Malcolm in the Middle 10th Anniversary!

Richiepiep

Administrator
We may have Dutch Comedy Central on board!

I sent a mail to Dutch Comedy Central about the 10th MITM anniversary. They are part of the Dutch MTV Network (mtvne)

This is what they replied:

From Saskia.baaijverhoeven:yinyang:mtvne.com

Hee Richard

Wat een leuk idee!

In januari hebben we echter waarschijnlijk qua programmering al heel veel hot items op de agenda staan. Nieuwe programma’s en zo.. hierover later meer ;-) dit zijn we nog aan het uitpuzzelen. Maar deze verjaardag zetten we zeker op de lijst erbij..als er ruimte is dan is het zeker leuk om er wat aan te doen. Dus of we op zender er wat aan doen is nog niet zeker.

Van de producent hebben we nog geen acties te horen gekregen. Maar we gaan het balletje wel eens opgooien.

We kunnen online natuurlijk wel altijd aandacht besteden aan jullie initiatieven en ernaar doorlinken!

Gr saskia

Translation:

Hey Richard,

That's a great idea! I must say that we probably already have a lot of hot items scheduled for January in terms of programming. New series and the like ... we'll let you know, we're still piecing this together. But we will certainly put this anniversary on our list. If we can make room for it, it'll certainly be nice to do something about it, but we can't promise anything.

We haven't heard anything from the producer about special events, but we'll put some feelers out.

Of course, we can always pay attention to your initiatives online and link to them.

Greetings,

Saskia
 

Richiepiep

Administrator
We may have MITM cinematographer Levie Isaacks on board!

I contacted MITM director of photography Levie Isaacks, and got a reply from him!

Some introduction:

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. Among them are gems like Red Dress, Stock Car Races, Rollerskates, Water Park, Traffic Jam, Hal Quits, Bowling, Traffic Ticket, Poker ...

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

Our correspondence:

From levie:yinyang:hollywooddp.com:

Dear Levie,

Thanks a lot for getting in touch with me! It's really nice of you to grant us an interview, and I'd love to call you, but that would perhaps be a bit impractical, as I'd have to record the interview and post it and type it up to share it with the other site members.

In order to let site subscribers pitch in with some personal questions, I'd like to collect these first, and pass them on to you by mail. Of course, we may also be able to set up a live chat, so users can post their questions real time, and you can reply to them. I'd have to discuss this with the site administrator.

Of course I can still resort to the phone interview. I'll keep you posted.

With best wishes,

Richard

Levie Isaacks ASC wrote:

Richard,

I would be happy to talk about Malcolm. Just let me know if you would rather do it by e-mail or by phone. My cell is xxxxxxx, I am presently in northern California this week and my cell does not work everywhere and the number here is xxxxxxxxx.

Levie

Levie Isaacks, ASC
www.levieisaacksasc.com

On Fri 09/10/09 12:55 PM , Richard sent:

Dear Mr. Isaacks,

I'm currently working as the Photo Gallery administrator for what we consider as the most comprehensive Malcolm in the Middle fan site on the web: http://www.malcolminthemiddle.co.uk/

I hit on your website while searching for 'Malcolm' links, watched your promo reels, and wrote an entry about you in our forums singling out your wonderfully fluent and imaginative work on that show. It's really one of the highlights of the show, and it never fails to impress and entertain me.

I wonder what your fondest memories of working on this comedy are, how you gauge your contributions, if the series was a challenge to you and/or an outlet for lots of creative ideas about angles, lenses, tracking shots etc. It struck me from the start how many different angles (even 'impossible' ones below ground level for instance) and lenses this series uses, and how functional, but also how 'cutting edge' and exciting they all are.

Any contribution would be welcomed, either by way of me or as a direct contributor.

Another thing: January 9th, 2010 will be the official 10th
anniversary of 'Malcolm', as its pilot aired 10 years ago. It would
be wonderful if Fox would do some sort of reunion, a special or a
commemoration. At least we at MITMVC plan to have a special event, if possible with some cast or crew coming on-line.

With best wishes, also for upcoming projects,

Richard
MITMVC site staff
 
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Richiepiep

Administrator
Great!

A phone conversation could quite easily be recorded if you were using Skype.

Yes, that would be fine, but I'd like to let users in on the conversation, either offline or online. I could still do the interview as a fallback option.

I will discuss with TJPeople what we can do.

Rich
 
Wow! Thanks, Richard! A member of the crew AND a TV network! You're a natural! Now, if only you could convince FOX to release 'Malcolm' on to DVD!:D Although, we should try to get support for that before, during or after the 10th Anniversary. Maybe Levie Isaacks or Dutch Comedy Central will support us. This other thread I made could help. It could be a sticky, too. http://www.malcolminthemiddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2342

Anyway...

Thanks,
deweyinthemiddle
 
Yeah, TJ is right. Another round of applause! Great work! I think that some kind of live chat would be great, and submitting questions or asking them live. Sorta like the Bryan Cranston chat. :D
 
I also want to see if we could contact TV.com or TV Guide and request that the do an article about Malcolm's 10th Anniversary to help spread the word.
 

MITM_Fan

Member
This comment will be negative for most people, but it's the truth:

People are taking this too serious, no word from the producers or companies will be in this project.

The serie can not be on DVD/Blu-Ray due to the costs of the songs, they'd had to pay all artists.

Be happy at least the S01 is on DVD, and I've order'd it already from Amazon.

About Richard's talk to the mitm's photogropher, it's nothing really important, I sincerely don't care about if he get's or doesn't, makes no real difference, either not a person to do a change.
 

Richiepiep

Administrator
I think MITM_Fan is right here. We often think of Fox & co. as these big, dictatorial moguls who deny us the rights to see what we want to see or be full-fledged fans, but as for the music rights, it's not up to the cast & crew or even Fox.

It's a problem of the media conglomerates (which includes Fox to be sure) at large, who effectively block releases because they're asking what appear to be literally millions of dollars for the original song rights.

Just to illustrate this, a Fox exec on securing the music rights for The Wonder Years, whose impact relied heavily on original '60s songs by famous artists. What it all boils down to, is probably (oh, horror) the famous songs replaced with cheaper ones or cover versions.

"We know it's something we'd like to put out. We know that people want it out. Consumers are waiting. Fans are waiting. We talk about needing to tackle it, but we haven't gotten to a place where it's being actively worked on. I'd love to put it out on DVD, so other people can enjoy it, so we just have to work through these issues. It's not that simple, because music is an integral part of that show. So it's not like you can just go in and replace it all."

"You go in and see which songs are expensive that are not as essential, and that process of going through each episode and doing that analysis is a more complicated process than putting out a TV show that doesn't have these issues."

The Denver Post - Pricey Nostalgia

Rich
 
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omqits_cinderella

New member
i think all the cast members should qet toqether & talk about times on the set &
show there favortie memorable clips. & they should air it on fox or somethinq. lol
 

flipfreak4

New member
Okay so this is probably just wishful thinking... but Frankie seems to be on Facebook quite often recently... Maybe someone could... give him a nudge? :s
 
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