ABC’s The Middle is about to wrap up its season, and they will have acting icon Betty White in their season finale. The cast and creators of the show say they were thrilled to work with such a legend.

The Middle follows the Heck family as they struggle with life in the Midwest. Brick is the youngest, and then there is Sue the middle child played by Eden Sher and their sibling Axl played by Charlie McDermott. These crazy kids cause all types of problems and who better to solve them than their parents? Patricia Heaton plays supermom Frankie Heck and Neil Flynn plays her husband Mike Heck.

Patricia told On The Red Carpet that she loves working with the cast but pointed out Eden as the one to watch.

“I predict that she will be the first Emmy winner of our show,” said Patricia.

Source: On the red carpet

How has your relationship with The Middle’s child actors changed over the course of the show’s first season?
It’s so interesting when you start a show. You’re supposed to be playing a family and nobody knows each other. Even hugging each other is weird! They’ve been terrific since the beginning, but it’s great to have gotten to know them over the course of 20-some episodes. And I’ve seen everybody grow as actors as their characters expand, [and] as the writers find more for them to do. They’re just so up-to-the-challenge, and it’s really fun for actors to see where characters go and what their relationships are. Because when you start something, you don’t know anything about them other than that one script you have.

What can we expect from upcoming seasons?
I’m not sure if this is going to happen, but at my house this year, we had a foreign exchange student stay with us for ten days, and I kept going into work and talking about it and how awkward it was. [laughs] And we were joking about what a foreigner would think of the Heck family. So there’s a good chance that the Heck family might be hosting a foreign exchange student next year.

That would be really fun, especially in a Midwestern setting.
It’s funny because my producer was saying, “Wait a minute, [your foreign exchange student] is going to think every American kid has a mom on television and a swimming pool and this glamorous life. He’s going to go back with a completely skewed view of America!”

The hardest role we had to cast on “The Middle” was Sue, the daughter, and that had to do with the fact that “The Middle” was a pilot that had already been shot two years before with a different cast. It didn’t quite come together as ABC had wanted it to, but they really liked the story. It was a situation where the writers kept thinking about the girl they had from the first pilot, and it was hard for them to get her out of their heads. Eden Sher came in and pre-read for me. She was one of the very first girls we saw for the role. Brought her to producers and she went through that process, but at that time, I think the producers still had in their minds the performance from the previous actress, so they kind of dismissed everybody. I ended up bringing Eden back in again at the end. By that time, they had seen so many actresses for the part, they really started to look at her with new eyes. Eden was the only actress who came in and played that character with exuberance and zeal. Everybody else played her more goth, kind of down and mopey. Eden makes you remember and root for a character that nobody ever roots for.

Read the full story on Backstage

Source: AOL TV.

“The Final Four” – Mr. Ehlert takes a liking to Mike and presents him with two tickets to the Final Four – Mike’s dream come true! But when Frankie’s uncle passes away and the funeral is set for the day of the game, a battle begins to brew as Frankie forces Mike to choose which life event is most important to him. Meanwhile, Sue tries to help Brick get out of going to a birthday party by impersonating Frankie over the phone, but panics when she realizes that Frankie is going to make a call for real in order to get him out because of the funeral, on “The Middle,” WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31 (8:30-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

“The Middle” stars Patricia Heaton as Frankie, Neil Flynn as Mike, Charlie McDermott as Axl, Eden Sher as Sue, Atticus Shaffer as Brick and Chris Kattan as Bob.

Guest starring are Brian Doyle Murray as Mr. Ehlert, Jeanette Miller as Aunt Edie, Frances Bay as Aunt Ginny, Dierk Torsek as Reverend Hayver, Phillip Wilburn as paramedic, Margarita Franco as anesthesiologist and Adam Pilver as surgeon.

“The Final Four” was written by Rob Ulin and directed by Alex Reid.

Then there are the Heck kids.

Axl, portrayed by Charlie McDermott (Frozen River), is the teenage son, a jockey, semi-nudist (seriously) and often rebel who occasionally has a soft spot; Eden Sher (Weeds) plays the socially awkward teenage daughter Sue who has tried out for every sport and extracurricular at school known to man without ever being accepted into any of them; and Atticus Shaffer (The Unborn) plays Brick, the bookwork and youngest child who often whispers to himself and considers his backpack his best friend. Oh yeah.

Read the full story on Star Plus

Read more: NY Post

Californian Atticus Shaffer plays Brick, the younger son in the family comedy starring Northeast Ohio’s own Patricia Heaton. According to ABC, he began acting in 2006 and has appeared on The Class, My Name Is Earl, Days of Our Lives, Carpoolers, Out of Jimmy’s Head and Human Giant — as well as sharing a bus stop with Will Smith in Hancock and doing commercials. Other films include The Unborn and An American Carol. He is home-schooled, a Boy Scout and an avid Yu-Gi-Oh player. And he does all those things while dealing with osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease; Shaffer has Type IV, which according to the OI Foundation’s Web site leaves people ”moderately affected.”

FRANKIE AND MIKE FOCUS ON TAKING THE FAMILY ON A ROAD TRIP TO CHICAGO FOR BRICK’S COMPETITION IN A REGIONAL SPELLING BEE, BUT ARE GOBSMACKED WHEN THEY REALIZE THEY FORGOT ABOUT SUE’S BIRTHDAY, ON ABC’S “THE MIDDLE”

“The Bee” When Mike discovers that Brick is a spelling wiz and won the school spelling bee, he puts all his efforts into training him to win the regional bee, which could ultimately lead to competing in the Scripps Spelling Bee. But as the family gets set for their road trip to Chicago for the regional bee, Frankie and Mike are horrified when they realize they forgot one thing — Sue’s birthday — on “The Middle,” WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3 (8:30-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

“The Middle” stars Patricia Heaton as Frankie, Neil Flynn as Mike, Charlie McDermott as Axl, Eden Sher as Sue, Atticus Shaffer as Brick and Chris Kattan as Bob.

Guest starring are Brian Doyle-Murray as Mr. Ehlert, Kiva Jump as Mrs. Thomas, Duane Shepard, Sr. as judge, Keith Gerchak as announcer, Jill E. Alexander as Penny, Ryan Agahee as Sanjit, Noelani Bailey as girl contestant, Harrison Boxley as boy contestant, Gregory Kasyan as kid #1 and Aidan Miner as kid #2.

“The Bee” was written by Eileen Heisler & DeAnn Heline and directed by Ken Whittingham.

“The Middle” is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC’s selected HDTV format with a 5.1 channel surround sound and Spanish subtitles via secondary closed captioning. A TV parental guideline will be assigned closer to the airdate.

Source: The Futon Critic

In the episode, Frankie and Mike (Patricia Heaton, Neil Flynn) are excited to discover that Axl (Charlie McDermott) has found the perfect girlfriend, Morgan (Vega), and that he’s in love. But just as they start to get used to his new, sunny outlook on life, Morgan does the unthinkable and breaks up with him, leaving Axl completely heartbroken.

“The Break Up” premieres on March 10th @ 8:30PM ET/PT on ABC.

Read more: Buzz