The Middle

2009–2018 · Comedy · 9 seasons · ★ 7.6

Ended

Synopsis of The Middle

Frankie Heck is a middle-aged woman trying to provide for her family in Orson, a fictional town in Indiana inspired by Jasper. She lives in the suburbs with Mike, her husband, who runs a quarry, and their three children: Axl, 15, Sue, 13, and Brick, 8. Frankie sells cars at a dealership, without much success, and at the same time she has to take care of the house, Brick's eccentricities and her daughter Sue's problems. She is also the narrator and tells everything with a sense of humor. The conflict stems from the lack of time and resources of a lower-middle-class family trying to keep their good spirits as obligations pile up. The series was created by Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline, airs on ABC and stars Patricia Heaton and Neil Flynn.

«Oh, and your family's so perfect.»

9seasons

215episodes

22 minper episode

7.6audience scoreTMDB · 794 votes

7.7IMDb rating63,507 votes

Seasons of The Middle

Season 12009 · 24 ep. · ★ 7.3

Season 22010 · 24 ep. · ★ 7.1

Season 32011 · 24 ep. · ★ 8.0

Season 42012 · 24 ep. · ★ 7.7

Season 52013 · 24 ep. · ★ 7.7

Season 62014 · 24 ep. · ★ 8.4

Season 72015 · 24 ep. · ★ 8.6

Season 82016 · 23 ep. · ★ 8.2

Season 92017 · 24 ep. · ★ 8.0

Cast by The Middle

Patricia HeatonFrankie Heck215 episodes

Neil FlynnMike Heck215 episodes

Charlie McDermottAxl Heck215 episodes

Eden SherSue Heck215 episodes

Atticus ShafferBrick Heck215 episodes

Beau WirickSean Donahue61 episodes

Brock CiarlelliBrad Bottig57 episodes

Jen RayNancy Donahue51 episodes

John GammonDarrin40 episodes

Chris KattanBob34 episodes

Tommy BechtoldKenny27 episodes

Daniela BobadillaLexie Brooks26 episodes

Brian Doyle-MurrayMr. Ehlert25 episodes

Blaine SaundersCarly25 episodes

Alphonso McAuleyHutch25 episodes

Pat FinnBill Norwood23 episodes

Casey BurkeCindy22 episodes

Sean O'BryanRon Donahue21 episodes

Malcolm Foster SmithDave20 episodes

Troy MetcalfJim18 episodes

Katlin MastandreaAshley17 episodes

Jeanette MillerAunt Edie16 episodes

Greg CipesChuck13 episodes

Galadriel StinemanCassidy Finch13 episodes

Paul HippReverend TimTom12 episodes

Julie BrownPaula Norwood12 episodes

Laura Ann KeslingDotty Donahue12 episodes

Gibson Bobby SjobeckDiaper Glossner12 episodes

Brittany RossCourtney12 episodes

Natalie LanderDebbie12 episodes

Grace BannonRuth12 episodes

Peter BreitmayerPete Miller12 episodes

Frances BayAunt Ginny11 episodes

Marsha MasonPat Spence11 episodes

Dierk TorsekReverend Hayver11 episodes

Jessica Marie GarciaBecky11 episodes

Norm MacdonaldRusty Heck10 episodes

David ChandlerDerrick Glossner10 episodes

Gia MantegnaDevin Levin10 episodes

John CullumBig Mike9 episodes

Technical Details

Created by: Eileen Heisler, DeAnn Heline
Address: Lee Shallat Chemel, Phil Traill, Elliot Hegarty, Ken Whittingham, Blake T. Evans
Writing: Tim Hobert, Mitch Hunter, Roy Brown, Jana Hunter, Rich Dahm
Production companies: Blackie and Blondie Productions, Warner Bros. Television
Network or Platform: ABC
Country: United States
Original Language: English
Premiere: September 30, 2009
Last Episode: May 22, 2018 (9x24)
Status: Ended
Type: Fiction
Awards: Nominated for 1 Emmy Awards; 14 wins and 37 nominations in total.
Links: IMDb · TMDB · Official Website

Awards for The Middle

🏆 Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy (2013)

Source: Wikidata

Trivia about The Middle

Set decorator Julie Fanton shopped at stores like Target and Kohl's to give the series a realistic middle-class look.

The series was developed for ABC's 2006–07 season with Ricki Lake slated to star as Frankie.

Atticus Shaffer was the only actor who kept his role when the project was redeveloped.

The series' most-watched episode was “Halloween II,” from season 3, with 10.16 million viewers.

The Sue-focused spin-off did not move forward at ABC. It was pitched to other networks, but was never picked up by any of them.

In 2024, Middling premiered, a podcast hosted by Eden Sher and Brock Ciarlelli that discusses every episode of the series.

The creators decided to end the series after nine seasons because they felt it was the right time, even though ABC wanted to order more episodes and ratings were still strong.

During its first four seasons, the series racked up 83 episodes and received only one Emmy nomination, for Outstanding Makeup for a Single-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic).

Sources: Wikipedia (English)