Malcolm in the Middle season 1

The first season of Malcolm in the Middle premiered on January 9, 2000, on Fox, and ended on May 21, 2000, with a total of sixteen episodes. Frankie Muniz stars as the title character Malcolm, and he is joined by Jane Kaczmarek, Bryan Cranston, Christopher Kennedy Masterson, Justin Berfield, Erik Per Sullivan and Catherine Lloyd Burns.

Malcolm in the Middle
Season 1
DVD cover
Starring	Jane Kaczmarek Bryan Cranston Christopher Masterson Justin Berfield Erik Per Sullivan Catherine Lloyd Burns Frankie Muniz
No. of episodes	16
Release
Original network	Fox
Original release	January 9 (2000-01-09) – May 21, 2000 (2000-05-21)
Season chronology
List of episodes

Episodes

See also: List of Malcolm in the Middle episodes

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date	Prod. code	U.S. viewers (millions)
1	1	"Pilot"	Todd Holland	Linwood Boomer	January 9, 2000 (2000-01-09)	10012-99-179	22.35[1]
Malcolm lives with his dysfunctional family: neurotic father Hal, control freak mother Lois, dim-witted bully elder brother Reese, and odd younger brother Dewey. His eldest brother, Francis, has been sent to a military school in Alabama, Marlin Academy, for chronic misbehavior. At school, Malcolm tries to keep his head down and avoid the school bully Spath, but his teachers spot his intelligence and testing reveals his I.Q. to be 165. When Lois forces him to join the school's gifted class, Malcolm objects because he doesn't want to be bullied for being a "Krelboyne". Frustrated at being ostracized by the regular kids, Malcolm lashes out at Spath, and with some help from his new friend Stevie (Craig Lamar Traylor), fortuitously humiliates Spath and becomes the nerds' hero.
2	2	"Red Dress"	Arlene Sanford	Alan J. Higgins	January 16, 2000 (2000-01-16)	06-99-103	23.24[2]
Lois is supposed to meet Hal at an expensive restaurant for their anniversary date, but Lois forgets to go after she finds her red dress burned and flushed down the toilet, sending her into a violent rage. She spends the night punishing Reese, Dewey, and Malcolm, trying to figure out which of them burned her dress. Meanwhile, Hal makes friends with a member of the restaurant staff while waiting for Lois. Malcolm, seeing that he and his brothers cannot fight Lois alone, calls Francis for help against Lois. It is later revealed that Hal burned the dress by accident.
3	3	"Home Alone 4"	Todd Holland	Michael Glouberman & Andrew Orenstein	January 23, 2000 (2000-01-23)	06-99-106	19.29[3]
While Hal and Lois are away for the weekend, Francis comes home from military school to babysit. Malcolm overhears Lois and Hal's discussion about Francis and believes he will be allowed to return home permanently if he does a good job, so he convinces the other boys to be on their best behavior. A series of mishaps nevertheless occur, but the boys manage to fix or hide them. Seeing the good work Francis has done, Hal and Lois send him back for military school because they realize how much he is "improving" there.
4	4	"Shame"	Nick Marck	David Richardson	February 6, 2000 (2000-02-06)	06-99-107	16.93[4]
Fed up with his constant abuse, Malcolm beats up a huge bully named Kevin who won't leave him alone, but it turns out that Kevin is only a 7-year-old. Malcolm feels guilty and tries to clear his conscience by signing up for a charity run, but fails when he trips on his untied shoe at the beginning of the run. Hal is confronted by a man who appears to be Kevin's father and beats him up, but it turns out that it was Kevin's 15-year old brother. Dewey is injured climbing a tree, so Hal cuts it down, angering the neighbors because they can see the family's house. Hal grows to miss the tree, so he plants another one. Francis decides to steal the slides for the military academy's disgusting sex education slideshow, but he finds some embarrassing slides of Commandant Spangler (Daniel Von Bargen) in his office, which he replaces with the original slides. However, Spangler shows a cunning and trickier side by showing the cadets embarrassing slides of Francis.
5	5	"Malcolm Babysits"	Jeff Melman	Maggie Bandur & Pang-Ni Landrum	February 13, 2000 (2000-02-13)	06-99-105	18.05[5]
The whole family is forced to live in a trailer owned by Lois' coworker, Craig, while their house is being fumigated. However, Malcolm ends up spending more time at the home of an upper-middle-class family who has hired him as their babysitter, but he learns that they were secretly videotaping him. He later blackmails the family to leave him alone and quits the job. Francis finds the corpse of a missing janitor in the basement of Marlin Academy, and teams up with his friends to give the forgotten custodian a Norse funeral, which turns into a disaster.
6	6	"Sleepover"	Ken Kwapis	Dan Kopelman	February 20, 2000 (2000-02-20)	06-99-110	15.90[6]
Malcolm stays overnight at Stevie's house. He convinces Stevie to sneak out to an arcade downtown, but Stevie's wheelchair is stolen, and they have to find his wheelchair while dragging Stevie in a cart. Meanwhile, to prove that he is mature, Lois challenges Reese to give Dewey a bath and put him to sleep in exchange for being allowed to stay up late to watch a scary movie, but the task proves more difficult than he expected. Francis is hazed by a group of upperclassmen, dubbed the "Brothers of the Apocalypse", but tells them their tricks are amateurish compared to what Lois did to him, and the students decide to worship Lois.
7	7	"Francis Escapes"	Todd Holland	Linwood Boomer	February 27, 2000 (2000-02-27)	06-99-101	16.06[7]
Francis deserts from Marlin Academy to reunite with his girlfriend Bebe, but she breaks up with him as soon as he gets home. Lois finds out Francis has left school, but does not know where he went. Malcolm discovers Francis hiding in the woods near their house and brings him food, though keeping the secret from his brothers and parents grows increasingly complicated. After Hal finds Francis, he decides to drive him across the country back to military school so Lois won't find him, sympathetic to his son's romantic travails.
8	8	"Krelboyne Picnic"	Todd Holland	Michael Glouberman & Andrew Orenstein	March 12, 2000 (2000-03-12)	06-99-109	14.19[8]
The family spend the day at 'Cirque de Krelboyne', a picnic where Malcolm's classmates demonstrate their abilities. Hal violates the picnic's vegetarian policy by bringing a meat-filled cooler, and Lois takes care of a PTA control freak who strictly oversees the food and drinks there. Reese looks forward to giving the Krelboynes a hard time but is soon on the receiving end when one of them gets his older brother involved. Despite Malcolm's attempts to escape, he is eventually forced to take the stage, where he stuns the audience with his mathematical prowess. The family soon reassure him that nothing has changed.
9	9	"Lois vs. Evil"	Todd Holland	Jack Amiel & Michael Begler	March 19, 2000 (2000-03-19)	06-99-104	16.29[9]
Lois finds out that Dewey stole a $150 bottle of cognac from the store where she works. She makes him return it, but she is fired by a tyrannic assistant manager named Mr. Pinter after he catches them. In anger she accuses Pinter for firing her out of spite for originally being up for a promotion for assistant manager. This leaves the family struggling financially, but Lois gets her job back from Pinter when she confronts him for his own wrongdoings. Craig and the others overhear this and plan to tell the district manager all about it. In humiliation, Pinter quits his job right away. Francis, while volunteering at a beauty pageant, gains special backstage dressing room access when some of the contestants think he's gay.
10	10	"Stock Car Races"	Todd Holland	David Richardson	April 2, 2000 (2000-04-02)	06-99-102	13.12[10]
Hal sneaks the boys out of the class and takes them to a stock car race, and the boys try to sneak on the pit lanes, causing mayhem with the security guards. Lois' hunt for her lost paycheck unearths incriminating items that Hal and the boys have stashed around the house, at the same time befriending Malcolm's teacher. Meanwhile, fed up with Spangler and his noisy dog that the students hate, Francis sneaks a huge snake named Otis into the academy and stashes it in his locker. He forgets to lock it, and the snake escapes and eats the dog. When Spangler finds out, he punishes all the cadets, but they do not care because Francis got rid of the dog.
11	11	"Funeral"	Arlene Sanford	Maggie Bandur & Pang-Ni Landrum	April 9, 2000 (2000-04-09)	06-99-111	15.19[11]
The family reluctantly prepares for Aunt Helen's funeral, but Lois gives up and announces she's going to take a bubble bath while everyone else does their own things. Hal decides to listen to his old record player, while Dewey invites a friend, and after they leave a huge spill, they start to clean it, causing a mess in the kitchen. Malcolm tries to attend a concert with a girl named Julie (Landry Allbright), but she catches him in his underwear while changing and runs away. Malcolm takes Francis' advice to use a scapegoat, and tells his parents that Reese broke Dewey's birthday present and the reason he seemed so enthusiastic to go to the funeral was that he had planned to stash the remains in the coffin. Lois promptly decides that they will attend the funeral after all so he can apologize to Aunt Helen.
12	12	"Cheerleader"	Todd Holland	Dan Kopelman	April 16, 2000 (2000-04-16)	06-99-112	12.91[12]
Reese joins the cheerleading squad because he has a crush on one of the cheerleaders. Malcolm is embarrassed to have a brother who is a cheerleader, and even the Krelboynes are making fun of him, but he ends up helping Reese learn his routines anyway. Dewey desperately tries to talk Lois into buying him a new toy. Hal, hearing Reese crying and seeing him practicing cheerleading routines with Malcolm in the backyard, tries to give all the boys "The Talk". After Francis' latest stunt, Spangler attempts to reach out to him by telling him a story of his youth, only for Francis to uncover more about Spangler himself.
13	13	"Rollerskates"	Ken Kwapis	Alan J. Higgins	April 30, 2000 (2000-04-30)	06-99-108	14.24[13]
Malcolm decides to take roller skating lessons from Hal, who treats it like a ritual and is overly critical of Malcolm. Lois throws out her back by screaming too loud at Reese for tracking mud in the house and refuses to take painkillers until Reese sneaks them in her milk. At Marlin Academy, Francis fakes the same back injury to get out of a wilderness survival exercise at the academy, but is caught and forced to go on the exercise.
14	14	"The Bots and the Bees"	Chris Koch	Alan J. Higgins & David Richardson	May 7, 2000 (2000-05-07)	06-00-202	12.42[14]
Lois visits Francis at military school after he has a medical emergency. Francis is upset when everyone else at the academy gets along well with Lois. Hal, no longer under Lois' supervision, quickly regresses into his wild teenage persona. He resumes smoking, stops going to work, and lets Reese and Dewey get away with everything. Malcolm and the Krelboynes decide to enter a killer robot competition, but Hal takes over the project and builds a dangerous robot complete with a bee cannon, to the point that the boys end up launching the bees onto him to stop him.
15	15	"Smunday"	Jeff Melman	Michael Glouberman & Andrew Orenstein	May 14, 2000 (2000-05-14)	06-00-201	12.56[15]
Lois, down with a severe case of the flu, does not realize she has spent two days in bed. Thinking Monday is Sunday, she does not make the boys go to school — or lift their latest grounding about giving away Dewey's bike. The boys are initially happy to get the day off school, but soon realize their mistake, as the TV is shut off as part of the punishment and they cannot leave the house lest they be seen and reported. Francis calls the boys about hiding an incriminating letter about his latest offense at the academy involving a prank he caused to a prestigious college's pool, but Lois ends up finding it anyway. She is so caught up with both her flu and Francis' misdemeanor that she ignores punishing the boys for skipping school. With Lois ready to send Francis to a prison farm, the boys try to come up with a prank that will make Lois turn her attention back to them. Meanwhile, Hal visits a Porsche dealership and ends up ruining a car because he caught Lois' flu. The salesman drives Hal home in the car, where it is further damaged by the boys' prank.
16	16	"Water Park (Part 1)"	Ken Kwapis	Maggie Bandur & Pang-Ni Landrum	May 21, 2000 (2000-05-21)	06-00-203	14.39[16]
The family takes a trip to a water park. Lois and Hal sneak alcohol into the park, try to avoid the boys and have fun. Malcolm and Reese engage in an escalating war of pranks. After they spill Lois and Hal's food and drink she catches up with them at the top of a giant water slide and berates them. Malcolm pushes her in, but she grabs both of them and pulls them down together, still yelling at them. Dewey was unable to go because of an ear infection and is left with a strict elderly babysitter (Bea Arthur), who later collapses and is taken away in an ambulance. Dewey chases a red balloon blowing around in the street. Spangler learns that Francis has been letting him win at pool to keep him in a good mood. He threatens to punish Francis if he loses again, while the other cadets threaten to beat him up if he wins. When Francis misses an easy shot, Spangler starts trying to throw the match, resulting in both players trying their best to lose.

Cast and characters

Main

• Frankie Muniz as Malcolm
• Jane Kaczmarek as Lois
• Bryan Cranston as Hal
• Christopher Kennedy Masterson as Francis
• Justin Berfield as Reese
• Erik Per Sullivan as Dewey
• Catherine Lloyd Burns as Caroline Miller

Recurring

• Craig Lamar Traylor as Stevie Kenarban^[17]
• David Anthony Higgins as Craig Feldspar^[18]
• Daniel von Bargen as Commandant Edwin Spangler^[18]
• Karim Prince as Cadet Stanley^[18]
• Drew Powell as Cadet Drew^[19]
• Merrin Dungey as Kitty Kenarban^[17]
  • Dungey also plays Malcolm's teacher before he transfers to the Krelboyne class in the pilot episode^[17]
• Landry Allbright as Julie^[17]

Production

Development

Malcolm in the Middle was created by Linwood Boomer and originally based at UPN. Four months later, the network passed on the series as it did not fit their target demographic; it was soon after picked up by Fox Broadcasting Company.^[20] Boomer based the series on his own life. He called the central family a "gigantically exaggerated and self-serving version" of his family and childhood: "My mother was very no-nonsense [...] Who could blame her? She was working while trying to keep up with four destructive and always hungry boys."^[21]

Casting

The title character Malcolm was initially written as being nine years old. While auditioning, Frankie Muniz, who was 13 at the time, thought that he would not get it, believing he was "too old". However, the producers were impressed with Muniz, so he was cast, and the character was aged up.^[22] In the season, Malcolm's age is intentionally not mentioned, with the revelation only that he attends middle school, "not the actual grade level."^[23] Aaron Paul was interested in auditioning for the role of Malcolm's eldest brother Francis, but the producers were not interested in casting him; instead, the role went to Christopher Kennedy Masterson,^[24] who was cast after a single audition.^[25] Jane Kaczmarek initially did not want to play the matriarch of the family Lois, even after receiving the script, but then wondered, "Wow, they really love me [...] Maybe I should read this." After reading the script, she found that "there was something undeniably quirky and endearing about Lois", so she accepted.^[26]

Justin Berfield was cast as Malcolm's older brother Reese, despite the fact that Berfield is younger than Muniz, while Erik Per Sullivan was cast as the youngest brother Dewey,^[27] and Catherine Lloyd Burns as Malcolm's teacher Caroline Miller.^[28] The character of Hal, the patriarch of the family, was initially underwritten, and described by Boomer as "a writer's conceit that just lay there on the page like a turd". During Bryan Cranston's audition for the part, he had to simply be "listening to a fight between the mom and one of her sons" as required. At that time, Cranston put a pipe in his mouth and watched the fight, causing Boomer to fall from his chair while laughing. Boomer recalled that Cranston "just had this vast inner life going on." He described Cranston's look at that time as a man who "looks like he's listening, but he's actually building a rocket ship in his head", and Cranston was cast immediately.^[29]

Filming

Much of the filming for the season was done on location from 1999 to 2000.^[30] Unlike other sitcoms, the makers avoided including laugh tracks or studio audience, and cinematography was done with single-camera to achieve a more "cinematic look".^[21] A privately owned home, located at 12334 Cantura Street in Studio City, California, was rented for upwards of $3,000 a day to film as Malcolm's house.^[31] School scenes were filmed at Colfax Elementary School.^[32] For the episode "Rollerskates", Cranston learned how to skate and performed most of his skating scenes, while a stunt double was used for the more complicated skating scenes. During "The Bots and the Bees", he wore a suit of live bees as required for the role. He was covered in 10,000 bees, but only got stung once, during which he did not flinch.^[33] 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.^[34] The season finale was filmed at a water park called Wild Rivers located in Irvine, California.^[35]

Release

Broadcast history

The season premiered on January 9, 2000, on Fox, and ended on May 21, 2000, with a total of sixteen episodes.^[36]

Home media

The season was released on Region 1 DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on October 28, 2002.^[37]

Reception

Critical response

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes calculated an approval rating of 100%, based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's consensus reads, "Malcolm in the Middle blasts out of the gate with a startlingly adept child performance from Frankie Muniz, a robust family ensemble, and a distinctive, punchy visual style."^[36] On Metacritic, the season has an 88% score based on 25 reviews, indicating "Universal acclaim".^[38]

Ratings

The series started off with ratings of 23 million for the debut episode,^[39] and 26 million for the second episode.^[40]