Malcolm in the Middle

From TeeVeePedia, the Internet TV Encyclopedia.

Malcolm In the Middle (2000 - 2006) was an intriguing half-hour drama series on Fox. It starred Frankie Muniz as the mysterious Malcolm, a boy genius who wanders into a town plagued by crime and ruled by two rival gangs. Cleverly switching his allegiance back and forth between the Lois Syndicate, run by a shrieking, violence-prone harpy (Jane Kaczmarek), and the House of Hal, commanded by a frequently befuddled patriarch (Bryan Cranston), Malcolm endeavors to play both sides against each other in order to topple both organizations. The show employed the conceit of having Malcolm speak directly to the camera to explain his latest machinations, which helped viewers keep up with the complex and fast-paced plot.

Malcolm in the Middle was loosely based on Dashiell Hammett's novel Red Harvest, which also inspired Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo, Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, and Franco Amurri's Monkey Trouble.

By the series' final years, Malcolm had faded from being the central focus of the show, replaced by more interesting characters such as Dewey, Reese, and that lamp over in the corner there.

Malcolm in the Middle's theme song, "You're Not the Boss of Me (Now)," was performed by the Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears.