| Malcolm in the Middle | |
|---|---|
Intertitle |
|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | Linwood Boomer |
| Starring | Jane Kaczmarek Bryan Cranston Christopher Kennedy Masterson Justin Berfield Erik Per Sullivan Frankie Muniz |
| Opening theme | "Boss of Me" by They Might Be Giants |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 7 |
| No. of episodes | 151 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Camera setup | Panavision; Multi-camera |
| Running time | 21–23 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Satin City Regency Television Fox Television Studios |
| Distributor | 20th Television |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Fox |
| Picture format | 1080i 16:9 (HDTV) |
| Audio format | Dolby Digital 5.1 |
| Original run | January 9, 2000 – May 14, 2006 |
Malcolm in the Middle is an American television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for the Fox Network. The series was first broadcast on January 9, 2000, and ended its six-and-a-half-year run on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes. The series received critical acclaim and won a Peabody Award, seven Emmy Awards, one Grammy Award and was nominated for seven Golden Globes.[1]
The series follows a family of six (later seven), and stars Frankie Muniz in the lead role of Malcolm, a more-or-less normal boy who tests at genius level; he enjoys being smart but despises having to take classes for gifted children, who are mocked by the other students who call them "Krelboynes". Jane Kaczmarek is Malcolm's overbearing, authoritarian mother, Lois, and Bryan Cranston plays his disengaged but loving father Hal. Christopher Masterson plays eldest brother Francis, a former rebel who, in earlier episodes, was in military school, but eventually marries and settles into a steady job. Justin Berfield is Malcolm's dimwitted older brother Reese, a schoolyard bully who tortures Malcolm at home even while he defends him at school. Younger brother Dewey, genius musician, is portrayed by Erik Per Sullivan. For the first couple of seasons, the show's focus was on Malcolm. As the series progressed, however, it began to explore all six members of the family rather equally. A fifth son—Jamie—was introduced as a baby toward the series' conclusion.
It was produced by Satin City and Regency Television in association with Fox Television Studios (syndicated by Fox corporate sibling 20th Television).
The series has proven popular worldwide and has been syndicated in 57 countries. In the United States, it had been syndicated in the daytime on FX and at nighttime on Nickelodeon's sister channel TeenNick, as well as local stations. In the United Kingdom, it originally aired on Sky1, its HD counterpart and Sky2, however after Sky stopped airing repeats of the show, the rights were bought by Channel 5 (UK) and are now shown on 5*. It had also been syndicated on Network Ten in Australia (originally airing on the Nine Network).
Contents |
The show is about a boy named Malcolm and his dysfunctional family. The show stars Frankie Muniz as Malcolm, the third of four (later five, then six) boys, his brothers and their parents, Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) and Hal (Bryan Cranston). The oldest, Francis (Christopher Masterson), was sent away to military school, leaving at home his three younger brothers, Reese (Justin Berfield), Malcolm and Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan), Malcolm being the middle child still at home (hence the show's title). In season four, the character Jamie (James and Lukas Rodriguez) was added to the show as the fifth son. The show's early seasons centered on Malcolm dealing with the rigors of being an adolescent and enduring the eccentricities of his life. Later seasons gradually explored the other members of the family and their friends in more depth, including others such as Craig Feldspar, Stevie Kenarban, and Stevie's dad Abe.
The series was different from many others in that Malcolm broke the fourth wall by talking directly to the viewer, all scenes were shot using a single camera and the show employed neither a laugh track nor a live studio audience. Emulating the style of hour-long dramas, this half-hour show was shot on film instead of video. Another unique aspect of the show is that the cold open of every episode is unrelated to the main story. Exceptions were episodes which were the conclusions of "two-parters"; each part two episode opened with a recap of its part one episode.
| Season | Ep # | First Airdate | Last Airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 16 | January 9, 2000 | May 21, 2000 |
| Season 2 | 25 | November 5, 2000 | May 20, 2001 |
| Season 3 | 22 | November 11, 2001 | May 12, 2002 |
| Season 4 | 22 | November 3, 2002 | May 18, 2003 |
| Season 5 | 22 | November 2, 2003 | May 23, 2004 |
| Season 6 | 22 | November 7, 2004 | May 15, 2005 |
| Season 7 | 22 | September 30, 2005 | May 14, 2006 |
The opening titles feature short clips from cult films or television shows, edited together with clips from the early seasons of the TV series. The original opening includes, in order of appearance:
The house that was used for external shots is privately owned, and is situated in the Studio City district of Los Angeles, at 12334 Cantura Street;[7][8] it can be seen in Google Street View.[9] Although the show always depicted the house as being in a quiet suburban neighborhood, in reality it is only one block away from a busy, pedestrian-friendly stretch of the famous Ventura Boulevard.
Filming also took place at 20th Century Fox Studios – 10201-Pico Boulevard in the Century City district of Los Angeles; at Walter Reed Middle School in Los Angeles and in Santa Clarita, California.[10] There are several instances where California license plates are visible, including the family vehicle in "(Traffic Jam)". In "Stock Car Races," when Hal and the boys are entering a race track, the billboard behind the entrance displays the place as Irwindale Speedway, a real race track in Southern California. In seasons six and seven, however, the license plates on the cars are from Oklahoma ("Hal's Christmas Gift" and "Malcolm Defends Reese"). The last episode in the first season ("Waterpark") was filmed at a waterpark called "Wild Rivers" located in Irvine, California, but in the episode the waterpark was called "Wavetown USA". Many of the "Lucky Aide" store scenes were done at a Drug Emporium that used to be at 6020 Lankershim in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles.
The show's theme song, "Boss of Me", was written and recorded by the alternative rock group They Might Be Giants. The song won the "Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media" award at the 2002 Grammy Awards.[1] The band also performed nearly all of the incidental music for the show in its first two seasons.
Mood setting music is sprinkled throughout the series, in replacement of the laugh track, in a way that resembles feature film more than other TV sitcoms. Some examples of this highly varied music include ABBA, Basement Jaxx, Sum 41, Kenny Rogers, Lords Of Acid, The Getaway People, En Vogue, Phil Collins, Quiet Riot, Queen, Titán and Citizen King whose song "Better Days" is played at the end of both the pilot episode and the series finale. The Southern California pop-punk band Lit have many of their songs featured in several episodes. Lit songs that were never released as singles were also used.
A soundtrack, Music from Malcolm in the Middle, was released on November 21, 2000.[11]
Only the first season of Malcolm in the Middle has been released on DVD. Season 2 was going to be released in autumn 2003, but was cancelled due to high costs of music clearances.[12]
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment announced The re-released of Malcolm in the Middle Seasons 1-7 and The Complete series on DVD.
| DVD name | Release date | Ep # | # of Discs | Additional information |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Complete First Season | October 29, 2002 | 16 | 3 | Extended pilot episode, A Stroke of Genius featurette, commentary on select episodes, gag reel, deleted scenes, alternate show openings, bloopers, Dewey's Day Job featurette. |
On October 2, 2011, all seven seasons of the show were made available to view on Netflix's subscription internet streaming service.
The show quickly gained a large viewer base, starting off with ratings of 23 million for the debut episode[13] and 26 million for the second episode.[14]
Fox shuffled the show's air time repeatedly to make room for other shows, eventually giving it a free pass in its seventh and last season. On January 13, 2006, Fox announced that the show would be moving to 7:00 pm on Sundays effective January 29, 2006. On January 17, 2006, Fox announced the cancellation of the series, with the 151st and final episode airing at 8:30 pm ET/PT (the show's original timeslot) on May 14, 2006. The finale was watched by 7.4 million.
| Season | Season Premiere | Season Finale | TV Season | Ranking | Viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | January 9, 2000 | May 21, 2000 | 2000 | #18[15] | 15.2[15] |
| 2nd | November 5, 2000 | May 20, 2001 | 2000–2001 | #22[16] | 14.5[16] |
| 3rd | November 11, 2001 | May 12, 2002 | 2001–2002 | #25[17] | 13.0[17] |
| 4th | November 3, 2002 | May 18, 2003 | 2002–2003 | #43[18] | 10.7[18] |
| 5th | November 2, 2003 | May 23, 2004 | 2003–2004 | #71[19] | 8.4[19] |
| 6th | November 7, 2004 | May 15, 2005 | 2004–2005 | #99[20] | 5.6[20] |
| 7th | September 30, 2005 | May 14, 2006 | 2005–2006 | #127[21] | 3.8[21] |
In Australia, in 2001 Malcolm in the Middle premiered on Channel Nine, Monday nights at 8:00 pm It rated strongly, with the help from its lead in Friends, which at the time rated 2,279,000, 2,031,000 and 2,410,000 as the night's most watched show, and year's 2nd most watched TV program. Malcolm in the Middle's ratings included 1,952,000, 1,925,000, 1,712,000, 1,644,000, and sometimes rating over the 2 million mark: 2,002,000, 2,008,000.
In France, the show first aired daily at 8 pm in December 2001, on M6, but did not find its public and was quickly off schedule. Then, when the show made its comeback in the summer of 2003 at noon, it had a big success. The last seasons had over 1.5 million viewers and a share sometimes over 30%. Due to the show's popularity, the network is currently still broadcasting reruns.
In the UK, in April 2001, 6 months after it was shown on Sky1 it premiered on terristrial television on BBC2 at 6:45 pm on Fridays, where the first episode gained 3.3 million. With the success of the first season, season 2 was moved to prime-time the following year at 8:30 pm. It is now shown weekdays on 5* which began January 3, 2011.
In Mexico, the channel Canal 5 still playing reruns of the series daily from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, four episodes in a row. The show first aired back on 2001 at 3:00 pm and have had many changes since then, crossing over the channel 4 of the same network, and gained high ratings ever since and still.
Jane Kaczmarek and Cloris Leachman gained the highest honors in the cast for being nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award every year they appeared on Malcolm in the Middle. Cloris Leachman succeeded in winning 2002 and 2006. The show won a total of 7 Emmys during its seven year run.[1]
The show entered local syndication one month before the sixth season premiered on Fox. When the show entered syndication all of the TV-14 episodes had to be changed to TV-PG since they did not meet the syndication standards for a TV-14 rating. The show was launched on Nick at Nite on July 5, 2009 at 8:00 pm with an all night marathon. However, Nick at Nite used the changed ratings to keep the show family friendly and remove adult content from the episodes. When Nick at Nite pulled Malcolm it began airing on TeenNick from November 26, 2010 and continued until December 2010. On July 18, 2011, the show returned to TeenNick's line-up. On September 26, 2011, Malcolm in the Middle began airing on IFC.
In the UK, the show was originally aired on BBC2. It was later moved to Sky1 and is currently shown on Fiver (at 6:00 pm and again at about 7:30 pm).
| Preceded by Survivor: Australian Outback 2001 |
Malcolm in the Middle Super Bowl lead-out program 2002 |
Succeeded by Alias 2003 |
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