Frankie Muniz, Malcolm in the Middle
This Sunday at 8:30 pm/ET, television bids farewell to the, um... er... what was the name of that family on Fox's Malcolm in the Middle? Whether or not it was, as lore has it, the Wilkersons, the clan was tirelessly overseen by Hal and Lois and populated by sons Francis, Reese, Malcolm, Dewey and Jamie. Has it really been six and a half years and 150 episodes since viewers first met the... bunch? Yep. And to think that a Fox rival took a pass on the promising series!
"UPN bought it," Malcolm creator Linwood Boomer recalls, "and it was over there about four months, where it went through the standard development process, which
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Tara Lipinski visits Malcolm in the Middle
Olympic gold-medalist Tara Lipinski expands her TV repertoire even further when she throws Malcolm's brother Reese for a (toe) loop on this weekend's Malcolm in the Middle (Sundays at 7 pm/ET). TVGuide.com talked to the 24-year-old cutie about her latest small-screen venture, the racy film role she bailed on and how she almost went Skating with Celebrities.
TVGuide.com: Tell me about your Malcolm in the Middle role. Who are you playing, what's she about...?Tara Lipinski: I play Carrie, who's this quirky and earthy antifur, antimeat vegetarian type. It was a really fun to play her, so different than anything I've done before. On the show, I think Reese (Justin Berfield) is all abou
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Question: I took your recommendation on Everybody Hates Chris and anticipated the show long before it first aired. It looked hilarious, the cast is great, it's about Chris Rock's youth, there was no laugh track: It seemed to have all the makings of a great show. And yet, with each episode I've seen, I grow less fond of it. While the "first kid to get hand-me-ups" joke was funny, I didn't laugh once at the Valentine's Day episode. Chris' little sister is an annoying brat, Chris' mom is a shrill, carbon copy of the Malcolm in the Middle mom, and seeing Chris' father threaten Tanya's little boyfriend was just ridiculous and mean. And while I root for young Chris, I'm tired of seeing the poor kid being subjected to so much grief, not the least of which is the heavy-handed racism. What do you think, Matt? Are you as finished with this show as I am?
Answer: Not a bit. I don't watch it every week (or let's just say I have a DVR library of episodes to catch up on, given how much Thursday
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Bryan Cranston and Frankie Muniz, Malcolm in the Middle
Friday, Jan. 13, turned out to be a truly bad-luck day for Malcolm in the Middle. That's when the cast members learned that the Fox sitcom, now in its seventh season, had gotten the ax.
"There was some sadness," Bryan Cranston, aka Malcolm's bumbling dad, Hal, tells TVGuide.com, adding that he and his TV wife, Jane Kaczmarek, shared an embrace and a few tears upon learning their fate. "We realized it's about how much fun you have along the way," philosophizes the actor, who felt that Malcolm could have easily gone on creatively for another year. "But I can't complain. We'll have done 151 episodes. It's been fantastic. It's going to be good
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Question: Thanks for devoting much of last Friday's column to my favorite show, Arrested Development. Reading some insight on the situation from you and other fans is both heartwarming and cathartic. I read from another critic that some execs at Fox believe there is a scenario in which AD can get renewed for a fourth season. Given that many of the Fox comedies, like King of the Hill, Malcolm, Bernie Mac and That '70s Show, are on their last legs and that Fox hasn't had a great development season this year, the network may be inclined to bring AD back to fill some gaping holes. Especially considering that AD is one of the few shows that does have significant Emmy recognition and Fox is hardly in a position to be tossing those away. Do you think this is a likely scenario?
Answer: Hard to say, but it's doubtful. The current season was certainly a bit of a surprise — given that during the second season Fox had cut the episode order and yanked it from sweeps, and with all the fun ups and
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Question: I've been curious about the new Fox sitcom The War at Home, with Michael Rapaport. My hope is that it will be the type of irreverent family sitcom that Malcolm in the Middle used to be. Have you seen it yet? Will it be like the early Malcolm seasons, or merely another Quintuplets?
Answer: Closer to the latter, although my faint memory of Quintuplets was of negligible mediocrity while The War at Home is actively, gratingly annoying. Classic Malcolm may have been manic, but there were so many appealing characters and actors on that show. War at Home lacks any charm whatsoever. It seems to me that it's aiming more for a Married... with Children tone, anyway, . If you're looking for a new Malcolm, check out UPN's Everybody Hates Chris. That's the real deal ...
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