy and I think he was pretty instrumental in having me on the show.&amp;quot; Meanwhile, Burrell claimed that Willard is the best person to play Frank. &amp;quot;I couldn&amp;#039;t imagine a more perfect fit,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;It was so inspired, I thought, that Phil be the son of that archetype that Fred does so perfectly, which is a really lovely guy that doesn&amp;#039;t know that he&amp;#039;s maybe not as funny as he thinks. I think Phil is almost like an homage to the career achievement of Fred Willard. It&amp;#039;s kind of a perfect marriage in my mind, and I think the writers are thrilled to write for the two of us.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/modern-family/news/a223938/willard-confirms-modern-family-return/>