Patricia Heaton stars as Frankie Heck in this warm and witty single-camera comedy about raising a family and lowering your expectations. Middle-aged, middle class and living in the middle of the country, Frankie is a harried wife and working mother of three who uses her wry wit and sense of humor to try to get her family through each day intact. 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. In between trying to get to work on time and picking up fast food dinners eaten in front of the TV, Frankie and Mike raise their kids with love and solid Midwestern practicality. Axl is the oldest, a teenage jock who somehow managed to get into college on a football scholarship. Then there's Sue, their extraordinarily ordinary and eternally optimistic teen daughter who always seems to fall short at just about everything she tries -- although she did make it to college. Finally, there's Brick, their quirky ninth-grader, who reads obsessively and marches to the beat of his own drummer. But through all the madness shines a loving family -- and together, they're putting THE MIDDLE on the map.