‘Bowling’ Rated 90th Best TV Episode of All Time

TV Guide has rated 2×20 Bowling as the 90th best TV episode of all time, based on? well nothing, just their opinion but if anyone is to rate TV episodes TV Guide is a good bet, we of course would argue the top 100 would just consist of Malcolm episodes, but then again, we are a little biased! But its great to get the mention.

Renowned TV critic Tim Goodman from San Francisco Chronicle recently asked “Has there ever been a funny family sitcom? Can parenting be funny on TV?”

“Malcolm,” though it lost viewers (but not its creativity) in the latter years, successfully presented a live-action version of “The Simpsons” (perhaps the greatest “family” show ever). The success of “Malcolm” was that it made the difficult, hilarious and stressful nature of raising kids funny and in the process it gave us child actors that didn’t make us wretch at their cuteness. Nothing worse than a 4 year old girl talking like she’s 35.

I’d vote “The Simpsons,” “Arrested Development” and “Malcolm In the Middle” into my upper echelon. I also love “King of the Hill.” But you’d get more points for a live action series with small children (again, I think “Malcolm” is the front-runner there), because that’s a lot harder to pull off.

October 4th, 2009 tjpeople About: General

7 Comments Post a Comment

I understand why they chose that episode, it's really funny, two different realities were made.

Malcolm/Hal - great but at the end..
Louise/Malcolm - Hey, he had a bad time but the end it was great!

Question: anyone know the name of the girl, that Malcolm hang around with? she's really cute.

MITM FTW!

MITM_Fan

That's just wonderful news to hear! The split-screen effects in this episode were extremely well-executed, and FunFun (BOTH functional AND funny)

From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling...in_the_Middle)

"Bowling is the 35th episode of Malcolm in the Middle. The episode won two Emmy Awards -- one by Alex Reid for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series; the other by Todd Holland for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series.[1] The episode is referenced in an cover story article in The New York Times about how TV sitcom fathers are becoming more childish, using the example of how Hal (Bryan Cranston) is involved in his bowling game enough to not notice the trouble his sons are getting into."

USA Today critic Robert Bianco:

http://www.usatoday.com/community/ch...-09-bianco.htm

"[Bowling] was a very strong, and very clever, episode. As for the Emmys, I think the show and Jane Kaczmarek are virtual locks for nominations (or as locked as the always odd Emmys get), and I'm hoping Bryan Cranston will be nominated as well. Frankie Muniz, the fabulous young actor who plays Malcolm, certainly deserves to be nominated, but Emmy rarely honors children."

TV Guide episode advertisment, Mar. 31, 2001:

Rich

Richiepiep

Quote:

Originally Posted by MITM_Fan

I understand why they chose that episode, it's really funny, two different realities were made.

Malcolm/Hal - great but at the end..
Louise/Malcolm - Hey, he had a bad time but the end it was great!

Question: anyone know the name of the girl, that Malcolm hang around with? she's really cute.

MITM FTW!

Yes, a very beautiful girl. Sadly, she hasn't been seen a lot, most recently in 'Crossing Jordan' from 3 years ago. Alex McKenna as Beth:

Richiepiep

This is excellent news, even if it's diminished a tiny bit by some of the other weird choices on the list (Scrubs' 'My Musical'? WTF? There were many better episodes that that).

Gouki

Richie, her IMDB is without new news, do you know something new about her?

MITM_Fan

Quote:

Originally Posted by MITM_Fan

Richie, her IMDB is without new news, do you know something new about her?

No, I don't. I also checked the IMDB boards, and they didn't tell anything about if she gave up acting or what she's doing now. I just remarked that it was kinda disappointing for such an attractive and capable actress....

Rich

Richiepiep

I think old-pro cinematographer Levie Isaacks should be credited at least once as one of the (mostly) unsung heroes of MITM for his wonderfully fluid and imaginative camera work on no fewer than 101 (!) episodes of MITM, which I post here as he was also responsible for Bowling.

The cinematography of MITM I think is one of its biggest assets, and an aspect that continues to impress and delight me. And the guy never even got nominated for an award!

Watch his promo reel for MITM:

http://hollywooddp.com/index.html

Direct link to the clip:

http://hollywooddp.com/clip7.html

Rich

Richiepiep