Nearly a quarter century has passed since Malcolm in the Middle premiered on Fox back in 2000, but star Frankie Muniz had no trouble reflecting on his craziest moment from filming the seven seasons of the sitcom. The timing could hardly be better ahead of the 2025 TV schedule, with news breaking that Muniz as well as Bryan Cranston, Jane Kaczmarek, and others will reprise their roles for a reunion. As for his favorite memory from the show that made him into a star of the early 2000s, Muniz went back to the very last episode.
The series finale of Malcolm in the Middle (which you can stream now with a Hulu subscription) aired on Fox back in 2006, but the memory seemed entirely fresh to Frankie Muniz when he spoke with Michael Rosenbaum on his Inside of You podcast about his favorite memory from back in the day:
Favorite memory honestly was the last shot that we filmed and only because — I remember being sad that the show was ending, right? But also excited, because I was ready for whatever the future was gonna have to hold. And, at that point, I knew I was going to go racing and all that.
Unlike on-screen dad Bryan Cranston and his jump from Malcolm in the Middle to Breaking Bad, Frankie Muniz stepped away from Hollywood rather than joining a new series in a regular role. He would explain why he went from acting to racing years later, and got honest about what he loves more about NASCAR driving than about acting not too long before the Malcolm revival was announced. (The revival will be available with a Disney+ subscription.) Muniz went on:
It didn’t really hit me during the last episode, until the last shot they saved for me. It was a close-up of me for this crazy scene, where we’re all covered in this shit. I don’t know how to explain it. And [Malcolm] is mad at [his] parents, because they made [him] turn down this million-dollar job. Because they’re like, ‘You’re gonna go to college. They’re gonna struggle. You’re gonna struggle to pay the bills. You’re gonna work three jobs, and you’re gonna do this. You’re gonna learn what it’s like to be a true middle-class person, and you’re gonna be the President of the United States.' And it was a super emotional scene, we’d been filming it all day.
The production team saved an important scene to be Frankie Muniz's last as Malcolm... or so it seemed at the time, nearly two decades before news of the Disney+ limited series. The final scene wasn't easy on the actor despite having seven seasons of the show under his belt as the lead character already. He continued:
We’re on the set, and I look around – and it’s about to be my close-up – and there’s 500 people there. It’s all cast and crew, who worked on the show over the seven years. And they said, ‘Action!’ And I could barely even speak. I did one take, and we never did one take. We did a lot of takes. We did a lot of stuff. I did one take, and the emotion was so intense. They were like, ‘Print it. Check the gate. That’s a wrap.’ And it was like the most emotional moment of my life, because like, that was my family for seven years. I was with them way more than I was with my family. And, all of a sudden, in an instant, it’s over. So it’s a good memory but like also a sad memory but definitely the craziest.
It certainly speaks highly of Muniz's work on Malcolm and the Middle and the finale in particular that he nailed his final shot of the show in one take! Now 39 years old, Muniz barely 15 when he shot to sitcom stardom on Fox when the show premiered in early 2000. Fortunately, he clearly has fond memories of even the sad and crazy times on set, and his excitement about returning to his iconic character is clear in the video announcement of the revival. Take a look:
Malcolm in the Middle returns as a four-part limited series, set to stream on Disney+. While no premiere date has been announced at the time of writing, some details have already dropped about the latest for the family. As it turns out, Malcolm will be pulled back into the chaos alongside his daughter when Hal and Lois demand that he be present for their party for their 40th wedding anniversary. I think it's safe to say that shenanigans will ensue, and we can only hope that other members of the family will show up as well!
For now, you can always revisit the original seven seasons of Malcolm in the Middle streaming on Hulu. The sitcom was part of an iconic Sunday night lineup for Fox in its heyday, airing between The Simpsons and The X-Files early on.