The Middle
ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET
Here’s a major guest star alert, matching a very clever performer to a very clever comedy series. Appearing this week is Ed Asner, who was equally brilliant as the newsroom boss of a Minneapolis TV station in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and as the city editor of a Los Angeles newspaper on Lou Grant – playing the same character in both the sitcom and the drama series. Tonight, Asner is back in the newspaper business, and Brick (Atticus Shaffer) is his newest employee, the new paper boy. And somehow, Asner’s grizzled newsroom vet, dealing with young Brick, has reason to meet the parents – and, happily for us, share scenes with Patricia Heaton and Neil Flynn.