March 10, 2010 – Justin Berfield attended the premiere of the first two episodes of Sons of Tucson at the University of Arizona‘s Gallagher Theater. Mayor Bob Walkup proclaimed it “Sons of Tucson Day” and presented Justin with a gold key, a symbolic gift of appreciation, he has given such a key to 11 people in his 10 years as mayor.
It’s not something we do very often…It has to be someone who is a leader and has done great things…This new show gives Tucson visual recognition on national television…To get a show like this in Tucson is an extraordinary thing – Mayor Bob Walkup
The show is set in Tucson “because it’s a big city, and, as we all say, there’s stuff to do here, things to see…Everyone is really gracious and hospitable here,” said Justin. His favorite things about Tucson are the University of Arizona and El Charro Restaurant.
This is my first one, and I’m really excited…I only had to create the show, put the title of the city in it and I’m honored…I haven’t been offered one of these. I’m sort of excited to see what I can do with it – what I can get with it. – Justin Berfield
Audience members brought up Malcolm in the Middle. One girl asked Berfield, “What would Hal and Lois (his MITM parents) think of you right now?” “Um, they’d be proud. They want the best for their kids,” Berfield said, and everyone laughed. – Laura Donovan
However some locals weren’t so impressed…
It doesn’t take much to get a key to the city these days. Just make a sitcom with the word “Tucson” in the title, show up in town for a premiere of the first episode, and you’re golden…They never inquired about shooting here…We have so many really dedicated, hardworking filmmakers in this city who are nameless for so long and end up working in New Mexico and California because there isn’t enough work here. One of those people should be acknowledged instead – azstarnet.com
They shot in the Los Angeles area, but include stock-footage shots of Tucson for scene transitions. “For economic reasons, we cannot film the show in Tucson,”. Justin said he hopes to film an episode in Tucson for the second season. He said there was no rhyme or reason for selecting Tucson; he has been here only once, as a teenager, to see a concert. But he said, “It’s sort of the opposite of New Jersey.”
As hinted at by Justin in a tweet of his from late last year, it has now been confirmed that Justin will guest star in the season finale of the new series, Sons of Tucson.
Ok, so the character Justin will be playing is not actually Reese, but Barry “not a tall guy but always working on his biceps, he is the neighborhood bully now all grown up.” Sound familiar? Well according to reports its a reprise of Reese’s character. The name will be different, but the character will be the same.
Frank Dolce (know-it-all-middle-son Gary on ‘Tucson) has this to say about Justin’s performance, “He’s a little shy sometimes, but he guest stars in one of the episodes and when he steps in front of the camera, he is so upbeat and has so much energy.”
The announcement was made during FOX’s TCA (Television Critics Association) presentation panel for Sons of Tucson in LA. The broadcast date for his guest star appearance is yet to be announced.
This will mark Justin’s first time in front of the camera since Malcolm in the Middle’s series finale aired on May 14, 2006. Justin serves as executive producer of Sons of Tucson, which premieres in the US on Sunday, March 14 at 9:30/8:30 Central on FOX.
Last year I called out for some new photos of Erik and last month we where excited to see Erik join Twitter which brought us… pictures! Big news seeing as we’d had near zero new information on Erik for years.
I’ve gotten way to lazy and afraid of rejection to go out for projects, plus college rocks. Just hoping USC’s SCA takes me! – @ErikPers
He’s at USC but doesn’t find out if he’s got into the Film & Television Production major until May. I’m sure you’ll get in Erik! Follow @ErikPers on Twitter.
The only thing cuter than little kittens… Is Justin Bieber! I just ordered my fan pack 2.0 – @ErikPers
Photos are by Justin Bettman (a friend of Erik’s and photographer) who took them as part of a photo shoot last month. Thanks Justin!
Justin Berfield (Reese) has been working as one of the producers of Sons of Tucson, a new family comedy on FOX that also features Todd Holland on the production team, one of the key people behind Malcolm in the Middle. And like Malcolm, it focuses around a group of brothers — in this case they need to find a ‘dad for hire’ in order to stay together.
The Sioux City Journal have a really interesting article/interview with Justin on his experience of being a child star on Malcolm, how he came to be interested in working behind the camera and how his experience with Malcolm in the Middle (and particularly being such a young actor) is very important to his current role on the new show.
During the first year of “Malcolm,” Berfield tried to keep his hand in both worlds. “I went to a regular public high school and it was extremely difficult. I felt I was constantly behind because the teachers didn’t give you your school work on time. I was constantly frustrated.”
The next year, he switched to an online school and worked at his own pace.
…
Gradually, his character — the rebellious Reese — got more screen time. Eventually, Berfield became adept at behind-the-camera work. “I give full credit to Linwood (Boomer, the show’s producer). He helped me. And whenever I needed a personal day off, he made sure I got it. He understood it was a job. But he also realized you’ve got to give a kid time to be a kid.”
Now, he’s doing the same with “Tucson’s” sons. He sees himself in Matthew Levy, one of the show’s stars, and he figures Levy will be interested in life behind the camera someday, too. “He asks questions. He wants to know why we do what we do. That’s similar to what I did.”
It’s a really interesting read if you’re interested in his experience behind the scenes of Malcolm, or Sons of Tucson, or just the unique challenges involved with working with young actors.
Sons of Tucson premieres in the US on Sunday, March 14 at 9:30/8:30 Central on FOX.
Frankie Muniz (Malcolm) has been passionate about basketball for a long time and has previously participated in the HoopLA Celebrity Basketball Game back in 2004 as well as some other similar celebrity shootout events in the past.
Join us on Sunday, March 7th at 2 p.m. for the 9th Annual Jack in the Box Celebrity Shootout, presented by Robert and Carole Machiz. Nearly 20 entertainers representing the television, movie and recording industries will descend upon Phoenix to play in this charity basketball game at US Airways Center. All proceeds benefit Phoenix Suns Charities, Suns Nite Hoops and Cox Charities.
Frankie’s girlfriend Elycia Marie (@elyciamarie) tweeted this photo of Frankie getting in some practice on the Suns’ court:
Shootin hoops on the @PhoenixSuns court with @FrankieMuniz, Tom, and Cory. Fun morning to say the least.
You can find out more information about the event and purchase tickets (for those of you near Phoenix, Arizona) from the official event page.
Frankie is also keeping himself busy playing drums with his new band You Hang Up; we’re told they have some “hot new songs in the works”. It seems that no firm racing plans for the upcoming season have been announced by Frankie and it does seem a little unclear right now whether his main focus for this year will be his role in You Hang Up or his racing career.
If you are interested in seeing what he is up to, you can of course follow his Twitter account @frankiemuniz.
Tuesday’s video chat with Chris Masterson was a great success. Many thanks to Chris for agreeing to take the time to speak with us and of course to everyone who watched and participated in the chat. There were some great questions about Malcolm in the Middle and some of the projects Chris is working on now.
The chat (and the recording) went a lot more smoothly this time around with fewer technical difficulties. A full video recording of the hour of chat with Chris is embedded below.
Please note: for the majority of the chat Chris is in the larger window and our host TJ was in the smaller window in the bottom right, but for the first few minutes of the video this is reversed.
Stay tuned to Malcolm in the Middle VC — we hope to have more video chats soon!
Justin Berfield (Reese) is 24 years old today (25th February, 2010). Everyone here at the VC wishes him a very happy birthday!
So just to embarrass him, in true MITMVC birthdaycelebration style, here is a picture of him from 15 years ago, when he was just 9 years old, auditioning for the role of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.
Obviously, he didn’t get that part — it was later filled by Jake Lloyd — but as we know, Justin went on to play Reese for all seven seasons of Malcolm in the Middle.
Recently, Justin has been keeping himself busy as one of the Executive Producers of Sons of Tucson, a new FOX comedy show featuring Natalie Martinez, Matthew Levy, Frank Dolce, Benjamin Stockham, and starring Tyler Labine. Also on the production team is Todd Holland, who directed many episodes of Malcolm and who was one of the key people behind its unique visual style. Sons of Tucson premieres in the US on Sunday, March 14 at 9:30/8:30 Central on FOX.
Thanks to our very own Gill here at the VC for pointing out Justin’s birthday, and once again we wish Justin a very happy birthday and great success with Sons of Tucson.
After the success of our video chat with Bryan we have setup a live video chat with Chris Masterson to continue the 10th Anniversary celebrations!
Tuesday 23rd February at 3pm PST / 6pm EST / 11pm GMT (UTC) Live on BlogTV.com
If you can’t make the live time and would like a question answered reply, and I’ll try and get Chris to answer it. You don’t need a BlogTV.com account to join the chatroom and ask questions.
Watch it live below, but go here to join the chat! Hope to see you all there!
Chris Masterson (Francis) is no stranger to playing a bit of poker in his spare time, having previously participated in Celebrity Poker Showdown back in 2004 and in the W Lounge Celebrity Poker Tournament in 2006 (pictured).
The exclusive, invitation-only event welcomes Hollywood celebrities, industry VIPs and world-class poker players who go head-to head in a freeroll Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournament for charity, $200,000 in cash prizes and eternal bragging rights. One hundred percent of the proceeds will benefit Chrysalis, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping homeless and economically disadvantaged individuals become self-sufficient through employment opportunities.
The event happened over the weekend of Saturday 20th — Sunday 21st February 2010 and was held at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. Chris and Danny were joined by more than 100 other celebrities as well as some top professional poker players over the course of the weekend. The final six players will return on 3rd March for the Final Table TV taping.
During our live video chat with Bryan last week we learned that Bryan was going to be in London, UK filming for his role in John Carter of Mars. As I live in LondonI jumped at the chance for a possible meet-up, to which Bryan agreed!
I meet Bryan for breakfast at the (rather swanky) Soho Hotel, where we both ordered salmon & cream cheese bagels, his treat! He’d just finished his week of filming, which he said was very successful and that he’d be doing some further work on it in the US later in the year. He gave me this personally signed Malcolm Season 7 cap and I got him to sign some posters and Season 1 DVD!
We talked about the community, I explained the history of the site and Malcolm fansites in general. He was amazingly nice (not that I had any doubts!) I’m not sure how serious he was but Bryan talked about pitching a reunion of some sort to Linwood and how such a thing might co-inside with DVD releases, it was great to hear he was so enthusiastic about such an idea. He had the ironic idea of Reese being the only successful family member after Hal looses his job, Malcolm drops out of college and Lois is pregnant again! And that they all move in with Reese.
Did you know Linwood approached Bryan about the final The Bots and The Bees scene with Bryan covered in Bees, and when Bryan agreed, he worked backwards in writing how Hal would end up in that state!
Bryan finished filming Breaking Bad 2 weeks ago and is now taking a well earned break on a motorcycle trip with friends.
I presented Bryan with a ‘thankyou’ card and then he had to leave for his plane home, what an amazing hour! Bryan said that next time he was in the country, he’d be interested in a group meet-up, open to all, we will of course post details on that whenever it may happen – Thank you Bryan!
Malcolm in the Middle Voting Community is the leading unofficial site for FOX's
hit TV show Malcolm in the Middle with 1000s of members,
active Forum, 1000s of pictures in our Gallery, an FAQ
and an Episode Guide where you can rate episodes and see
detailed summaries. The front page will bring you the latest news on what the Cast are up to now.
![Buy Malcolm in the Middle - Soundtrack [CD]](http://www.malcolminthemiddle.co.uk/images/mitmcd.gif "Buy Malcolm in the Middle - Soundtrack [CD]")
![Buy Malcolm in the Middle - Season 1 [DVD]](http://www.malcolminthemiddle.co.uk/images/mitmdvd.gif "Buy Malcolm in the Middle - Season 1 [DVD]")
