'Modern Family': A Bit Too 'Arrest'-ing?

I like "Modern Family" (whose newest episode is set to air tonight). I was particularly excited to see Ed O'Neill back from the doldrums of primetime drama and helping to anchor a twisted network family two decades after "Married With Children."

But I will say this: Doesn't the essential premise—wacky, slightly dysfunctional, multi-generational family are a bit too close for comfort yet invariably drawn to each other—sound awfully close to the overarching logline (that's right, I'm droppin' unnecessary industry speak) for FOX's beloved-but-ratings-deficient "Arrested Development"?

Yes, they're very different in some significant artificial ways. "Family" is actually filmed in the mockumentary style of "The Office" and its humor is delivered in the vein of NBC comedic programming's droll, observational wit (the kind that somehow took nearly a decade after "Seinfeld" left the air to become the sitcom standard).

"Development," meanwhile, was nearly as loony as an Abrahams-Zucker production and shot with the looser camerawork of a Steven Soderbergh film.

And while "Family" is still solidifying its bond with audiences and is absoutely a slower burn, it's nearly impossible to argue that "Arrested" was the outright funnier expose on the cynical truths that typify blood relations as much as overlapping DNA itself.

So why did "Arrested" fail to catch on, while "Modern" gets greeted like a groundbreaking truth syrum of domestic hilarity? Yes, the latter is ultimately sweeter and smoother around the edges, and probably makes mainstram America feel tolerant that they've accetped someone else's gay son into their living room (most of the "Arrested" characters, after all, were closer to maniacal than marginalized). But it's also proof that, even in 2009, FOX may still be the outcast network alongside the conglomerated behemoths of ABC, NBC and CBS.

After all, what's likely to bring in a larger share of third-party viewers: the blitz of cross-collateral "Family" advertising on ABC partner ESPN, luring the male demographic in through the nostalgic pull of O'Neill as another woe-begotten master-of-the-house, or the choir-preaching possibilities of something like "Arrested" being promoted in between segments of likeminded, comparatively little-watched originals like "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia"?

And yes, I'm not entirely sure I even understood my own question. But feel free to discuss regardless.