Characters of Malcolm in The Middle - Recurring Characters

Recurring Characters

• Stevie Kenarban, played by Craig Lamar Traylor, is Malcolm's best friend and classmate. They met in the pilot on a play date and took a liking to each other through a mutual interest in comic books. Stevie is a wheelchair user and has severe asthma, and only one lung; as a result, he speaks softly and can only say one or two words on each breath. However, despite these handicaps, Stevie seems to be a normal teenager and does not let his physical disadvantages keep him from having a relatively normal life and even uses his handicap to his advantage. He is seen in several episodes milking his handicap to get favors from others, guilt his parents into buying him things, flirt with girls, and even pulling pranks or getting other kids in trouble. Stevie has a sarcastic side, has outsmarted Malcolm and Reese numerous times, and has even managed to get the better of Reese physically on occasion. He has also been shown to be a far more emotionally stronger person than either of his parents. In the episode "Stupid Girl", it is hinted that Stevie might have a crush on Lois, even asking for a picture of her and saying "So how's my girl?" when asking Malcolm about her.

• Craig Feldspar, portrayed by David Anthony Higgins, is Lois' neurotic, though well-intentioned, co-worker at the Lucky Aide. It was made obvious on numerous occasions that Craig is in love with Lois, and he even told her so when he thought he was going to die. He is generally depicted as an indolent, unpopular, and bumbling character, although on occasion he shows flashes of apparent greatness. He is seen in several occasions to be extremely fussy and obnoxious. In Episode 97 - "Softball" - Craig, nicknamed "The Satin Hammer", plays for the Lucky Aide softball team and remarks to a disbelieving Malcolm that he had been scouted by the "Kyoto Crazy Phantoms". He then makes a diving play on a seemingly unplayable ball to prove his ability. He appears frequently in the show, especially during later seasons, as his character becomes more entwined with Lois and her family. After entrusting his house and cat ("Jelly Bean") to Dewey's care while he is away, and the resulting fire that destroys it, he lives with Malcolm's family for a short time until the boys' scheme to cover their tracks ends up getting him out. As pitiful as his life is, Craig much prefers this over being under the rule of his fitness minded father who owns a successful chain of gyms. The series ends with Reese moving out of the house and becoming Craig's roommate.

• Piama Tananahaakna, played by Emy Coligado, is Francis' wife; she appears for the first time in "Hal's Birthday" during the third season. She was 19 when she married Francis, and had been married before. Her mother moved away long ago, and her father kicked her out when she was 14 for throwing away his liquor. In "Hal Coaches", Piama was fed up with the way Lavernia was treating Francis and stole her pet parakeet until she treated him better. After Lois is mistreated by Hal's family, Lois treats Piama better, seeing that the actions against her by her husband's family reflect how she is acting towards Piama. Their relations change permanently after Hal and Francis take a motorcycle road trip against their wives' wishes. She later comes to work for the Mannkussers (who own the dude ranch where Francis works). She mostly serves as a voice of reason between Francis and his family. Although it has never been directly stated (Francis says she is "fiery" in "Hal's Birthday"), the series hints that both her attitude towards Francis and others, and her mannerisms, are very much like Lois'. As shown in the final episode, she supports Francis' new job as a programmer, and his decision not to tell Lois about it.

• Victor Welker and Ida Kenzel, played by Robert Loggia and Cloris Leachman respectively, are Lois's dysfunctional parents, introduced in the episode "The Grandparents." Ida is depicted as greedy, chain-smoking, manipulative, racist, and quick to take offense. She has a strong dislike towards Francis and sees Malcolm as soft, but clearly favors Reese. After Victor's death, she even tried to get married to a rich Chinese man by drugging him. The only good deed she has ever done is saving Dewey from being run over by a truck; this resulted in her suffering the loss of one of her legs. Victor's background is obscure, except for mention that he left home at a young age and that he was in "the war." Ida often refers to a hard life growing up in "The Old Country" and going through "a camp." While they speak with Slavic accents and appear to be from somewhere in Eastern Europe, their exact nationality is never specified, and may be intended to be fictional. However, an episode which centers on a fictitious "St. Grotus Day" feast appears to take place in a Croatian community center, with a Croatian flag and a poster of Zagreb Cathedral on the wall. Victor, who had died by the time Ida made her second appearance on the season 3 episode "Christmas," had been keeping his second family a secret from Lois and her sister, Susan, (Laurie Metcalf): He had run off and married a good-natured Canadian woman, played by Betty White. In the episode "Victor's Other Family," it was further revealed that Victor was not Lois's biological father and its unknown if Victor is really Susan's father.

• Abraham "Abe" Kenarban, played by Gary Anthony Williams, is the devoted father to Stevie and husband to Kitty. He is also Hal's best friend and enjoys playing poker with him and his other friends Trey, Brian, Malik, and Steve. In his debut episode, he mentions that he was raised by his grandmother and his four spinster aunts, which made him unable to stand up against women. He also is secretly a small coward, unable to fight against other men. When sufficiently scared or unnerved, he is prone to asthma attacks, which Stevie inherited. He and Kitty divorced in Season 3, being in fight early since the Season 1, making Stevie depressed. He was also devoted to her and let her raise Stevie on most parts.

• Kitty Kenarban, played by Merrin Dungey, is Stevie's mother and Abe's wife. At first, Kitty didn't allow her son take part in many activities, due to her fear that he would get hurt. Kitty was generally soft-spoken, and was shown to be quite repressed, and avoided all forms of confrontation. However, after getting to know Lois, she began to express her anger more vocally. Kitty disappears from the series after the third season premiere, and Abe later confides in Hal and Lois that she left him, but he was unable to tell Stevie. It is revealed that she becomes a porn star, among other things. She returns in season six, claiming that she had to be bad after being good for so long, but is 'done'. She makes no further appearances in the show after her return, although she was mentioned by Abe a few times after her final appearance. (In the pilot episode Dungey plays a different character: Malcolm's teacher, before he transfers to the Krelboyne class.)

• Cynthia Sanders, played by Tania Raymonde, is an outgoing Krelboyne (gifted student) who joins Malcolm's class in the episode "Krelboyne Girl." Cynthia is one of Malcolm's first crushes throughout the series but quickly takes on the role of a caring and compassionate friend. She knows Krav Maga fighting skill, which she promptly uses to subdue Reese when his behavior becomes too annoying to her. She is cited as also having very large breasts for her age. In season three her prolonged absence is explained by stating that she has returned from Europe. After sharing a brief romance with Reese (in which he is only trying to take advantage of her to see and touch her breasts) she returns in the season four episode "Humilithon," she saves Malcolm from making a horrible mistake by saying they had sex; destroying her own reputation in the process. After this episode she is never seen again and there is no explanation as to what became of her.

• Lloyd Jensen, played by Evan Matthew Cohen, is one of Malcolm and Stevie's Krelboyne classmates and best friend for the first four seasons of the show. Lloyd is portrayed as nerdy, physically and emotionally frail, and overly dramatic. As a Krelboyne, Lloyd is regularly bullied by his classmates (particularly Reese), and often pays the consequences of schemes with which he helps Malcolm. He suffers from anger displacement tendencies and major self esteem issues, for which he regularly sees the school therapist. He has been publicly humiliated several times, most famously during "Krelboyne Picnic", when he got his braces stuck to a super powerful magnet he constructed. A few episodes have hinted that he is suicidal, as it has been stated by Dabney that the majority of his ideas end in suicide, and that he has more than once made a death pact. In "Cynthia's Back", Lloyd mentions that he has a third nipple. Like Malcolm's other Krelboyne friends, Lloyd appears less frequently during the show's fourth season, eventually leaving Stevie as Malcolm's only friend by Season 5.

• Dabney Hooper, played by Kyle Sullivan, is one of Malcolm and Stevie's more emotionally-stricken and effeminate Krelboyne classmates and best friend for the first four seasons of the show. Like other Krelboyne students, Dabney is regularly bullied and often suffers the consequences of schemes with which he helps Malcolm. Over the course of his appearances, Dabney displays vague homosexual traits, and often shows affection towards Malcolm. Dabney has an unhealthy relationship with his mother, Dorene, who orders her son around and attempts to dominate almost all aspects of his life. However, in "Hal's Friend", after Dabney receives a paintball gun as a birthday present from his grandfather, only for Dorene to take it away, Malcolm secretly takes him to a paintball battle course, and in the process he learns to stand up for himself and adopts a no-nonsense attitude towards his mother. Like Malcolm's other Krelboyne friends, Dabney appears less frequently during the show's fourth season, eventually leaving Stevie as Malcolm's only friend by Season 5. Interestingly, Dabney is an undergraduate house at Caltech, a university well known for its emphasis on the natural sciences and engineering.

• Eraserhead, played by Will Jennings, is one of Malcolm's other Krelboyne classmates, he is seen less frequently than the other Krelboyne students but is shown to have a talent for playing the piano, and often gets involved in class theatre productions. It is known he has an older brother who beats Reese up in the episode "Krelboyne Picnic" after he is caught tormenting Eraserhead.

• Kevin, played by Victor Z. Isaac, is a nervous and easily excitable Krelboyne student and one of Malcolm's friends that first appears early in the third season. It is hinted that he is berated at home, as he once exclaimed, when he got a bad grade on a test, "My stepdad's right; I am useless!". Like Malcolm's other Krelboyne friends, Kevin appears less frequently in Season 4, eventually disappearing midway through the season. Kevin's presence in the series seemed to be to fill the void of Eraserhead.

• Jessica, played by Hayden Panettiere, is a teenage girl who first made an appearance as a babysitter that Hal hired so that he could take on a second job while Lois was away tending to her pregnancy. Proving to be more of a threat than initially thought, she turned out to be as scheming, conniving and manipulative as any of the boys, being a professional con artist. In later episodes she was a frequent visitor as a neighbor who would come over to escape a negligent father. Working again for her own benefit she proceeded to create uncomfortable situations including convincing the family to see Mamma Mia! and convincing both Malcolm and Reese that the other was homosexual. In season 7 she replaced Stevie as Malcolm's best friend and, though manipulative, did her best to look after Malcolm during that time. In one of the final episodes she convinces Malcolm to end a detrimental relationship claiming that she has feelings for him. After he returns to her once he ends his previous engagement, she confesses that she had once again lied. When Malcolm is upset that he has once again fallen for one of her tricks she kisses him, responding next with 'Yeah, nothing.' With Stevie's return Jessica is no longer seen; even during graduation. Much like Cynthia, her character has frequent breaks in between episodes, but unlike Cynthia, Jessica is given much more of a back story and her absences are fewer in the later season, making her more of a central guest character. In one episode it is revealed that she dates a very large and muscular Asian named Mike, whom Dewey uses to his advantage, in order to get Reese beaten up.

• Caroline Miller, played by Catherine Lloyd Burns, Malcolm's teacher, appears in most of the first-season and two of the second-season episodes. She was very passionate about her job and had Malcolm's best interests at heart and she ardently adored Malcolm due to his high intelligence and is very emotional which Francis uses to his advantage to help Malcolm pay a hospital bill to stitch Malcolm up, because of her adoration of Malcolm she is oblivious of his true heinous nature. In season two she was shown to be very pregnant but the father is unknown(it could be her mentioned boyfriend). She disappeared from the series after giving birth in the school parking lot, the result of a mis-programmed model rocket launch intended as a prank by the Krelboynes. She is a main character for season one and a guest character for season two.

• Lionel Herkabe, played by Chris Eigeman, Malcolm's dry, stuffy, selfish, uptight, and somewhat competitive teacher and later principal for 8th grade and much of High School, is divorced and in debt though he used to be a dot-com millionaire. He was a Krelboyne like Malcolm and manipulates him for his own purposes. The relationship between Malcolm and Herkabe is somewhat strained since Malcolm considers Herkabe to be his least favorite teacher and also thinks that he has been out to get him since the day they met, since Herkabe actually told him that, as revealed in Humilithon. In the same episode, Hal also displays a dislike for Herkabe since he makes him and Lois sign up as parental volunteers because of uncivilized behavior on school property for the first week of school. Hal refers to him as "Jerkabe", the name that he calls him behind his back. Hal eventually apologized to Herkabe the next day, but does not accept the apology and verbally expels Hal from the volunteer program. However, he casually shows up the next day and is seen mopping the floor. Herkabe angrily notices this and after some angry wordplay between the two, they then engage in a gladiator-type fight with mops. Even Malcolm's classmates dislike him, to some degree, because of his competitiveness. During his appearances on the show, Malcolm always wound up being the guinea pig for many of Herkabe's carefully planned schemes, only for them to be defeated by Malcolm at the end of each episode, such as in Academic Octathlon where he tricked Malcolm into joining and encouraging the Academics team to cheat at the quiz event with Malcolm giving everyone the answers, causing everyone to win an undeserved trophy. In Malcolm Films Reese Malcolm is assigned by Herkabe to videotape Reese for a class, but finds out it was nothing more than a trap for Herkabe to humiliate both of them. At the end of the episode, Malcolm triggers a fight between two seniors and when Herkabe goes to break it up, Malcolm locks himself in his office and announces everyone's permanent records over the loudspeaker. Herkabe's last official appearance was in Malcolm Defends Reese where he makes Reese his personal whipping boy and constantly teases him over his lack of intelligence. Malcolm, angry and tired of Herkabe humiliating Reese, confronts him about it, but Herkabe just wanted Malcolm to tank his courses so Herkabe could keep his trophy for having the highest GPA. Unfortunately, he slips and lets Malcolm find out that he flunked Gym class in high school and lied about not taking the course for years in order to protect his GPA standing. Herkabe was enraged when he found out that Malcolm told the principal Mr. Hodges about it and he was stripped of the award. He attempts to reclaim his spot by taking gym in the present-day, but Reese, blindly amused by Herkabe's presence in gym, pelts him with dodge balls as revenge for the humiliation he endured. After that, Mr. Herkabe was never seen again.

• Commandant Edwin Spangler, played by Daniel von Bargen. The strict and hard-nosed military veteran in charge of the cadets at Marlin Academy. He suffers from dozens of injuries and is missing his right eye, his left hand, his right ring finger, and his right leg is braced. Ironically none of these are combat-related, as he has never served in wartime. For the first two seasons and beginning of season three, Francis was Spangler's most rebellious student and clashed with him on many occasions. Halfway through the third season, Spangler reveals that he was about to quit his job from boredom, but Francis gave him a purpose in life in trying to discipline him. He affectionately presents a ceremonial sword in recognition to Francis, who then accidentally cuts off his one remaining hand. Afterward Spangler's life goes downhill as Francis stood out as his only failure. Spangler is fired from the academy, tracks Francis to Alaska, and attempts to kill him at first. Taking pity on Commandant Spangler, Francis attempts to get him a job but he fails his interview by showing up drunk. Eric and Francis realize that 'the only thing that ever made him remotely happy was tormenting and bullying helpless students.' They quickly find him a job at the Snow Haven Retirement Home where he has the freedom to bully the elderly. After this he is never seen again.

• Cadet Eric Hanson, played by Eric Nenninger, is Francis' fellow cadet at Marlin Academy, and friend for the first three seasons. Eric was Francis's reluctant sidekick and normally suffered the consequences of the antics caused by Francis. On several occasions, Eric has mentioned that he has two homosexual fathers. At the start of season three, Eric turns eighteen, drops out of the academy, and goes to work in an Alaskan lodge. Francis emancipates himself and follows soon after, but both of them learn that their job is not as great as they hoped. Francis eventually gets a job at a ranch, but Eric is left behind to hitchhike on the highway, possibly as revenge for suggesting Alaska in the first place. His fate is unknown.

• Cadet Drew Horton, played by Drew Powell, is a recurring character in the first and second season. He is physically the strongest of the cadets, but emotionally the weakest. As with other recurring characters from Marlin Academy, he is never seen or mentioned again after Francis left to work in Alaska.

• Cadet Stanley Winn, played by Karim Prince, is a cadet at Marlin Academy, and Francis' good friend during the first season. He is also somewhat of his bodyguard; making the others unable to bully Francis. He is shown to have a hard core appreciation for the military lifestyle; one example is when the majority of the school leaves on an outdoor survival trip, Stanley states that he believes strongly in the trip and threatens to break Francis' clavicles if he does not attend. Later, when the cadets are showing off their survival skills based on how little equipment they are bringing, Stanley enters the room completely naked except for camouflage paint over his entire body. He is also the only cadet who signed up himself for the school.

• Cadet Ken Finley, played by Arjay Smith, is a cadet at the academy, and Francis' friend. He is an achiever; he gets good grades and does Francis' homework for him. Like most of the other cadets at Marlin Academy, Finley is never seen again after Francis left for Alaska.

• Richie, played by Todd Giebenhain, is Francis' best friend before military school, and Francis often visits Richie on his trips back home during the first two seasons. He is an idle and delinquent who was eventually shipped off to military school with Francis. He was Reese's boss in a fast-food restaurant called "Circus Burger", where he stole hundreds of dollars from the cash register and framed Reese for the theft until Malcolm and a classmate of his (whom Richie kept mistakenly referring to him as Dewey due to their similar age) proves his innocence. It is never explained why Richie disappears or why Francis never sees him again after the third season. He once gave Francis an injury by clipping his toenails and accidentally hitting Francis in the eye with it. He is last mentioned in the season 6 episode "Stilts" by Francis, claiming he tried to dry off Reese in the oven after he had taken several different pills at once.

• Lavernia, played by Brenda Wehle, is Francis' cruel, heartless boss at the Alaskan lodge. Lavernia rules over her workers with an iron fist, paying them so little charging them so much for everything that they end up owing her money. Eventually she closes down the lodge and fires her workers after they cut down all the trees on the company's land and a mining operation buys it. She is also known that everybody who stands up to her gets beaten up from her, even once fighting with Francis, resulting in a draw (since both were knocked out). Lavernia has also shown a strong dislike for Piama, evident when she finally learns about her stealing her prized parakeet and refusing to give it back until she treated Francis much better.

• Artie, played by John Ennis, is a chubby, uneducated, color blind and dyslexic employee at the Alaskan lodge, who often hung around with his co-workers Pete, Francis and Eric. In "Jury Duty", he mentions that he once had a boil removed, but it turned out to be the vestiges of his unborn twin. While he seems to fit in and get along with the rest of the lodge's staff, Eric states in the same episode that Artie is the "camp outcast". It is unknown what happened to him after the lodge was shut down.

• Pete, played by Sandy Ward, is an elderly employee at the Alaskan lodge, who usually hung around with his co-workers Artie, Francis and Eric. Pete appears to be insane, or at the very least incredibly senile, as he often makes bizarre, outlandish comments (such as hinting he has spent a night in a caribou's stomach or believing bears can fly and lay eggs). Because of this, he is often looked upon as an "old coot". According to Eric in "Jury Duty", Pete has a family, but they apparently abandoned him and changed their names so Pete could not track them down. When the lodge is shut down, Pete wearily says that he will probably have to move back in with his parents.

• Otto Mannkusser, played by the late Kenneth Mars. Francis' German boss and sidekick for the fourth and fifth seasons. He meets Francis while he had a 1974 Cadillac broken down at the highway coming down from Alaska. Otto is in charge of The Grotto, a dude ranch (named after the two in the episode "Zoo,", Otto says "She is Gretchen, I am Otto - Grotto"). Otto is married to Gretchen and has an estranged son. Otto is gullible and a bit of a pushover; he hires too many employees and gives them extra vacation days, but Francis is placed in charge and he redevelops the ranch, also turning it into a hotel. However, after Francis works on the ranch for a little over two years, Otto fires him when the ATM that Francis was depositing his funds into was not really an ATM. His last name might be derived from the ill-formed German expression "Mannküsser", literally meaning "man kisser." In the German version of the show, the Mannkussers are Danes and speak with a very heavy Danish accent.

• Gretchen Mannkusser, played by Meagen Fay, is the wife of Otto and the co-runner of the Grotto. She is a kind and caring woman. As Otto explained to Francis, their marriage was by deceit: Gretchen was actually the girlfriend of Otto's best friend, but Otto loved her as well. When they were planning to elope, Gretchen's intended arranged for her to meet him at a rendezvous point, but he lied about the actual location and said he would meet her at the train station in Berlin. When his friend did not show up, Otto came and comforted her and they married. They had a son named Rutger.

• The Poker Players, played by Dab Martin (Malik), Jonathan Craig Williams (Steve), Edward James Gage (Brian), Alex Morris (Trey), play poker with Hal and Abe. They are all African American and have high-class careers. They are also seen in a band with Hal and Abe in the episode Long Drive.

• Polly, played by Julie Hagerty, is Jamie's slightly insane hippie babysitter. She usually gets people involved in her own problems, such as the time when Malcolm had to keep a secret about Polly stealing back her ashes. She also dated Abe and Craig at the same time but in the end admitting they are more of a distraction to her career. She refers many times to family issues such as court cases. Polly disappears by the end of season 5, and by season 7, it is revealed that they have a new babysitter for Jamie.

• The Buseys are Dewey's classmates in the special class, although only three make recurring appearances and have speaking roles. They are educationally and socially looked down upon by their students and peers.

• David Hanson, played by Danny McCarthy Jr., is a Busey who thinks he rides a motorcycle and has an occasional stutter. In "Hal Sleepwalks", it is implied that he became class president after breaking down at a debate and started cursing rampantly. In "Election" it is revealed that he has Tourette Syndrome. David plays Hal in Dewey's Opera. Thanks to Dewey, his syndrome becomes detoriated and less agressive, reduced to him only pretending that he drives the motorcycle with his hands (with no more motor sounds or agressive movements)

• Zoe, played by Amy Bruckner, is a Busey who thinks she can talk to animals. She has an imaginary alter ego she refers to as "Bad Zoe" She plays Lois in Dewey's Opera and runs for class president in "Hal Sleepwalks". Her disease was never mentioned, but it also detoriated thanks to Dewey.

• Chad, played by Cameron Monaghan, is a very aggressive Busey whose shirt always has a sheet of paper on it with some kind of warning, such as "Seizures may be a trap" or "Do not corner". He is also usually seen wearing oven mitts. He is also known that he bites if someone touches him. Chad has an overactive imagination, shown when he believes there are four of him and when he thinks he can make a teacher burst into flames by staring at him. In the episode Chad's Sleepover he is seen to be obsessively neat and organized, as he rearranges everything in Malcolm's house according to factors such as color and texture, at one point stating "Rough can't go next to smooth."

• Bernard is Dewey's class hamster whom he brings home for the weekend in "Health Scare". Fearing for Bernard's safety after an encounter with a bully classmate who is next in line to have him, Dewey tries to convince his parents to let him keep him. As Hal and Lois are too preoccupied with the possibility of Hal having a serious illness, Dewey decides to take matters into his own hands. He places Bernard in a hamster ball filled up with food, and sets him loose. Bernard's journey in the ball became a recurring gag in the series, appearing in such episodes as "Poker", "Reese Drives", "Hal's Birthday", and at the end of the season 3 finale, "Monkey", where it is shown that he has traveled all the way up to Alaska.

• Mr. Hodges, played by Steve Vinovich, is the principal of North High School in Season 7. When Malcolm learned from Mr. Herakbe that he flunked gym and lied about not taking the course for a long time, he immediately told Hodges the truth about it. The next day with the janitor's help, Mr. Hodges immediately revokes his GPA Award as his punishment for flunking gym and lying about it for years. He then returns the award to a blind, clubfooted woman named Edna Thornby whom managed to pass gym despite her disabilities.

• Alison, played by Brittany Renee Finamore, is Reese's first serious girlfriend in season 4, she was first introduced in "Stupid Girl" as a dim-witted girl Malcolm tried to attract by lowering his intellect. In the end of the episode he let Reese have her, she appears to have the same intellect as Reese, but Reese believes she's smarter than him even commenting "don't ever date someone smarter than you" (referring to Alison). In contrast to Reese she appears to be sweet and kind-hearted. She last appeared in "Academic Octathlon" where she and Reese were preparing for their prom which Reese desperately tried to get out of going to, despite his promise to her because he didn't want to spend so much money on the preparations (renting the limousine and buying the tuxedo). In the end he gave up and agreed to take her, admitting what he tried to do was selfish but he still wanted to stay as her boyfriend, but Alison mentioned she would break up with him after the prom ends because of what he did, after this she is never seen again.

• Nicki, played by Reagan Dale Neis, is Malcolm's second serious girlfriend in season 4, she was first introduced in "Forbidden Girlfriend" as a brainy teen who asked Malcolm to be her math tutor, she reveals her intellect to Malcolm and mentions that she only asked him to be her tutor so she can ask him out, Malcolm accepts but they are soon forbidden from seeing each other because Nicki's father hates Malcolm and Lois forbids Malcolm from seeing her as well so they begin dating in secret. She made her last appearance in "Kicked out" where Hal kicks Malcolm out of the house for misbehaving and Malcolm stays at Nicki's house in her attic, during his stay she ends up breaking up with him for being ungrateful of her hospitality and for his selfishness, when Hal and Nicki's father confront her about Malcolm, she lies about his secret stay until he breaks through the attic floor and lands on her bed blowing his cover, after this she is never seen again.

• Mr. Flerch, played by Ron West, is Dewey's teacher in the Buseys classroom. He first appeared in Dewey's Opera teaching the class. In Buseys Takes a Hostage, Mr. Flerch would get involved with Mr. Jeffers in his get rich quick scheme, after promising him a position as assisstant vice principal and a better parking space. He forced the Buseys to make lanyard keychains, which the class got fed up and took him, Jeffers, a security guard and a janitor hostage. While Mr. Jeffers tried to lie his way out of it, Mr. Flerch removed the duct tape covering his mouth and confessed to the crime. However, he and Mr. Jeffers got nervous when the janitor requested that he and the security guard needs some time alone with them, implying that both men are going to get their comeuppance.