MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE: ROBBERY (TV)
Summary
One in this irreverent comedy series revolving around a precocious middle child who narrates life in his tumultuous and outrageous family. In this episode, Lois is menaced by a lovesick boss and gun-wielding robbers at work while Hal and the boys are overwhelmed by a houseful of bats. At school, Francis lands in a police paddy wagon in an attempt to cheer up a distraught friend. The show opens as Craig tells Lois that he has been promoted. In the meantime, Malcolm, Reese, and Dewey enjoy the "twilight hour" before their parents get home from work by melting toys, sawing a textbook in half, and eating compressed whipped cream straight from the can. Hal arrives home with a broken-down armoire intended as an anniversary present, which the boys help him to bring in the house. Next, Francis tries to coerce the crying Cadet Finley to do his homework, but he only gets an earful about Finley's ex-girlfriend, who has dumped him. Meanwhile, Lois cooperatively hands two robbers money from her cash register, but Craig, mistakenly thinking they are customers, antagonizes them into robbing the whole store. Back home, Hal unsuspectingly opens the armoire -- and bats swarm out. In the next scene, the boys sit huddled under the kitchen table trying to concoct a plan to rid the house of the bats. Meanwhile, Francis has brought Finley to a strip club where the dancers strip to the song "Proud to Be an American." Next, the boys sneak into the house clad with towels and helmets on their heads and wielding sports equipment as weapons. Back at the store, Craig refuses to tell the robbers the combination to the safe. He passes out after Lois descriptively explains how they will torture him for it. Meanwhile, after a brief attempt at fighting the bats, the boys hide in a tent and eat their dinner. They run screaming from the tent when Reese mistakes a bat on his dinner plate for a burned potato. Meanwhile, Francis and Finley wind up at a cockfight in the back room of the strip club. Finally, the boys devise elaborate traps to clear the house of bats, including a silly string trap for the elusive bat Dewey names "tricky." Things come to a climax at the store when Craig reveals to Lois that he was never told the combination to the safe and that he is in love with her. Craig throws the safe at one of the robbers after Lois tells him he will never have a chance with her. The burglars take off when the safe pops open. Francis and Finley end up in a paddy wagon after the cockfight is raided, and Finley admits that there are much worse things than being dumped. As the show closes, the exhausted Hal and Lois fall asleep as they try to give each other a good-night kiss. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: FOX
- DATE: November 26, 2000 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:22:12
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:63259
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy
- SERIES RUN: Fox - TV series, 2000-2006
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Linwood Boomer … Executive Producer
- Bob Stevens … Co-Executive Producer
- Gary Murphy … Co-Executive Producer
- Neil Thompson … Co-Executive Producer
- Michael Glouberman … Co-Executive Producer
- Andrew Orenstein … Co-Executive Producer
- Alan J. Higgins … Co-Executive Producer, Writer
- Alex Reid … Producer
- Jimmy Simons … Producer
- Todd Holland … Director
- They Might Be Giants … Music by, Theme Music by
- Frankie Muniz … Cast, Malcolm
- Jane Kaczmarek … Cast, Lois
- Bryan Cranston … Cast, Hal
- Christopher Kennedy Masterson … Cast, Francis
- Justin Berfield … Cast, Reese
- Erik Per Sullivan … Cast, Dewey
- David Higgins … Cast, Craig Feldspar
- Don Voorhies … Associate Producer
- Dewey Webber … Cast, Robber #1
- Maz Jobrani … Cast, Robber #2
- Teresa Velarde … Cast, Theresa
- Arjay Smith … Cast, Cadet Finley
- Frank Clem … Cast, Creepy