Wherever life takes him, Frankie Muniz will always have a TV dad in Bryan Cranston.
The two-time Golden Globe nominee recently shared that Cranston, who played his on-screen father Hal in Malcolm in the Middle, still checks in with him “every couple of weeks.” The beloved Fox sitcom aired for seven seasons from 2000 to 2006.
“I started working with him when I was 11, 12 years old. He really became like a father figure to me,” Muniz said during an appearance on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast. “And then even still to this day, he’s essentially like a Hollywood god at this point. You know what I mean? He’s done incredible films, incredible shows, won tons of awards. He’s literally It.”
Muniz continued, “He still reaches out to me every couple of weeks, checks in on me. He really cares about what I’m doing, comes to the races, if my band was playing, came to shows. I mean, he’s such an inspiration, and like I said, that’s what I strive to be for someone else in the future.”
On Malcolm in the Middle, Muniz portrayed Malcolm, a teenage genius whose parents, Hal and Lois (played by Cranston and Jane Kaczmarek), navigate raising their working-class family alongside Malcolm’s three mischievous brothers (Christopher Kennedy Masterson, Justin Berfield, and Erik Per Sullivan).
Cranston, reflecting on the series, mentioned last year that a revival might be in the cards. “There was some talk about the possibility of doing, like, a reunion movie of Malcolm in the Middle,” he told E! News in January 2023.
“We had such a great family on that, and I certainly would be open to that if there was a good idea that came up—like, ‘Oh, that would be fantastic to explore what happened to this family 20 years later,’” Cranston added. “I can’t believe it’s already that, but that would be fun to do.”
Meanwhile, Muniz has ventured into the world of NASCAR, officially joining the Reaume Brothers Racing team for the 2025 season and driving the No. 33 Ford F-150.
Despite his racing career, he continues acting, with recent roles in the comedy Half Baked: Totally High and an episode of Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens.
