Patricia Heaton On ‘The Middle’ & ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ Reboots: “You Don’t Want To Mess With Perfection”

Patricia Heaton starred in two long-running sitcoms, The Middle and Everybody Loves Raymond, but don’t expect her to reprise any of those roles soon.

The actress recently revealed that she wouldn’t want either comedy show to get rebooted.

“It was just sort of perfection — and you don’t wanna mess with perfection,” Heaton told Yahoo! Entertainment. “You know, we’ve lost so many cast members, you couldn’t reboot it because it won’t be the same show.”

Heaton played Debra Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond for nine seasons, which ran on CBS from 1996 through 2005. In that role, Heaton was nominated seven times for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series at the Primetime Emmy Awards, taking the trophy in 2000 and 2001.

Four years after the CBS sitcom ended, Heaton starred on ABC’s The Middle as Frankie Heck. Heaton would play the role for nine seasons between 2009 and 2018.

Heaton also feels “the same” about The Middle being “perfection” and not needing a reboot.

“The way they wrapped it up, where we got to flash-forward in the lives of the Heck family and see where they all ended up, it was so beautiful, and I think people have such a good feeling about the show,” she said of the show’s ending.

Heaton noted that The Middle “is having a resurgence on TikTok” recently, with kids “rediscovering or discovering it for the first time,” adding, “It’s like a great work of art — you don’t need to go in there and touch it up or change it or do anything to it. Just let it be what it is. And the wonderful thing about TV and about streaming [is] you’ll be able to enjoy it as much as you want.”