TV tonight: 'The Middle,' 'Modern Family, 'The 100'
The Middle
ABC, 8 ET/PT
Well, here's a guest you might never have expected to show up on a comedy about an ordinary, working-class Indiana family: Jimmy Kimmel, playing himself. The motivation for the visit is the same as the one that sent the family to a Disney theme park: cross-promotion. The method for working him in is less clear, but it may have something to do with Brick starting his own podcast.
Modern Family
ABC, 9 ET/PT
Three great guests — Steve Zahn, Andrea Anders and Tyne Daly —dominate a first-rate episode tonight, helping to make it one of the young season's funniest. Zahn and Anders bring a bit of The Middle to Modern as low-rent house buyers Phil and Claire would rather not have as neighbors. Still, as much fun as they are, the half-hour belongs to the always fabulous Daly as Lily's new teacher, a task master who both unites and terrifies Cam and Mitch. And really, who can blame them?
The 100
CW, 9 ET/PT
Amid all the justifiable excitement over Jane the Virgin and The Flash, don't overlook this sci-fi drama that aided CW's shift to a more adult-inclusive network. In this fast-moving (if understandably frantic) season premiere, we find out who took Clarke (Eliza Taylor), what happened to the rest of her young settler friends, and the whereabouts of their spaceship parents.