Most billiards sitcom episodes are pretty light on substance and pretty glib in their treatment of pool. (Among the top offenders: Married With Children – “Cheese, Cues, and Blood.”) “Water Park,” the final episode of the first season of Malcolm in the Middle, is no different. Aired in May 2000, this episode pits Malcom’s older brother Francis (Christopher Masterson), a cadet at the Marlin Academy, against Commandant Spangler (Daniel von Bargen) in a game of eight-ball. Francis’ predicament is that if he beats the Commandant, his fellow cadets will “torture him with hours of educational programming on PBS,” but if he loses to the Commandant, he will be suspected of throwing the game and his fellow cadets will have all their privileges revoked by the Commandant. Oh, what a conundrum indeed.
For those not familiar with Malcolm in the Middle, the highly popular, award-winning series aired on Fox from 2000 to 2006, the show primarily revolved around Malcolm (Frankie Muniz), the middle child in a dysfunctional, suburban family, though side stories also focused on his siblings. Unlike other sitcoms of that time, the series allowed Malcolm to ‘break the fourth wall’ and talk directly to the audience, abandoned the use of a live audience, and used a lot of contemporary music (in place of any laugh tracks) to set mood.
To call the series original a decade later seems almost comical (something this episode was certainly not, but then again, I’m hardly the target demographic). However, in getting back to the pool, this billiards sitcom episode does have a particularly original, albeit utterly nonsensical, resolution. Francis and the Commandant opt to compete to see who can lose in eight-ball the most times in the most spectacular fashion. (You read that correctly.) Set to Beck’s contagious song “Mixed Bizness” from the same year, Francis and the Commandant battle it out with a series of trick shots (some real, some edited) to scratch on the 8-ball. Overall, it’s a pretty enjoyable billiards sitcom scene, though it’s deplorable that no credit is given to the billiards technical advisor behind the scenes who is the real masse maestro.
The billiard sitcom episode “Water Park” is available to purchase as part of Season 1, though digital sleuths can find it one some bit torrent sites, as well.
