The Middle

Series Similar to The Middle

If you enjoyed The Middle, these series share similar themes, tone, and quality. Each recommendation is scored on genre overlap, tonal match, and critical acclaim.

1. Arrested Development

   2003 · Comedy, Family · ended

   Recommended for similar Family profile, highly rated (8.2).

   After being passed over as partner at The Bluth Co., widower Michael resolves to quit the family business and move away to spend more quality time with his 13-year-old son, George Michael. But when his father George Bluth Sr. is arrested for shifty accounting practices and the family assets are frozen, Michael is forced to stay in Orange County to help his wildly eccentric family pick up the pieces.

2. Young Sheldon

   2017 · Comedy, Family · ended

   Recommended for similar Family profile.

   For young Sheldon Cooper, it isn't easy growing up in East Texas. Being a once-in-a-generation mind capable of advanced mathematics and science isn't always helpful in a land where church and football are king. And while the vulnerable, gifted and somewhat naïve Sheldon deals with the world, his very normal family must find a way to deal with him. His father, George, is struggling to find his way as a high school football coach and as father to a boy he doesn't understand. Sheldon's mother, Mary, fiercely protects and nurtures her son in a town where he just doesn't fit in. Sheldon's older brother, Georgie, does the best he can in high school, but it's tough to be cool when you're in the same classes with your odd younger brother. Sheldon's twin sister, Missy, sometimes resents all the attention Sheldon gets, but also remains the one person who can reliably tell Sheldon the truth. Finally, there's Sheldon's beloved Meemaw, his foul-mouthed, hard-drinking Texas grandmother who is very supportive of her grandson and his unique gifts. For 12 years on The Big Bang Theory, audiences have come to know the iconic, eccentric, and extraordinary Sheldon Cooper. This single-camera, half-hour comedy allows us the chance to meet him in childhood, as he embarks on his innocent, awkward, and hopeful journey toward the man he will become.

3. The Office

   2005 · Comedy · ended

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8.5).

   Steve Carell stars in The Office, a fresh and funny mockumentary-style glimpse into the daily interactions of the eccentric workers at the Dunder Mifflin paper supply company. Based on the smash-hit British series of the same name and adapted for American Television by Greg Daniels, this fast-paced comedy parodies contemporary American water-cooler culture. Earnest but clueless regional manager Michael Scott believes himself to be an exceptional boss and mentor, but actually receives more eye-rolls than respect from his oddball staff.

4. Community

   2009 · Comedy · ended

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8.3).

   Community is a smart, exuberant comedy that is consistently ranked as one of the most inventive and original half-hours on television. This ensemble comedy centers around a tight-knit group of friends who all met at what is possibly the world's worst educational institution - Greendale Community College.

5. The Goldbergs

   2013 · Comedy, Family · ended

   Recommended for similar Family profile, also on ABC.

   Before there were parenting blogs, trophies for showing up and peanut allergies, there was a simpler time called the '80s. For geeky and movie obsessed youngest child Adam, these were his wonder years, and he faced them armed with a video camera to capture all the crazy. The Goldbergs are a loving family like any other -- just with a lot more yelling. Mom Beverly is a classic "smother," an overbearing, overprotective matriarch who loves her delicious kids, but still rules this brood with 100% authority and zero sense of boundaries. Dad Murray is gruff and sometimes oblivious, parenting with half his attention span but all his heart. Sister Erica is popular and terrifying, doing her best to cover up that she's the smartest of the clan. Barry is a passionate dreamer, who maybe dreams a little too big and who always gets the short end of the stick. Adam is the youngest, a camera-wielding future director who's navigating first love, and growing up with his family. Rounding out the family is beloved grandfather Al "Pops" Solomon, the wild man of the clan, a shameless Don Juan who's learning as much from his family as he teaches them.

6. Parks and Recreation

   2009 · Comedy · ended

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8.1).

   Parks and Recreation is a comedy series based around the main character Leslie Knope (a bureaucrat) in the parks department of Pawnee.

7. Modern Family

   2009 · Comedy, Family · ended

   Recommended for similar Family profile, also on ABC.

   Modern Family revolves around three different types of families (nuclear, step- and same-sex) living in the Los Angeles area, who are interrelated through Jay Pritchett and his children, Claire Dunphy (née Pritchett) and Mitchell Pritchett. Patriarch Jay is remarried to a much younger woman, Gloria Delgado Pritchett (née Ramirez), a passionate Colombian with whom he has an infant son, Fulgencio (Joe) Pritchett, and a son from Gloria's previous marriage, Manny Delgado.Jay's daughter Claire was a homemaker, but has returned to the business world. She is now the chief executive of her father's previous business, Pritchett's Closets and Blinds. She is married to Phil Dunphy, a realtor and self-professed "cool dad". They have three children: Haley Dunphy, a stereotypical ditzy teenage girl; Alex Dunphy, a nerdy, smart middle child; and Luke Dunphy, the off-beat only son.Jay's lawyer son Mitchell and his husband Cameron Tucker have one daughter, Lily Tucker-Pritchett. As the name suggests, this family represents a modern-day family, and episodes are comically based on situations which many families encounter in real life.

8. The Big Bang Theory

   2007 · Comedy · ended

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8).

   The Big Bang Theory is a comedy about brilliant physicists, Leonard and Sheldon, who are the kind of "beautiful minds" that understand how the universe works. But none of that genius helps them interact with people, especially women. All this begins to change when a free-spirited beauty named Penny moves in next door. Sheldon, Leonard's roommate, is quite content spending his nights playing Klingon Boggle with their socially dysfunctional friends, fellow Cal Tech scientists Wolowitz and Koothrappali. However, Leonard sees in Penny a whole new universe of possibilities... including love.

9. 30 Rock

   2006 · Comedy · ended

   Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8).

   Multiple award-winning comedy 30 Rock is told through the comedic voice of Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner Tina Fey as variety show producer Liz Lemon. The series also features two-time Emmy and three-time Golden Globe winner Alec Baldwin as top network executive Jack Donaghy and Emmy nominee Tracy Morgan as Tracy Jordan, the unpredictable star of Lemon's hit variety show, TGS with Tracy Jordan, Lemon constantly has her hands full, juggling corporate interference from Donaghy and off-the-handle star antics from Jordan, all while attempting to salvage her own personal life.

10. That '70s Show

    1998 · Comedy · ended

    Recommended for similar Comedy profile, highly rated (8).

    Crank up the 8-track and flash back to a time when platform shoes and puka shells were all the rage in this hilarious retro-sitcom. For Eric, Kelso, Jackie, Hyde, Donna and Fez, a group of high school teens who spend most of their time hanging out in Eric's basement, life in the ‘70s isn't always so groovy. But between trying to figure out the meaning of life, avoiding their parents, and dealing with out-of-control hormones, they've learned one thing for sure: they'll always get by with a little help from their friends.