‘ The Middle’ nearing completion of mission

A throwback to a simpler era of family sitcoms, “The Middle” plowed the heartland long before it was fashionable.

The ABC family comedy about life in the middle of the country has toiled in the shadows of flashier shows set in big cities, such as “Modern Family.”

But now, the ordinary Heck family of the fictional small town of Orson, Indiana, is stepping off the stage.

Beginning in October, ABC will air the ninth and final season of “The Middle," giving viewers the opportunity to say a leisurely goodbye to Frankie (Patricia Heaton), Mike (Neil Flynn), Sue (Eden Sher), Axl (Charlie McDermott) and Brick Heck (Atticus Shaffer).

During the recent Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills, the show’s creators and its five stars reflected on the ingredients that made the show about life in a flyover state special.

“Even in the pilot, we talked about planes flying from one coast to another, and people looking down, and how you should really check it out,” said DeAnn Heline, one of the show’s two executive producers.

“People in the middle of the country have been touched by the honoring of their everyday life, and that’s what we hoped,” added Eileen Heisler, who created the show with Heline, her roommate at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Plans for the final season began in the fall — before the November election — because the producers wanted to carefully plot its exit while the show was still

loved by fans.

“We wait until it was a hot topic, then we leave,” Heisler said.

Added Heline: “We just felt like the timing was right.”

The sitcom went on the air at a time when major networks were struggling to replicate the success of “Friends” with shows about ultrarich urban sophisticates, including “Cashmere Mafia,” “Lipstick Jungle” and “Dirty Sexy Money.”

Those shows, some with unlikable lead characters, quickly burned out, but “The Middle,” with its endearing family members, plugged along.

In the most recent season, the show averaged 7 million viewers an episode, according to Nielsen ratings — one of ABC’s top draws for a multi-generational audience.

Flynn, who plays patriarch Mike, said the show benefited by going on the air in the wake of the Great Recession.

“We were told it was good timing for us when we started,” he said.

He also noted that the cultural schism wasn’t necessarily about the middle of the country versus the coasts.

“It’s really big city or not — that’s the difference,” Flynn said. Shaffer, who plays youngest offspring Brick, noted that, in real-life, he is from the small town of Acton, California.

Though “flattering” to suddenly be a part of a zeitgeist show, Heline said, “We’ve just been keeping our heads down and doing the show that we’ve always done."

“When Eileen and I first sat down to develop this show,” she continued, “we said ‘There are no shows set in the Midwest; there are no shows with a blue-collar family that is struggling.

“Those were things that we really wanted to bring to the show. There wasn’t anything else like it on the air.”