On September 23, 2010, she played Ms. Rinsky, Brick Heck's teacher in the second-season premiere episode of "The Middle". This appearance reunited her with Patricia Heaton, her co-star from "Everybody Loves Raymond". The two women's characters, of course, clash, with Heaton's Frankie Heck always managing to get pushed out of sorts into disastrous action usually resulting in some kind of public chastisement by Roberts' Rinsky, an expert at passive-aggressive manipulation. Roberts returned in two other episodes that season, "The Math Class" and the finale, "Back to Summer".