A stable Environment. American Nuclear Family Traditional Values Presented in “Malcolm in the

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5. Behavioral Stability.

Lois, the mother of five children, presents behavioral stability. Even she is described as a hard-nosed, manipulative and slightly crazy mother and something of an embarrassment to her five kids, she does her best due to her children’s future, especially her effort to keep her kids of misbehavior by joining a women’s book; Title Original Airdate Production Episode “Book Club” November 18, 2001 303 44 Lois attempts to escape the boys nightly misbehavior by joining a womens book club, but she soon realizes that the night is merely an excuse for the women to socialize--and to plot against a PTA mom who seems to handle her children and all other motherly duties with ease. Meanwhile, Hal struggles to keep the boys in order and away from the illegal fireworks hidden in the backyard. Title Original Airdate Production Episode “Stock Car Races” April 2, 2000 110 10 Hal takes the boys to see stock-car races on a school day. Meanwhile, Lois searches for her paycheck which Hal took and, with the help of Malcolms Krelboyne class teacher, finds enough evidence to ground the boys for life and Francis sneaks a snake into the academy. Title Original Airdate Production Episode “Old Mrs. Old” January 7, 2001 211 27 Malcolm must help an old woman Florence Stanley in the neighborhood with whatever she wants of him, and he ends up driving her car. Francis boyhood friend Ritchie is sent to the same military academy. 41 42

6. A Sense of Consistency.

A sense of consistency has been run in Malcolm’s family, like his brother, Reese. Despite Reese’s outwardly unintelligent facade, he discovered a gift for cooking in his late teen years. He is gifted at gourmet cooking and finds a lot of enjoyment in it; the only effective way his parents can find to punish him is banning him from the kitchen. He finds success in a meatpacking job, but is fired after setting all the cows free to impress a girl. Title Original Airdate Production Episode “Reese Cooks” March 4, 2001 218 34 Reese is taken to a cooking class as punishment, and quickly finds that he excels at it. From the evidence above, it appear that even a punishment can be so valuable that it gives a very good experience to master the cooking quickly. That was not all, especially when Reese in his late teen years, gets married to an attractive immigrant girl who requires the marriage to stay in the U.S. Reese truly cares for her, and she claims to care about him. However, the marriage falls apart when Reese and Lois discover her sleeping with another man inside the couple’s garage apartment. Added to the fact that Reese miserably failed the immigration test to keep his wife in the country he mistakenly wrote that she has a tail, the character is never heard from again and presumably deported. 42