“The Middle” will be wrapping at the end of its ninth season, but before it goes out, Eden Sher wants to make something completely clear: Her imaginary family would never have voted President Donald Trump into the Oval Office. It just wouldn’t have happened.
“I can guarantee you, I’m saying out loud, Sue and the Hecks would not have voted for Trump, no question,” the 25-year-old actress, who plays Sue Heck on the ABC sitcom, told Vulture.
The actress referenced an article written by New Yorker TV critic Emily Nussbaum, which “ended on this ambiguous note if the Hecks would’ve voted for Trump” since they reside in the red state of Indiana.
“I rarely take to the internet, because the internet stresses me out and I’m really bad at it, but someone showed me that article I was like, ‘No, no, no!’ Sher said. “I want to be clear, this is not a statement on … the writers have done a really good job. It didn’t negatively affect us in any way, I just think there was a really missed opportunity about politics.”
“All it could’ve done was make something a little more positive,” Sher continued. “I’ll say that if it were my show, I would’ve hinted towards some political opinion. Or at least start a discussion.”
This discussion was actually started outside of the show at a panel during the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour, when the show’s team was asked whether Donald Trump riding the support of working class voters to his 2016 presidential victory is a sign that the show is prematurely calling it quits after its ninth and final season.
“Our timing really sucks,” replied star Patricia Heaton, who plays working-class matriarch Frankie on the show. “We wait until it’s a hot topic, and then we leave.”
Series co-creator Eileen Heisler told the crowd that the producers and cast members felt that this was the right time to say goodbye, as they want “to leave when people still want more of it.”
“The decision for us to end the show was a very personal decision,” Heisler said. “Pretty much at the end of last year, we had the feeling that it meant a lot to us to know we had a season to think about it, and not to be here for nine years and [suddenly] that’s the end.”
The farewell season of “The Middle” airs on Tuesdays, at 8/9 c on ABC.