Season three of ABC’s half-hour comedy The Middle will premiere on September 21, 2011. Neil Flynn and Patricia Heaton lead the cast as Mike and Frankie Heck.
The cast also includes Charlie McDermott as Axl, Eden Sher as Sue, Atticus Shaffer as Brick, and Chris Kattan as Bob.
The Plot: Middle-aged, middle class and living in the middle of the country in Orson, Indiana, Frankie Heck is a harried wife and working mother of three who uses her wry wit and sense of humor in an attempt to get her family through each day intact. Her work life’s no easier. With her friend and co-worker, Bob, she struggles day to day as the least successful saleswoman at the town’s only surviving car dealer.
Frankie’s unflappable husband, Mike, is a manager at the local quarry and her sardonic partner in the daily grind that is raising their average – yes, most definitely average – family.
Between juggling shifts and picking up fast food dinners eaten in front of the TV, Frankie and Mike raise their kids with love, humor, and solid Midwestern practicality. Axl, the oldest, is a teenage jock who eats them out of house and home and walks around the house in his underwear. Then there’s Sue, their extraordinarily ordinary teen daughter, who fails at just about everything she tries with great gusto – although she’s hoping her recent acceptance on the school’s beleaguered no-cut cross country team might just turn things around.
And last is Brick, their quirky third-grader, who reads constantly, whispers to himself, and has a best friend who’s his backpack.
But through all the madness shines a loving family, and together, the Hecks are putting The Middle on the map.
