Julie Bowen plays Claire.

ABC / BOB D’AMICO

Wednesday night on ABC this fall is going to be all about family fun with three new family-themed comedies debuting — Modern Family, which premieres Wednesday night (9 p.m., Ch. 5 and 6), The Middle and Hank.

Judging from the pilot, Modern Family may be one of the breakout shows people are talking about this fall.

To start with, it’s smart and funny. The show has a slick, cinematic look and feel, as its single camera moves between three different families that are all part of the same family — a gay couple with an adopted baby, a traditional nuclear family of mom, dad and two kids, and the family’s patriarch (Ed O’Neill) and his new young trophy bride.

As an added dimension, Modern Family is the latest show to employ the faux documentary gambit popularized by The Office but going back to This is Spinal Tap.

“It’s a way to add grit, not be so syrupy,” said Steven Levitan, executive producer. “The interviews are a nice device that help you move in a really snappy, efficient way among the show’s characters and stories.

“We like to think of Modern Family as a voyeuristic comedy.”

Julie Bowen, one of the sitcom’s stars, talks about the show, and her past work:

Q: On Modern Family you have three kids, and in real life you have three kids — do you worry about getting burned out on family on both ends?

A: Yeah. My husband — my real-life husband — asks me, “What do you think single Julie would be doing now?” Probably going to parties, getting a pedicure, going for a long run. I had many decades of me time and now I just don’t have that anymore. There are days when I rail against it.

Q: How’d you get this job?

A: I read the script and desperately wanted to do it, but I was really pregnant with twins and the character wasn’t. I jumped through a lot of hoops. I auditioned, begged and pleaded, and they agreed to shoot around my gigantic belly.

Q: You went into acting after studying the Renaissance in the Ivy League.

A: My parents had an old-fashioned ideal of college, that four years at a liberal arts college should be a liberal arts education. If you want to specialize, go to grad school.… I graduated from Brown and said, “Remember how you guys said you’d send me to grad school?” And they said, “Not for acting. No, no, no, no. That’s not what we meant when we said grad school.” So I waited tables to put myself through acting classes.

Q: How much of a diva was William Shatner on the set of Boston Legal?

A: Not at all. He is so lovely. Funny as hell and very good sense of humor about himself and his career. He commands a certain amount of attention and respect, and everybody is glad to give it to him, because he’s still Shatner.

Q: Let’s talk about Runaway Daughters, the campy 1994 Showtime movie in which you kissed a young Paul Rudd.

A: It was my first job when I got to L.A.... It was incredibly fun. And that Showtime series (of B-movie remakes) gave so many people chances that were just starting out — Renee Zellweger, Salma Hayek, Matt LeBlanc — and we all got to work together.

Q: Do you ever get recognized for Happy Gilmore?

A: Most people go, “Wait a minute, that was you?”

With Washington Post wire reports.