STUCK IN THE MIDDLE CHARACTERS SERIES

Sher: I was so relieved when Eileen said it was going to be very, very subtle. Heline: A big “Brad’s coming out” episode might’ve gotten more publicity and promo and that sort of thing, but it kind of felt cheap to us to do it that way.

Heisler: We never really thought, “This should be the big ‘Brad comes out’ episode, with everyone saying, ‘Oh, no, are you kidding? He’s gay?! Who knew?’ ” In some ways, we felt like it was bolder to do it simple.

I just think that’s a really cool thing to see unfold. They’ve been friends since middle school growing up, going through these milestones together, and now one of those milestones is that Brad is coming out. And then when we told him, he said, “Oh, that’s perfect.”Ĭiarlelli: What’s so cool with Brad and Sue is that you see these two friends. They defined Brad as a character via his passions, his interests, his sense of humor and the kind of friend he is, things that are so much more important than the word “gay” could ever get across, that I didn’t personally need or feel like it was necessary for him to come out.Įden Sher: At the very beginning of this season, when Eileen told me, “There’s going to be an episode where Brad finally comes out,” I was, like, “Thank God!” ( Laughs.)Įileen Heisler: When we told Brock that Brad was going to have a coming-out scene, I think he was, like, “Oh, wow, really?” But I think he was also curious as to how it was going to happen. But we reached a point where we felt like Brad would certainly know he was gay and that he’d be ready to share it with the people that are close to him, and it felt like we’d be doing a disservice to him if we kept going without doing that.īrock Ciarlelli: There’s obviously the jokes that play out in Brad’s first couple of episodes, where it’s like, “How does Sue not see this?” But then they took the important part of the character, the friendship between Brad and Sue, and ran with it. At the beginning, he was young enough that we felt like he might not even have necessarily known he was gay, or it might be something he wasn’t sure about. This week, those presumptions were at long last confirmed, and The Hollywood Reporter speaks with Ciarlelli, Sher and executive producers DeAnn Heline and Eileen Heisler about the long road to Brad’s big announcement, how it was handled and what it means for the show and its characters.ĭeAnn Heline: We’ve always just tried to do what we felt was right for the character.

STUCK IN THE MIDDLE CHARACTERS SERIES

'The Middle' Spinoff Gets Title, Adds Brock Ciarlelli as Series Regular (Exclusive)

Stuck in the middle characters