The episode opened on his big 5-0, with Phil pledging to learn something new and scary.
There would be no obstacles to the obstetriciannot even a “push!
Hyland was pleased to see the series aim to subvert expectations of the milestone moment with a time-hopping episode.
Kelsey McNeal/ABC
“I said, ‘Wait a minute, a birthday is the day someone’s born, too.
Wouldn’t that be cool to integrate that into this?'”
But first, he had to solve the creative challenge of covering double-digit birthday flashbacks in 30 minutes.
Kelsey McNeal/ABC
“How do you make them each different and lively?”
“How do you not make it just feel like a bunch of sketches?
How do they flow from one to another?”
Hyland says that she and her costars were buzzing about that series-finale vibe in the scene.
“It does have that feel,” he says.
“And believe me, that occurred to me several times.
Like, ‘Wow, this ending would’ve made a good [final moment].'”
The circle-of-life moment arose early in the brainstorming process as a neat, sweet callback to the pilot.
Filming the scene was, in a word,quiet.
I don’t want to hear a word from anybody.'”
“And they really felt like a family in that moment.
It was very, very touching….
I think we came up with that on the fly.
Even the moment of Claire, in a weird way, finally kissing Dylan.
And Dylan getting a little bit emotional, which he was.
Those were all just kind of sweet little moments that happened there.”
“I wasn’t really paying attention to anything but those goddamn babies,” she says.
I was just like, ‘Give me the babies.’
If somebody else had the babies I wasn’t paying attention to what they were doing with the babies.
I was just like, ‘When is someone going to hand me the babies now?'"
Hyland was handed a lot of plot twists this season.
“All joking aside, I thought it was really cool.
It’s a showbiz thing to say, ‘Never work with kids and animals.’
I’m grateful that I have experience with friends’ children.”
Now that delivery day has arrived, what kind of mother will Haley prove to be?
“There will definitely be a learning curve,” says Hyland.
“I think Claire is terrified for Haley because she was her.
But I think she forgets how well she actually handles things.”
“I mean, that’s the fun of having new parents that are young.
But we have never done the young parent.
We’ve had Phil and Claire talk about it, but you’ve never seen it.
Phil and Claire will also be there to provide relief, in the form of babysitting and comics.
Meanwhile, Haley will return to her job at lifestyle brand Nerp.
“We didn’t want to give them a baby and off they go into their own little household.
Hyland is looking forward to the workplace plot.
“I think it’s really important for young women to see.”
“That’s a nice round number,” he quips.
(As for the possibility of a spin-off, he demurs.
“We’re not thinking about that right now,” Levitan says.
In case you’re wondering, the decision to do one more season was extremely close.
“We all have some ideas,” says Levitan.
