Patricia Heaton Says The Middle and Everybody Loves Raymond Don’t Need Reboots Because You Shouldn’t ‘Mess with Perfection’

Patricia Heaton doesn’t mind that her celebrated sitcoms haven’t been rebooted — she prefers them not to be!

The sitcom star recently joked with Yahoo! Entertainment about rebooting the classic sitcoms she starred in.

“Why didn’t I ever get on a show that could be rebooted?” she asked. “Because it seems like everybody [else is].”

The actress starred in Everybody Loves Raymond as Debra Barone from 1996 to 2005 and then in The Middle as matriarch Frances “Frankie” Heck from 2009 to 2018. 

Ahead of her Yahoo! Entertainment conversation, published on Tuesday, Feb. 18, Heaton’s former Everybody Loves Raymond costar Ray Romano told the outlet in December that their sitcom should not be rebooted.

Heaton, 66, agreed with Romano, 67.

“It was just sort of perfection — and you don’t wanna mess with perfection,” she said. “We’ve lost so many cast members, you couldn’t reboot it because it won’t be the same show.”

Since the series concluded, Heaton’s on-screen in-laws died. Peter Boyle died in 2006, and 10 years later, Doris Roberts died at age 90. Heaton and Romano’s on-screen son Sawyer Sweeten died by suicide in 2015. 

Heaton has “the same” feelings about The Middle, saying it was “perfection.”

“The way they wrapped it up, where we got to flash-forward in the lives of the Heck family and see where they all ended up, it was so beautiful, and I think people have such a good feeling about the show,” Heaton said.

Heaton acknowledged the series’ recent social media resurgence on TikTok. “Kids are rediscovering or discovering it for the first time. … It’s a beautiful thing,” she said. 

“It’s like a great work of art — you don’t need to go in there and touch it up or change it or do anything to it. Just let it be what it is. And the wonderful thing about TV and about streaming [is] you’ll be able to enjoy it as much as you want.”

Romano previously told PEOPLE at the premiere of his latest show No Good Deed that he “forced” himself to watch all nine seasons of Everybody Loves Raymond. “I made it through all of them.”

“And back then, 20 years ago, I was quite critical of it, close to it,” he revealed. “I did it. I was there. I saw how the butter was made or whatever the saying is. Being removed from it now, I appreciated it.” Adding, “I was able to say, ‘You know what, we did something pretty good.’ ” 

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The Middle and Everybody Loves Raymond are available to stream on Peacock and Amazon Prime Video.