about Lois", so she accepted. Justin Berfield was cast as Malcolm's older brother Reese, despite the fact that Berfield is younger than Muniz, while Erik Per Sullivan was cast as the youngest brother Dewey, and Catherine Lloyd Burns as Malcolm's teacher Caroline Miller. The character of Hal, the patriarch of the family, was initially underwritten, and described by Boomer as "a writer's conceit that just lay there on the page like a turd". During Bryan Cranston's audition for the part, he had to simply be "listening to a fight between the mom and one of her sons" as required. At that time, Cranston put a pipe in his mouth and watched the fight, causing Boomer to fall from his chair while laughing. Boomer recalled that Cranston "just had this vast inner life going on." He described Cranston's look at that time as a man who "looks like he's listening, but he's actually building a rocket ship in his head", and Cranston was cast immediately. Filming Much of the filming for the season was done on location from 1999 to 2000. Unlike other sitcoms, the makers avoided including laugh tracks or studio audience, and cinematography was done with single-camera to achieve a more "cinematic look". A privately owned home, located at 12334 Cantura Street in Studio City, California, was rented for upwards of $3,000 a day to film as Malcolm's house. School scenes were filmed at Colfax Elementary School. For the episode "Rollerskates", Cranston learned how to skate and performed most of his skating scenes, while a stunt double was used for the more complicated skating scenes. During "The Bots and the Bees", he wore a suit of live bees as required for the role. He was covered in 10,000 bees, but only got stung once, during which he did not flinch. In "Stock Car Races", when Hal and the boys are entering a race track, the billboard behind the entrance displays the place as Irwindale Speedway, a real race track in Southern California. The season finale was filmed at a water park called Wild Rivers located in Irvine, California. Release Broadcast history The season premiered on January 9, 2000 on Fox, and ended on May 21, 2000 with a total of sixteen episodes. Home media The season was released on Region 1 DVD by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on October 28, 2002. Reception Critical response The review aggregator website