For 147 episodes, Jane Kaczmarek played the no-nonsense matriarch Lois on Malcolm in the Middle, earning an Emmy nomination for each of the series’ seven seasons.
Now, two decades after the finale, the gang is back together for the four-part limited series, Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair. Malcolm (Frankie Muniz) is now navigating middle age, a precocious teen, and an estranged relationship with his family. His parents (Kaczmarek and Bryan Cranston) have settled a little too comfortably into their 40-year-marriage, shocked to learn they have a granddaughter they didn’t know about.
Much has changed in the decades since we first met Malcolm. Television has transformed in how it is made, distributed, and consumed. Family dynamics have shifted too. Kaczmarek’s life looks very different as well. Her children are grown, she has returned to her native Wisconsin, and she reconnected with—and later married—her high school sweetheart. These days she works on her own terms, jumping at the chance to reunite with her TV family for Malcolm, in theatre, or with frequent collaborator Alfred Molina on Netflix’s The Boroughs.
In conversation with Awards Buzz, Kaczmareck is refreshingly open about the early days of fame, life away from Hollywood, and her decision to return to Lois, Malcolm, and, luck for us, our TV screens.
Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair is streaming on Hulu/Disney+.
