Jamie... Better Boy or Girl?

LoisLover

New member
If Jamie would have been born a girl do you think that would have changed the dynamic of the show or would the episodes have been even better?

Was anyone extremely surprised that Jamie was a boy or were you suspecting it all along?

If Jane hadn't been pregnant, do you think eventually they would have introduced another child into the family?
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
You introduce a couple of very interesting questions and I thank you for the thread. The show would have been totally different from season 5 onward if Jamie had been a girl instead of a boy. There's many times, as early as Grandma Sues, when the boys associate themselves with Jamie and accept him as another warrior against Lois because he is male. If Jamie were a girl, she probably would have tended to side with Lois rather than the boys because to her the boys would be "rude" and "dumb." There would be even more conflict in the family and a sort of feud would probably break out between Malcolm, Reese, and Dewey and Lois, Hal, and Jamie.

As for what I expected, I don't think I really had any idea. I think I was leaning more toward boy because it seemed like that would make the series funnier but I don't remember being too certain either way. It was the Question of the Summer in my house though!
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
I too think it would have been really interesting if Jamie had been a girl. Because the show ended when Jamie was only three, we wouldn't have been able to see what Sam was describing, unless the show had run for a few more years, say until Jamie was Dewey's age when the series first started.
 

MIgurl

New member
I would've been surprised if Jamie was indeed a girl instad of a boy. If he had been one, Lois would finally get the daughter that she has alway wanted to have. Despite what happened in her imagination of season 4-10 If Boys Were Girls with Frances, Renee, Mallory and Daisy. She did see the positive side having girls (ex. Going shopping five times a week, resolving arguments, clean bedrooms). She also saw the negative side to having girls (clandestine diets, dressing promiscuously, teen sex and marriages, and constant arguing with mother.)
 
Last edited:

yardgames

Retired Administrator
I too think it would have been really interesting if Jamie had been a girl. Because the show ended when Jamie was only three, we wouldn't have been able to see what Sam was describing, unless the show had run for a few more years, say until Jamie was Dewey's age when the series first started.
True, at this point in the lifecycle, it probably didn't matter much either way.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
I would've been surprised if Jamie was indeed a girl instad of a boy. If he had been one, Lois would finally get the daughter that she has alway wanted to have. Despite what happened in her imagination of season 4-10 If Boys Were Girls with Frances, Renee, Mallory and Daisy. She did see the positive side having girls (ex. Going shopping five times a week, resolving arguments, clean bedrooms). She also saw the negative side to having girls (clandestine diets, dressing promiscuously, teen sex and marriages, and constant arguing with mother.)

Yeah - having a girl would have been a nice change for Lois after 4 boys. But like that episode showed, both genders do have their advantages and disadvantages, and having multiple kids of the same gender means multiple the 'traits' of that gender. For example the boys, all they want to do in their spare time is sit infront of the TV, whereas if they were girls it would be all about gossip, boyfriends, what everyone's evening plans are, parties, what they and everyone else is wearing to whatever party or event and spending literally half a day getting ready to go to it. (All things my sister did / does :D)
 

yardgames

Retired Administrator
But TV isn't all the boys did as they got older. I think I'm in an interesting position to comment on this because my 13-year-old brother watched TV basically from 9-5 every day this summer. Me, on the other hand, a 17-year-old teenager, spent my days sleeping till noon then hanging out with friends. I think the show's writers did a good job of illustrating this growth out of TV in the boys because in the later seasons it was actually quite rare to see them sitting in front of the TV.
 
Top