Laugh out loud Penn State alumnus and Emmy-nominated Ty Burrell is back! It’s time to reconnect with the funniest three families on primetime TV: Modern Family, coming off a 2010 Emmy win for Best Comedy (amongst others), returns for its second season tonight at 9 p.m. on ABC.

If you haven’t seen an episode yet, do not be discouraged from tuning in tonight. I started watching half way through last season and caught right on without missing a beat. Each episode has a new story to it, with some continuing themes that recur every week (fix that step!).

To catch you up to speed I’ll dissect each family and the overall dynamic of the show:

The Dunphys: Claire and Phil Dunphy are the parents of three very different children–Haley, Alex, and Luke. Haley is your typical high school teenager trying to sneak out to go to parties and is always followed around by her big-lipped, dirty-haired, senior-status boyfriend Dylan. Alex counters Haley by being “friends with books” and wearing glasses instead of dresses. Luke…..runs into screen doors. Phil is a realtor (read: ninja in a blazer), while Claire is busy trying to be perfect.

The Pritchetts: Jay (Claire and Mitchell’s dad) is married to the sizzling Gloria Delgado, thus making him father of the young Manny Delgado. It should be pointed out that this is one of those situations where a rich, older man marries a younger, hotter counterpart (who happens to have the greatest accent of all time, and is coincidentally the object of Phil Dunphy’s lust) (Editor’s note: I think Ed O’Neill, who plays Jay Pritchett, is damn hot, but maybe that’s just me). You might call Gloria a gold-digger, but in her mind she’s hearing coal-digger (language barrier).

The half-Pritchett-half-Tuckers: Red-haired Mitchell Pritchett and his boyfriend Cameron Tucker adopted a plain-faced Vietnamese baby, Lily, who I swear has only shown us one emotion: wide-eyed confusion. Roles played by Lily in season one: referee, Diana Ross, and Cupid. Talk about a house full of identity crises.

This season will surely be full of catchy one-liners, charming chemistry, and real-life situations that happen to families every day. The show is shot with a mockumentary style, giving you the feeling that you are actually peeking into the lives of three families. In some scenes, the characters address the camera with a smirk or another acknowledging facial expression, and at other times members of each family are actually sitting on their couches answering interview style questions.

Like any good TV show, Modern Family has a catchy/terrible song from one of its episodes which thankfully has its own music video on YouTube. It was written by Haley’s boyfriend Dylan and is entitled “In the Moonlight (Do Me)” …go figure.

And with that I encourage you to tune in this evening, find ways to watch the episodes from last season, and keep perusing YouTube for other classic scenes from the show!