Jane Kaczmarek on Malcolm's Return

Jane Kaczmarek stopped by to talk about the Malcolm in the Middle reboot on Hulu, now titled Life Still Unfair. The four-episode return drops April 10. She was ironing in Pasadena when Bryan Cranston called to say Linwood Boomer had come up with a story worth coming back for.

Kaczmarek had stepped back from her career after the original run to raise her kids, work with Pasadena's public schools and the Pasadena Educational Foundation, and do theater, five times now with Alfred Molina. Cranston, she said, hasn't changed a wit since he was a kid in Canoga Park. Breaking Bad changed everything around him, but the Hal in him never left. She thinks he wanted to stop killing people for a minute and go back to being the doofus.

The opening scene of the reboot has her shaving Cranston's body, with a privacy pouch in place. She walked Rich through the original series' commitment to putting Cranston through chaos: the 25 pounds of bees, getting stung in a regrettable spot, the blue paint canvas.

Her favorite scene across all 151 episodes is the Flashback episode, rain pouring, Lois in labor, demanding Hal tell her 10 things he loves about her. Hal says he loves the way every toe on her foot looks like it comes from someone else's. Lois says she loves the way he still sucks his gut in every time she walks into a room.

Then the pivot. Kaczmarek got married nine months ago to Rusty Long, a guy she'd been nuts about in high school in Wisconsin. Her best friend's husband reconnected them at the 50-year reunion. They talked three hours a night on the phone. He'd read Middlemarch. He wants a Surrey With the Fringe on Top lyric on his tombstone. They got married in a barn in Saukville with a keg of Spotted Cow, walleye pike, bratwurst, and Rusty surprised her by hiring the University of Wisconsin marching band to play On Wisconsin as the string quartet wrapped.

She closed by giving the Packers a plug. Rusty gave her a Jordan Love t-shirt for Christmas. She wants the kicker Anders Carlson hung up by his ankles for the missed extra points.