ABC just canceled Roseanne, but it’s already considering one new sitcom about a working-class white woman, though she has a very different outlook on the world. Deadline reports that the network is in the early stages of developing a spinoff of The Middle focused on Eden Sher’s character, Sue Heck, the eternally optimistic and very dorky middle child of the show’s Indiana family. The original series just finished up a nine-season run, and its creators Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline would head up the spinoff, which “will be set a few years in the future from The Middle finale, chronicling the next stage of Sue’s life as a young adult with a new cast of characters around her” (please bring back Brad, too!). ABC could have the show ready for mid-season next year if it picked up the series right away, which would help fulfill the network’s stated goal of having more working-class programming, or consider it as a pilot for the TV season after that. The Sue Heck spinoff would also be the third show generated from one of ABC’s family sitcoms, as Black-ish recently led to Freeform’s Grown-ish, while The Goldbergs spinoff Schooled will arrive next season.
