Obligatory Praise: this is one of the funniest three or four shows on TV!
Now, on to the questions…
Malcolm, Reese, and a handful of others refer to the kids in Malcolm’s gifted class as Kreybournes (sp?). I think I speak for a lot of viewers when I say… WTF???
What is the family’s last name (or has it even been revealed?)?
What is the Mom’s name?
Where do they live?
Their yard looks terrible! At first I thought it was a gag by the writers as a way of saying: Hey, these people are so low-class, look at how bad they keep their yard! Har har har! But then I thought, ya know, their house seems to be in a nice-enough neighborhood. Surely they aren’t too poor to own a lawn mower. And what with neighborhood covenants and all, their neighbors would probably have sued them out of the neighborhood by now if they kept their yard like that. But then I thought, maybe they live in Southern California, where keeping a yard is pretty tricky, what with the lack or rain and tight water restrictions and all. But then I thought, whoa! You’re taking this way too seriously. But now I’m rambling… So what gives?
I think that the term is Krellbourns. I am not sure why. It does seem fitting though.
The yard I do know! First, not every neighborhood has a covenant. I have never lived in one that did. Maybe they aren’t as common everywhere. Second, there was one show where they cut down the big tree in their front yard. The neighbors came over to complain and the family acted like monkeys until they left. I think that would explain alot.
I’m not positive, but I think it may refer to their teacher’s last name.
I know for sure that #2 and #4 have never been answered (said so in TV Guide, so I’m not just relying on my memory for that one). As for the Mom’s name, it seems like it must have been mentioned a time or two, but I’ll be damned if I can remember it, so I could be wrong.
Nitpicky, but it’s kinda bothered me how the show is called Malcolm in the Middle when Malcolm is one of two kids in the “middle”. Though I guess Reese in the middle doesn’t sound as good.
Then it dawned on me…
The mother will have the obligatory pregnancy/baby storyline, thus cementing Malcolm firmly in the middle of 5 kids.
Malcolm is in the middle. Reese is the oldest, then Malcolm, then Dewey. What about Francis, you ask? Well, he’s just kind-of out there as a device for subplots and only tangenitally interacts with the rest of the family. So Malcolm is in the middle of the three boys who are always at home.
OK, that is such an obscure, Dennis Millerian reference that I don’t think a dim bulb like Reese would ever pick up on it. Hell, I don’t think students at a public junior high school would ever get it, either. I need to find the names of the writers of that show and compose a strongly-worded letter…
I think you’re right about the baby thing. On Seventh Heaven, originally there were five kids and two parents = 7. Then when the Mom gets pregnant, it’s with twins so that total kids = 7.
Yikes–can’t wait to see pregnancy send Lois completely over the edge.
Speaking of Francis, I think he deserves his own spin-off. I’ve only seen Malcolm in the Middle a few times, but each time I found the Francis subplots to be entertaining and enjoyable while I was left pretty cold by the rest of the show.
Interestingly, the actor who plays Francis has an older brother, Daniel Masterson, who plays Hyde on “That 70’s Show.”
Personally, I’m ticked that Francis’ buddy at the military academy is gone this year. He had one of the best visual jokes of last year in an episode where everybody was going on a survival weekend and bragging about how little stuff they were taking with them (“I’m taking two crackers, a compass and a knife!” “Dude, you’re hardcore.”). He trumps them all by walking in wearing a knife over his shoulder. And nothing else, except for full body camoflauge paint.
I don’t think the show will make the Lois character go through a pregnancy again, but I believe that the first season’s episodes were shot when Jayne Kaczmarek, who plays Lois, was pregnant. If you’ve noticed this year, there are more long shots of her.
Perhaps the producers actually think they “recast” that part, though (if that’s true) it makes me wonder how stupid they think their viewers are. “Well, we’ll get another young black guy, who looks completely different, and give him an utterly different, less interesting personality. They’ll never notice.”
The first couple of times I saw the new guy I thought he was just another character, but he’s popped up enough now that it’s clear that he’s Francis’s new roommate (or the functional equivalent in the plot, anyway). My wife and I theorized that the old roommate made Francis look bad in comparison (since F. was always getting saved by the roomie), and that the new, wimpy guy lets F. be the hero of his segments.
What was the old roommate’s name, anyway? He was a great character. I’d watch a show about him and Francis, any day.
It’s usually OK, not great, but the classic was beating up the clowns in slo-mo to the tune of “You Decorated My Life”. Sit-com TV doesn’t get much better than that
I remember the episode where the father and Lois go to a wedding and Lois hates her husband’s family because they call her “the Lois-common denominator.”
