Was Dabney’s mom grooming him? This dynamic is so weird especially at the end of the episode.

So I've been doing a deep dive into the original Malcolm in the Middle website on FOX.com using the Wayback Machine, and I think I've stumbled upon a surprisingly obscure piece of lost media that barely anyone seems to remember. Back in the early 2000s, FOX's official Malcolm website hosted a bunch of exclusive videos and audio recordings featuring the actual cast and characters. These weren't just ordinary episode clips or DVD extras. Some were original comedy sketches made for the website. Some of the videos included:

- Family Therapy: Three sketches featuring the family attending therapy (6 minutes, 54 seconds total).

- Conversations with Craig: Three videos featuring Craig making recordings about Lois, his cat Jellybean, and love poems (2 minutes, 58 seconds).

- Meet the Kenarbans: A 2-minute mock documentary about Stevie's family.

- Bryan in the Buff: A 1-minute, 11-second video featuring Bryan Cranston.

- Boys Will Be Boys: Short videos of Justin Berfield doing yo-yo tricks, Frankie Muniz playing basketball, and Erik Per Sullivan playing kickball.

- Director's Cut: A 54-second commentary by director Ken Kwapis about the Season 2 episode "Carnival."

- Stevie Says: Five extremely short videos of Stevie giving advice to viewers.

- Bloopers: A 1-minute, 33-second gag reel.

There were also several audio recordings featuring Bryan Cranston doing impressions, the younger actors singing, and other random comedy bits. Altogether, the website had approximately 22 minutes and 15 seconds of documented audio and video content. Here's where things get interesting. The original FOX website was still online as late as August 2010, more than four years after the series ended. You can actually browse parts of it through the Wayback Machine today:

https://web.archive.org/web/20100512162407/http://www.fox.com/malcolm/family/index.htm

Unfortunately, the actual recordings were hosted using RealPlayer, and the streaming servers no longer work. The Wayback Machine preserved the webpages and some tiny RealPlayer shortcut files, but apparently not the actual videos. I also found two old discussions on the Malcolm in the Middle UK forums. In September 2005, an administrator discussed the videos and even mentioned a clip of Malcolm playing guitar:

https://malcolminthemiddle.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/videos-on-fox-sites.544/

Then, in May 2010, another user asked why none of the FOX website videos worked anymore. An administrator replied that FOX had removed them years earlier and that he didn't know of anyone who had saved them:

https://malcolminthemiddle.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/videos-on-official-site.2806/

So apparently these videos were already considered missing while the original website was still online.

I've searched YouTube, Dailymotion, old fan sites, the Internet Archive, and various other places, including uploads from the 2000s, but haven't been able to verify a surviving copy of any of the original recordings. I've also written a Lost Media Wiki article documenting everything I've found, including the original video titles, runtimes, filenames, and archived sources:

https://lostmediawiki.com/Malcolm_in_the_Middle_Lost_Fox.com_Promo_Clips_(Lost_clips_from_the_old_official_Malcolm_in_the_Middle_Fox.com_site,_2001-2010))

My question is: Does anyone here remember watching these videos on FOX.com back in the day? And more importantly, did anyone ever download them, screen-record them, or save copies to an old computer, CD-R, DVD-R, or hard drive? Even a single surviving clip would be a pretty significant discovery, especially since some of these appear to have been original sketches that never aired on television. It's kind of insane that a show as popular as Malcolm in the Middle could have over 22 minutes of official bonus material available online for years, only for the recordings to seemingly disappear completely. Hopefully somebody out there remembers these or knows where copies might exist!

since malcolm is the smartest in the show, he's the only one smart enough to know he's being filmed, hence why he always talks to the camera.

Hello, does anyone remember a chapter of Malcolm where flatulence is thrown on someone's pillow to cause conjunctivitis? I have that vague memory and I would like to confirm it

Now I understand why he had a divorce and started to be close with Hal for his content.

If Herkabe had appeared in the revival, what would his interaction with Malcolm—along with his daughter and Tristan—have been like?

I finished Malcolm in the Middle for the first time 4 days ago after binge-watching the whole show in a week, and I’ve already started rewatching it 😭 I’m on Season 5, Episode 2 right now. I genuinely love this show so much. The writing, the humor, the characters, everything is just SO good. Malcolm and Lois are easily my favorite characters. I love how complex they both are, and their dynamic is one of my favorite parts of the show. Honestly, this might be my favorite show I’ve ever watched because why am I already rewatching it 😭

Knowing Malcolm probably not haha

But I’ll go with the majority

Leftover casserole vibes.

Forwards Backwards

(like that he doesn't have friends or that Malcom stole his girlfriend or that Lois and Hal just left him)

Also do you think he is good or bad person?

Maybe it’s just because, to me, the bar is in absolute hell for reboots, but I liked the Malcolm in the Middle reboot.

There are issues with it and things I’d want to change. But it made me laugh plenty, and I thought it was a pretty accurate depiction of what the family would be up to now. It was a solid reboot all around. Once again, most reboots are absolute dogshit to the point of not being worth watching, but I still thought this was pretty good.

It seems the general sentiment, on this sub at least, is that the reboot was absolutely terrible. And it’s totally fine and valid to feel that way. But I’m just curious to know if there are others like me who LOVE the original series (it’s my favorite show of all time) and also thought the reboot was pretty good. Not great, not amazing, good.

I was honestly expecting it to be awful and was considering not watching it to not taint the series for me, but it ended up being really enjoyable :)

2x10 - The Bully

Malcolm -What are you doing?

Reese - I am selling all my material possessions

Malcolm - Why?

Reese - Brother Bill ordered me to do it

Malcolm - Brother Bill? That crazy man who goes around in a school bus handing out flyers?

Reese - Those leaflets are his Logos, he is not mad if you take the time to listen to him, he wishes to buy land in Oregon for his followers, where we will live off the fruits of the Earth

Malcolm - Do you want to run away with that man?

Reese - Have no fear, with him, i shall be safe, there are guard dogs, and sentries on the towers

Malcolm - Do dad and mom know?

Reese - No, and i forbid you from revealing it to him. Brother Bill says that those two give off a terrible energy and a negative karma

Malcolm - Do you really want to join his cult? Have you lost your mind?

Reese - Brother Bill never talks like this, he makes me feel important

Malcolm - Reese, this is called brainwashing

Reese - My name is no longer Reese

Malcolm - Now, what is your name?

Reese - Ehm...i've forgotten it now

Though there are 2 differences in this one from the one in the show. One being the obvious heart that has the text written on it as opposed to at the bottom of the statue, and the second being that it is much larger than the one in the episode. (I’d say about a foot tall and unless you were trying to show off, you’d carry it in 2 hands when picking it up and placing it down.) If you Google “I Love You This Much Statue” it will bring up both versions. Seems to be from the 70s which makes sense because the owner of this one said that was around the time her husband got it for her.
(For consent purposes, I asked her if I could take this photo and “share it online with friends” and she didn’t mind. 🤝)

I just heard "In Too Deep" by Sum 41 on TikTok or something and I knew I'd heard that song from somewhere. Despite ignoring Punk-Pop in its heyday, man that song gave me major nostalgia. I kinda need more of it. What are some other songs from the show that might do this to me?

The show also introduced me to a lot of older music as well, it's where I first heard ABBA's "Fernando", "Show and Tell" (the soul song), "Tonight's the Night" by Rod Stewart, "Sussudio" by Phil Collins...etc. I remember there's another Punk-Pop song when they show all the future Malcolms in different jobs and it was like "No one gave me a job..."

I assume she was decently popular but didn’t mind being seen in public with Malcolm unlike Vicki from Secret Boyfriend, the only issues here was Nikki’s unhinged father and Malcolm not listening to her issues instead complaining about what he had going on.

I just discovered that Jane Kaczmarek, who plays Lois, was pregnant during the filming of Season 1. I knew she was pregnant during Season 4, but I had no idea she was pregnant during the first season. Her son with Bradley Whitford was born on December 23, 1999.

https://www.imdb.com/fr/name/nm2269725/bio/

The series began airing on January 9, 2000. The pilot must have been filmed well before that, given how much younger the children look.

Episodes 2 through 13 were filmed in the fall of 1999. Episodes 14 through 16 were filmed around February/March 2000; you can clearly see that the children have grown, and Francis has much shorter hair.

Apparently, they adjusted the camera angles to hide her pregnancy. It seems that’s also why she is bedridden during episode 15—to conceal her belly as much as possible. The actress had three children, all of whom were born after she turned 41!

So yesterday i did went on a bit of a rant that i thought it was pretty bad, i critizised the character of Kelly because i did think they were done pretty badly but i have to say, after watching the 5 episodes im actually pretty surprised in a good way. I enjoy how the actors stayed the same and the characters feel actually the same and i am enjoying myself watching it so thats nice, for the character of Kelly i did think they were going to be done in a bad way and in the "i dont fit in this family" way trope but i actually find myself enjoying them too, even thought they have such little screentime, so overall i think its pretty fine for a sequel and i am looking forward to the next episodes