User:Gekritzl/Red Dress (Malcolm in the Middle episode)

This is an older version of the episode description that some contributor keeps deleting.

"Red Dress" is episode 2 of the first season of the television show Malcolm in the Middle. It originally aired on January 16, 2000.

Cold Opening
The episode teaser begins with Lois sweeping the floor and passing the boys' bedroom. Malcolm and Reese are seen studying and Lois passes the room. However, Lois thinks something is suspicious and quickly returns to the boys room. She asks them what did they do and Reese and Malcolm says they didn't do anything. After failing to look for anything in the room, Lois leaves. But when she closes the door, it turns out Reese and Malcolm tied Dewey up and hung him up at the back of the door. "That was close!" says Dewey.

The original cold opening of the episode featured Malcolm tricking the Krelboynes into getting sprayed with toilet water and making them like it by telling him it is an "experiment".

Plot
It is Lois and Hal's anniversary. Lois had a nice red dress prepared, just to find it burned and stuffed in the toilet! She targets the boys and starts to interrogate them to find out who "almost burned down the house!" While interrogated, the boys have the chance to call Francis for guidance, as he has been through the most trouble of them all and knows how to deal with an angry Lois the best. He helps them to navigate through severe torture methods as crushing toys, corner standing, single interrogation and loud children's songs!

Meanwhile Hal is waiting in the restaurant and gets bored while drinking Martinis. When visiting the toilet, he chums up with the restaurant staff and after Lois didn't show up for several hours, even eating the lobster together. At home, Lois finds out that Francis was helping the boys and starts a fight, but Francis tries to convince her to let something go for once. She decides to do that and takes the boys out for dinner.

The episode closes with a drunk Hal coming home, starting to smoke his pipe. He accidentally sets the couch on fire, and as we close, we learn the truth about the dress.

Music

 * "Ooh, La La" by The Wiseguys — start of the interrogation
 * "Nice Is Good, Mean Is Bad" by They Might Be Giants — interrogation part 2
 * "Reprehensible" by They Might Be Giants — when Hal comes home

Guest cast

 * Karim Prince - Stanley
 * Joel McCrary - Bathroom Attendant
 * Adam Hendershott - Cadet #2
 * Robert Cesario - Maitre d'
 * Daniel R. Escobar - Franklin
 * Drew Powell - Cadet #1
 * Paul Willson - Ed

Torture brong on to the boys

 * Getting there toys crushed.


 * Standing in the corner.


 * spinning with there heads on the tip of baseball bats so they can be very dizzy.


 * Getting put under the couch where the dust bunnys are.


 * almost getting sadused by Lois into thinking they are her favorite one by one behind the others back.


 * being forced to listen to non-stop music for children, thus ruining something that Dewey loved.


 * Being taped by Lois when they have just counterd her music torture, they are playing ring-around-the-rosy and after Lois tapes them, she states that she will be showing it to everyone at there next birthday party.


 * Almost getting the T.V. smashed by Lois, but saved by a neighbor who has been hearing the boys screams all night, thinking that they are more than the "normal screems" but more like "torture screems". the second her back is turned, the boys make it away with the T.V.

Trivia

 * The children's song the boys forcefully have to listen to seems to be inspired by the musician Raffi.
 * This is the first time the audience sees Lois' workplace – Lucky Aide.
 * A crew member is seen handing Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) the red dress out of a bucket of water.
 * First appearance of Craig Feldspar.
 * The cold opener for this episode features the infamous scene where the boys have tied Dewey behind a door. This inspired a lot of promotional material for the series. The cold open, like many of the cold opens from the first season, is cut from most syndicated versions.
 * This episode features a different opening sequence, where different clips are used and the theme song is slightly shorter.
 * In the episode "Stilts," which aired during the 6th season, there is one scene where Hal and Lois are telling each other's their secrets. At one point, Hal tells Lois that he burned her favorite dress.  Although it wasn't revealed, one would assume that he was referring to her red dress.