''The Middletons'' is an American

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

created by Ralph Dunagin and

Dana Summers Dana Summers is an American editorial cartoonist and comic strip creator, whose work is syndicated by Tribune Content Agency. His editorial cartoons are published in the ''Orlando Sentinel'', usually reflecting a conservative opinion. He also c ...

. The strip debuted on November 3, 1986, in the

Orlando Sentinel The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune P ...

. Originally distributed by

News America Syndicate The Field Newspaper Syndicate was a syndication service based in Chicago that operated independently from 1941 to 1984, for a good time under the name the Chicago Sun-Times Syndicate. The service was founded by Marshall Field III and was part of F ...

, it moved to

North America Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editoria ...

in 1987 and then

Tribune Content Agency Tribune Content Agency (TCA) is a syndication company owned by Tribune Publishing. TCA had previously been known as the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate (CTNYNS), Tribune Company Syndicate, and Tribune Media Se ...

in 1994. Set in Middletown, it features a suburban American family and their neighbors.

Cast

* Morris Robert Dale "Apopka Papa" Middleton used to be an athlete, but now he must accept, reluctantly, that he is getting older. He was born in Apopka, Florida. He also coached a Pop Warner football team for several years until he was fired by his mother Beatrice on January 30, 2011. Morris' father was Walter. * Midge "The Nuthatch" Middleton (née Keller) raised two children and then went back to work as a middle school principal. Hometown: Tullahoma, Tennessee. * Kate Middleton is in her 20s and works in a barbecue restaurant despite having a college degree. According to the June 19, 2011 strip, her grandmother has claimed she was Princess Kate. * Beatrice Edna Mary "Gunny Granny" Middleton (née Duke) is Morris's sweet, elderly, nasty, snappy, and feisty mom who lives with the family. She is tough and mean. She is 85 years old. Hometown is

Immokalee, Florida (your home) , nickname = , settlement_type = Census-designated place , motto = , image_skyline = File:Immokalee-Zocalo Plaza 2018.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption ...

. Her nickname is "Gunny Granny" (she was a Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant from 1945 to 1972). She is a 6th degree black belt in

MCMAP The Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP, ) is a combat system developed by the United States Marine Corps to combine existing and new hand-to-hand and close quarters combat techniques with morale and team-building functions and instructio ...

. Her motto is: "A gunny granny's gotta do what a gunny granny's gotta do." She also likes exercise and fitness, often working out for hours at a time. She can often be seen in a blue sweat suit and pink sneakers. She now coaches her son Morris's youth football team, having recently fired him from it. She was a member of

Kappa Kappa Gamma Kappa Kappa Gamma (), also known simply as Kappa or KKG, is a collegiate sorority founded at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois, United States. It has a membership of more than 260,000 women, with 140 collegiate chapters in the United States a ...

sorority, Delta Beta chapter,

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. Her longtime boyfriend is Hector J. Hanley, Jr., M.D. She was married to Walter. * Bumper, the Middletons' family pet; a bulldog whose bark is much worse than his bite. Left to Morris by his football coach. Named because he brought home a

bumper Bumper or Bumpers may refer to: People * Betty Bumpers (1925-2018), American activist, First Lady of Arkansas, wife of Dale Bumpers * Dale Bumpers (1925–2016), American politician, governor of Arkansas and senator * Bumper Robinson (born 197 ...

from a 1972

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

. Known to talk to other dogs, especially his best buddy Rusty. * Ernest Wade is

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

and the best friend to Morris. * Peg Wade * Wilson Wade * Wendie Wade * Diego, Wilson's best friend * Grimes, who owns Grimes Auto Parts but has another job with a boss. * Hector has dated Beatrice. * Rambo, the Wades' cat * Barnaby, a

tuxedo cat Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element fo ...

who is new to town. * Wormy, Grimes' dog.

References

1986 comics debuts American comics characters American comic strips Comics about married people Comics characters introduced in 1986 Comic strips syndicated by Tribune Content Agency Fictional families Gag-a-day comics Slice of life comics {{comic-strip-stub