Where is the Family From / Live?

[Amigo22]

Re: Any Of You Guys Remember The Catapult On The Roof ?!?

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_in_the_middle

Last name:

The last name of the family has been revealed only once in the show, in the pilot episode, where Francis wears the name tag "Wilkerson" on his school uniform (it can be seen best in the scene where he is talking with his family on the phone). Also, though unaired, it appears in a joke from the original pilot script. In that script, Malcolm was walking to school when a neighborhood kid came running up shouting, "Malcolm, Malcolm, Malcolm. I was talking to my parents last night - I was listening to them talk, and what's your last name?" "Wilkerson, why?" Malcolm replied. "Oh. Who are the Pariahs?" said the other kid. The joke was eventually cut. One theory of why their last name has been played down is that the producers did not want them to be typecast as any particular ethnicity, and they likely hoped rerun viewers would miss Francis' name tag.

Location:

The setting of the show has never been revealed. The locale doesn't appear to have noticeable seasons, and also appears not to be in a desert environment, so one could conjecture the setting is somewhere in suburban California (the show is filmed in this state). Also, the schools the teens attend has the look and layout of a common California public school, with classes in many single story buildings, separated by open-air common areas, instead of a single multistory building.
In various scenes, especially in later seasons, license plates show a non-existing "Cherokee State". Despite that, the look of the plates intentionally made like California's, such as the font of the words "Cherokee State", and digits are in the format of "1 XXX 111", where 1 is a digit, and X is a letter. However, in one episode, Hal comes to visit Francis at military school and upon seeing his father, Francis exclaims, "you drove eight hours just to see me!" The school is known to be located in Alabama, so Malcolm's family must live within an eight-hour drive of the state, perhaps in Florida. On the other hand there is also an episode where Reese is sent to Whitehorse on a bus for at least 52 hours. Malcom: "Reese, think about it. It takes 26 hours to get to Canada, and 26 hours to get back. Your bag is filled with food and nobody called Grandma!" Only Alaska is within a 26 hour drive of Whitehorse, Canada. However, in episode 43, Alaska is stated to be "5000 miles away. in the episode "Krelboyle Picnic", Francis says "So i'm still a member of the family even after you sent me away to military school 1,000 miles away".

It is also likely that there is no real-world location that is consistent with all the facts about Malcolm's location given in the show.
In episode 112, on a desk in the brother's room, is what appears to be an In-N-Out Burger coffee mug. If this is true, its likely the show is in states such as California, Nevada, or Arizona as the In-N-Out food chain is ONLY in these three states. Although, because the show is filmed in California, it is likely just added there from a cast member or crew member, since In-N-Out is popular among celebrities.

 

[Amigo22]

Re: Any Of You Guys Remember The Catapult On The Roof ?!?

Oh, and David, you'll be pleased to know the MITMVC is listed in that site's links list

 

[Amigo22]

Re: Any Of You Guys Remember The Catapult On The Roof ?!?

That site also has age info, it's a table and it screwed up when I tried posting it here, so go to the Wikipedia link & scroll down.

 

[Amigo22]

Re: Any Of You Guys Remember The Catapult On The Roof ?!?

Just read somewhere that MITM is filmed in Studio City - not sure whether that has anything to do with where they live in the show.

 

[yardgames]

Re: Any Of You Guys Remember The Catapult On The Roof ?!?

No, that's not where they live; just where they film it. The Fox studios were filled up with shows back in 2000 when the show started shooting (1999 actually) so they rented out studios at CBS instead.

 

[ajpp16]

Re: Any Of You Guys Remember The Catapult On The Roof ?!?

i thought they lived in idaho, cos in the episode wher dewey (tries to) looks after craigs cat when hes thinkin to himself while giving the cat food he "says" someday..u will be the president(not president - i cnt think of the actual word but same sort of thing i think) of idaho, anyone taller than u will be fed to wolves.

 

[Amigo22]

Re: Any Of You Guys Remember The Catapult On The Roof ?!?

According to Justin Berfield's forum, the house was sold some time last year. I thought it was earlier than that.... it was for sale in the article I read a few years back... used to have a screencap of it but I can't find it on any of my CDs of MITM files . I doubt it would still be on the Internet either.

 

[yardgames]

Re: Any Of You Guys Remember The Catapult On The Roof ?!?

i thought they lived in idaho, cos in the episode wher dewey (tries to) looks after craigs cat when hes thinkin to himself while giving the cat food he "says" someday..u will be the president(not president - i cnt think of the actual word but same sort of thing i think) of idaho, anyone taller than u will be fed to wolves.

Yeah, but that's Dewey. He's weird like that. He could live in Maine and decide he wants to be king of Idaho for all we know.

 

[ajpp16]

Re: Any Of You Guys Remember The Catapult On The Roof ?!?

Yeah, but that's Dewey. He's weird like that. He could live in Maine and decide he wants to be king of Idaho for all we know.

true lol..very true

 

[tony_montana]

Re: The Family's Last Name and House Discussion

I am casting my vote that the family lives in Southern California somewhere. My reasons stem from a few episodes, but mainly "Burning Man". Burning man is a real festival held every year in the desert of Nevada just south of Las Vegas. Now, if they live somewhere in S.California, it should only take a few hours to get out there, and you remember that Malcolm and Reese were going to hitchhick their way to the festival. Malcolm and Reese were going to leave on a Friday(in my book) and said they would be back on Monday. That would be an appropriate time frame to get to Burning man from S.California, stay at the festival a few days, then get home Monday.
Anyway, thats what I believe. Now the question is what city do they live in?

 

[samboo1]

Re: The Family's Last Name and House Discussion

I am casting my vote that the family lives in Southern California somewhere. My reasons stem from a few episodes, but mainly "Burning Man". Burning man is a real festival held every year in the desert of Nevada just south of Las Vegas. Now, if they live somewhere in S.California, it should only take a few hours to get out there, and you remember that Malcolm and Reese were going to hitchhick their way to the festival. Malcolm and Reese were going to leave on a Friday(in my book) and said they would be back on Monday. That would be an appropriate time frame to get to Burning man from S.California, stay at the festival a few days, then get home Monday.
Anyway, thats what I believe. Now the question is what city do they live in?

There is still a lot of things that say it isnt Southern California though.

 

[tony_montana]

Re: The Family's Last Name and House Discussion

Like what? Look at the facts: It never snows, so a northern state is out, the trees that are scattered around on the show look like trees that grow out in that area, the buildings in town and the houses themselves look like houses they build in that area.
Like I said, I just really believe its S.California. There's alot of evidence to support the idea.

 

[samboo1]

Re: The Family's Last Name and House Discussion

Yeah, everyone has their opinions. But when i read this is put me off the idea of it being in California, because of the list of reason it states, that it couldnt be in CA.

 

[tony_montana]

Re: The Family's Last Name and House Discussion

Man, I have to admit, that has some good points. You know, Im starting to believe it is a nonworld location because of the jubled info on how far stuff away is and such.

Today's Russian Phrase:
yes-Da

 

[yardgames]

Re: The Family's Last Name and House Discussion

I've merged this thread with one of our two other's on where the family lives.

Darren and I had a really good debate on the topic awhile back; he actually cited every episode where they gave a hint and we used maps to discover that there isn't actually a single place that matches every clue. But if you assume a few things are exaggerations, the southwestern area of the United States is the most probably bet. Maybe that debate was on the official Fox forums; I'll have to try and dig it up.

 

[yardgames]

Re: The Family's Last Name and House Discussion

Although the state has never actually been identified within the show, I feel that it may be possible to look at the evidence in a proactive way; and with the use of common logic, work it out via a process of elimination.
There are 50 states, and we can immediately eliminate Hawaii.
We also know that the family don’t live in Alabama and Alaska, because these are locations to which Francis moved. Also, if we look at a conversation in the ‘pilot’ episode between the younger siblings, we know that they are not in Florida either.
Malcolm: (…) plus its right next to Florida where Disney World is.
Dewey: I bet he goes to Disney World all the time.
If one was to adapt the same concept of logic, we can also eliminate Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia, as they too are direct neighbours to Alabama.
Unfortunately, using the subject of Disney World, and Dewey’s naïve proximity to a location by association, we must also dismiss California, as a Disney World is present there also. This is despite the reality of the show being filmed in LA.
We can also seek other clues from episodes. For example, in season 5, the family visit Las Vegas for their first time. This, together with the driving distance for the city implies that they cannot live in Nevada.
From a conversation between Hal and Lois (Malcolm films Reese), we can eliminate New York also.
Hal: (…) there have been people flying back and forth from New York (…)
The statement of ‘back and forth’ may connote a significant distance, so I want to do something fundamental and eliminate New York’s direct neighbours. These are: Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
And now for the big one:
In the episode “Emancipation’, Malcolm informs Francis that Alaska is 5,000 miles away from their home. If we were to take a scaled map of the USA and measure a radius of 5,000 miles from a central point in Alaska, i.e. Anchorage, we can exclude a lot of the Northern states. When I eventually locate my missing atlas, I will update this message; but I have eliminated 16 states so far.

A few more clues that spring to mind are:
-Hal saying they should get a few states behind them before telling Lois, when driving Francis back to Alabama at the end of Francis Escapes (season 1)
-The revelation that it hasn't snowed there in six years, according to Hal in the Standee episode.
-No coats are needed on Pearl Harbor Day (December 7th) in the Pearl Harbor episode. In fact, the neighbor goes out to fetch the paper in just his robe
-In the Traffic Jam episode, they're driving through a desert/southwest environment (looks like the area around Las Vegas) on the way back from the waterpark. The waterpark was within one day's drive, since they left home at sunrise to get there and were heading back the same day. And who drives more than a few hours to find a waterpark?
-In the Casino episode, they wind up on a desert artillery range. Again, this appears to be within a day's drive. There aren't many deserts, or artillery ranges, outside California/Nevada/Arizona/New Mexico.
So it all still pretty much points to southern california.

I would almost guarantee that they live in California, probably Los Angeles, for several reasons:
1. The climate, as already mentioned.
2. Their Car's License plates as mentioned.
3. Every Time a Police Car is seen it is a Los Angeles City Police Dept. Car, with Correct color scheme (Black and White) and carries the logo of the dept. with the Motto "To Protect and Serve"
4. The show is actually filmed in California and since nothing directly contradicts that as the location it would be the most simple.
5. The character's accents and English pronounciation, see below.
As far as I know, there are very few other places in the states, fitting all of these other specifications wherin all, or nearly all, of the residents speak what is referred to as General American English. The temperate climate eliminates such places as the north western and rocky mountain areas, while the southeastern portion of the counrty has, for the most part, a decidedly "southern" dialect, very different from that used on the show. Even Texas has a very strong accent and many local peculiarities that preclude it from ben ghte show's location. Nevada is obviously not correct since they must travel out of town to gamble in at least two episodes. The only other options with the similar speech would be Arizona and New Mexico the former of which I beleive to be the location of the Grotto Ranch where Francis worked due to the mention of Tucson as the closest major city.
On thing that is strange, if they do live in California, is the fact that they never go to the beach, or even mention it.

There may be another clue to the family’s location from the episode: ‘Buseys Run Away’. In one scene, Dewey informs his class mates that the leaves will soon be falling from the trees, thus revealing their hiding place.
In the autumn and winter seasons, deciduous trees do indeed lose their leaves. It is associated with their need for energy through photosynthesis. At times of year with low sunlight, such trees will conserve their energy by allowing their leaves to fall and to encourage energy by other means i.e. water via transpiration.
I was wondering though if this still exists in California, the most viable state for the MITM family, by previous evidence. After all, there is the constant presence of sunlight year round, and it is technically summer, in a climate sense, throughout every month, resulting in the leaves staying. Of course, I have never been to California, so please correct me if I am wrong.
Another note on this matter is that I am using an episode for reference that also featured a group of around 20 youngsters living in trees outside the family home, without anyone besides Dewey realising. With this in mind, it is fair to say that naturalistic conventions of realism are not within the show’s main priorities.

So apparently I wasn't part of that debate after all. I took excerpts from the official forums and avoided all the crap that the other people post there. Most of you probably don't know any ot those members; a couple posted here awhile back, and their ideas are still very good. This is probably the most evidence given to a specific location.

 

[Wildcat]

Re: Renewed Debate--Where is the family from?

All I can say is "Wow!" These people have really thought this through and provided excellent supporting evidence to back up their claims. They should go join the Lost forum (those people love to analyze every single little detail and every comment a character makes too )

I tend to agree with those who think it's somewhere in the southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, S. Colorado, or even Nevada and Utah.) Maybe not so much Nevada since they had to travel to get to a casino and in Nevada there's casinos almost everywhere. I've been to all of those states and the background scenery in many of the driving scenes is very similiar to what you would see in any one of them. As BigFitz79 mentioned in Yardgames's post above, it looked like a very arid, desert region that they were driving through when they were coming back from the waterpark. Also in Jessica Stays Over, we see Hal driving to work and the scenery in the background looks very similar to what you would see in those states as well (dry-looking, not a lot of greenery, mountainous).

In addition, in several of the episodes there are hints that The Grotto is no more than a days drive from their home as well as in Malcolm's job when Dewey is able to get there all by himself. And we can be fairly certain that The Grotto is in either Arizona (Tuscon being the closest major city as mentioned above) or New Mexico due to hints about the Roswell incident from the episode where Francis dresses up as an alien (can't remember which one this is.) So in my opinion, most of the evidence clearly points to somewhere in the southwest.

 

[tony_montana]

Re: Renewed Debate--Where is the family from?

I know I already posted my thoughts, but after thinking about it more i have to ask one question..um, does it really matter?

Today's Russian Phrase
Yes-Da

 

[NeCoHo]

Re: Renewed Debate--Where is the family from?

Yes, we like to debate this, it's one of the MITMVC's main research projects.

 

[Amigo22]

Re: Renewed Debate--Where is the family from?

The debate has certainly gone on a long time, and I don't know whether we will actually figure it out, but we are doing well with the info we have gathered.

And yep, it does matter to dedicated MITM fans like we are