'Modern Family' Creator Mourns Death of Sitcom Legend Eric Gilliland: Steve Levitan Explains His Decades-Long Connection

Steve Levitan paid tribute to his friend since middle school, Eric Gilliland, a producer and writer who passed away on Sept. 1 from colon cancer.

By Megan Behnke

Modern Family co-creator Steve Levitan is one of the many mourning the death of sitcom producer and writer Eric Gilliland, best known for Roseanne, who passed away on Sunday from colon cancer. Levitan posted a lengthy message on Facebook about his longtime friend and how he "found myself thinking this morning that Eric Gilliland would have taken some perverse pleasure in knowing that, of all people, he was outlived by Dick Van Dyke. That's one of the ways Eric and I bonded back in 8th grade, over our mutual love for The Dick Van Dyke Show. And Monty Python, Jack Benny, The Carol Burnett Show, SNL and bad puns. (Yes, people, we started a pun club)."

Their friendship only flourished after middle school, as Gilliland was "just plain smart and funny." The two did plays, musicals, and comedy assemblies in high school, "parts of which we even co-wrote." Levitan continued, "While doing a comedy show called, 'Little Bucky' for our local Glenview radio station with our friends Thalia Kalodimos and Betsy Brennan, I was so bad at doing accents that Eric nicknamed me, 'The man with a thousand voices.'"

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"Eric always had tons of friends, but, boy, did he stick out in a crowd of high school kids who were all just trying to fit in," Levitan shared. "Not Eric, who proudly sang and danced and just seemed to know that one day everyone he gave a damn about would catch up to him." They went their separate ways, as Levitan worked his way through "more conventional careers" and Gilliland "moved out west and got an actual comedy writing job." Levitan admitted that a job like that "would have seemed completely unattainable to me if I hadn't known someone who actually pulled it off (and on a great show like Roseanne, no less). I guess I figured that if Eric was brave enough to take a chance like that, I should be too. So I owe him a lot for that."

While the two didn't see each other "as much as one might expect," they would grab a beer and catch up when Steve Levitan was in New York. However, after reading the tributes to Eric Gilliland, Levitan is "really sad that we never got the chance to work together and that we let so much time pass between visits." That's always the sad thing with friendships as people drift apart. At least Levitan has plenty of memories with Gilliland, even if not many of them are recent. Their connection and friendship was clearly strong enough to keep up throughout the years, even if it was briefly.

"Rest in Peace, Little Bucky," Levitan concluded. "But first take a big, hammy bow. You deserve it."

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