what's up with jane kaczmarek? i thought they were doing that angle where she was at her sister's place, but they'd work her in. what's up with her not being on this weeks episode?

well she staged blue flu while they were filming because she wanted more money (i think there was a thread on it). She already missed an episode earlier this season, the one where the boys go to see francis. I figured they wrote her pregnancy in after she came back. who knows

I knew about her holding out for a renegotiation of her contract, but to have her come back then leave is kind of bizarre.

The Francis/piano thing was excellent........

Yes, it was. I am waiting for the day when he pisses of Otto and gets fired. I have a feeling that it will happen; Francis usually has a different job each season.

I think that the absence of Lois has more to do with her real life pregnancy at the time than her contract negotiations. I would say that thisand the next few shows were filmed just before and after her delivery.

I liked this episode, but last weeks as better, IMO.

"You're killing the baby!"

"Welcome back home, son"

"Crybaby Bastard!"

Malcolm just gets better and better each week...one of the funniest shows on TV... the only thing that bothered me about this episode was Malcolm himself... he's turned into a self indulgent whiner... hopefully his character will be less annyoing in the near future...but Dewey and Reece have been great lately.

MATT

Yep, and he realized this fact himself in this episode. Hopefully, this marked the end of his whiny phase.

Agreed. Malcolm is the most annoying of the characters on the show (a title formerly held by Reese, IMO). I know that he is supposed to be in his teenage whining phase, but we really don't need to see it every show like we have been for a while.

LOL, we can tolerate Malcolm that way for only a few episodes, but our parents had to tolerate that stuff for years.

That was one of my favorite episodes!

We want he old Francis back.

Simply Hilarious

Funny to see the Del Taco commercial guy as the assistant manager in Hal's second job.

Off topic:

Do Arizona has Del Taco? If yes, I'm surprised.

Yep. They started popping up here about 3-4 years ago. Now they are everywhere. The invasion has begun!

Who was the girl who played the babysitter in this episode? I know I've seen her in something else.

The Indiana Jones spoof was great.

You're not going to hit her? She looks like 16...

She could be older. Do you know that the girl who plays Malcom's girlfriend is 26?

Malcolm's girlfriend is hot. The babysitter was not. I liked the Indiana Jones scene as well...

tvtome.com shows her bday as: Birthday: September 24, 1982 (20 years old)

imdb.com shows it as: 24 September 1976 (26 years old).


intersting heh.

The babysitter was played by Hayden Panettiere. She was in the recent HBO film "Normal," and also played Ally McBeal's daughter in the final episodes of the series.

http://us.imdb.com/Name?Panettiere,+Hayden

She's 26. Frankie Muniz was on Conan this past week and he confirmed she is 26. He was talking about how weird it was to be making out w/ her since he was only 16 at the time.

That's where I had seen her before, on Ally McBeal. Thanks!

Nope, she's 13 years old, you pervert!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good episode. Otto sleeping the bed with Francis was classic. The night terrors had me rolling. Stevie rolling across the paintball field Kamakaze style was awesome too.

Great episode! That kid laying down twitching from the repeated paintball pelts had me rolling!

good ep. Whats the deal with mom? Is she holding out for more $$$ again? Is she leaving for good?