Clausen, race walking featured on FOX sitcom

The sport of race walking – and several U.S. race walkers – made
their prime-time sit-com debuts Sunday night in FOX's broadcast of
its hit series, "Malcolm in the Middle."

Thanks to the assistance of technical advisor Curt Clausen, Team
USA's 1999 World Championships bronze medalist in the 50-kilometer
race walk, Sunday's episode of "Malcolm" had as its main storyline
Malcolm's father, Hal, taking up the sport.

The show's writers wanted to incorporate race walking into the show
and called Clausen in the fall at the ARCO Olympic Training Center,
where he lives and trains. Clausen read the script and made
suggestions for how to incorporate information on race walking rules
and technique into the show.

"I read the script, and it was hilarious," Clausen said. "It didn't
make fun of race walking as much as it could have. I suggested some
things on the script. It was a lot of fun."

Clausen headed to Los Angeles, where he taught four key actors in the
sitcom how to race walk, and he appeared in the several scenes.
Teaching the actors to race walk in a manner befitting a sitcom
proved an integral part of the process.

"The director said it had to look funnier, so we exaggerated the
motions a little more," Clausen said. "It actually looked pretty good
on film."

The episode chronicled the race walking obsession of Hal (Bryan
Cranston) after he sees a group of walkers – including Clausen and
fellow Team USA athletes Susan Armenta, Philip Dunn and Sean Albert –
striding through a park. So inspired does Hal become that he immerses
himself in walking, studying tapes to perfect his technique and
speed. He even dreams one night of being a secret weapon for the Army
during World War I, race-walking important documents across enemy
lines.

Hal is foiled in his attempt to overtake the fastest walker in the
group, a man clad in a full-body blue spandex suit and aerodynamic
helmet, until he realizes by studying a videotape that his nemesis
has both feet off the ground – the deadliest of sins in race walking.
Haranguing the man with the insult of "Jogger!!" while wearing his
own red-flamed bodysuit and helmet, Hal keeps pace with him until, in
a moment vaguely reminiscent of Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 classic
film "Battleship Potemkin," the two men barrel toward a baby carriage
and fall to the ground rather than injure the baby.

"Malcolm in the Middle" is part of FOX's highly rated Sunday night
comedy lineup that includes "The Simpsons" and "King of the Hill".