Patricia Heaton is a wife and mom again.
Of course, much is changed on The Middle, her freshman ABC domestic comedy, after Everybody Loves Raymond, where for nine hit seasons she played a frazzled housewife opposite Ray Romano.
"It's not normally a great choice, to repeat yourself," Heaton said, acknowledging her knee-jerk reluctance to go home again, sitcom-wise. But The Middle, which airs at 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays, offered her a different place to settle.
"It's from the mom's point of view, and it's not with a bumbling dad who can never do anything right," she said. "It's about trying to keep the marriage lively and raise the kids right, but not having enough time and energy to do any of those things."
It is also far removed from the testy Long Island homestead of Raymond's Barones.
The Middle -- presided over by its middle-class, nearing-midlife couple, the Hecks -- is rooted firmly in the Midwest. There, home is more loving and hopeful than on Raymond, if no less challenging, frantic and funny.
And frumpy. At 51, Heaton is a looker, but as pushed-to-the-limit housewife Frankie, she looks authentically dressed down.
"The plainer I am, the better," Heaton said. "I have these bangs that I clip on. The bangs are the last thing to go on. Then, I can really do the character."
In their small Indiana town, husband Mike (Neil Flynn) is a manager at a local quarry, and Frankie supplements her household duties by trying to sell cars at the town's lone, struggling auto dealership.
The Middle should ring true for anyone who has kids or had parents, or ever dreamed of getting an uninterrupted moment to oneself. And it resonates right now in particular, with much of the country in an economic pinch that seems standard issue for the Hecks.
"But the show is not so much about the bad economy," Heaton said. "It's about the American attitude of resilience, and trying to find a new way to do things and put a positive spin on it."
For Mike and Frankie Heck, the height of celebrating their marriage anniversary is an overnight retreat at a discount motel and a shopping spree at the carpet-remnant outlet.
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