It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Ty Burrell as Modern Family‘s goofy dad, Phil Dunphy — but that didn’t stop the executives at ABC from trying.

While Burrell went on to win two Emmys (and earned another six nominations) for his hilarious role in the long-running sitcom, it took him several auditions to prove that he was the right guy for the part.

“I really flopped the first test,” Burrell admitted to former costar Jesse Tyler Ferguson on his Dinner’s on Me podcast, recalling that he was too “stiff.” And sure enough, the executives in the room didn’t hold back when it came to offering feedback.

“‘He’s not funny,'” Burrell recalled being told, joking, “And some people still feel that way.”

Thankfully, one failed audition wasn’t enough to keep Burrell down. While some creatives were ready to go another way, series co-creators Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan had written Phil with Burrell in mind, and were convinced he was perfect for the part. Eventually, he proved them right. After a second audition and a screen test, they decided to put Burrell on camera alongside his would-be TV daughter.

“We went and filmed in Steve Levitan’s yard with Sarah Hyland, and we got to improvise and do a more like, single camera audition for it,” Burrell shared. “And that one worked.”

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Ferguson replied, “It’s amazing the hoops you had to jump through. I always find it wildly fascinating.”

Burrell then asked, “Have you ever had [a role] that you have to fight —”

“Never,” Ferguson said, swiftly cutting him off. After a laugh, he corrected, “I’m sure I have.”

Burrell’s uphill battle to land the role of Phil Dunphy was previously discussed in Marc Freeman’s 2020 book Modern Family, The Untold Oral History of One of Television’s Ground­breaking Sitcoms, which revealed that it took Burrell 12 weeks to land the role written for him. The backyard footage made all the difference, finally winning the ABC executives onto Burrell’s side.

“It was like looking at magic happen,” ABC’s former VP of Casting Claudia Lyon said. “It was so funny, the way the words and jokes landed. It felt right immediately.”

Added former Head of Comedy Samie Falvery, “If you saw that tape, I defy anybody not to laugh. It was really one of the funniest things I’d ever seen.”

As for Burrell, he credited director Jason Winer and the show’s creators helping him get through the backyard shoot that landed him the role

“Jason did such an amazing job of helping me to relax, which I was not — going into something in which I had already been told I’m terrible at, [thinking] that there’s no way I’m going to get this part,” he recalled. “That’s really where I owe them because they went way beyond to film it. They knew that the script needed to be filmed, but also that I needed every bit of help that I could get after stinking up a couple of screen tests.”