The Middle

It’s a day full of chaos as the Hecks attend their first day of the new school year.

When she discovers that Sue’s first cross-country meet is the same day as the homecoming game, Frankie’s dream of escorting Axl across the field is put in jeopardy.

During a mission to buy Sue diapers for the baby she is babysitting, a clerk makes the assumption that Frankie is the one who needs diapers, depressing Frankie.

When Axl is suspended for skipping school, Mike gets him a job at the quarry.

Frankie insists that the family host a foreign exchange student from Japan. When the serious, emotionless student does not take an interest in the family, Frankie plans a road trip for them, only for their car to break down.

Frankie tries to persuade Mike to attend a neighborhood Halloween party. Meanwhile, Sue attends a church-sponsored Halloween event, Brick’s costume is unrecognizable by most adults, and Axl and his friends try to make their way to a haunted house, but their car breaks down en route.

For his ninth birthday, Brick wants to hear the story of what happened when he was born, which puts the family in an awkward position.

Brick is tired of running around doing errands with Frankie, and wants to start staying home alone. However, Frankie won’t let him. Axl tries to grow a beard. Mike overhears one of Sue’s friends talking about her behind her back.

Mike invites his brother Rusty (Norm Macdonald) and his father for Thanksgiving. Frankie hears the men have a rather superficial conversation, and encourages Mike with his brother and father to talk about their feelings. Brick is very excited that Bob’s librarian girlfriend Linda has an equally great love for books as he. Meanwhile, Sue bakes an apple pie with Frankie.

Frankie’s parents (Marsha Mason and Jerry Van Dyke) are in town for Christmas and the pair soon interfere in their daughter’s plans for a quiet Christmas. Frankie’s Dad is constantly following Mike and annoying. Also, Frankie’s mom keeps interfering and making Frankie angry. Elsewhere, Axl builds Brick an igloo, and along with Sue, they set out to defend it from the Glossner boys.

Frankie and Mike attempt to regain complete control of the household by ignoring the kids’ demands for rides, particular foods, and services, and focusing on their own needs, including what to watch on TV.

Mike becomes mad at Frankie for accidentally spending $200 on eye cream; meanwhile, Axl must take care of an infant doll for health class, forcing Brick to bunk with Sue, where they accidentally make a hole in Sue’s bedroom wall, which leads to them making the hole bigger by trying to fix it.

The Super Bowl is coming up, and the Heck family is planning to spend it together as a family. Sue and Brad enter a square-dancing competition, but Sue can’t dance at all. Frankie’s boss tricks Frankie into coming with him to a hospital appointment during the Super-Bowl. Mike encourages Brick to read about the NFL, but Brick goes crazy with reciting all of his facts, causing Mike’s friends to leave the Heck’s house during the Super-Bowl.

Axl starts dating a girl his parents aren’t exactly pleased with, while Sue finds the boy who kissed her during a Halloween hayride. Meanwhile, Brick has a crush on a girl from his class, but Mike tells her, humiliating his shy son.

Frankie finds Brick a friend. Sue sneaks into an R-rated movie. Meanwhile Axl shoots footage of his sexy biology teacher.

Sue wins tickets to New York and the plane ride turns into a comedy of errors.

Ms. Rinsky (Doris Roberts) asks Frankie and Mike to attend a math class after Frankie criticizes her teaching skills after Brick receives a D on a math test. Meanwhile, Sue and Axl consider helping their aunt find a time capsule she buried.

The Hecks spend spring break trying to clean out the house; Frankie finds an old, unflattering list Mike had written about her when they were dating; Brick opens an information stand where he sells advice for a dollar; Axl and Sue are caught dropping off items outside the thrift store after closing hours.

Frustrated by Axl’s sloppiness, Mike keeps him from playing the final basketball game of the season, but then relents at the last minute. Sue wins a trophy for "punctuality". She and Brick have another run-in with the Glossner boys, and Brick gets locked in the Glossner’s garage.

The Royal Wedding becomes Frankie’s obsession - she borrows an enormous new TV in order to watch it as well as buying countless Royal Wedding paraphernalia. Meanwhile, the workers at Mike’s quarry go on strike because he stops buying pretzels due to budget cuts, and Brick helps Sue audition for the school’s news team.

Mike and the kids present Frankie with the perfect Mother’s Day gift – a day to herself. While the rest of them enjoy rural festivals in another County, Frankie somehow gets none of the things done she had planned to at home. Mike offers to repeat the trip with her and the family the next weekend, but when they arrive a second time, many of the activities have closed.

After learning that Axl accidentally text-invited the wrong girl to prom and plans to solve the situation by standing her up, Frankie and Mike demand that he meet the girl face-to-face in a timely manner to gently break off the date – or face the music and take her to the big event. Meanwhile, Sue and her friend, Carly, try in earnest to fit in with the school’s “B” crowd during lunch, and after a successful first show, Brick begins to bore Frankie and Mike with his repeated, impromptu one-man plays in the living room.

Frankie and Mike attempt to cure Brick of his irrational fear of crossing over bridges. Meanwhile, Axl is pitted against friend Sean Donahue when a lifeguard position opens up at the local public pool, and Frankie is ready to pull her hair out when she tries to help an indecisive and emotional Sue shop and pick out a two-piece bathing suit to wear on the pool’s opening day.

With only three days left until summer vacation, Frankie is ecstatic that she’s made it through another school year with the family. But her happiness turns to panic when she and Mike learn that Brick needs at the last moment to write a daily journal and turn it in to Ms. Rinsky (Doris Roberts) or risk not moving up to the fourth grade; that Axl hasn’t fulfilled his required 30 hours of community service; and that, because of an error, Sue must prove that she never took a sick day from school in order to receive a perfect attendance award at her middle school graduation ceremony.