Characters in Malcolm in the Middle
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This is a list of characters in Malcolm in the Middle.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
[edit] Main characters
Originally there were 4 brothers (although Malcolm's oldest brother attended a military school away from home, so Malcolm was still the middle sibling left at home). The fifth child was introduced in the show's fourth season but his conception was not mentioned until Season 5. The boys are, from eldest to youngest: Francis, Reese, Malcolm, Dewey, and Jamie. In the last episode Lois discovered she was pregnant with a sixth child.
The family's last name was only revealed three times during the entire series run, two times on a nametag worn by Francis. In the first episode his military school nametag reads "Wilkerson" (in subsequent first and second season episodes his name tag simply read "Francis") but in the last episode his employee ID reads "Nolastname" (or "No Last Name" a joke referring to the fact that the family name was never spoken aloud). In this same final episode, the family's last name is indecipherable during Malcolm's introduction as valedictorian at his high school graduation. In the fifth season episode "Reese Joins the Army (1)", Reese uses a fake ID by the name of "Jetson" to lie about his age.
[edit] Malcolm
Malcolm in the Middle character | |
Malcolm | |
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Played by | Frankie Muniz |
First appearance | Pilot |
Last appearance | Graduation |
Age | |
Marital status | Single |
Occupation | Student, multiple campus jobs |
Family |
Malcolm (born 1988) is the main character and protagonist in Malcolm in the Middle. He is played by Frankie Muniz.
[edit] Background
When Lois was pregnant with Malcolm, Hal was trying to encourage Reese academically, by playing classical symphony music, which is popularly believed to spur intellectual development. Although the music did nothing for Reese, Lois was pregnant with Malcolm at the time, and listening to the music apparently contributed to his genius. Lois went into labor with Malcolm and gave birth to him out on their driveway.
Malcolm is the middle child of the family and is the show's protagonist. In the episode "Stock Car Races", Hal reveals that Malcolm is named after a race car driver called Rusty Malcolm (he mutters that it took 3 children to win that argument). At the beginning of the series, Malcolm's teacher recognizes him as a gifted student and places him in an accelerated learning class. Much to his dismay, the move brands him as a "krelboyne", a reference to Seymour Krelboyne from The Little Shop of Horrors.
Many episodes revolve around Malcolm's attempts to reconcile his genius-level 165 IQ with his desire to lead what he would consider a normal social life. However, Malcolm remains a social outcast in school. In middle school, Malcolm uncomfortably socializes with his fellow Krelboynes, but when the group moves on to high school, they no longer have classes together and stop interacting. Malcolm and Reese, particularly toward the end of the series, have no discernible group of friends. At this point, the only people Malcolm interacts with socially on a regular basis are his family, his genius best friend Stevie Kenarban, and a handful of short-term girlfriends.
[edit] Series finale
In the final episode it is revealed that Malcolm's parents do not plan for him to be happy in life. Because Malcolm consistently exceeds his parents' expectations, by the time he graduates high school, they have the highest of expectations for him: that he will become President of the United States. Pursuant to this, instead of letting Malcolm take a six figure job out of high school, his parents force him to follow through on plans to attend Harvard as part of an elaborate plan for his future. Lois says that at Harvard, Malcolm will have to work harder than his classmates and will accomplish more than they do, but they will continue to look down on him. Consequently, Malcolm will realize that there is more to life than showing off how smart he is. Then, the plan holds, he will channel his energies into a political career, and after starting off as a district attorney or running a foundation, he will be elected governor of a midsize state and then President. Lois and Hal envision that he would then become one of the greatest Presidents ever because he would represent the interests of people like his family, which, his parents say, no other President has. It appears that his brothers and grandmother are aware of these plans, as when Malcolm looks around at his family after being told this, they all nod at him, and Francis says, "Sorry, we thought you knew." Although Malcolm recognizes that his parents' plans are outlandish and improbable and complains that they are making decisions for him that are rightfully his to make, he signals that he has accepted their vision for him and will carry it in his valedictorian speech at his high-school graduation.
[edit] Jobs
Malcolm has had three jobs in the series. His first was as a babysitter for a rich family to earn money to buy a robotics kit, but he quit after learning the parents were spying on him. Later, in the middle of the series, Lois forced Malcolm to take a job with her at the Lucky Aide to have him under her control. He hated the job and had tried to quit many times but Lois wouldn't let him. He finally quit at approximately the time he graduated. In the final episode he gets a job as a janitor at Harvard to help with his tuition.
[edit] Lois
Malcolm in the Middle character | |
Lois | |
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Played by | Jane Kaczmarek |
First appearance | Pilot |
Last appearance | Graduation |
Age | |
Marital status | Married |
Occupation | Cashier |
Family |
Lois, played by Jane Kaczmarek, is described as a hard-nosed, manipulative and slightly crazy mother and something of an embarrassment to her five kids and devoted husband, Hal.[1]
Lois got into labor with Francis in the middle of her and Hal's wedding.
Jane Kaczmarek herself describes Lois as 'a great mother'.[2]
Lois is intensely disliked by Hal's wealthy and snobby family, as seen in the fourth-season episode "Family Reunion". They consider her low-class, and have taken to referring to her as "Lois Common Denominator".
She, in turn, took a strong and immediate dislike to Francis' wife Piama. Both of them take every opportunity to back-bite each other, but by the end of the series they have developed a much more cordial relationship.
In addition to being a full-time mom, Lois works at 'Lucky Aide', a local drugstore (motto: "The L stands for Value"[3]). Craig, one of her co-workers, clearly has a crush on her, which she does nothing to encourage. He often makes inept attempts to impress her.
Lois is believed to be descended from Poland or Eastern Europeans. This is implied by her love of Polish baseball players and her mother Ida's culture. Lois and Hal continue to be sexually attracted to one another and seem eager to expand their brood. In the series finale it is hinted that she is pregnant once again, although it is implied that this is only a prank by Dewey. Her original plan was to have all girls.[4]
She rarely sees her sister Susan (Roseanne's Laurie Metcalf), who only appears in the episode "Lois' Sister". Despite Susan's comfortable life, she is extremely resentful of Lois; their politeness to each other barely masks a simmering hostility that apparently once came to a boiling point over "the apple turnover incident". When Lois discovers that Susan is dying of kidney failure, she is shocked to find out that her sister would rather die than ask for a donation from her. She finally begrudgingly and ungratefully accepts.
[edit] Hal
Malcolm in the Middle character | |
Hal | |
---|---|
Played by | Bryan Cranston |
First appearance | Pilot |
Last appearance | Graduation |
Age | |
Marital status | Married |
Occupation | Systems Manager |
Family |
Hal, played by Bryan Cranston, is married to Lois, and is father to Francis, Malcolm, Reese, Dewey and Jamie. He is more relaxed in his parenting than Lois, mainly because he is afraid to make the wrong choice. However, he does discipline his boys most of the time when Lois is disciplining them to back her up, and sometimes even when she isn't around. Several episodes refer to him as a former rebel and troublemaker, much like his sons. He ran a pirate radio station in college under the name of Kid Charlemagne. His indecisiveness supposedly stems from a childhood incident in which he accidentally caused a clown to get attacked by a snake (both of which he is now afraid of). When Lois is away, he quickly loses self-control and indulges in his baser enjoyments, such as smoking, gambling, loud music, and building "killer robots" (as explored in one episode).
Although he doesn't show it much, he has a high temper, and usually flies into fits of rage over petty annoyances, frequently engaging in self-destructive vendettas against those who cross him. In the second-season episode Convention, when he and Lois go to a convention, he keeps getting into constant fist-fights with a man who stole a great idea from him long ago. Another example of his high temper is in the fifth-season episode Reese's Apartment, when he gets furious and starts speaking angry gibberish after hearing the horrible, outlandish thing that Reese did (which is never revealed). He is also very squeamish, and gets freaked out very easily over cartoon characters like Rosie the Robot and "evil puppet" movies.
He is quite passionate about a range of activities, such as roller-skating, painting, pirate radio and race walking. He comes from a large and rich family, all members of which have some (repressed) problem or another. They rarely visit because of the intense friction between Hal's relatives and Lois. Hal's family believes that Hal deserved a high class woman, instead of Lois, who has a lower-class background. His father (Christopher Lloyd) never listened to him, and so he always made jokes or tickled Hal before they both could speak about Lois. In the seventh-season episode Hal grieves his father's death.
Hal works as a low level, cubicle bound, white collar worker in a large, scandal-ridden corporation. He was used as a scapegoat for much of the company's shady business practices, a charge that would have resulted in a lengthy prison term. However, with the help of Malcolm, Hal proved that he could not possibly be the guilty party because all of the incriminating evidence against him took place on Fridays, and Hal presented inarguable proof that he had been skipping work on Fridays for many years. He stated in the sixth-season episode Motivational Seminar that he works in systems-management. In another episode the head of the company Hal works for stated that he was one of the best systems managers he'd ever had, however in the seventh-season episode College Recruiters Hal says he could be replaced at his job in an hour and is seen to love domino toppling.
[edit] Reese
Malcolm in the Middle character | |
Reese | |
---|---|
Played by | Justin Berfield |
First appearance | Pilot |
Last appearance | Graduation |
Age | |
Marital status | Divorced |
Occupation | Janitor |
Family |
Reese, played by Justin Berfield, is the second oldest of the children, and is also the least intelligent and most destructive, although at some times, he shows even more intelligence than Malcolm when devising fiendish plans. He even had a mean streak in the womb; while his mother Lois was in labor, he kicked her so hard that she forcefully gave 'pre-mature' birth to him. Immediately following his delivery he kicked the doctor in the nose. His obsession with violence horrifies the family and leaves him with few friends, partly as he is a bully at school. He bullies the "Krelboynes" in Malcolm's class, as well as his younger brothers, especially Dewey. Due to this, Reese is seen working out a lot to give himself a muscular build.
During his teen years, Reese ran off to join the US military under a faked name and forged age (being that he was underage at the time)without telling his family where he had gone. He was successful in completing Basic Training and was praised as one of the most brilliant soldiers in his platoon after he learned to "turn his brain off" and surrender his will to his superiors. After being sent to Iraq in combat conditions, Reese struggles to stay alive. When his mother, Lois, catches wind of what Reese has done, she tracks him down in Iraq and personally brings him home without objection from the military since Reese was underage.
Despite Reese's outwardly unintelligent facade, he discovered a gift for cooking in his late teen years. He is gifted at gourmet cooking and finds a lot of enjoyment in it; the only effective way his parents can find to punish him is banning him from the kitchen. He finds success in a meat packing job, but is fired after setting all the cows free to impress a girl.
In his late teen years, Reese gets married to an attractive immigrant girl who requires the marriage to stay in the U.S. Reese truly cares for her, and she claims to care about him, despite her dominating personality and refusal to have sex. However, the marriage falls apart when Reese and Lois discover her sleeping with another man inside the couple's garage apartment. Added to the fact that Reese miserably failed the immigration test to keep his wife in the country (he mistakenly wrote that she has a tail), the character is never heard from again and presumably deported.
Reese is depicted as a virgin with limited sexual experience. In the penultimate episode, "Morp", a girl named Jeanie offers to pay Reese to take her to the senior prom because she had been too focused on getting into college to cultivate a social life and find a date by normal means. Jeanie says that she initially selected Reese because he isn't "completely hideous" and she knew he wouldn't have a date. However, Reese turns out to be a gentleman and sweeps her off her feet by being charming and considerate. Although Jeanie did not initially plan to do anything with Reese after the prom itself, she invites him to go to the beach with her and tells him, "I really want you." However, before Reese can accept the invitation, his watch alarm goes off, indicating that he is "off the clock", and he leaves, revealing that he was only nice to "satisfy his customer" and thereby passing up a chance to finally have sex.
After graduating high school, Reese moves in with Craig Feldspar and finally finds success, as a janitor in his former high school. According to his phone call with Malcolm in the season finale, he tells Malcolm that when the principal found the peepholes in the bathroom, the head janitor was fired, and his job was given to Reese.
It has been hinted that Reese may also be a genius, like Dewey and Malcolm. At the end of his senior year of high school, he is seen studying all day and night multiple times. He says that the tests are a bunch of true-false questions. When his results on the final exams come back, it is found out that he missed every answer on every test. He refers to this as his greatest work, because he had done so bad that he couldn't make it up in summer school so he would have to repeat the year and thus, not move out or need to get a job.
[edit] Dewey
Malcolm in the Middle character | |
Dewey | |
---|---|
Played by | Erik Per Sullivan |
First appearance | Pilot |
Last appearance | Graduation |
Age | |
Marital status | Single |
Occupation | Student |
Family |
Dewey, played by Erik Per Sullivan, is portrayed as being quieter and more inclined to the arts than his brothers, at least until Jamie was born, the youngest of the four. It was noted in one episode that Dewey was exposed to radiation from a cracked microwave while in the womb. He hides his intellect from Malcolm and Reese, in many cases cleverly taking advantage of them. But for much of the series he is frequently beat up and picked on by Reese and Malcolm. In one episode he fools Reese into believing he is forwarding instructions from their mother when in fact he is making them up while talking to a telemarketer, Francis, a time and temperature lady, or even no one on the phone ("Hal's Friend"). From then on, most episodes involving Dewey would have him viewed as a manipulator when dealing with his brothers or parents. Examples of this are the episode Stevie in the Hospital, when he made Lois think she was losing her mind by messing with her clothes and daily routine, and in Dewey's Opera, when he fueled a fight between Lois and Hal so he would have better material for the opera he was writing based on their fight. In the fourth season, Dewey begins to exhibit a high degree of intelligence, seen mainly in his talent of playing the piano. Dewey is about to follow his brother into the gifted class, only to have Malcolm help him stay in normal classes. Malcolm has Reese complete Dewey's test, which accidentally gets Dewey thrown into the "Special" class, which is full of kids considered lost causes. Students in this class are known as the "Buseys". Dewey has since organized the class to want to be all they can be, and is teaching them standard lessons. He has been trying to show that they are just as capable as others, and has organized them to do things such as performing an opera he wrote based on his family. Unlike Malcolm, his parents intend for Dewey to be rich and happy later in life. Lois even once told Malcolm that "Dewey is a flier, he'll just drift and float through life and things will turn out for him, but you and I Malcolm are burrowers, we are at our best when our heads are down and we're grinding through a mountain of drudgery." He spends much effort making sure his brother Jamie doesn't feel neglected like he did.
[edit] Francis
Malcolm in the Middle character | |
Francis | |
---|---|
Played by | Christopher Masterson |
First appearance | Pilot |
Last appearance | Graduation |
Age | |
Marital status | Married six years |
Occupation | Desk job (Exact position never specified) |
Family |
Francis, played by Christopher Masterson, is he oldest of the brothers and the biggest trouble-maker. Francis is a regular character on the show, though he has lived outside of the house since before season 1 began. His mother, Lois, was in labor with Francis in the middle of her and Hal's wedding. Francis was a troublemaker from a young age; he broke curfew, drank, smoked and slept around. Lois exiled him to a military academy after he was caught in bed with his girlfriend and crashed her car, which proceeded to burn up, though the last straw was when he got his nose pierced. From afar, Francis provides much fodder for many interesting subplots.
During the first two seasons, at the military academy, rebellious Francis finds a formidable adversary in Commandant Edwin Spangler, whose hook-for-a-hand proved a valuable comic device as Francis sows insurrection in the student ranks. After the second season, at only 17 years old, he legally emancipates himself with the help of forged signatures and an unscrupulous Alabama lawyer. He then leaves the academy and heads to Alaska to find work as a logger.
While in Alaska, he marries a local woman, Piama, whom he had dated for three weeks. Lois reacts hysterically and continues to be somewhat hostile toward Piama for some time. Piama, like Lois, is hot-tempered and does not shrink when Lois goes after her. By season 4 he and Piama have left Alaska and Francis begins working as a farmhand at a New Mexico dude ranch owned by a German couple. Here, Francis becomes more of a responsible adult: he even begins to discipline his younger brothers, who always regarded him as a rule-breaking role model. A little over two years after he begins working at the ranch, however, he is fired because the ATM he used to deposit funds wasn't actually an ATM.
For the remainder of seasons six and seven, Francis makes only occasional appearances, yet he is still credited in each episode. Later, we find that he has regressed and reverted to his old ways, living in a cheap apartment without getting a job. Here, he briefly takes a job as the agent for his friend's band and attempts to start his own business.
In the final episode, Francis and his mother fight over the fact that he remains unemployed. Later, his father discovers that Francis has found a job with a large corporation called Amerisys Industries and has worked there for two months. He explains that he enjoys the job immensely, but he kept the job a secret from his family because he equally enjoys frustrating his mother by telling her that he's unemployed.
[edit] Jamie
Malcolm in the Middle character | |
Jamie | |
---|---|
Played by | James and Lukas Rodriguez |
First appearance | Baby (2) |
Last appearance | Graduation |
Age | |
Marital status | Single |
Occupation | {{{occupation}}} |
Family |
Jamie was played by identical twin brothers James and Lukas Rodriguez in his later episodes. In his earlier episodes, he was played by twin sisters Kara and Jessica Sanford. [5] The character first appeared in season four of the show on May 18th, 2003.[6]
[edit] Recurring characters
- Craig Feldspar, portrayed by David Anthony Higgins, is Lois' neurotic, though well-intentioned, co-worker at the Lucky Aide. It was made obvious on numerous occasions that Craig is in love with Lois, and he even told her so when he thought he was going to die. He appears frequently in the show, especially during later seasons, as his character becomes more entwined with Lois and her family. After entrusting his house and cat ("Jelly Bean") to Dewey's care while he is away, and the resulting fire that destroys it, he lives with Malcolm's family for a short time until the boys' scheme to cover their tracks ends up getting him out. The series ends with Reese moving out of the house and becoming Craig's roommate.
- Stanley, played by Karim Prince was a cadet at the academy, friend, and somewhat of a body guard for Francis during the first season.
- Stevie Kenarban, played by Craig Lamar Traylor. Malcolm's best friend. Stevie first meets Malcolm in the pilot; they are in the same accelerated class through middle school and most of high school. Stevie is a wheelchair user and has severe asthma, and only one lung, causing him to have difficulty speaking. Stevie has a sarcastic side and has also outsmarted Malcolm and Reese on numerous occasions.
- Lloyd and Dabney, played by Evan Matthew Cohen and Kyle Sullivan, are Malcolm and Stevie's Krelboyne classmates and best friends for the first four seasons of the show. As Krelboynes (gifted students), Lloyd and Dabney are often bullied by their classmates (including Reese), and they often suffer the consequences of schemes they help Malcolm with. Like Malcolm's other Krelboyne friends, Lloyd and Dabney appear less frequently during the show's fourth season, eventually leaving Stevie as Malcolm's only friend.
- Abraham "Abe" Kenarban, played by Gary Anthony Williams. Abe is the devoted father to Stevie and husband to Kitty. He is also Hal's best friend and enjoys playing poker with him and his other friends: Trey, Brian, Malik, and Steve.
- Richie, played by Todd Giebenhain, is Francis's best friend before military school, and Francis often visits Richie on his trips back home during the first three seasons. He is a delinquent who was eventually shipped off to military school with Francis. It is never explained why Richie disappears or why Francis never sees him again after the third season.
- Kitty Kenarban, played by Merrin Dungey. Stevie's mother and Abe's wife. Kitty is generally soft-spoken and doesn't normally punish her son due to his disability. Kitty disappears from the series after the third season premiere and it is revealed that she becomes a porn star and deserts her family. She returns in season six, however, hoping to reform herself. (In the pilot episode Dungey plays a different character: Malcolm's teacher, before he transfers to the Krelboyne class.)
- Caroline Miller, played by Catherine Lloyd Burns, Malcolm's teacher, appears in most of the first-season and two of the second-season episodes. She was very passionate about her job and had Malcolm's best interests at heart. She disappeared from the series after giving birth in the school parking lot.
- Commandant Edwin Spangler, played by Daniel von Bargen. The strict and hard-nosed military veteran in charge of the cadets at Marlin Academy. He suffers from dozens of injuries and is missing an eye; ironically none of these are combat-related, as he has never served in wartime. For the first two seasons and beginning of season three, Francis was Spangler's most rebellious student and clashed with him on many occasions. Halfway through the third season, Francis' desertion from the academy caused Spangler's life to go downhill as Francis stood out as his only failure. Spangler is fired from the academy, tracks Francis to Alaska, and attempts to kill him at first. Francis eventually finds Spangler a new job at a retirement home where the Commandant will be able to boss around the senior citizens.
- Cadet Eric Hanson, played by Eric Nenninger. Francis' fellow cadet at the academy and friend for the first three seasons. Eric was Francis's reluctant sidekick and normally suffered the consequences of the antics caused by Francis. On several occasions, Eric has mentioned that he has two fathers. At the start of season three, Eric turns eighteen, drops out of the academy, and goes to work in an Alaskan lodge. Francis emancipates himself and follows soon after, but both of them learn that their job isn't as great as they hoped. Francis eventually gets a job at a ranch, but Eric is left behind to hitchhike on the highway. His fate is unknown.
- Cynthia, played by Tania Raymonde, is a new Krelboyne girl who joins Malcolm's class in the episode "Krelboyne Girl". She has a crush on Malcolm.
- Lavernia, played by Brenda Wehle, is Francis' cruel, heartless boss at the Alaskan lodge. Lavernia rules over her workers with an iron fist, charging her employees instead of paying them. Eventually she closes down the lodge and fires her workers when a mining company buys out the land.
- Lionel Herkabe, played by Chris Eigeman, Malcolm's teacher, is divorced and in debt though he used to be a dot-com millionaire. He was a Krelboyne like Malcolm and manipulates Malcolm for his own purposes.
- Victor and Ida, played by Robert Loggia and Cloris Leachman respectively, are Lois's dysfunctional parents, introduced in the episode "The Grandparents". Ida is depicted as greedy, chain-smoking, manipulative, racist, and quick to take offense. The only good deed she has ever done is saving Dewey from being run over by a truck; this resulted in her suffering the loss of one of her legs. Victor's background is obscure, except for mention that he left home at a young age and that he was in "the war." Ida often refers to a hard life growing up in "The Old Country" and going through "a camp". While they speak with Slavic accents and appear to be from somewhere in Eastern Europe, their exact nationality is never specified, and may be intended to be fictional. However, an episode which centers on a fictitious "St. Grotus Day" feast, appears to take place in a Croatian community center, with a Croatian flag and a poster of Zagreb Cathedral on the wall. Victor, who had died by the time Ida made her second appearance on the season 3 episode "Christmas," had been keeping second family a secret from Lois and her sister Susan (Laurie Metcalf)[7]: He had run off and married a good-natured Canadian woman, played by Betty White. In the episode "Victor's Other Family," it was further revealed that Victor wasn't Lois' biological father.
- Piama Tananahaakna, played by Emy Coligado, is Francis's wife; she appears for the first time in "Hal's Birthday". She was 19 when they got married and has been married before. Her mother moved away long ago and her father kicked her out when she was 14. After being mistreated by Hal's family at Hal's birthday party, Lois treats Piama a bit better. She later comes to work for the Mannkussers. She mostly serves as a voice of reason between Francis and his family. Although it has never been directly stated (Francis says she's "fiery" in "Hal's Birthday"), she is very much like Lois.
- Otto Mannkusser, played by Kenneth Mars. Francis's German boss and sidekick for the fourth and fifth seasons. Otto is in charge of The Grotto, a dude ranch (named after the two in the episode "Zoo", Otto says "She is Gretchen, I am Otto - Grotto") . Otto is married to Gretchen and has an estranged son. Otto is gullible and a bit of a pushover; he hires too many employees and gives them extra vacation days. However, after Francis works on the ranch for a little over two years, Otto fires him when the ATM that Francis was depositing his funds into wasn't really an ATM. In German, his last name means literally, "man kisser". In the German version of the show, the Mannkussers are Danes.
- Gretchen Mannkusser, played by Meagen Fay, is the wife of Otto and the co-runner of the Grotto. She is a kind and caring woman. As Otto explained to Francis, their marriage was by deceit: Gretchen was actually the girlfriend of Otto's best friend, but Otto loved her as well. When they were planning to elope, Gretchen's intended arranged for her to meet him at a rendezvous point, but he lied about the actual location and said he would meet her at the train station in Berlin. When his friend didn't show up, Otto came and comforted her and they married. They had a son named Rutger.
- Jessica, played by Hayden Panettiere is a teenage girl who temporarily lived with the family in later seasons, sleeping on their couch, after her dad threw her out. She proved to be as scheming, conniving and manipulative as any of the boys. She once convinced Malcolm that Reese was gay, and vice versa.
[edit] External links
Preceded by Survivor: The Australian Outback 2001 |
Super Bowl lead-out program 2002 |
Succeeded by Alias 2003 |
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