History Series / TheMiddle

Other notable characters include Bob Weaver (Series/SaturdayNightLive's Creator/ChrisKattan), Frankie's coworker at Ehlert Motors for the first few seasons; Don Ehlert (Creator/BrianDoyleMurray), Frankie's first boss; Sean Donahue (Beau Wirick), Axl's highschool friend and neighbor; Lexie Brooks (Daniela Bobadilla), Sue's rich roommate/best friend at college in later seasons; Frankie's parents (Creator/JerryVanDyke and Creator/MarshaMason); and even Rita Glossner (Creator/BrookeShields), mother of the block's trouble kids.

** During Mike's brief tenure as a girls soccer coach, he tells Frankie one girl is skipping a game in favor of the season finale of ''Series/{{Awkward}}''. In season 8, Greer Grammer, who played Axl's dim-witted girlfriend April, appeared on that series as Lissa.

[[caption-width-right:350:L - R: [[GenkiGirl Sue]], [[TheStoic Mike]], [[ChildProdigy Brick]], [[TomboyishName Frankie]], and [[WalkingShirtlessScene Axl]].]]

An Creator/{{ABC}} sitcom about two working-class parents raising three children in small-town Indiana. Rife with narration and flashbacks.

* CelebrityParadox: Frankie says that Axl impressed a college professor with facts he learned from watching ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine'' [[SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes 27 times]]. Charlie [=McDermott=], who plays Axl, was in ''Hot Tub Time Machine''.

Frankie Heck (Creator/PatriciaHeaton) and her husband Mike (Creator/NeilFlynn) live in the Midwestern town of Orson, Indiana. Frankie first works as a saleswoman at "Ehlert Motors" before moving on to dental hygiene, and Mike is the manager at the local quarry. Their three children are: Axl (Creator/CharlieMcDermott), perpetually lazy and unmotivated, often to the point of wearing only his boxers; Sue (Creator/EdenSher), the quirky but persistent and energetic middle child who tries out for a number of extracurricular activities...and fails spectacularly at almost every one; and Brick (Creator/AtticusShaffer), the gifted but socially awkward youngest child, who reads a lot and has a tendency to [[VerbalTic whisper the last words he said]][[note]]last words he said[[/note]].

* AmbiguousDisorder: Brick's disorder is never specified though he does seem to have several symptoms[[note]]such as not making friends with children his own age, lack of interest in social activities, his VerbalTic (known as echolalia), etc[[/note]] that relate to Asperger's.
** Cindy Hornberger, Brick's girlfriend, speaks in a monotone voice, refuses to take her hat off, cannot say something she doesn't mean, and she has little understanding of social etiquette (ex. she has no problem speaking to Brick in the men's room while he's using a stall).

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

** The finale also shows [[spoiler: Axl and Lexie and Sue and Sean]] as such too with the former [[spoiler:having at least three kids]].

** Frankie references ''Series/{{Castle}}'' (which coincidentally [[ProductPlacement airs on the same network]]) twice when explaining her suspicions about the kids' story about the window in "Wheel of Pain.":

* AmbiguouslyChristian: Religion is a big focus of many scenes and episodes throughout the entire run but the show never explicitly confirms what specific branch of Christianity the Hecks belong to.

* ToiletPaperPrank: In one HalloweenEpisode, Frankie leaves her elderly aunts to hand out candy while she and the family go out. The aunts forget to hand candy, and when Frankie returns, the whole house is covered in toilet paper.

** It's once implied that Brick gets his social awkwardness from Mike. It's just that being "weird" and "anti-social" comes off as "solitary" and "stoic" when you're tall. That said, Mike tends to be slightly more outgoing than Brick.

* FirstKiss: Subverted somewhat in "[[ValentinesDayEpisode Valentine's Day]] III" in the third season. Sue and her new boyfriend have admitted to each other that his French kisses have been a problem for them both—she doesn't like the feel of an other person's tongue in her mouth, and he's been trying to avoid cutting his tongue on her braces. So the show ends with a nice moment on the Hecks' doorstep, as they kiss on the lips, limned by sunlight. It's not her first kiss per se but it's her first real one.

* {{Fanservice}}: Axl. He's played by a young adult actor with a learn, ripped body.

** Sue. No matter how many times she fails to make any team or club, she never gives up. This extends far enough that, in that SeasonFinale, she "runs" five laps around a cross-country track ''with a twisted (and possibly broken) ankle'', only for it to start raining while she's on her final lap. Then, after being splashed with mud and grass and losing a crutch, she drags herself across the finish line with only her arms. Did we mention that the entire time the theme from Chariots of Fire was playing, timed out well enough that what is usually a cheesy StockParody?

** Frankie's co-worker Bob (Chris Kattan) was a regular when the show first started but was eventually phased out after a few seasons and was never mentioned again.

* CaptainOblivious: Sue is the only one who seems to have no idea that her former boyfriend Brad is [[TransparentCloset very probably gay]].

** The Donahue's have shown signs of this to varying degrees with Sean's sister being the worst, she's been shown to be a manipulative opportunist. She conned both Frankie and Sue into giving her free stuff in two different episodes.
* {{Blackmail}}: In "The Telling," Axl accidentally wakes Sue up late at night while sneaking back into the house via her room. Knowing that he has a big trip to the lake with his friends coming up on the weekend, she holds the threat of telling on him over him to get rides for her and her friends everywhere over the next few days.

** Cassidy is a CuteBookworm who becomes his tutor in the fourth season but the two immediately clash due to his being the slacker BigManOnCampus and Cassidy a SnarkKnight. Their back and forth insults ends up eventually becoming flirting and they become a couple. Unfortuntely, their clashing interests and going to seperate colleges [[LoveCannotOvercome leads them to breaking up]].

Frankie Heck (Creator/PatriciaHeaton) and her husband Mike (Creator/NeilFlynn) live in the Midwestern town of Orson, Indiana. Frankie first works as a saleswoman at "Ehlert Motors" before moving on to dental hygiene, and Mike is the manager at the local quarry. Their three children are: Axl (Creator/CharlieMcDermott), perpetually lazy and unmotivated, often to the point of wearing only his boxers; Sue (Creator/EdenSher), the quirky but persistent and energetic middle child who tries out for a number of extracurricular activities...and fails spectacularly at almost every one; and Brick (Atticus Shaffer), the gifted but socially awkward youngest child, who reads a lot and has a tendency to [[VerbalTic whisper the last words he said]][[note]]last words he said[[/note]].

* RelationshipUpgrade: Axl and Lexie, after being briefly [[ShipTease ship teased]] with their first encounter in Season 7 and then ship teased [[UpToEleven HARD]] in five episodes of Season 8 spread across 17, finally got this without warning by the end of the season's episode 18.

* RantInducingSlight:
** When Sue finds out Brad used a pseudonymous Yelp! account to post what he thought was constructive criticism of Sue's work performance at the mall in "Vacation Days", she gets up on a table and makes a speech about how if people want to do that they should use their own names at least. It backfires when people in the audience start to use it as setup lines for their jokes at Sue's employer's expense.
** Frankie had one of these at the end of “The Cheerleader”