Was Boomer keeping Malcolm back?

admin

Retired Administrator
Since the depature of Linwood Boomer we have or are about to see somethings that we have never seen in the likes of MITM before. In fact I believe that its proabably nearing a TV first for a 13 year old be be caught smoking!

Do you think it was Linwood Boomer trying to keep some of the school boy "inocence" of the show by keeping things like sex, drugs, smoking out of the storylines, or is it jsut coincidence that as he left we have had all these new more interesting, very different from the normal inconnet child like mischeif of previous MITM episodes?
 

Squeaky Yugi

New member
In the beginning, yes, the show, as well as the boys were too young to address controversial issues. It's the first impression that leaves the greatest one after all. The boys aren't supposed to be perfect, screaming and yelling and beating each other up. As the boys grow, the show grows with them. Do you really think that the viewers would sympathize with Malcolm if he was smoking and bed-hopping in middle school? After Malcolm learned to drive and looked older too, it was okay for him to go farther relationships with girls. Adressing a contreversial topic like that is walking on eggshells for the producers. We've known Dewey for years now, and his personality has evolved. Mom and dad have finally learned that he's capable of being as devious as his brothers, so taking a puff wouldn't exactly be his first offense. Think of it this way, if three random pre-adolescent boys kikced off their tv series with an episode about smoking, gun usage, or unsafe sex and then tried to have a normal episode right after, wouldn't you be surprised? In order to teach something, the characters have to be well known, and the show has to have ripened.
 

Amigo22

Super Moderator
admin said:
Do you think it was Linwood Boomer trying to keep some of the school boy "inocence" of the show by keeping things like sex, drugs, smoking out of the storylines

Drugs, maybe, but Francis smoked in 3 Season 1 eps, and as for sex, it was more like he was a fan of it... Malcolm Babysits, Sleepover, Hal Quits, Carnival and a few later episodes as well have sex-related scenes/subplots in them. And you'd think that the producer would be a female by the many scenes with Hal being nude or partially nude - Pilot, Water Park, High School Play cold opener, Hal Quits, Carnival to name those I can remember.
 

Wildcat

Retired Moderator
Squeaky Yugi said:
In the beginning, yes, the show, as well as the boys were too young to address controversial issues.

I agree. Boomer may have had something to do with it, but I think it's more an age issue than anything. Now that the boys are much older, I think the producers feel that it's safe to introduce storylines that are more controversal for them. There's been a lot of controversal stuff on the show in the past too--Malcolm getting drunk, Reese taking drugs (experimental, not illegal, but drugs nevertheless), Francis smoking--but they were all well into their teens when they did those things. I think they are trying to show that Dewey isn't a kid anymore and that we should start thinking of him as a teen with all of the issues that teens face. Still, I just have a hard time believing that Dewey would smoke! I could understand if it was Reese, but Dewey? :eek:
 

admin

Retired Administrator
You have all raised some excellent points I didn't think of to start, I suppose age is an issue and Malcolm is now legally old enough to have sex, although to be honest with you all I have never seen a sitcom allow a 17/18 to have sex before, thats what makes it more of a controversial thing.

Even with Dewey he's about 13 or so, that is still very young to start smoking in my opinion! :D
 

ReMoss85

New member
The show has tackled the same so-called controversial topics from the very beginning, only with characters that were old enough at the time to deal with them. In the very first episode, Francis smoked, and had a girl getting dressed on the bed behind him, Hal was naked, Lois was naked, etc. I think it's just a matter of the boys never being old enough before, like others have said. We don't think of them as ever doing these types of things, even though yes, Malcolm has been drunk before, and even Reese has been naked before. There have probably been plenty of shocking-for-their-age storylines, but they were young enough that they may seem to pale in comparison to the recent ones. Part of it may be that we still sort of view them as little 7, 12, and 13 year olds so it's hard to imagine them as nearly adults.
 
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