CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Everything seemed to be going wrong for the Hecks in the fall of 2009.
The middle-class Midwest family on ABC's "The Middle" had purchased a ton of stuff that didn't require payment until, you guessed it, the fall of 2009. And uber-optimistic mom Frankie just realized that, uh-oh, it was the fall of 2009.
No problem, declared Frankie, played by Bay Village native Patricia Heaton. Everything will be fine as long as the washer and dryer hold out. That, of course, is when the dryer died.
"The Middle" premiered in September 2009, one year after the nation's financial crisis hit the meltdown phase. The great dryer breakdown was the Wednesday night show's second episode.
Was it just coincidence that the comedy became a hit by reflecting how hard Americans were hit by a shaky economy? Was it a mistake that "The Middle" hit home because it followed a family struggling to keep hearth and home together?
"It was always part of the design," Heaton said during a telephone interview. "It's not really a show about the economy, but it was an integral part of the Hecks' lives from the very beginning. Many of our stories are about how they can't afford to do things or buy things or fix things. Or one of us needs a job. That's seamlessly woven into the overall story of their lives."
In the late 1990s, the biggest comedy hits were "Seinfeld," "Frasier" and "Friends." There were a lot of scenes of people sitting around at the deli or the coffee shop in each of these. Frasier lived in a luxury Seattle apartment, and "Seinfeld" famously was a show about nothing.
"You can overstate this if you're not careful, but there's no question that the media are a barometer of our times," said Robert Abelman, a communications professor at Cleveland State University.
"During the Great Depression, you saw those hard times reflected in the comedies Hollywood was turning out in the 1930s. It would be amazing if you didn't see today's hard times reflected in some comedies. The world is depressing. TV doesn't have to be."
This is the fifth anniversary of the meltdown. "The Middle" began its fifth season Wednesday night.
"I think TV tends to be more a reflection of the East or West Coast, because it reflects the lives of the people making the shows," said Heaton, a two-time Emmy winner for "Everybody Loves Raymond."
"In 'The Middle,' you get more a reflection of what's happening between Los Angeles and New York. Our show is saying that all this other stuff doesn't matter. What's really important is family and being together and getting through things together. A lot of people are in this place where the Hecks live."
The same month that "The Middle" premiered on ABC, NBC debuted "Community," a comedy about a group of misfits at a community college. Each of them, including divorcee Shirley Bennett, was struggling to redefine herself or himself.
"I think 'Community,' at its core, is a show about the misfits, the underdogs," said Yvette Nicole Brown, the East Cleveland native and Warrensville Heights High School graduate who plays Shirley. "It celebrates the scrappy folks who get their teeth kicked in but keep getting up and trying again. In hard economic times, that can feel like all of us."
"Community" begins its fifth season in 2014.
"Situation comedy is great when it gives you a break from the things that are bothering you," said Brown, a University of Akron graduate. "And even better when it can remind you that things get better. I hope our show is one of those great shows."
Humor isn't the only pop-culture form that reflect bad times. So does horror.
They are, indeed, flip sides of the same coin. They've always been the metaphoric means we use to wrap our minds around the big issues and challenges that seem out of our control, as individuals and as a society.
So it's no surprise that you've seen Americans' financial struggles and uncertainties reflected in both fronts during the last five years. That might be in comedies like "The Middle," "Community" or the new ABC series that debuted Wednesday night, "Back in the Game." Or it might be in such cable fright fests as FX's "American Horror Story," returning for a third eerie year on Wednesday, Oct. 9; AMC's "The Walking Dead," beginning its fourth season on Sunday, Oct. 13; and HBO's "True Blood," which starts its seventh and final season next summer.
The deeply metaphoric "True Blood" premiered in September 2008. It sounded an immediate resonant note with viewers.
"Horror and screwball comedy both experienced booms in the 1930s, because people were looking for escapist entertainment and reassuring messages," Abelman said. "That's true today. Now, many forms were popular during the Depression, as they are now. It's not a one-size-fits-all formula, but you are going to see the hopes and dreams and fears and anxieties as integral parts of our entertainment at both extremes."
Abelman believes the hopes and dreams are best reflected in the comedies, while the fears and anxieties show up in fantasy dramas such as "The Walking Dead" and NBC's "Revolution," both of which deal with the collapse of society.
"We're also not seeing the lifestyles of the rich and famous as much anymore," he said. "And when you do see them, they tend to be villainous and unscrupulous. The financial situation was an all-encompassing event in 2008. That's not quite as true now, but it's still an important factor weighing on our minds, and comedy and fantasy are terrific forms for tackling things we find deeply troubling."
But author and TV historian Robert J. Thompson, like Abelman, cautions against making too much of the argument.
"It's true that comedy and horror are great genres for dealing with hard times," said Thompson, a communications professor at Syracuse University. "But you don't need an enormous collapse to make people interested in those genres. Horror always is popular, good times and bad. And sitcoms about people dealing with hard times have been popular when the economy was good."
He's right. "The Honeymooners" was a beloved comedy during the "happy days" of the 1950s. And "Roseanne" became a hit in the late '80s.
"We're always interested in how hard times are dealt with, because we know we're in hard times, we remember hard times or we realize hard times could be coming," Thompson said. "There's an eternal need for all kinds of storytelling, and this transcends eras. It's tempting to turn show business into science and overstate the cause and effect."
Still, it's inevitable that entertainment will be influenced by the times.
"That is true, and inescapable," Thompson said. "You cannot write a movie or TV show or novel or symphony or poem and escape the times you're living in. Things can't help coming out of the culture. So, obviously, 'The Middle' and 'The Walking Dead' are going to reflect the current fears and anxieties. What happened in 2008 was a cataclysm, and whatever gets made after that is going to reflect that."
And perhaps "The Middle," as different as it is from "The Walking Dead," shares an essential message with its distant cable cousin: If we hang tough and hang together during tough times, maybe, just maybe, we'll get through.
Remember the Hecks' broken dryer? Well, things went from terrible to worse during that episode. Everything seemed to go wrong, testing Frankie's optimism. Then a tornado hit their Indiana town.
Down in the Hecks' basement, Frankie had a total breakdown. That's when her brutally honest husband, Mike (Neil Flynn), said, ""Frankie, we'll make it through." And because Mike is brutally honest, she realized it had to be the truth.
The Hecks emerged from their basement to discover that the tornado had deposited a new dryer on their front lawn. When the mail came, they were approved for a new credit card -- no payments until 2012.
"It's not depressing," Heaton said. "The Hecks take it in stride. They go on with their lives. We'll make it through."