The Middle

- Season 1

(2009)

Sue tries out for show choir with disastrous results. Frankie desperately tries to close a sale with disastrous results. Brick has trouble relating to his teacher with odd results.

Payments delayed until 2009 come due just as the dryer breaks, Sue needs glasses and Frankie comes within a jelly bean of losing her job. Sue tries out for the swim team with disastrous consequences but a tornado brings good fortune.

Mike gives daughter Sue questionable advice on handling a crush. Mirroring Newton's laws, growing Independence by Axl and Brick are balanced by codependency by Frankie's aunts. Assured the world won't stop without her, Frankie takes a fifteen minute break, and the world falls apart.

Socially indifferent Brick didn't bother to protest when classmate Olivia declared him her boyfriend, but soon tires of her 'romantic' demands to the point of despair. Alas, Axl's advise doesn't cut it and Mike is no match for the possessive, selectively deaf mini-bitch either, but Brick's brain ultimately finds a way out. Eager to Sue Sue succeed at something, both parents invest ludicrous effort in helping her win a place on a cheap bus trip to nearby Indiana by selling $3,000 food for the school. When her name is absent from the winners list, teacher in charge ...

Brick's teachers tell Frankie and Mike that Brick tested as "socially challenged," so Mike thinks basketball is the answer to help Brick interact with others. When that fails, Mike enters the neighborhood block-party lawnmower contest and discovers that Brick has a talent for souping up machines. Meanwhile Frankie joins the booster club to raise money for new football jerseys for Axl's team, but Axl refuses to give his old one to her.

Frankie is caught in the middle when Axl accidentally breaks down the front door, and Mike insists that he fix it - which could leave the Heck house wide open for days. Meanwhile, Frankie must sell a car within a week or be forced to wear a dog suit outside the lot, and it's school picture time for Sue, who has never had a flattering photo taken of her.

When the Heck family goes into a cleaning frenzy in order to get the trash out to a passing garbage truck, Frankie accidentally hits Brick with a beer bottle as she attempts to toss it into a bag - causing a small scratch. But when Brick innocently informs his school that his scratch was caused by his mother throwing a beer bottle at him, a social worker is called to look into the matter - sending Frankie into a panic to give off the image that the Hecks are a picture-perfect family. Meanwhile, Bob must help an uncooperative Mr. Ehlert shoot a new commercial ...

The Hecks' Thanksgiving plans are thrown into a loop when Mr. Ehlert makes her work a shift at the car dealership on Thanksgiving Day.

Frankie observes what she thinks are the perfect siblings, and it becomes her mission in life to make her kids stop fighting with one another and interact as a loving family. Meanwhile, Mike contemplates firing Aunt Edie after she makes a costly mistake at the quarry.

Frankie writes a Christmas letter and comes up with interesting interpretations of the family activities. She gets the lead in the Christmas choir's solo and has to attend more practice sessions. Mike takes over home duties.

Frankie buys Sue an expensive pair of jeans to help build her confidence, Mike buys Axl a car to help him impress a girl, and Brick tries to take care of the Aunts' pet dog.

Frankie summons up the courage to confront the scary mother of the neighborhood bullies after they get in a fight with Sue, while Axl agrees to teach Brick how to play kickball.

Mike is forced to look for a job when the quarry temporarily shuts down, and Frankie is forced to do all the work as Brick runs for class historian.

Frankie vows to stop yelling at and nagging her kids if they agree to follow through on their school work and chores without her intervention. Meanwhile, Mike reluctantly takes a night job as a driver delivering snack cakes with Bob.

Axl has a date, Sue has her first boy-girl party, and Brick is at a sleepover. So will Mike and Frankie have an opportunity to have a romantic Valentine's Day?

The family takes a weekend trip to Chicago so that Brick can take part in a spelling bee, but Sue gets to call the shots because Mike and Frankie forgot her birthday.

Mike and Frankie are shocked to find out that Axl is dating the head cheerleader, but what will happen when she breaks up with him? Meanwhile, Sue and Brick become freaked out after they watch a horror movie about zombies.

Mike gets a pool table so that their house can be the "fun house" in the neighborhood, and Frankie's job could be in jeopardy when a motivational consultant visits Ehlert Motors.

Mike's once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go to the Final Four is put into jeopardy when Frankie's uncle's funeral is scheduled for the same day.

Mike and Frankie struggle to find an alternative form of entertainment over cable TV after a visit to a financial adviser, but the kids quickly pick up new hobbies and don't miss it at all.

Frankie becomes distressed when Axl gets back together with Morgan one more time and she begins telling him what to do again, while Brick struggles to take care of a baby chick.

After another disappointing Mother's Day, Frankie and Sue leave for the rest of the day to visit Frankie's mom.

As the Hecks prepare for their annual spring barbecue, Mike and Brick work on their social skills together and Sue becomes infatuated with the pastor in charge of her youth group.

The Hecks parents must react to school assessments of their kids. Axl scored high on aptitude, so his slacking and poor grades are no longer acceptable, but cramming all night with Mike still doesn't do the trick. Brick may a librarian's dream, the only school kid who truly enjoys reading, mean old Mrs. Nethercott, who luckily can't prove vandalism, still threatens to prevent him passing to the next grade unless he returns all missing books, now found all over the Heck home. Sue is the only school kid without a yearbook picture, so Frankie steps up the search for some...