Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline, Creators of “The Middle”
Totally Booked with Zibby
Zibby Owens
4.5 • 643 Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
I am obsessed with the TV show “The Middle” starring Patricia Heaton, Eden Sher, and an all-star cast. It ran for nine years starting in 2009, but I only discovered it recently thanks to the clips my kids saw on TikTok. I wrote a Substack for my Z.I.P. members called “Here in the Middle” about how much I love this smart show about a family in Indiana who mirrors my own in ways that make me laugh out loud. Jordan Roter, an author friend, sent it to the creators of “The Middle” and connected me with them! Turns out, they lived near me in the Palisades and shopped at my bookstore. They’d even read my essays about the fire. Last week, we did a podcast about their show and I gushed. Gushed. Hear the three of us talk about the show, family, kids growing up, humor, and life. One of my favorite episodes — although I ran five minutes over. Sorry!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Zibi Owens, and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest, best-selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators, whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive |
| 0:24.0 | look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't |
| 0:29.3 | have to. |
| 0:30.3 | Stay in the know, get insider insights, and connect with guests like I do every single day. |
| 0:36.2 | For more information, go to zibbmedia.com and follow me on Instagram |
| 0:40.2 | at Zibby Owens. Okay, I think this is maybe my favorite episode that I've like ever done, |
| 0:49.0 | one of them, definitely in the top five. I interviewed Eileen Heisler and Deanne Haleen, |
| 0:53.4 | who are the co-creators of the TV show |
| 0:55.7 | The Middle, which my family and I have been binging for months. There are nine seasons, and we are at |
| 1:02.5 | the end of season five, which is sad because we don't want to ever be done. Through a coincidence, |
| 1:07.9 | which I add in the show notes, well, I'll just say it. I wrote a substack for my |
| 1:12.9 | ZIP members, which if you haven't upgraded, you should definitely do that. Anyway, I wrote an essay |
| 1:17.3 | called Here in the Middle and talked about how I love the show so much and how it's actually |
| 1:22.4 | helping my own family and me and everything. And then I sent the substack and Jordan Roder, who is an author who has |
| 1:29.8 | been on this podcast for moms like us, she knew them somehow, got in touch, put us in touch. |
| 1:36.5 | Turns out we all live in the Palisades together where we have a part-time home and they had |
| 1:42.2 | already read my essays on the fire, they shop |
| 1:44.5 | at my bookstore, I couldn't believe it. And then we got to talk and have this whole conversation, |
| 1:49.9 | and now we're going to go out to lunch, and I have new friends, and I love them, and I love the show. |
| 1:54.6 | They are one of TV's first female show running teams. Deanne and Eileen were the creators and executive |
| 2:00.8 | producers of the hit comedy, The Middle, |
| 2:03.5 | since graduating from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and also, I think, the University |
... |
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