Fall TV Previews: The Underdog Comedy, 'The Middle'

This Patrica Heaton-led family sitcom -- about a solidly middle class married couple, their two teens and grade school-aged son – was overshadowed last season by the cutting edge comedy Modern Family. But The Middle’s got it goin’ on when it comes to tapping into the humor, the desperation and the insanity of modern day parenting. The Mother's Day episode last season was perfectly spot on.

The season two premiere features parents Frankie and Mike Heck appealing to Brick’s new teacher – played by Doris Roberts, Heaton’s former Everybody Loves Raymond foil – to use kid gloves when dealing with their quirky youngest child.

The sneak preview released by ABC (see video below) features Roberts criticizing Frankie as a helicopter mom, frequently calling her “Mommy,” her voice dripping with sarcasm, and chiding Frankie for asking for special treatment for Brick just three days into the school year.

The Middle’s second season premieres on Sept. 22.

'Modern Family' and 'The Middle:' Two Comedies You Should Be Watching

Two freshman comedies on Wednesday nights on ABC have been giving me something to look forward to every week: Modern Family and The Middle. And given that Mad Men’s season three finale is on Sunday, we need something to fill the void each week.

My weekly Pop Culture and Politics column over on Mommy Tracked this week is about how these two comedies have filled the space in my heart that used to be filled by the wacky Malcolm in the Middle. Modern Family’s snarkily sarcastic, while The Middle, featuring Patricia Heaton, is charmingly kooky.

These two videos give you a taste:

The Ambivalent Mother . . . on Your TV This Fall

Noticed a mini-trend in TV shows this fall featuring an ambivalent mother?


Desperate Housewives has Lynette Scavo, the married, full-time ad exec, mother of four, who is distinctly unenthusiastic about the fact that, in her mid-40s, she’s pregnant with twins. In fact, during her first ultrasound, she didn’t even want to look at the screen and later said that there was a voice in her head telling her not to do this.

On Private Practice, single psychiatrist Violet Turner -- a recent victim of a violent crime where a maniac former patient cut Violet’s unborn baby out of her belly and left Violet for dead – said she feels so emotionally dead inside that she doesn’t feel as though she can care for her baby Lucas. So she brought the baby to his father’s home, Violet’s co-worker Pete, and left him there. When Pete has brought Lucas to work in the hope of getting Violet to engage and bond with her infant, she simply couldn't because she sees the baby as a living, breathing reminder of the attack that has traumatized her.

On Mad Men, set in the 1960s, Betty Draper just gave birth to her third child and hates her life. Parenting is the last thing she wants to be doing, particularly when it comes to dealing with her young daughter who’s acting out in anger because she misses her grandfather who recently died and everyone seems to think she should be “over” it by now. Betty doesn't realize she's still mourning too, even though she named her baby after her father and has seemed like she's favoring her infant over her two other kids.

On ABC’s new comedy The Middle, Patricia Heaton’s Frankie Heck does her best to work and parent, but winds up, out of sheer exhaustion, tuning out a lot of what her kids say, including when her awkward teenaged daughter talks to her and she only half-listens. She also forgets things all the time and her kids face the consequences.


Maybe it’s not a trend, but I’m finding these characters to be a breath of fresh air, mothers who aren’t all phony rainbows and unicorns when it comes to parenthood. They provide a nice balance.

Image credit: Karen Neal/ABC.