"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 Larry Gelbart has likened to being pecked to death by ducks.
"No one knows what's going to be good or not, but it certainly didn't fit UPN's target demographic, so rather than try to force the show into being something it's not, they let it go." In short measure, Fox snatched up the comedy. "It was exactly what Doug Herzog, the new guy running the network, was looking for."
Frankie Muniz was barely a teen when he first filled the title character's forever-caught-in-the-middle shoes. "The fact that I was going to do a pilot was the coolest thing in the world," the actor remembers. "When it got picked up, we did the first 12 or 13 episodes before the show even aired, and we had an amazing time. And it just got better and better. The fact that we did go for seven years was just insane. Every actor dreams of having that."
Why did America relate to Malcolm the way that it did? Six-time Emmy nominee Jane Kaczmarek, who plays mom to the brood, has her theory. Though the series was ostensibly set in the present, she says, "It harkened back to a different time that I think people found comforting, a time when there were rules and you had to be really clever and work hard to get away with anything. Children now, they get away with too much. Lois said 'no,' which I find sorely lacking in mothers today."
Malcolm also forewent the typically sitcomy, glossy look at family life that was so prevalent at its premiere time. "It was about people with five children, doing minimum-wage jobs with no health care, and no housekeeper, no baby-sitter," Kaczmarek notes. "Yet Lois loved her family with a fierce, huge love. I think that Jane Kaczmarek might be pretty darn close to Lois Nolastname if I were in those circumstances."
Though one might remember Malcolm as an edgy look at adolescent tomfoolery whose content must have at times rankled the network and/or standards and practices, that wasn't the case at all. "We were always able to do pretty much whatever we wanted," Boomer says. "Creatively, we were never interfered with; that was sort of established right away."
Besides, he notes with a chuckle, "The thing about working in comedy is that the arguments you have with the network are never over anything you're terribly proud of. Like, we got to say 'butt wad' instead of 'butt munch.' Nothing you really go home and brag to your kids about!"
Talking up the final episode, Kaczmarek gets choked up just thinking about the script's first read-through. "It was so emotional," she shares. "I think it was just the finality of knowing that this was the last script we'd be getting, and the last time we'd be doing a read-through. Every day of it was excruciating."
Luckily the cast found support in crew and production-office members who, Boomer (the episode's director) says, "started gravitating onto the soundstage. By the time we were shooting our last scene, we had about 150 people standing around watching. It was like having a studio audience for the first time."
In a memorable juxtaposition of moods, the circumstances of one of Malcolm's final scenes put the goo in the cast's goodbyes. "There was this explosion of garbage," says Kaczmarek. "I don't know how to describe it, but we were literally covered in brown gunk while saying all these very emotional things to each other. That made it even more absurd and even more dear and just pure Malcolm."
What's next for everyone? Muniz, as you may have read, is trading shrieking siblings for screeching tires, as a professional racer for Jensen Motor Sports. "I'm trying to focus on that a little bit," he says, "and see how it goes." (His TV mom, still in protective mode, must quip, "He's planning on dying in a fiery crash. He's making all of us insane.")
Kaczmarek herself has been embracing the peace and quiet at home — although things could get a bit heated Sunday night as both her and her husband's (The West Wing star Bradley Whitford) series air their final episodes. "We have one television in our house, so we have the dilemma of which do you watch, and which do you TiVo," she says. "We've been leaning towards, of course, watching Malcolm and TiVoing The West Wing" — although the actress says she is torn about not having both shows digitally archived for posterity and repeat viewings.
Advised that TiVo does make a unit that records two shows at once, she remarks, incredulously and intrigued, "You're kidding?! Maybe I can get one before the 14th!"

Judge likens his consistent character-driven comedic style to shows like The Bob Newhart Show, but other KOTH influences might come as a bit of surprise.
"I remember when Do the Right Thing came out," Judge recalls, invoking Spike Lee's inflammatory feature. "I don't know much about that world, but it was just kind of interesting to see this dialogue that seemed very real. So when I was first writing the pilot, I was really thinking about the neighborhood I lived in and what I did day to day."
While King of the Hill may be the Texas equivalent of Do the Right Thing in its ability to capture local flavor, its conflicts tend more toward the institutional than the societal, with patriarch Hank Hill most frequently the character at odds.
"It's usually putting Hank up against something really annoying and ridiculous in the modern world," Judge says of the formula employed to create an ideal episode.
It appeared as though Hank's ordeals might come to end a little over a year ago, when Fox decided to order only five more episodes before calling it quits. In fact, the final five were completed when the show's staff began looking for new jobs. Then, suddenly, Fox decided to renew KOTH for a full 22-episode run.
"It was a little bit of a scramble to get people back," says Judge. "We talked and we looked at what we had and said, 'OK, I think we can probably do another good season.' So we decided to do it."
Speaking of scrambling, Judge has recently had to split time been King of the Hill and production of his next feature film, Idiocracy. A sci-fi comedy about a soldier who wakes up in the future to find humans have devolved into morons, the movie stars Luke Wilson and Saturday Night Live's Maya Rudolph. The effects-heavy effort opens in September and is a change of pace from his animation roots, but live action is the direction Judge sees himself moving in.
"I'm kind of thinking about Christopher Guest's career," explains Judge. "How in the '90s he started making little movies that [had] an audience. I'd like to do something like that, kind of lower-budget comedies."
If he does, Judge won't have to worry about juggling directing duties with King of the Hill. When asked if he sees the show going to 300 episodes, he doesn't hesitate to answer.
"No, in a word," he says with a chuckle. "But we've got another 20, at least."

TVGuide.com: Andrea, how would you describe your experience on the show? Andrea Lowell: Mentally exhausting.
TVGuide.com: How so? Lowell: When there's a camera on you 24 hours a day, you have to kind of, like, be on, and it just seems as though the small reprieves you give yourself to chill out, that's all they use. Then you look back and you're like, "Why did I try so hard to be..."
TVGuide.com: Diplomatic? Lowell: Yeah. I'd never done anything like the show before.
TVGuide.com: Do you feel like you didn't know what you had signed on for? Lowell: You think you know because you watch TV and you see the reality shows. You're like, "Oh, my god, look at these morons. I'm not going to do that." You go on thinking that you're going to be a certain way and then you get there, and it's like, "Wow, this is difficult."
TVGuide.com: Particularly when you have Florence Henderson constantly calling you out. Lowell: Oh, that's such an act. Flo is trying to maintain her Carol Brady bulls--- and appeal to her fan base. I mean, she had no problem with C.C. [DeVille], who's been in and out of jail for beating his girlfriends and has drug and alcohol problems, or Steve [Harwell], who's known for his infidelity issues. Tawny put a high heel through her husband's thigh, and Alexis [Arquette] is a transsexual, for Christ's sake! All I did was pose for Playboy. I just don't understand why, out of everyone on the cast, she attacked me.
TVGuide.com: You don't buy that she had genuine concern for you? Lowell: No. I'm not someone who's being exploited or taken advantage of. For me, Playboy was a goal in life rather than a last resort. A lot of girls just get naked because that's all they can do. I do so many other things — I host television shows, I do all this s--t — yet Florence only labeled me as the one thing. And no matter what I said, no matter how logically I appealed to her, she would not change her opinion.
TVGuide.com: Last week, you were really angry that none of your cast mates stood up for you during Flo's Final Word. Yet during the preview of the finale, you're shown apologizing to her. Lowell: I really didn't want Florence to see when I told her off, when I was super f---ing drunk. So in the end I did apologize for hurting her feelings. But I didn't apologize for what I said.
TVGuide.com: You weren't the only one upset with Henderson. Tawny hated her, and you two bonded over that. In fact, you seemed to be Tawny's only friend in the house. Lowell: You could actually tell that by watching? I was worried that people would think she was alone.
TVGuide.com: Honestly, I don't know where Tawny was but I'm guessing wherever it was, she didn't have many visitors. You were the one person who listened to her. Lowell: Obviously Tawny is on... well, you know.
TVGuide.com: No, I don't know. Can you tell us? Lowell: I can, but I'm not going to! [Laughs] That's also the power of editing, because Tawny isn't looney-tunes like that.
TVGuide.com: Oh, come on!Lowell: I swear to god. She's only like that two hours a day! When she's normal Tawny, she's amazing, and I'm really, really pissed that they didn't show her ever being normal. Like, when Tawny was doing her interview with Florence, she and I were conspiring the whole time. But they didn't show us trying to gang up on her. They made it look like it was all Tawny. TVGuide.com: Have you kept in touch with anyone from the show?Lowell: Everyone but Florence. The rest of us got along famously.
Although Maven Huffman was more tactful than Lowell, he agreed with her about Henderson's act — if not Kitaen's mental health.
TVGuide.com: Andrea says she's kept in touch with everyone except Florence. How about you?Maven Huffman: I've talked to everyone except Florence and Tawny.
TVGuide.com: Did Florence rub you the wrong way, too? Huffman: Not at all. I got along with her great. But I do feel she came in with an agenda. She came on in the role of "Florence Henderson as Carol Brady," and once that was over with she was back to her normal life. So I don't want to bother her.
TVGuide.com: During Flo's Final Word, she implied you might have addiction issues. Huffman: When she tried to talk to me about my drinking, I told her, "I'm a grown man and I'm able to make my own decisions." I drank every day in the house and wasn't ashamed about it. Poor Andrea took Florence's words a little bit too close to heart. And I can understand why. She's a very intelligent girl and she didn't get portrayed that way. TVGuide.com: Andrea complained about the way the show was edited. She claimed it made people look bad and that Tawny was only crazy two hours a day.Huffman: Well, you have to factor in that Tawny was sleeping eight to 12 hours a day, too. That leaves about 10 hours. Tawny declined as the weeks went on. When we first got to the house, she was wonderful. Then, during the 11 days, she was on a steady progression downward. It was really sad. I've met a lot of drug addicts in my life, and most of them are functional. Tawny isn't one of them.
Are you addicted to shows like The Surreal Life? Find out the real reason reality TV is a hit.

TVGuide.com: ... the elusive John Krasinski.John Krasinski: Hello! How are you doing?
TVGuide.com: I'm good! I've had Jenna and B.J. talking about you ad nauseam in their TVGuide.com blogs, but I have yet to actually talk to you.Krasinski: Oh, man. Well, I'm very excited to talk to you then!
TVGuide.com: You should know that Jenna's been talking all kinds of smack about how Brian [Baumgartner, Kevin] has been beating up on you in PlayStation 2 football.Krasinski: That is just garbage. It was a really back-and-forth season there. We had some ups and downs, but it was fun. I think Brian and I called it even.
TVGuide.com: I believe Jenna once reported that your defense was "weak."Krasinski: Wow! I... don't even think she knows what she's talking about. She's still asking what color our teams are, so I'm not sure she's necessarily the best person to talk to about that.
TVGuide.com: Now, you and B.J. went to high school together?Krasinski: Yeah, we did, and he actually wrote the first acting thing I was ever in, which was basically a parody of the high school. Even back then I thought it was so funny and in a way that I like to see. It wasn't slapsticky, it was smart and well put together. It's so funny that he even approached me to do it because I was nowhere near being an actor. I don't know what he saw in me but thank god he did, because here we are!
TVGuide.com: Let's face it, he needed "someone tall."Krasinski: Exactly! I'm sure that's the truth, too.
TVGuide.com: Did you guys keep in touch, or was The Office the first you'd seen each other in a while, like: "Hey, I know you."Krasinski: The truth is, I went to the call-back audition in L.A. and was reviewing the sides they had given me when I looked up and saw he was doing the same thing. It was one of those surreal moments your brain can't comprehend. It was fantastic. Now, after working with him for so long, I have to say that he is everything people say he is. He's one of the best new voices in Hollywood.
TVGuide.com: You always hear stories about how Office cast members pass the time on the set, blogging or playing games on their characters' computers. What do you tend to do?Krasinski: I check e-mail here and there, and maybe read some articles online, but I'm in an awkward position because when they shoot outside of Michael's office or from any angle, because of where my desk is located, you can always see my screen. [Laughs] Right before every shot, it's like, "John, [put up] something we can use, buddy!"
TVGuide.com: In a recent episode, when Jim was e-mailing Pam, you could see her "Dunder-Mifflin" e-mail address. What happens if I send an e-mail to it?Krasinski: I have no idea. Check it out, man!
TVGuide.com: Where do you stand on the Pam-Jim hookup timetable?Krasinski: I don't know. It's funny, people always want to know when the "big moment" is going to happen, and the coolest part about being a part of this relationship as an actor is that we have a number of big moments. Sometimes the big moments are really good, sometimes they are really tense.... I can't say enough about the writers and how real they've stayed with our relationship. "Booze Cruise," that was one of the biggest moments yet. That I wasn't able to speak or say anything, to me that's the best drama you can have. That's so real.
TVGuide.com: When did your counterparts get together in the original British version?Krasinski: I think at the very end, in the last episode of the whole thing, she walks in and just kisses him.
TVGuide.com: Jenna said you didn't tell her what Jim wrote on the card he put in her Christmas-present teapot. What'd you write?Krasinski: I can't tell you! No....
TVGuide.com: Have you ever ad-libbed something that didn't make it in?Krasinski: Everything! No, I'm kidding. Once you've done what the writers have written, there is a lot of opportunity to go off. One of the things we have improve[ise]d, and this is hilarious, was when Rainn and I started arm-wrestling, and it turned into a full-on, tackle-to-the-ground and fighting-like-8-year-olds-on-a-playground thing. Part of me wishes that made it in, even though it would have been completely ludicrous.
TVGuide.com: What's been your favorite episode to date?Krasinski: I really loved "The Secret." I thought it was really done. It was so funny when Steve [Carell, as Michael] took me to Hooters, it provided a lot to do for the other cast members, who are so funny, and it did a really good job of pushing the love story forward, too.
TVGuide.com: What can you tease about the "Casino Night" season finale?Krasinski: It starts out like a simple run-of-the-mill event that the office is hosting — we're all playing these casino games for our favorite charity — and it turns out to answer a lot of the questions that people have been wondering — about Pam and Jim, Michael and Jan.... All these things are addressed in a really cool way. The characters find themselves in situations they never would have imagined. And that's the best way to finish a season.
TVGuide.com: Of course there's a cliff-hanger where someone tries to cheat at cards, a gun goes off, and the screen goes to black.Krasinski: Wait, did you see it already?! [Laughs]
TVGuide.com: Let's finish up with the movies you have in the pipeline. In License to Wed, you and "fiancée" Mandy Moore get premarital advice from the counselor-from-hell, Robin Williams.Krasinski: He's the priest at the church that she grew up at. We shoot that next week and I'm super-excited. I am one of Robin Williams' biggest fans.
TVGuide.com: Man, talk about ad-libbing!Krasinski: I know. It's going to be a clinic for sure. And Mandy Moore, I just think that she's so talented and a fantastic new face. She's doing a great job.
TVGuide.com: Smiley Face: Are you a stoner in that?Krasinski: I'm not, actually. Anna Faris is the stoner, and when she eats a plate of pot brownies and goes to another planet virtually, I'm her roommate's friend who ends up having to basically baby-sit her all day. I'm a really nerdy kid who's secretly in love with her.
TVGuide.com: The Dreamgirls movie: I take it you're playing James "Thunder" Early?Krasinski: How did you know? No, [writer-director] Bill Condon called one day and he had this idea for one scene where Beyoncé gets to the point where she wants to give movies a try, and I'm a director who's interested in casting her. It's me basically saying nothing because John Lithgow is the very loudmouthed producer. It's a very fun scene, and I'm honored to be a part of it.
TVGuide.com: What else do you have in the works?Krasinski: I finally finished the script that I was writing, and I'm going to be directing it in November — Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.
TVGuide.com: That's a great title. Krasinski: Yeah! I think it definitely leaves people wondering what it's about, so it will be interesting to see what people think. It's based on the book by David Foster Wallace, and my goal is to bring his work to a different medium and expose more people to what I thought was an incredible book.
TVGuide.com: At the end of the day, do you envision yourself as 50 percent actor, 50 percent writer-director?Krasinski: No, not right now. I love acting so much. This is more of a one-time thing and if it happens that I write something again, that would be great. But for right now, this is it.
TVGuide.com: Well, John, I'm glad we finally had the chance to talk!Krasinski: I know, right? Thanks very much!

TVGuide.com: What's the reaction been like since your elimination episode aired?Shane Powers: It's been positive. The [reaction] I cared most about was my son's, and we had a really nice conversation [after last week's episode]. He had a bunch of his friends over to watch, but he didn't know I was getting clipped. I think he was stunned.
TVGuide.com: Your supposed allies, Cirie and Aras, really stabbed you in the back — and then twisted the knife for added effect, didn't they?Shane: Cirie, definitely. Aras... tries not to be responsible for his behavior, which is a big reason he's probably not looked upon as an adult yet. I think that bothers him in a big way.
TVGuide.com: Cirie's game play was extremely surprising, beginning with her lobbying a few episodes back to send Courtney packing. Did you notice her drifting from the alliance at any point?Shane: Just like you, I've been watching it, going, "My lord, this woman really worked herself into a phenomenal position." She might have been carried by Aras and me, but has definitely been working the entire time, since Day 1. She has definitely been the best social player of the game by far.
TVGuide.com: Was the relationship between you, Aras and Cirie portrayed accurately on television?Shane: We [started out] all together, and then I put all my eggs in Cirie's basket and said, "Cirie, we're going to take out Aras at the [final] four," and she went and told Aras. Cirie gravitated toward him because he was very nurturing and understanding. I definitely will never speak to her, but I can absolutely appreciate how she [played the game].
TVGuide.com: During last week's reward challenge, you were the first to bow out of the endurance competition. How hard was it to step down, knowing that you may sacrifice precious time with your son, Boston?Shane: When we got the tree mail that morning, it was worded in such a way that we knew family would be there. I was very not into it, because I couldn't imagine doing the challenge and not having it go my way. Knowing my son was in Panama, the possibility of my not being able to see him was a little too much to take. I was very wary about the challenge. Thank god Terry picked me [to spend time with my son].
TVGuide.com: What do you hope Boston gleans from your time on Survivor?Shane: He can definitely look at his father on that show and go, "My dad is a crazy person. He's extremely charismatic, colorful, vivid and fun." I'm exciting to a 13-year-old kid. We're like brothers, except I get to tell him what to do. It's the most amazing scenario ever for me.
TVGuide.com: Following that reward challenge, Terry adamantly explained that he thought contestants with children or spouses present should get precedence over those with mothers there. Where did you stand during this discussion? Was there any animosity toward Terry?Shane: I think that there was animosity on Aras' part, but Terry is a very traditional guy. I was going to get the reward — in his mind — because I hadn't been on any, and the story line of me and my son was so prevalent. That was what I was always talking about, and when he had the opportunity to give me that, I think he really wanted to. For whatever reason, Terry, in his throwback mind, thought wives were more important than mothers, and Aras had a hard time with it. [Aras] felt like his feelings for his mother were being marginalized, and that's when they got into it. People can think Terry is a chauvinist, but he's just a guy who is probably not well versed in dealing with anything outside of his element of suburbia.
TVGuide.com: As this season's fifth jury member, are there any specific interactions or conversations, positive or negative, that you'll take with you to Sunday's selection of the sole Survivor?Shane: It obviously comes down to who's there. If it's Terry and Danielle, neither of them stabbed me in the back. If it's Aras and Cirie... I'd rather cut my head off than vote for one of them.
TVGuide.com: Have you thought about your final questioning?Shane: I've definitely thought about my questioning, and you should all tune in, because what happens when I get my shot at them will be quite interesting.
TVGuide.com: Are you going to be the male Sue Hawk, by refusing to offer the contestants so much as a drink of water if they were stranded in the desert?Shane: Sue's [commentary] was fun, but it was far too emotional to be taken seriously. Mine is pretty articulate, and it's [going to be] hard for them to get out of it, so they just have to suck it up and take it. What I do when it's time for the final two Survivors to answer to me is very barbaric, because there's nothing worse than using the truth to hurt someone. There's no way out of the truth. I can't imagine that's going to be too much fun for either of them.
TVGuide.com: Other than yourself, of course, which Survivor was voted out too soon? And who would you have liked to see go in their place?Shane: I think Dan has an ax to grind with Terry, who conveniently figured out a way to disalign himself from Dan. Although Dan was ready to go, I feel like he got a bit of the shaft from Terry. It would have been interesting to see him come a bit further.
TVGuide.com: You provided some of the best comic relief this season, between communicating on your wooden "Blackberry" and spending time perched on your coveted "Thinking Seat." Were there any other funny moments you wish viewers would have seen?Shane: I had a "summer house" that I bought [on the island], and no one else was allowed to go up there. The summer house consisted of a blanket, but it was up on the ridge away from everybody. During the last five to eight days of the show, I had made my bed with Cirie and Aras, and I just wanted to stay out of everyone's way. I was divorcing myself from most of the tribe, which probably was a bad thing, because I might have been able to see that Cirie and Aras were doing something with Danielle. But there was nothing I could do, because I had given them my word and I wasn't going to back out.
TVGuide.com: Speaking of humorous moments, what happened to your famous acid-wash shorts?Shane: My shorts were very "1975 guy working on his Trans Am," and I loved 'em. I'm really bummed out that they're gone, because I didn't take anything with me to tribal council. Most people take all their stuff. They're somewhere gone [in Panama] with the "Blackberry." It's all just a myth now.
TVGuide.com: In all honesty, you are the contestant this season whom fans love to hate. Are there any misconceptions about yourself that you'd like to clear up?Shane: I'm very comfortable with the beginning, middle and end that I had on the show. I'm sure there's a huge section of America that would never get me, and even though they may not get who I am, as a result of how I went out on the show, they can at least relate to my integrity and my keeping my word. I did everything that I could and worked hard. But if people want to hate me, they can hate me. That's their opinion and their option.
TVGuide.com: Lastly, viewers may or may not know that you've appeared in bit parts on My So-Called Life and even some creepy flick called Bloodfist VII: Manhunt. Any plans to continue your acting career now that your stock has shot up?Shane: You are more than likely never going to see me again. I was an actor when I first got to Los Angeles, and I gave it up in 1998. I did a movie in 1993 that came out in 2002, but I haven't worked in seven years. That whole life has been over for me. If there was something that was clever and witty that I could have control over, and there was a lot of money involved, I'm definitely interested. But that's not why I went on Survivor. The casting people really spend hours figuring out why you're going on the show and [when my acting background came up], I think it intimated to people that I was some sort of a plant. I was there to win and absolutely there to play the game. There will definitely be no "Shane Powers guest-starring on The O.C." They would have to pay me a lot of money.