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Lparsons7981

New member
Hi everyone, I'm glad I found this site. Malcolm was, and always will be one of my favorite TV shows of all time, and in a way something that is/was very important to me personally.

I wasn't going to write a long intro, but I really feel I need to simply say "thank you" to the people who made the show possible, I know none of the writers, actors, and producers will read this, but I would like to get it out anyway.

In a lot of ways, I "grew up" with Malcolm and following the story and the journey of him and his family. I am about the exact same age as Malcolm is in the show, when it started I was too, a 7th grader, not to popular, on the brainy side, with a quirky, dysfunctional, but loving family. When the show ended, I was a week from graduating high school, a place I finally felt I belonged, but i had to give it up and move onto an uncertain future in college that would and is still a struggle financially and emotionally, all towards my goal of someday being a history teacher. I am 21 years old now, and am getting back into the show, for several reasons, mainly as in ways it "centers" me, and brings me back to those younger times of being a kid and what it was like to grow up.

This show is important to me now, as I am quite severely depressed and one of the bright sparks of my day is getting a bit of a laugh from the hijinks that occur in the family at 6:30 P.M every weeknight. Equally important to the story in my opinion, and an aspect of the show that has grown on me in recent months is the warm "core" of the show. That being the simple familial love and care that is portrayed, though the family isn't "perfect" What I wouldn't give for siblings that care and stick up for me like Francis and Reese do, and parents that truly care like Lois and Hal (particularly Hal, something about his character comically as well as seriously really gets me). In my future, if my family turned out like that, I would be proud of the job I did as a father raising kids that aren't not perfect on the outside, but have good hearts.

When I was growing up with show in junior high and moving into high school the was important to me for the lighter aspects. I wasn't the most popular kid in class, and when this show came on it became a small haven every week in a world I didn't enjoy one bit. At school I was made fun of by others, and abused in a awful way by a teacher, a situation I am just now coming to terms with. But then, it was just confusing, and made me feel different, and isolated and ashamed of my own self. At home my mother was her over-bearing and nitpicky about unnecessary things self, while my father was.....god he tries but sometimes he is just impossible to talk to and to connect with, always seeming to maintain an unapproachable distance then and now. But the TV family I watched every week made me smile, it made me laugh, and sometimes it made me feel that I wasn't alone as a lower-middle class kid that stood apart and alone, and in a way it made me think there were different ways for adults and parents to act then what I had been exposed to my whole life, something more to aspire too.

This might seem deep and too much thought going into a simple T.V show. But I see it as more then that, it is truly art, and art is often comfort in a dark and confusing world. T.V is essentially storytelling, and that is art. MITM, for me is art that I truly feel saved/ and is saving me, and is like some lights in a dark tunnel, keeping me going towards the light that I now can see is at the end after these years.

Thank you to Linwood boomer, the various writers, Frankie Muniz, Bryan Cranston, Chris Masterson, Jane Kaczmarek, and all the others for bringing Malcolm, Hal, Reese, Dewey, Francis, and Lois to life. They may be fictional characters in a fictional world, but what they did and are doing for me is incalculable.

Thanks for reading/listening to my rant :D
 

tjpeople

Site Administrator
Staff member
Welcome Lparsons, we hope you enjoy your stay. A very personal and impressive introduction. Many people here have grown up with Malcolm and as the "Malcolm" generation (as I call us 20 somethings) grow older the MITM audience only get bigger.

I'm sorry to hear things aren't going well for you. I too find watching MITM/working on this site very relaxing.

Just like a piece of music can have a very deep emotional meaning so can a TV show. You've come to right place ;)

I wasn't going to write a long intro, but I really feel I need to simply say "thank you" to the people who made the show possible, I know none of the writers, actors, and producers will read this, but I would like to get it out anyway.

Well actually we've have had a few writers, crew and actors reading the site over the years. And possibly more that we don't know about.

If you need any help you can email me.
 

Richiepiep

Administrator
Hi everyone, I'm glad I found this site. Malcolm was, and always will be one of my favorite TV shows of all time, and in a way something that is/was very important to me personally.

Dear Lparsons,

This is a wonderfully frank, personal and moving introduction unlike any I've ever read! I see it is coupled with a lot of hardship in your case, which I feel sorry about. It must have been tough and most likely still is. But I can certainly empathize with that. I was on the nerdy side as a kid, not very much into sports or Top of the Pops-music like my classmates, and in that way I stood apart from most.

No, I didn't grow up with 'Malcolm', because I'm more than ten years older, but I did with 'The Wonder Years', which was a similar 'cinematic' series, with first-person asides like MITM, but on the whole a more romanticized look on growing up as a teenager. In a way, MITM mirrored that and brought back those memories......

Rich
 

Lparsons7981

New member
Thanks for the welcomes, I really didn't mean to dump that whole post out like that, but it was in my head, and it felt good to write and share with others :)
 

Lparsons7981

New member
Just started downloading and watching season 1 on here........wow what a flashback, I'll have to buy the season 1 DVD once I get you know........a job ;)

But man, what a throwback, I haven't seen some of these episodes since they first aired and it definitely brings me back to being 12-13, that's for sure. These are better then I remember too :D I "get" a lot more of the stuff now.
 

Ryebeach

Moderator
A belated welcome, LParsons, and thank you for sharing you personal story with us. It was quite moving and in particular I can relate to your feeling about how much the familiar aspect of the show was its "center" and to me, the most important aspect of the show. Above all else, this was a family who loved each other, even though they were all completely different people with varying abilities and separate goals.
 
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