'Modern Family' co-creator picked for Wisconsin commencement

MADISON — Phil Dunphy from "Modern Family" can't understand why the University of Wisconsin would invite a guy named Steven Levitan to deliver its spring commencement address.

Levitan explains in a video released by UW-Madison that he was picked because he is a 1984 graduate who went on to help create the hit TV show "Modern Family." Levitan tells a bewildered Dunphy that he, in fact, is just a character on the show and not real.

Phil Dunphy is played by Ty Burrell who is along for the joke in the announcement video released Wednesday. Burrell never breaks character even as Levitan says that as his creator, he can just as easily make Dunphy go away.

The final shot of the video shows Levitan sitting alone on the Dunphy family couch.