TV tonight: 'Middle,' 'Modern Family,' 'Duck Dynasty'

• Mike is an accessory to a crime on 'The Middle'
• 'Modern Family' repeats last season's holiday classic
• 'Duck Dynasty' gets plugged into the holidays

Robert Bianco has the day off.

The Middle
ABC, 8 ET/PT

The middle-class, middle-America family sitcom kicks off a holiday-themed evening run of comedies on ABC, and things are never quite so merry as they might be in Orson, Ind. First, Mike (Neil Flynn) helps his brother, Rusty (guest Norm Macdonald), move some furniture into the Heck household garage, only to realize the furniture is stolen — which doesn't stop Axl from turning the newly furnished room into his bachelor's pad. Meanwhile, Frankie (Patricia Heaton) plans to land a part-time holiday job in a department store so she can use the employee discount to buy Christmas presents.

Modern Family
9 ET/PT

Somehow, between The Middle and Modern Family,The Neighbors (8:30 ET/PT) landed, where tonight, alien couple Larry Bird and Jackie Joyner-Kersee don't quite get the spirit of the holiday and open all the gifts Marty and Debbie had asked them to hide for their family. But feel free to skip right over to Family's seasonal repeat from last year, in which The Pritchetts and their respectives have to throw together a quick early celebration when they all realize they won't be together for the actual holiday.

Duck Dynasty
10 ET/PT A&E

Nothing like families on cable. First, celebrate with the appropriately bearded Robertsons of Dynasty, as the redneck millionaires host their "holiday special," with Miss Kay whipping up a four-meat dish and Willie playing Santa at church. When that becomes far too much to bear, move over to Happily Divorced on TV Land (10:30 ET/PT), where Elliot's parents pay a visit and Fran tries to impress them with a dinner party. Those parents are played by TV classics themselves: Florence Henderson and Robert Wagner.