A Fair to Remember

"A Fair to Remember" is the seventh episode of the fifth season of the American sitcom Modern Family, and the series' 103rd overall. It was aired on November 13, 2013. The episode was written by Emily Spivey and directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller. Plot The whole family, except for Haley (Sarah Hyland), heads to the school fair where everyone gets something to do. Gloria (Sofía Vergara) signed Jay (Ed O'Neill) up to be a fair cop; Manny (Rico Rodriguez) participates in the cake-baking competition; Alex (Ariel Winter) and Luke (Nolan Gould) fight for the same girl; Cam (Eric Stonestreet) worries about his work as a football coach; and Phil (Ty Burrell) and Claire (Julie Bowen) celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. Phil and Claire celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary and they both want to surprise each other with their gifts. Claire, who has a tradition of making the worst gifts, this time has prepared a surprise for Phil at home and she tries to make him go back home. Phil, however, does not want to leave the fair, as he arranged with the band who plays at the fair to sing a song for her. Phil manages to keep Claire at the fair till the time that he would get on stage and sing for her, but his surprise is ruined when their pharmacist, Harold Grossman (Rick Cowling), gets on stage right before Phil is supposed to get and sings amazingly. Phil feels frustrated to learn that Claire has loved Harold's singing and does not want to sing anymore, so he goes back home with Claire who surprises him with Chinese acrobats. Phil loves Claire's gift, and Claire manages for the first time to give him a gift which is actually good. Manny participates in the cake-baking competition, something that Jay does not like since the only participants are old ladies and he believes that Manny does not fit there. Gloria, to get rid of Jay, signs him up to be a fair cop. Gloria, realizing later that Jay was right about Manny not fitting to the competition, decides to destroy Manny's cake so he will not be able to participate. When Manny sees the destroyed cake, he believes that one of the other contestants did it to exclude him from the competition.