The Middle

Meet the Hecks – an ordinary family struggling to survive each other and life in Middle America. PATRICIA HEATON stars as a working mother whose family life is one big happy mess.

Frankie is struggling in her career as a car salesperson because she has failed to sell a car. Sue has auditioned for show choir but is part of the stage crew. Brick wants Frankie to come to his class presentation dressed as a superhero.

Frankie scrambles to make ends meet and save her job.

Facing financial disaster, Frankie tries to save her job; Sue fails swim team tryouts, then learns she needs glasses; and Brick starts reading his mother's steamy romance novels.

Family matters thwart plans for a romantic anniversary trip.

Frankie and Mike's romantic plans for their anniversary are thwarted by a sick Brick, a lovesick Sue, a learner's permit-toting Axl, two crazy aunts and their diaper-wearing dog.

Frankie urges Sue to stand up for herself at school.

Frankie urges Sue to fight for her right to attend a class trip after making the grade by selling thousands of dollars worth of sausage and cheese; Brick gets his first girlfriend.

After Brick's teachers tell his parents that he's "socially challenged," Mike tries to help Brick make friends; while Frankie needs her son's coveted football jersey.

Mike helps Brick make friends at their street's block party.

Axl accidentally breaks the front door and has to fix it.

Mike insists that only Axl fix the front door after he knocks it down; Frankie must sell a car within a week; and its school picture time for a photographically challenged Sue.

A social worker visits the Heck household.

Frankie must create the illusion of a picture-perfect family when an accident causing a small scratch on Brick leads a social worker to visit the Heck household.

Frankie's perfect Thanksgiving turns into a nightmare.

Frankie's dream of the perfect Thanksgiving turns into a nightmare when Mr. Ehlert forces the staff to work on the holiday – and Axl loses Brick in a corn maze.

Frankie vows to make her kids stop fighting with each other and interact as a loving family, while Mike contemplates firing Aunt Edie after she makes a costly mistake.

Frankie vows to make her kids stop fighting.

Mike organizes the Heck family Christmas.

Rehearsing for the church's midnight mass, Frankie becomes jealous when it seems that Mike is doing a better job at organizing the Heck family Christmas than she would have done.

Frankie buys a hormonally challenged Sue an expensive pair of jeans so she can fit in with her peers, and Mike helps Axl get a car to impress a girl.

Frankie and Mike endure the unpredictability of teenagers.

Frankie must decide whether to confront her trashy neighbor and nemesis, Rita Glossner (guest star BROOKE SHIELDS) after a fight between Sue and Rita’s sons erupts.

Frankie fears that a confrontation with trashy neighbor Rita Glossner is at hand when Sue has a run-in with her sons.

An unemployed Mike lacks the skills needed to find a new job.