PASADENA, Calif. — One of the reasons that "Malcolm in the Middle" (which airs Sundays at 7:30 p.m. on KSTU-Ch. 13) works as well as it does is the casting.
Jane Kaczmarek and Bryan Cranston are great as the parents, but its the naturalness of the child actors that allows the offbeat, off-center show to shine. And, unlike so many "Hollywood kids," Frankie Muniz — who stars as Malcolm — comes across as genuine and unaffected in person as he does on the show.
Just ask him about how he reacted when he got the news that "Malcolm's" debut was a surprisingly huge hit in the ratings.
"I was in the shower and my mom got off the phone and I came out and she's like, 'You have to see how many people (watched the show),' " Muniz said. "It was so cool. . . . We were really happy. We were jumping on the bed and everything. It was really cool. Really awesome."
And there was more than just jumping for joy involved. There was "jumping on the bed and screaming out the window."
(Wow. Genuine emotion from a TV actor. That, unfortunately, probably won't last long.)
At this point, anyway, Muniz is still pretty starry-eyed about becoming a star. And he's just starting to deal with it, and the fact that even the kids he knows are starting to treat him differently.
"Some do, but my real, true friends, they don't really pay any attention to it," he said. "They're just still my friends. Where there's some kids who really never used to talk to me, and they come up and say, 'Oh, wow. This is so cool,' and they're always talking about it and everything."
And he knows that some of his peers are going to be jealous and might want to take their frustrations out on him.
"I haven't really gotten beat up yet," Muniz said.
"Give it time," Cranston interjected dryly.
"But there is this kid who, it seems every time he sees me, someone is always asking me a question about the show or about acting or stuff. And, so, he's always, like, 'Is that all you can talk about?' "Muniz said. "So it's a little weird. But, really, before this show, I never really told anybody about my acting. They would just see it on TV and come up to me. . . . But now everyone's seen the promos so they all come up to me. So it's a little weird, I guess."
By all accounts, however, these are good kids who just happen to be acting in a TV show.
"We're always in school together, and then when we're done with school, we play football and just hang out. Play basketball on the set," Muniz said.
And, like all boys, they sometimes get into somewhat unspecified trouble. Did the boys, for instance, take off on the golf carts, which can be found around all television productions?
"No, no," Boomer said, adding incongruously, "I had to take the keys out of all the golf carts on the set."
"In other words, they did," Cranston added.
Not that this TV dad has anything bad to say about his TV sons. Nothing that wasn't in jest, anyway.
"They're real normal kids, which is great from my standpoint, because they're not calloused and business savvy," Cranston said. "And it makes it a lot more enjoyable to be with them.
"And once we finish a scene then, contractually, they have to go away from us. That makes it more tolerable. Did I mention I hate kids?" he joked.
Actually, Cranston is the father of a 7-year-old girl who is "crazy about the boys" on the show.
And, if the early ratings returns are any indication, a lot of other people are pretty crazy about these boys as well.
LAST NAMELESS: If you've paid any attention to "Malcolm in the Middle," you may have noticed that one thing is missing. The main characters — mother, father and four sons — have no last name.
It's not an oversight, it's by design.
"I couldn't think of a good one at first, and every time you say what something is, you are also saying there's a hundred other things that it isn't," said creator/executive producer Linwood Boomer.
Boomer said that's the same reason the show never actually specifies how old any of the boys are.
"Because then if there's something only 10-year-olds do that 9-year-olds can't or 11-year-olds can't, then that might be a terrific story that we couldn't do."
AGE OLD STORY: Another reason for avoiding ages may be that the actors don't quite match up with theirs. And not because Christopher Kennedy Masterson, who plays 16ish Francis, is really 19.
On the show, Malcolm is supposed to be the third-oldest brother in the family. In real life, the actor who plays Malcolm, Frankie Muniz, is 14. Justin Berfield, who plays Malcolm's next older brother, Reese, is 13.
(And, yes, many of us are wondering what will happen when Muniz finally goes through that growth spurt that's sure to come.)
By the way, Erik Per Sullivan, who plays youngest brother Dewey, is 8.
HIDING THE OBVIOUS: Jane Kaczmarek isn't just a mom on "Malcolm in the Middle," she's also a mom in real life. And, just days ago, she became a mom again, giving birth to a son.
Of course, the fact that the show just ended shooting its episodes late last year and the fact that, unlike the actress, the character was not pregnant, it became a bit difficult to hide that pregnancy at times.
"We used every means on Earth," said director Todd Holland. " 'Here — hold this very large frying pan. Hold these towels, Carry this.' And, literally, you hear me in the (unedited) dailies say, 'Jane, sit up. You look pregnant.'
"In a few episodes, now that you know, you'll notice (her pregnancy). But it's pretty ingenious for the most part."
AT LONG LAST: Like most youngsters, Muniz doesn't quite understand how young he really is. Like when he was thanking his mother for all of her support.
"She's always been there for me and she's just really happy that, finally, my dream came true," Muniz said.
"Finally," Cranston deadpanned. "I mean, you've waited all these years. Finally."