Malcolm In The Middle star Frankie Muniz says Bryan Cranston still checks in on him

'He really cares about what I'm doing'

Many of you reading this will have fond memories of watching Malcolm in the Middle growing up.

Running from 2000 to 2006, the sitcom gave us seven seasons, 151 episodes, an incredibly catchy theme tune, and one of TV's greatest dads in the form of Bryan Cranston.

Muniz, of course, played the titular Malcolm in the show, with Cranston playing his on-screen dad, Hal.

And although the show may have come to an end almost 20 years ago, Muniz and Cranston still keep in regular touch.

During an appearance on the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast, Muniz explained that he always saw Cranston as a type of father figure because of how young he was when they were filming the show.

He revealed the Breaking Bad actor still regularly reaches out to him, sending him texts to see how he's doing and what he's up to.

"He still reaches out to me every couple of weeks, checks in on me," Muniz said. "He really cares about what I’m doing, comes to the races, if my band was playing, came to shows."

Speaking about Cranston's character of Hal, Muniz continued: "Hal, (played by) Bryan, was the show to me, he made the show so good, because he was hilarious! Just an amazing character."

He added that he hopes to one day be the same type of person to someone as Cranston is to him.

The rest of his on-screen family was made up by Malcolm's brothers, Dewey (Erik Per Sullivan), Francis (Christopher Masterson), and Reese (Justin Berfield), and his mum, Lois, played by Jane Kaczmarek.

But Muniz revealed there was one character in the show that he "hated" during filming.

He said: "The character of Reese (Justin Berfield), when we filmed the show, I HATED Reese, maybe because Malcolm had to hate Reese, but I hated him!

"Now I watch the show, and the funniest parts of the whole show are Reese! it's a weird thought to step back and watch as a viewer, because you're so far removed from it that I don't remember what was going to happen in a lot of the episodes."