Linwood Boomer

A midseason replacement, "Malcolm" quickly won an audience with its boldly realistic yet off-kilter comedy focused on a struggling middle-class family of six: high-strung disciplinarian mother Lois (Jane Kaczmarek); dim but well-meaning father Hal (Bryan Cranston); smart aleck eldest son Francis (Christopher Masterson) consigned to military school; bullying, reluctant boy genius Malcolm (Frankie Muniz); and just plain weird youngest child Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan). The series steered clear of the traditional sitcom trappings as it was shot in a single-camera style, with no laugh track and with frequent fourth wall-breaking commentary by the title hero. "Malcolm in the Middle" set itself apart from its competitors with a fresh and consistently funny perspective and the remarkable performances by the entire cast. Perhaps this was in part because the show was loosely autobiographical for Boomer. Like Malcolm, he was the second youngest of four boys in a resultingly rowdy household, had a strict mother and was enrolled in a gifted program at school much to his dismay. An opening scene in the series' first episode that featured mom shaving dad's body hair at the breakfast table was said to have been taken from Boomer's own upbringing, and such unabashed displays of decidedly non-sitcom-like behavior impressed viewers and critics alike.