What The Middle's Canceled Spin-Off Would Have Been About

The 2009 ABC sitcom "The Middle" was never a major ratings hit, but it was never a ratings bust either. It might've always been under the shadow of "Modern Family," but it still sailed smoothly to nine full seasons, something few other shows can brag about. In fact, "The Middle" had a strong enough fan base that ABC nearly gave it a spinoff. There were plenty of spinoff options for the writers, too: maybe they could've followed the awkward Brick (Atticus Shaffer) as he made his way through college, or they could've followed Frankie (Patricia Heaton) and Mike (Neil Flynn) as they coped with being empty nesters. 

Instead, Sue (Eden Sher) was chosen as the main character going forward. The spinoff was titled "Sue Sue in the City," and it would follow twentysomething Sue getting into all sorts of awkward hijinks in Chicago. "It took place, like, three years in the future," Sher revealed in a 2024 Instagram post. "Well, more than that ... She's in her mid-20s, she's graduated from college ... Basically, Sue goes to Chicago, tries to save a hotel, and the cast of characters was really good."

The spinoff pilot also included Brad (Brock Ciarlelli), one of Sue's best friends from the original series. As Ciarlelli explained in Sher's Instagram video, "So, we have our Brad-and-Sue stuff — you're used to that — and then we danced in the streets of Chicago, and it started to snow. That's how it ended. It was really cute."

Both Ciarlelli and Sher recalled being confident at the time that the spinoff would get picked up by the network (who seemed excited about it during production), only to be devastated when it was canned. Although fans will never get to see the pilot they filmed, they can at least listen to Ciarlleli and Sher together on their podcast, "Middling with Eden and Brock." It's a rewatch podcast of "The Middle" (sort of like Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey's "Office Ladies"), and it's still going strong today. 

When Eden Sher says the spinoff was "really good," it's easy to be skeptical; it's not like she'd badmouth her own show after all. But according to the people who have seen it, like critic Ryan Schwartz for TVLine, the show really did have a lot of potential. "There was a good show here," Schwartz wrote, "With potential to become a very good show had it been given 13 episodes to find its footing and flesh out its supporting characters a bit more."

Schwartz's review elaborated a bit more on the "Sue saves a hotel" element of the show. The pilot of "Sue Sue in the City" establishes a ticking time bomb: Sue has six months to save a hotel from bankruptcy, otherwise she'll lose her new job and feel like a total failure in this new, dangerous city she's moved to. It's sort of like how season 2 of "The Bear" is all about the characters attempting the near-impossible task of opening a restaurant, though presumably Sue's version of the storyline would have less cursing involved.  

As someone who has tragically never gotten his hands on this never-aired pilot, I can't say for sure if it was worth airing. What I can say is that Sue was definitely the correct character to base the spinoff around. For nine seasons on "The Middle," she's been the show's plucky underdog, someone who's learned to find success through her many, many, many failures. Maybe Sue's pilot didn't get off on a good enough foot for ABC, but the execs should've known Sue would find her footing as a lead character eventually.