The man behind "Malcolm in the Middle":
Fifteen Minutes with Linwood Boomer
By Kyle Sullivan

Linwood Boomer is the creator, writer, and executive producer of the Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. Often called the show that saved the sitcom, Malcolm is the saga of a dysfunctional American family, seen through the eyes of its third of four sons, who just happens to be a genius. When we watch a television show, we rarely think about all of the time and effort required to transform it from concept to finished product. This is what the job of Linwood Boomer is all about, making an idea into a reality.

Prior to Malcolm, Linwood Boomer produced a long list of shows including, Night Court, Flying Blind, The Boys are Back, Townies, 3rd Rock from the Sun, and the animated series God, the Devil and Bob.

On Wednesday, November 28, Linwood Boomer took fifteen minutes out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions about his life and his show. We sat alone on the empty soundstage, which only moments ago had been packed with 50 or so people all working to shoot the last scene of a long and productive day. I pressed record on the MD, lent to me by Sound mixer, Kenny Segal, handed Linwood the mike, and we began.

Kyle: Where did you go to school? What’s your background?

Linwood: I went to Highland Elementary school ‘til fourth grade, and then I went into special class [just like Malcolm.] I went to two different high schools: Sara High School, which was a catholic high school, for my first two years, and then Aragon High School, a public school, for the last two. This was all in Northern California. After I graduated, I worked for a year at Macy’s Department Store. Then I moved down to Los Angeles to go to acting school for two years at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Shortly after that, I started getting acting work. I was a series regular on “Little House on the Prairie” for five years and then I worked for another five years on different things.

Kyle: Why did you become a producer?

Linwood: After about ten years of acting the work dried up. I just didn’t like the job any more. I didn’t like being that dependant on casting people, and on the luck of the draw of auditions, I thought there was a little more job security in writing and producing. So, it isn’t what I originally planned to do. Actually, I wanted to be an actor since before first grade.

Kyle: What is a typical day in your life at work, from start to finish?

Linwood: Most of the days are very similar. Today I got up at 5:30 and arrived on the set in time to watch the first set up [the first shot of the day.] While we’re shooting, I watch what the director and the actors are doing and I give my notes to them after each take. While that’s going on, I signal to one of my assistants, to mark a particular line that I want to use when I’m editing or a particular performance of a line. By the time 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning roles around, I have to start doing other things as well as being on the set. In between camera setups I go in and talk to the writers, if we’re doing a rewrite on a script, or I go in with the editors and either do notes or a reedit or a final cut on some episode we shot before. I also talk during the day to the casting people, or the people from the network about promotions or commercials. We continue on like that until we wrap for the night. Then usually after we wrap, I’ll do some kind of editing; either picture or music editing for the shows.

Kyle: How long does it take to mount an episode from the inception of the idea to the final screen version?

Linwood: It takes twelve weeks from the time we have what we think is a good idea until the script is ready to shoot. Then it takes seven days to shoot it. After we shoot it, thirty-five working days or seven weeks later it’s ready to be delivered to the network. So that makes seven weeks of editing. It’s about twenty-one or twenty-two weeks from the time you have an idea to the time it’s delivered to the network.

Kyle: Where did the idea for Malcolm first come from?

Linwood: It was based on my childhood. The original idea was about a little boy who gets sent to special class and how that’s the worst thing in his life, which it was for me. But, when we started doing the show all the special class kids were so much fun to see and be around that we started making it a place where he wasn’t quite so miserable.

Kyle: How did you cast the family? Who came first?

Linwood: The very first person we cast was Frankie, as Malcolm. It was a very easy casting for all three of the boys [Frankie Munis, Justin Bernfield, Eric per Sullivan.] Usually it’s very hard to find good, strong kid actors, but we’ve been really lucky on our show. We have a really, really strong cast of younger actors, I think better than any show I’ve ever seen.

Kyle: Did you expect “Malcolm in the Middle” to be so successful?

Linwood: No one expects a show to be this successful, I guess some people do and they’re always wrong because there’s no way of knowing what people are going to like. Whether [a show is] popular or not doesn’t seem to have anything to do with how good it is. We just try to do a good job. It’s the same amount of work doing a crappy job as doing a good job, so you might as well do a good job and feel proud of yourself when you go home at night.

Kyle: Would you recommend this career? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

Linwood: The advantages I think are obvious. They really are those advantages that people who aren’t in show business think of: Its fun to be around actors and famous people. You get to do interesting work. You get to go on locations and the pay is good. The disadvantages are that it’s really, really competitive and it can be a very hard life. You have to get up really early and work really late. Luck dictates whether you get work or not. Even if you work really hard and do everything right, you can still just be unlucky and not get to work, or you could work for a little while, get used to it, and then suddenly find yourself out of a job, which can be even worse. That’s the biggest disadvantage.

Kyle: What are your plans after Malcolm?

Linwood: I have no other plans because producing Malcolm is so much work. I’m not going to do anything else for awhile.

Kyle: Ok, that’s it. Thanks Linwood.

Linwood: Your welcome Kyle.

Given the incredible popularity of this quirky comedy, this writer predicts that creator/writer/executive producer Linwood Boomer will be focusing his energies on the antics of Malcolm and his crazy family for a long time to come.