PASADENA, Calif. — It took Todd Holland a while before he could take Justin Berfield seriously as a producer.
Which is probably not surprising, given that Berfield was only 14 when the two met. Holland was a producer/director of "Malcolm in the Middle," and Berfield played Malcolm's brother, Reese.
Now Holland is a director/producer of "Sons of Tucson," which is produced by Berfield's J2TV. Berfield is one of the executive producers.
(Writers/producers Tommy Dewey and Greg Bratman created "Sons," which airs Sundays at 8:30 p.m. on Fox/Ch. 13.)
"I was directing 'Malcolm,' and I would look over and see Justin BlackBerrying between every take to Jason (Felts), his business partner," Holland said. "I would go, 'Isn't that cute? They have a business.' "
He didn't take Berfield's business seriously, but Berfield did, even when he was a teen acting on a hit sitcom.
"I think I was around 15, 16 years old," he said. "Instead of after you're done on set, run to your trailer ... I would stay on set. I would ask questions. I would hang out with the crew. I would hang out with the grips — the guys doing all the work.
"I would look around. I would talk to the writers."
"He didn't (fool) around like other people in the cast between takes," Holland said. "He always was very serious."
Berfield approached "Malcolm" creator/executive producer Linwood Boomer with ideas for episodes.
"I actually went to Linwood a few times with some treatments, ideas for some episodes," Berfield said. "He'd give me his notes. So it was actually really early in 'Malcolm' where I would start doing that."
Most teenagers with that kind of instant fame — and that kind of money — probably don't think too far ahead. Not so with Berfield.
"I was always thinking toward the future because I figure, with producing, you still have a little more control over your destiny in a way," he said. "Because, especially after this process — seeing what you go through to actually earn a role as an actor — I don't know how anyone ever gets a role in Hollywood. So that was it for me."
"Sons of Tucson" is the first sitcom he's gotten on the air, but it's not his first producing credit. His résumé includes a couple of movies ("Romance & Cigarettes," "Blonde Ambition")as well as the TV show "Filthy Rich: Cattle Drive."
He and Felts also approached Boomer "multiple times" with ideas for new sitcoms.
"And I thought, 'Isn't that cute? They have a business,' " Holland repeated. "And I was always nice to them because I love Justin, and I'd fallen in love with Jason — platonically, of course."
But he didn't take them seriously until he read the "Sons of Tucson" pilot script.
"I actually had the script for a month and didn't read it because I kind of had this Uncle Todd attitude toward them," he said. "Then I read it and went, '(Darn), this is good.' It was one of the funniest things I had read of all the pilots I had been sent, and suddenly it became business.
"They finally had an ongoing thing that made sense to me, and I was very happy to get in business with them."
e-mail: pierce@desnews.com