Malcolm in the Middle will be back on our screens later this year, for a four-episode revival streaming on Disney+ with most of the original show’s main characters returning. The revival of this landmark sitcom has understandably widespread excitement among a generation of fans who grew up watching the show, and you’d be forgiven for counting down the months until the prospective release window for the new episodes. In the meantime, though, it’s worth seeing what other series are out there that could subsтιтute for the antics of the Malcolm in the Middle characters.
Much of what set Malcolm in the Middle apart when it first arrived on Fox in the year 2000, including its single-camera setup, lack of canned laughter, offbeat realism, and breaking of the fourth wall, has since become the blueprint for the contemporary family sitcom. There are plenty of brilliant shows from the past two decades that have a little bit of Malcolm in them.
8
Freaks and Geeks
1999–2000
From what we know about the Malcolm in the Middle revival, it will focus on the internal dynamics across three generations of Malcolm’s family, as they gather to celebrate Lois and Hal’s 40th wedding anniversary. But another important aspect of the original show was the school life of Malcolm and his brothers, which was presented in unglamorous but highly relatable terms, and helped introduce the word Krelboyne from The Little Shop of Horrors into popular parlance. Much of Malcolm in the Middle’s approach to high school was cribbed from seminal teen sitcom Freaks and Geeks.
Apart from alerting Hollywood to the talents of its creator Paul Feig, producer Judd Apatow, and a host of actors from Seth Rogen to Jason Segel, Freaks and Geeks changed the game for teen-themed TV comedy. The show was a failure at the time of its release, although its single season before cancellation has since gained a huge cult following. In addition, its single-camera format, slacker aesthetic, and unfiltered depiction of the disappointments and embarrᴀssments afflicting our teenage years paved the way for shows like Malcolm in the Middle to take off over the next decade.
7
Grounded For Life
2001–2005
Grounded for Life follows the life and times of an ordinary Irish-Catholic family living in Staten Island, New York. Like Malcolm in the Middle, each episode of the show typically presents parallel storylines involving different members of the family. Unlike Malcolm, however, Grounded for Life has a single standout source of comedy, in Edwin “Eddie” Finnerty, who’s played by Deli Boys cast member Kevin Corrigan.
The dynamic between the Finnerty brothers is kind of like Frasier and Niles Crane turned upside down.
Eddie is the Finnerty family’s live-in uncle. The younger brother of Sean Finnerty, he comes to stay with the family indefinitely, providing endless entertainment through his chaotic and careless atтιтude to life. Eddie is how Malcolm’s brother Francis might have turned out if he’d never moved out and grown up, but then moved in with Malcolm’s own family 15 years after leaving high school. The dynamic between the Finnerty brothers is kind of like Frasier and Niles Crane turned upside down. As much as Sean has to put up with, though, it’s hard not to love Eddie as a character.
6
Arrested Development
2003–2006, 2013–2019
If Arrested Development took some of its cues for a wall-breaking sitcom about a dysfunctional family from Malcolm in the Middle, it then ran with them to a whole new dimension of TV comedy. The Bluth family is utterly preposterous in almost every way, but they’re simply impossible not to watch.
Even in the case of the show’s linchpin, Michael Bluth, and his naive son, George Michael, the Bluths aren’t anywhere near as likable or relatable as Malcolm’s family. But that’s precisely the point of Arrested Development, a show designed to make us laugh as hard as we can at the family caught in the center of its riches-to-rags tale for the modern age.
Fans of Malcolm in the Middle’s sharpest and most satirical comic moments won’t be able to get enough of the innumerable catastrophes of their own making that befall the Bluth family. As if the family themselves weren’t enough, unexpectedly brilliant bonuses pop up throughout Arrested Development. There’s Ron Howard as the show’s hilariously ᴅᴇᴀᴅpan narrator, Liza Minelli as Buster Bluth’s forbidden love interest Lucille “Two”, and Henry Winkler as a shark-jumping solicitor who takes incompetence to a whole new level.
5
Everybody Hates Chris
2005–2009
It isn’t clear exactly when Chris Rock decided to make the opposite of Everybody Loves Raymond, but it was an inspired decision nonetheless, which showed just how grounded and relevant period sitcoms could be. Everybody Hates Chris tells the true story of Rock’s early teenage years growing up in Brooklyn, New York, in a family where he appears to be the odd one out, and in a school where he certifiably is.
Unlike the тιтular character of Malcolm in the Middle, Chris’ sensitivity as a child isn’t counterbalanced by genius-level academic performance. Instead, he simply has to keep his wits about him and survive, while his sporty, popular younger brother and spoilt-rotten baby sister get all the attention. On the other hand, Chris’ friendship with weedy schoolmate Greg Wuliger is very reminiscent of Malcolm’s bond with Stevie Kenarban.
4
Outnumbered
2007–2014, 2016, 2024
Just like Malcolm in the Middle, as good as the adult stars of great British sitcom Outnumbered are, the show’s real stars are its children. It’s impossible not to fall for the precocious antics and profoundly existential queries of primary school children Ben and Karen Brockman, in particular, who continually test the parents of their parents, played by Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner. Teenager Jake Brockman, meanwhile, is arguably the closest thing on British television to Malcolm himself, without the mathematical prowess but with an extra dollop of adolescent apathy.
The magic of Outnumbered arguably fades as its child actors grow up, but the first three seasons provide a wry but irresistibly charming take on family life that not even Dewey could match. There might only be three Brockman children to the five Hal and Lois have to handle between them, but that doesn’t mean they’re not one heck of a handful to manage.
3
Modern Family
2009–2020
Modern Family was arguably the heir to Malcolm in the Middle as the most beloved live-action family sitcom on network television. It took what it could from Malcolm’s single-camera format, blended elements from both Arrested Development and The Office, and spread them out across three disparate but closely connected households.
There are times, especially in Modern Family’s later seasons, when it drifts into formulaic territory and shows too much of its hand. But at its best, this series is possibly the most ambitious and consistently funny family sitcom of its generation, and a must-watch for pretty much any sitcom fan it happens to have pᴀssed by.
2
The Middle
2009–2018
As its name suggests, The Middle is the spiritual successor to Malcolm in the Middle. Their тιтles ostensibly refer to different things, with Malcolm being the middle child in a working-class West-Coast American family, while The Middle is an allusion to the fact that its central characters are middle-class, Midwestern, and potentially facing a midlife crisis. Still, the similarities between the shows are obvious, from the shenanigans of Frankie and Mike Heck’s children to the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ-end jobs they keep up to make ends meet.
The Middle is like the version of Malcolm’s story that Lois always deserved the chance to tell.
If anything, The Middle deliberately takes after Malcolm in the Middle to present a similar family from a different perspective. The show is the brainchild of female creators and executive producers Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline, and it’s made from the perspective of its female lead character, Frankie, who’s played by Patricia Heaton. In this sense, The Middle is like the version of Malcolm’s story that Lois always deserved the chance to tell.
1
Raising Hope
2010–2014
Aside from featuring Malcolm in the Middle guest star Cloris Leachman, Raising Hope is perhaps the show on this list that shares the most in common with Malcolm in terms of its tone. Much of its humor stems from the bleak situation in which an unconventional family finds itself, as they try their best to raise a child regardless of the obstacles they face.
Raising Hope’s lead performers achieve the delicate balance between hearty warmth and laugh-out-loud stupidity
Raising Hope’s lead performers, Lucas Neff and Martha Plimpton, are superb in their roles as Hope’s single father and grandmother, respectively, achieving a delicate balance between hearty warmth and laugh-out-loud stupidity. For anyone looking for something that feels like Malcolm in the Middle but with a different premise, this undervalued series is the place to start.
