INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Patricia Heaton’s ‘The Middle’ Renewed For A Ninth Season, Equaling ‘Raymond’

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 03:37 PST, Feb 17, 2017

Patricia Heaton has become a familiar face on American television thanks to her role as Deborah Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond, the popular CBS sitcom.

Everybody Loves Raymond ran for an impressive nine seasons, and now Showbiz Junkies has reported that Patricia Heaton’s current sitcom, The Middle, has matched the success of her earlier work by being renewed for a ninth season.

The Middle has held the top spot as the most-watched comedy in the 8 p.m. Tuesday timeslot for the previous five years, and the president of ABC Entertainment, Channing Dungey, previously revealed that The Middle has been a “consistent performer” for the network. The company’s decision to move the show to a Tuesday timeslot brought across so many viewers that it helped the network to “launch a whole new night of comedy.”

Patricia Heaton belongs to the generation of famous actresses who featured as popular and loveable “television moms” in various American sitcoms. According to Today, Patricia Heaton’s character in Everybody Loves Raymond is often compared to Barbara Billingsley’s June Cleaver in Leave It to Beaver and Florence Henderson’s Carol Brady in The Brady Brunch.

Heaton was flattered to be included in the league of famous actresses like the late Florence Henderson, whose down-to-earth nature has always impressed the Mom’s Night Out actress. Patricia Heaton fondly remembered Florence Henderson after the veteran actress passed away on November 24, 2016, at 82-years-old. According to People, Heaton spoke about the positive experience she had while meeting Florence Henderson on a number of occasions.

“She was just one of these gals that worked really hard and she was super down to earth. She was an old showbiz broad. Even though she always looked so elegant, she was just like a great gal who would talk to anybody.”

The Everybody Loves Raymond actress believes that Henderson’s kind nature can be attributed to the nuns who taught her the values of kindness and compassion when she was going through a tough childhood.

It appears that Patricia Heaton will continue to play the stereotyped role of a loveable mother because her role in The Middle, ABC’s popular sitcom, is also well-appreciated. The sitcom features the actress in the role of Frankie Heck, a continuously stressed out woman who manage her family on her wits and sense of humor.

Frankie is a dental assistant who is married to a calm quarry manager named Mike. Even though she is again playing the role of a mother, Patricia Heaton’s character in The Middle is entirely different from her role in Everybody Loves Raymond. Frankie Heck is a true representative of many middle-class American women who cater to the needs of her family at the expense of their own dreams.

Frankie and Mike reside in a small fictional town of Orson in Indiana, and they strive to escape the monotony of life by finding happiness in a local community. According to ABC 7 Chicago, Patricia Heaton revealed that the middle-class family depicted in The Middle find happiness in the simplest of things.

“I think not a lot of middle American families are represented on TV the way the Hecks represent them. They don’t shy away from daily struggles, and yet they find the joy in the simplicity.”

Patricia Heaton believes that time has flown by since the cast began filming, and she marveled at how her on-screen children have matured professionally. According to ABC 7 Chicago, Patricia Heaton spoke about how deeply she has bonded with her on-screen family members.

“It’s just like I have this other wonderful family. You watch those kids, I can’t believe how young they were when we started… they’re off having these wonderful lives, they’re all becoming adults, and it’s a joy to see.”

[Featured Image by Jerod Harris/Getty Images]

Share this article: Patricia Heaton’s ‘The Middle’ Renewed For A Ninth Season, Equaling ‘Raymond’
More from Inquisitr