Malcolm in the Middle Wiki
Register
Advertisement
The Wilkersons

The entire immediate family as of the end of the series.

The Wilkerson Family is the main family of the American television series Malcolm in the Middle. The immediate family lives in an unnamed neighborhood in an American state that is never mentioned. They are a dysfunctional family that argues and fights with each other a lot. They are notorious for being the most hated family in the neighborhood. Their last name is never explicitly given in the series. The name "Wilkerson" is only ever seen on Francis' nametag in the Pilot episode.

The Family[]

The parents of the immediate Wilkerson Family are Hal (Bryan Cranston) and Lois (Jane Kaczmarek). At the beginning of the series, there were four brothers. From oldest to youngest, they were Francis (Christopher Kennedy Masterson), Reese (Justin Berfield) Malcolm (Frankie Muniz), and Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan). In the fourth season finale episode Baby Part 2, Jamie was introduced as the fifth son of Hal and Lois. In the series finale, Lois discovered that she was pregnant once again with a sixth child. This child was never born in the episode so most information about it is unknown.

In the episode Hal's Birthday, Francis travels home (to celebrate his father's birthday) with an Alaskan girl named Piama (Emy Coligado), and reveals that they are married. It is implied in "Hal's Christmas Gift" that the popularity order with the brothers is: Francis, Dewey, Reese, Jamie, then Malcolm. Throughout many of the series' episodes, the family is shown to be extremely loathed and despised by their neighbors.

Because of Hal's recklessness and incompetence as a man, Lois is supreme head of the household.

With each new son, the family's life sunk lower and lower.

Because of Lois and Hal's medium-level income, coupled with the never-ending flow of unwanted but necessary expenditures foisted upon them by their unruly sons, the family can afford very few luxuries, sometimes foregoing even basic living essentials (such as refrigeration or a washing machine). Most of the boys clothes are hand me downs or flea market bought. As such, bills are always late and the family is in miserable, constant debt.

Even though Lois and Hal are always blaming their boys for their problems, they themselves are often selfish, putting their love making and dates over their children's well being. This has been explored a couple of times on the show. In one such episode, Grandma Sues, their selfishness in not telling Francis, Reese, Malcolm and Dewey about the financial debt they're facing with their late payment of bills, their newly discovered pregnancy, and even Ida's lawsuit came back to haunt them. Despite Lois' need to maintain control, the boys are annoyed and gang up on her. They blame her and Hal for all the trouble the two of them have caused the family over the years.

In Reese's Party, Lois discovered that Hal didn't get a vasectomy like she asked him to do. This is because after dealing with Francis and Reese's troublemaking behavior, she was already physically and emotionally drained. Lois wasn't looking forward to having another brawling, disobedient and troublemaking son. In turn, she and Hal got in to a serious fight

Family History[]

Welker Family[]

The Welker Family is Lois' side of the family. A Canadian family, with Ida Kenzel (Cloris Leachman) and Victor Welker (Robert Loggia) as the parents. Ida and Victor never officially got married, but Ida did have children and Victor helped raise them. Ida then gave birth to two kids, Lois Welker and Susan Welker. But Victor was not Lois' true father. A man name Radu Gogorsky, who was never seen in the show was the true father of Lois. Victor was so unfaithful and neglectful in the first years of their "marriage", that he found love with another family. Victor would always leave Ida, saying he was going on a business trip, when he was really visiting Sylvia. Ida found out about this and had an affair with Radu to spite him. She then gave birth to Lois and Victor would occasionally return to raise the child, making her believe that he was her real father. However, Victor suspected that Lois wasn't his real child and that Ida was lying to him the whole time. Due to the fact that there was no DNA test results that existed in 1960, he couldn't prove his theory. They also went under the last name "Welker" as opposed to "Kenzel" or "Gogorsky". Victor only came back to Ida because of Susan. She was the only daughter that he loved so much and often returned her visits, revealed in Lois' Sister. He didn't care for either Ida or Lois. This information hasn't been dwelt upon enough to understand much about. Even Ida claims that she knows very little about this topic, not even knowing if Susan is the child of Victor or Radu. Although it's revealed that she could've been lying to Lois about this topic and didn't want to admit that she knew Victor is Susan's true father. When she caught on to Ida's lie, she was forced to confess that Radu only fathered Lois and Victor fathered Susan. Angered and humiliated by this, Lois abandoned Ida's case and fled back to California with her boys

As for Victor's other family, Victor was actually nice to his other family and was the true biological father of that family. He was married to a woman named Sylvia (Betty White) and had children, one of which was a daughter named Roberta, who had four sons children. Only to of her four sons appeared in the show, Jerome and Scott. Given that Victor was never legally married to Ida or didn't biologically give birth to Lois, The Wilkerson Family is in no way related to The Welker family. Given the fact that he had fathered Susan with Ida, it's revealed she is related to Sylvia's family.

Lois married Hal Wilkerson and they went under the Wilkerson family name. This was however against the wishes of both families. Hal's wealthy family and even Ida and Victor wanted him to marry Susan

Wilkerson Family[]

The Wilkersons are Hal's side of the family. Hal's family is traced only as far back as his parents, Walter Wilkerson and Sharon Wilkerson. Walter and Sharon had three children together, Hal and his older sisters Claire and Amelia. Hal's wealthy family displays open contempt for Lois and often express their wish that he married her sister, Susan.

In the episode Flashback, the births of the eldest four Wilkerson boys are shown in a series of flashbacks to Hal and Lois' earlier life. Hal and Lois conceived Francis approximately nine months before they got married. Lois is shown to have been in labor during the wedding ceremony, but refused to go to the hospital until after they were legally wed, in order to prevent him from being born out of wedlock.

When Lois became pregnant with Malcolm, the family had to move out of the apartment and into their current house in the suburbs. While Lois was still pregnant, Reese was two years old and Hal tried teaching him a bunch of random information about things such as art, natural history, science, etc. This left no impression on Reese and even Lois told him to give up. Seeing how uninterested Reese was, Lois says that she's not sure who is benefiting from Hal's tutelage, but it's definitely not Reese. Unbeknownst to the parents, Hal's instruction seems to have influenced the then in utero Malcolm. Lois and Hal later got into a fight, which led to Hal going for a drive immediately prior to Lois going into labor. She couldn't get herself to the hospital on time because of Francis being a nuisance, and by the time Hal returned, Lois had already given birth to Malcolm on their front lawn and he had missed the whole thing.

While pregnant with Dewey, Lois is shown standing very close to an operating, unsealed microwave. When Lois went into labor, Malcolm had made unstable chlorine gas in the house as he tried to make invisible ink, which caused a noxious gas cloud to fill the house, forcing the family outdoors during a torrential rainstorm. The keys to the car were inside the house and so Lois once again had to give birth on the front lawn.

In the episode Grandma Sues, Lois found out that she was pregnant with Jamie, and gave birth to him in the episode Baby Part 2. When Lois went into labor, she was unable to leave the house because Hal had crashed the car in a rushed attempt to get home. Because of this, Lois gave birth to Jamie in the guest bedroom.

In the episode Graduation, Lois found out that she was pregnant with yet another child, much to the terror of both herself and Hal. As this episode was the series finale, details of this sixth child were never revealed.

The Wilkerson Family

The immediate Wilkerson Family

  • Malcolm Wilkerson - The title character of the show, Malcolm starts the show at age 11 but by the end of the series he is 17, graduated from high school, and enrolled in college. He is shown to be extraordinarily intelligent with an IQ of 165 at age 11. In the first three seasons of the show he is placed in his primary school's gifted program, known colloquially as the Krelboyne class. Malcolm is the middle child of the four brothers and feels like he doesn't fit in with other people. In the end it is revealed that his parents wanted him to have a hard childhood so that he would be strong and empathetic throughout the rest of his life. Malcolm is played by Frankie Muniz.
  • Reese Wilkerson - Hal and Lois' second son, Reese was always the most thuggish boy in the family, even expressing envy when Malcolm, after punching a very large six-year-old, is referred to as a thug by school administrators. While Reese is exceptionally unintelligent, he excels at both cooking and baking, often displaying an innate genius for both. After a bad break-up he enlists in the military while underage and he has to repeat a grade when he fails all of his classes. Reese is played by Justin Berfield.
  • Dewey Wilkerson - Hal and Lois' fourth son, Dewey is, for the more part of the series, the youngest brother of Malcolm, Reese, and Francis, and often falls victim to their pranks. Dewey is very intelligent and musically gifted. Despite his intelligence, he is placed in a remedial class for slower students (or Buseys) due to a misunderstanding. Dewey remains in the class and serves as their self-appointed teacher. By the seventh and final season of the show, the Busey class is no longer mentioned. He is the youngest member of the family until Lois gives birth to Jamie. Dewey is played by Erik Per Sullivan.
  • Francis Wilkerson - Hal and Lois' first son who, at the beginning of the series, is attending The Marlin Military Academy in Alabama. At the start of Season 3, in order to leave the academy early, he has himself legally emancipated, whereupon he hitchhikes to Alaska. He finds work at a logging camp and later meets and marries Piama (Emy Coligado), a woman of Inuit heritage. When the camp closes, they move to the western United States and take jobs at a Wild West-themed hotel/ranch, run by kindly but eccentric German, Otto Mannkusser and his wife, Gretchen. Francis is in a mutual love-hate relationship with his mother. Although a juvenile delinquent, he is street-smart. Francis is played by Christopher Masterson.
  • Hal Wilkerson - Hal is married to Lois, and is father to Francis, Reese, Malcolm, Dewey, and Jamie. Hal is an inept but caring father, and completely dependent on Lois. Hal is played by Bryan Cranston.
  • Lois Wilkerson - The hot-headed and stubborn mother of the family, she struggles throughout the series to keep her badly behaved boys in check while maintaining a job at a Lucky Aide drugstore. Lois is played by Jane Kaczmarek.
  • Jamie Wilkerson - Hal and Lois' fifth son, born at the end of Season 4. Despite his infancy, he is already shown to have some of his brothers' habits such as stealing and disrespecting Lois. He doesn't speak much throughout the series. Jamie is played by James and Lukas Rodriguez.

Other Members[]

Last Name[]

There is some controversy about the true family name for The Wilkerson Family. Although "Wilkerson" is generally stated to be their last name, it was never mentioned even once throughout the course of the entire series, with a few exceptions from the Pilot episode. The creators thought it would be a good idea to keep their last name a secret that would never be revealed in the series after the production for the pilot episode had been finished. In the scenes showing Francis at Marlin Academy, Francis was seen with a nametag that read "Wilkerson" and this was seen in the televised airing.

In the last episode of Malcolm in the Middle, "Graduation", they decided to finally reveal what their last name was, but when they did, they did not reveal it to be Wilkerson but rather "Nolastname". Francis was seen dropping a nametag on the ground. The nametag, when looked at very closely, read "Francis Nolastname" instead of "Wilkerson". Later, an announcer was seen saying Malcolm's first and last name, but some microphone feedback obscured his last name, making it go unheard.

There was a deleted scene from the pilot episode that was never made but seen in the script. It featured a joke where an unnamed kid exchanges dialogue with Malcolm, and Malcolm verbally reveals his last name. The unnamed kid starts talking to Malcolm about how he overheard his parents gossiping and saying mean things about The Wilkerson parents, and then stops and says "Wait, what's your last name?" to which Malcolm responds with "Wilkerson, why?" Then the kid says "Oh, who are the Pariahs?" This episode never made it into production.

Multiple FOX promotions for the show have used the last name "Wilkerson" to address the family.

In the episode "Sleepover", Francis was seen erasing Ken Finley's name off of his math homework and replacing it with his own. The screen cut away before he wrote his last name.

In the episode "Stock Car Races", Francis had a fake ID with the last name "Mortenson" which he used for unknown purposes. This was obviously not his real last name because he was using this to create a false identity for himself.

In the episode "Victor's Other Family", it was mentioned that Lois' last name at birth used to be "Welker" before she got married to Hal, meaning that the family's current last name comes from Hal's side of the family. Of course, it was never mentioned what this last new name was.

In the episode "Malcolm Films Reese", a piece of mail from Dewey's school is addressed to "The Parents of Dewey N[...]". The rest of the last name is covered by other pieces of mail, but it beginning with an N suggests "Nolastname".

In the episode "Reese Joins the Army: Part 1", Reese makes a fake identity for himself and goes under a fake age and last name in order to enlist in the army, as he is decidedly too young. He goes by the name "Reese Jetson", but his real last name is not mentioned.

In an interview with Malcolm's actor, Frankie Muniz, he stated that Wilkerson was not their last name and that they were trying to keep their last name hidden because if they identified the characters too much, they'd limit the amount of stories that they could do with them. He also said that if they ever do another series or spin-off, they'll reveal their true last name.[1]

It's unknown which one of these names is intended to be considered as canon. "Wilkerson" and "Nolastname" were both seen in the series. They tried to avoid using the name "Wilkerson", so they might have not been wanting that to be considered canon. However, "Nolastname" was an in-joke they used among the cast during the making of the show, so using it in the last episode may have been a gag. It's unknown which one is meant to be taken seriously, if either. Overall, it could easily go either way and one could apply either surname to the family.

Pets[]

The Wilkerson Family has a rocky history when it comes to pets. Lois forbids the family from having pets, because she doesn't believe the family can handle one, but this rule has been broken many times, mostly by Dewey. As a matter of fact, it's a recurring theme in the show that Dewey wants a pet dog, but his parent's won't let him get one.

In the episode Health Scare, Dewey was seen taking care of his class' pet hamster, Bernard, and kept it in his room for a while. He tried to convince his parents, by taking care of it, that he could also be trusted with the responsibility of caring for a dog, but his parents were too preoccupied with a health scare at the time. Lance, a bully at Dewey's school, reminded him that he was going to take care of Bernard the following week. Concerned for Bernard's well being, Dewey put him in a hamster ball full of food and sadly let him go away.

In the episode Reese's Job, Dewey's parents made a bargain with Dewey, telling him that if he could take care of a goldfish for an entire month without it dying, they would let him get a pet dog. Dewey held up his end of the bargain, but because his parents didn't believe he'd actually be able to do it, they sabotaged him and tried to make him lose. They ultimately failed, but, for reasons given in the episode, they still never let him get a dog.

In the episode Dewey's Dog, Dewey rectified the broken promise by his parents (mentioned above. He found a stray dog and kept it for his own. Knowingly breaking his parents' rules, he snuck it into the house without them knowing. Malcolm, Reese, and Craig were the only ones who knew about it, until the dog went crazy and chased Craig away, later attacking him and never being seen again. In the episode Monkey, Craig explained to Lois what had happened and although Lois knew about it, it's not likely that she punished Dewey for it because she and Hal did promise to get Dewey a dog and they broke their rules, so they could not rightfully do that.

In the episode Ida Loses a Leg, Hal bought Dewey a pet dog, finally fulfilling the promise he made a long time ago. The dog, however, started attacking Ida's dismembered leg and started chewing it under the house. They decided to get rid of the dog for being that disgusting.

In the episode Burning Man, Hal mentioned at the end of the episode that the family had a pet cemetery. It would seem unlikely that the family would have one since they were never allowed to have any pets before. Although it is possible that the referenced pet cemetery belonged to Hal's boss whom Hal and Dewey were going to dig a septic tank for.

Trivia[]

  • Ever since Hal and Lois moved into their suburban house, all of their children were born on the house's property. Malcolm and Dewey were born on the front and back yard (Flashback) and Jamie was born inside the house (Baby Part 2), leaving Francis and Reese as the only kids who were born in an actual hospital.
  • Lois and Hal have brown and green eyes, respectively. However, Dewey, Jamie, and Reese are the only kids who have the same eye colors as them, (Dewey and Jamie having brown and Reese having green). Malcolm and Francis both have blue eyes, because they're portrayed by Frankie Muniz and Christopher Masterson, respectively, actors with blue eyes.
    • Also, Dewey and Francis have blond hair, despite the fact that both Hal and Lois have brown hair.
  • In the episode "Hal's Christmas Gift", Francis revealed that there was a popularity list for the five Wilkerson boys. From most to least popular, these were himself, Dewey, Reese, Jamie, and Malcolm.

Gallery[]

References[]

Advertisement