Malcolm in the Middle

Malcolm in the Middle (2000)

35 mistakes in season 1 - chronological order

(17 votes)

Pilot - S1-E1

Revealing mistake: At the start, when Lois tells Hal to raise his arms so she can shave his armpits, if you look at the bottom of the screen you can briefly see that Hal is wearing something to cover up his privates. (00:02:10)

Yoshi

Pilot - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Lois and Hal tell Malcolm he is going to the "special class", Hal notes that the pitcher of iced-tea he makes is always empty, and says, "Look at that - gone," before placing the lid back onto the pitcher. Yet, when it cuts to the wide shot of the table, the pitcher lid is by Hal's elbow. (00:17:50)

Jeimi

Pilot - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: When Lois hangs up on Francis before saying "Oh, I love you," it seems as though the line is already disconnected (as can be heard from the dial tone from Francis' side), but in a later shot, Malcolm and Reese are just about to hang up the phone.

Pilot - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: During the fight between Malcolm and Spath, Spath goes at Malcolm with his right fist, but the closeup of his hand going towards Malcolm and Stevie is his left hand.

Pilot - S1-E1

Continuity mistake: When the "Krelborne" teacher comes to the house to tell Lois that Malcolm is gifted, Lois comes to the door naked and puts her arm up on the doorway. On the shot from behind she has her hand low (about where her waist is) from the shot from the front she has her hand up high (above her head).

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Red Dress - S1-E2

Visible crew/equipment: When Dewey yells for Lois because the bow was put on the present, if you look to the left of Lois, you will see a crewmember kneeling down, handing Lois the Red Dress, who is holding a bucket of water. He quickly gets out of the camera's view. [This is on the DVD of the first season. Someone said on the audio commentary that after catching it, they deliberately left it in to see if anyone would spot it. It's still a mistake, but that's why it's there.]

Home Alone 4 - S1-E3

Visible crew/equipment: While Malcolm, Reese, Dewey, and Francis are deliberately making their house messy, you can see right above their ceiling a bright light shining down and a black background. It shows that they film their interior of their house on a set.

Home Alone 4 - S1-E3

Visible crew/equipment: When the boys come out of the front door of the house to load into the van to go to the hospital the camera crew reflection is seen on the large picture window beside the front door.

Malcolm Babysits - S1-E5

Continuity mistake: When Malcolm is trying to get the TV back to the channel he was watching, he picks up a big remote and finds the channel which the video camera feed is on, but the remote he is holding on the TV is a smaller one. It then cuts back to Malcolm who is moving his hand away from the remote he just put down and it's the bigger one again.

Cybermoose

Opening theme song: Yes, no, maybe, I don't know, can you repeat the question? You're not the boss of me now, You're not the boss of me now, You're not the boss of me now, and you're not so big. You're not the boss of me now, You're not the boss of me now, You're not the boss of me now, and you're not so big. Life is unfair.

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Tutoring Reese - S2-E19

Question: This question could be for many American TV shows not just this one, but are American schools so strict about cheating on one single test? Because here in Europe if you are caught cheating you will most of the time get an "F" for that test, plus "official warning", and you need like 3 or 4 warnings like that to be Kicked Out of school. But, I saw on many American TV shows situations when a character cheated once and he was like "they are gonna kick me from school" (one example, Family Matters when Steve helped Edward during the test and he was almost expelled).

Feather

Chosen answer: I work in a student conduct office. Students are not expelled after one academic misconduct incident (there are rare exceptions in higher academia). A first time offense usually results in a "0" grade on the test or assignment in addition to a sanction of a warning or probation. Repeated offenses can lead to being suspended for a period of time and even permanently dismissed. Students often cheat or commit plagiarism because they are struggling in school. The goal is to help students get the help and resources they need. Students who are caught committing a misconduct often tend to panic and believe the worst will happen to them. TV shows tend to exaggerate the circumstances for dramatic or comedic effect.

raywest

Answer: They used to do this. Cheating was a violation of the honor code and you would get a mandatory suspension. American schools vary a ton from place to place. During the late 90s and early 2000s they were incredibly strict about a lot of things. The rules have changed because of a lot of scandals in the troubled teen industry. After the school shootings in the early 90s there was a huge moral panic about schools not being strict enough and millennials like the kids in this show paid for it.

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