Although you might not think it based on the overwhelming advertising campaign for THE X FACTOR, Simon Cowell isn’t the only big name returning to television tonight. In an effort to lend a little star power to ABC’s hilarious, albeit somewhat overshadowed family laugher that is THE MIDDLE, Ray Romano is also getting back in the habit again. And here to tease tonight’s EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND reunion is none other than series star herself, Patricia Heaton, who dishes on everything from Emmy snubs to the awesomeness that is Eden Sher. See for yourself, after the jump.

THE MIDDLE airs Wednesdays at 8PM on ABC (CityTV in Canada) and stars Patricia Heaton, Neil Flynn, Charlie McDermott, Eden Sher and Atticus Shaffer. Catch up with past episodes you may have missed online at clicktowatch.tv

As any fan of the show will tell you, what THE MIDDLE lacks in MODERN FAMILYesque levels of critical acclaim and COUGAR TOWN’s controversy, it more than make up for with good old fashion laughs. And a big part of the reason why is star Patricia Heaton, who mere hours ago was kind enough to pick up the phone and talk to us about what’s in store for the Heck family when season 2 of THE MIDDLE kicks off tonight at 8PM on ABC.

What are you most excited about heading into the second season tonight?
Patricia Heaton: I’m really just excited to have everyone come and watch, both our old fans from the first season and our new ones. I think ABC did a great job of repeating the show a lot over the summer and I think a lot of people who may have not have been able to catch the show last season caught on so I’m hopeful we’re going to continue to do very well. The show is so funny with really smart scripts and a wonderful cast. Plus, my old nemesis from EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, Doris Roberts, has graced us with her presence in tonight’s season premiere and she was her usual professional, talented and funny self. It was a great episode, and really so far, shooting the whole season has been fantastic.

Last season Brooke Shields tormented the Heck family playing a somewhat-off-her-rocker neighbor. Are there plans this season to get to know anymore of the family’s neighborhood, and is there any chance your former fictional TV husband Ray Romano (of EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND fame) will drop by?
Ray is very busy with his own wonderful and successful show MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE, so I don’t think we’ll be seeing him anytime soon. That said, Norm MacDonald is dropping by this season as Mike’s (Neil Fynn) brother which is wonderful casting because he joins John Cullem who as Mike’s Dad, leaving us with these three wonderfully tall men who never say anything. Which is particularly funny when they’re juxtaposed with Frankie and her family who are overly emotional and talkative. Expect a really funny Thanksgiving episode.

In last May’s finale, we finally saw Sue finally succeed at something when she made the school’s cross country team. Is this going to be the season of Sue?!
This season Sue is all about the cross country team! She’s so excited to be a part of it, even going as far as to wear her sweatshirt until it practically falls apart. Unfortunately, this week we’re filming an episode — and I don’t want to give away too much — where almost all of Sue’s success is taken away from her once again. Luckily, in typically optimistic Sue fashion, she soldiers on.

Any chance Brick will develop some social skills?
Doris Roberts is playing Brick’s teacher and she’s certainly going to try and whip him into shape. But in the end, Brick is Brick and we wouldn’t have him any other way. Atticus Shaffer does such a great job playing the character and everybody who comes up to me to talk about the show loves to whisper to me [Brick style!]. He’s had quite the impact.

And finally, as someone who has spent more than their fair share on television sets — or if we’re being honest honest with ourselves, at Craft servicess — one can’t help but feel bad for actor Charlie McDermott who more often than not is forced to play Axl sans shirt! Does season two give him more or less of a wardrobe?
More shirt off! In fact, I think the whole key to our success is that Axl does not wear his shirt and we’re not about to let him start. Not only is he the easiest character that wardrobe has ever had to deal with, guys his age can eat whatever they want and still look good so don’t feel too bad for him. I certainly don’t!

Don’t miss the season premiere of THE MIDDLE, Wednesday September 22 at 8PM on ABC

While her new ABC series might not quite garner the critical acclaim of MODERN FAMILY, or controversial buzz that comes with naming a Courteney Cox vehicle COUGAR TOWN, actress Patricia Heaton loves being stuck in THE MIDDLE of ABC’s resurgent comedy Wednesday. So much so that Heaton, who plays Frankie Heck the loving, overworked and hilarious wife and mother of three, took some time away from her much needed hiatus to talk to theTVaddict.com about what brought her back to TV, the similarities between herself and her small screen alter ego, and which of her favorite fictional children is her favorite.

After the disappointing way in which FOX handled your last series BACK TO YOU, was there any apprehension about jumping back into another network series?
Patricia Heaton: No. I saw what the problems were with BACK TO YOU. I feel like I have a pretty good business sense about what we do. I think I’ve long put away emotional attachment to this business, or my personal attachment to things — thank God — that’s sort of not where I get my self-esteem anymore! So I can kind of step back and say, that didn’t work, and here’s why. Kelsey’s [Grammer] great, obviously Steve Levitan and Chris Lloyd are great because they’ve got MODERN FAMILY on which is so flippin’ hilarious. And Ty Burrell, Fred Willard, all those BACK TO YOU people are doing great, which is always encouraging to see because sometimes when something doesn’t work, they don’t work for a number of reasons. It doesn’t mean you don’t have good ideas or there’s anything wrong with you. It’s timing, it’s the right people, it’s all that kind of stuff, because they came back with this amazing show.

I love MODERN FAMILY.
Me too! I emailed Levitan and Lloyd because I had heard they get finished by 2 o’clock in the afternoon because they work all on steady cams, while we’re working a flippin’ 14 hour day! I was like, “Excuse me, I’m working twice as much as I did on BACK TO YOU and making half the money! How can you guys get off at 2 o’clock in the afternoon?” They wrote back to me and said, “Yeah sorry about that, our hours are very short and we’re all having great sex!”

I can’t help but notice you’ve used the word “Flippin’,” twice which is something I’ve definitely heard Frankie say.
Ah really! Anybody who is a good midwestern person who was raised Catholic and used to swear all the time but can’t anymore because they have kids says flippin’ or freakin’ instead of you know what.

Although I imagine your home life isn’t as crazy as Frankie’s, how similar are you to your character?
There was a point when I was working on RAYMOND [as in EVERYBODY LOVES…] I had four kids ages 5 and under. At that time I was working, not getting any sleep and running around like a chicken with her head cut off so I was like Frankie in terms of Toaster Waffles, Pop Tarts, Tang, whatever was fast, just get it done. Same with homework projects being done at the last second, asking the props people on RAYMOND to give me stuff because I had to make a Volcano or a model of a California Mission, a poster board or something. I was very much like Frankie early on, but things have calmed down now to the point where tonight all my four sons have something to do and my husband and I are going to be alone, which is unbelievable.

But I totally relate to Frankie and I also grew up like Frankie. In a house where I got that same breakfast of Pop Tarts and Tang. My mom had five kids, no help, my dad was a sports writer who travelled with teams all the time so it was really up to my her to do all the laundry, grocery shopping and cooking and all that kind of stuff. Problem was, she wasn’t really the type, it wasn’t the kind of thing that interested her, but she did it. I didn’t grow up in a Martha Stewart house, let’s put it that way.

But really, who does?
Exactly! Nobody does and that’s why everybody relates to THE MIDDLE. It’s nice to have aspirational shows where you think, “Oh that would be nice to organize my cabinet that way, or label this.” But basically most people are like the Heck family. I think what people embrace is that it’s kind of nice to see yourself represented and have it be okay. That’s what the show is a real celebration of.

No mother should ever have to pick a favorite child, but I’m curious if you have a favorite fictional child you enjoy working.
I love Sue so much because first of all I don’t have a daughter in my real life so it’s fun to do those scenes with her. But what I like about that character as it’s written — and I of course love all the kids — but what I love about her so much is that we have not seen as far as I can tell a female child character who is not a bitch, or a slut! You usually get the bitchy, slutty, mouthing off disrespectful kind of obnoxious girl, or you get the brainiac. Sue is really respectful and not really smart and I’ve never seen that before. I think it’s wonderful. And Eden Sher [The actress who plays Sue] is so great at it. She is just a sweetheart herself, but that character just wears the worst stuff, is always smiling, only gets down for a minute, gets very excited about the smallest things, trying her best, always optimistic, it’s just a charming, charming character. Now that said, Axl reminds me completely of my oldest son who also never wears a shirt around the house.

Let me just say how impressive it is that you’ve managed to keep that gag going all season long!
I know [Laughs] I think that’s just keep the younger demographic coming back to watch. And of course, every family has a Brick. I have a Brick in my family.

Do your real-life kids watch the show and see themselves in the characters?
They kind of do, especially with Axl. They really like it, and it’s really fun because they were very little when RAYMOND was on so they really didn’t watch it. And there was stuff on RAYMOND that they wouldn’t get and wasn’t appropriate for them. It’s really the perfect timing that this show comes on when they are at the perfect age for them to watch it, which is kind of gratifying for me.

Are any of your kids itching to follow in your acting footsteps?
You know, my third one kind of toys with it, but he’s also very self conscious about not wanting to mess up in front of people. Which is a problem because that’s what you do everyday when you rehearse, rehearsal is basically messing up in front of a bunch of people, so I’m going to have to work on that with him!

Before we go, I just have to ask about last week’s episode that saw you flying over the table to take out Axl’s girlfriend Morgan [Alexa Vega]. How much of that was you and how much your stunt double?
[Laughs] It was me over the table until the chair fell over and I have a bruise on my shin to prove it to you. It was a very long day, but wasn’t that great, you couldn’t tell. It was very well edited.

THE MIDDLE airs Wednesday nights at 8:30PM on ABC (Tuesdays at 9PM on “A” Channel in Canada)

For some reason, America seems to have something against the middle. We talk about the curse of “middle-child syndrome” and generally think of being between a rock and a hard place as a pretty crappy place to be. But if there’s one person who can appreciate the value of being smack-dab in the center, it’s Patricia Heaton, star of ABC’s recently-renewed sitcom THE MIDDLE. And while the show may not yet have blazed its way to the top of the ratings charts — thanks at least in part to HANK, the weak-link in ABC’s Wednesday night laughfest which happens to feature Heaton’s BACK TO YOU co-star, Kelsey Grammer — THE MIDDLE is winning new fans every week.

“Critics have been wonderful and everyone seems to really like it,” said Heaton during a recent chat about the show’s trajectory.”ABC realizes that as soon as people watch the show, they’re going to love it, and I think they’re really putting their support behind it.” Which speaks volumes about the network’s belief in the recession-friendly, lower-middle-class sitcom, espcially given how reluctant modern networks are to allow a show time to find its audience. “Sometimes, all a show needs is to be out there long enough for people to see it.”

After nine years on the wildly-successful EVERYBODY HATES RAYMOND — not to mention the BACK TO YOU’s “can’t miss” pairing of Heaton and Grammer that, well, missed big time — Heaton had to decide whether she really wanted to take on another sitcom. “In some ways, it can be scary,” she admits, “because I am just in about every scene, and you feel like you have to carry the show.” Fortunately, she’s come to recognize that there’s a lot more to the series than her harried working mom, Frankie. “THE MIDDLE really is an ensemble to me, and one that isn’t going to be my success or my failure, so I don’t worry about it.”

Fortunately, she’s got a winning team stepping up to the plate with her each week, including Neil Flynn (SCRUBS) as her TV hubby Mike and on-screen kids played by Charlie McDermott (shirt-eschewing Axl), Eden Sher (failure-prone optimist Sue) and Atticus Shaffer (delightfully dysfunctional Brick)

“The are very special and don’t have that smart-alecky, Hollywood-kid thing going on that you so often see,” says Heaton of the actors portraying her alter ego’s brood. “These kids are real, natural — and yes it helps that they’re going on 30 years-old in real life!” she says with a laugh. “But they just really are naturalistic actors and nice normal kids off camera.”

It also helps that Heaton has a lot of “mom” experience under her belt. In fact, she knows exactly what it’s like to share one’s home with a teenage son who seems allergic to clothing! “I have a 16-year-old,” she reveals. “And I can tell you, they never wear shirts! I have said to my son, ‘You can’t sit down at the dinner table unless you put a flippin’ shirt on’,” jokes Heaton. So doing scenes with McDermott in his boxers is pretty much old hat. “It’s funny, because we’ve gotten so used to Charlie walking around the set shirtless that it’s weird to see him with a shirt on!” Given all the exercise required to avoid those legendary 10 pounds added by the camera, she’s just as happy to be playing a character whose more likely to wear a Wal-Mart sweater than a Victoria’s Secret bustier. “I know that’s why I don’t have my shirt off all the time!”

THE MIDDLE airs Wednesdays at 8:30PM on ABC

In celebration of BACK TO YOU’s highly anticipated return to the airwaves tonight on FOX (Global TV in Canada), this TV Addict will be running interviews with series stars Patricia Heaton, Fred Willard, Josh Gad and Ty Burrell all week long.

First up, Patricia Heaton, who had a lot to say about what it takes to succeed in Hollywood, the perils of child acting and the possibility of a crossover with former EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND co-star Brad Garrett.

I’m not sure if you know this, but in Toronto [the TV Addict's hometown] you’re huge. Both yours and Kelsey’s [Grammer] heads were absolutely everywhere when the show premiered. Buses, Billboards, did you ever imagine your career would turn out how it did?
Patricia Heaton: I didn’t know if it would happen, but I always thought it should! [laughs] And I think you kind of have to have that ego as an actor, to suffer for the fifteen years where I didn’t have any work at all, watched all of my friends get married, buy houses, children. All the while I’m sharing an apartment with two other strangers in Hell’s Kitchen and waitressing and summarizing depositions from midnight to 8AM.

Was there a point in time when you were ready to give up?
Yes. I was in New York for nine years which I absolutely love and hope to retire to. But after nine years of banging my head against the wall, I couldn’t handle the pressure of the city.

I was given an opportunity to go to LA and I thought, why not give LA two years. If nothing breaks I’ll just go back to school and get a real job. I had no money and quite literally two dollars in my chequing account. To this day, whenever I fill up the car with a tank of gas I get this immense sense of relief because I remember moving to LA and never being able to afford to fill up the car. It was either eight dollars of gas or food for the day.

So things were going okay in LA, I brought a play over from New York that I wrote and produced and was slowly getting notice. I had one audition for THIRTYSOMETHING that I felt went really bad, but I ended up getting the role, was on for seven episodes. Little by little I won roles which was enough encouragement to see this through.

With all the tabloid madness surrounding the Lindsey and Britneys of the world, was there something beneficial about becoming famous at a more adult stage in your life?
Oh yes. I don’t think any eighteen year old is supposed to have ten million dollars. There are just too many people around who will just say ‘yes’ to you. There are too many drugs, alcohol, all kinds of stuff to get into it when you’re young. The reason I didn’t go down that road is because I had no money. I probably would have done all the things you see these kids doing. But thank God I wasn’t successful when I was younger. I got into enough trouble, I can’t imagine if people gave me free reign and let me loose in Hollywood.

Would you ever let your kids get into acting?
If they want to be actors that’s fine. But they need to finish high school first and then do some studying. Of course, when you’re Dakota Fanning or Hayley Joel Osment it’s hard to say no, as these kids are uniquely talented. But most of the kids on TV are weird little puppets who are behaving in strange little ways. It has nothing to do with acting. They’re really learning bad habits that will almost be impossible to grow out of.

With both yourself and former EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND co-star Brad Garrett on FOX, has there ever been any talk of a BACK TO YOU/’TIL DEATH crossover?
Since our show takes place in Pittsburgh, I would say the odds are slim.

Of course, it’s surprising what network execs can cook up in the name of ratings.
Anything is possible. But we’re just thrilled to finally be back on the air.

Brand new episodes of BACK TO YOU can be seen both tonight and Wednesday following AMERICAN IDOL at 9:30PM (est)