Who is Linwood Boomer?
Linwood Boomer was born on October 9, 1955 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is a writer, producer and actor, perhaps best known for his work on the show “Little House on the Prairie”, portraying Adam Kendall. He later became the creator of the sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle”.
Linwood Boomer’s net worth
As of mid 2020, Linwood Boomer’s net worth is estimated to be over $60 million earned through a successful career in the entertainment industry. While he has earned a significant income from acting, it is his work as a producer that has really elevated him to greater wealth.
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He still occasionally works as an actor, though his work has mostly been sporadic.
Early life and career beginnings
Linwood grew up in Vancouver, the third of four children in a lower-middle-class household. He later entered a giftedness program at school. Growing up as the middle child in the family would later contribute to his work in “Malcolm in the Middle”. Growing up, he developed an interest in acting and began pursuing professional projects after school.
His first appearance was on television in the movie “Suddenly, Love”, portraying Dave Busby. The movie starred Cindy Williams and received modest reviews, even though it didn’t have a huge reach.
After working there, he was a guest on “Hawaii Five-O”, a police procedural show that followed the exploits of a special task force residing in Hawaii. The show was inspired by a real-life unit that existed during Hawaii’s martial law around World War II; the show was successful and later revived in the 2010s.
Little House on the Prairie
In 1978, Boomer landed his first and only series regular role, in “Little House on the Prairie”. The show is a Western set in a farmhouse in the 1870s, progressing over two decades throughout its run, and is based on the “Little House” books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Stars of the show were Michael Landon, Karen Grassle and Melissa Gilbert. The show was initially introduced through a pilot movie, but ended up running for eight years, though Linwood only starred in the later seasons.
During the show’s run, it focused on the Ingalls family living on the farm, with their relationships, community interactions, and a view of life in the US in the 19th century. Other characters were introduced later and became regular parts of the show. Linwood played a teacher-turned-lawyer starting in season four, who begins a relationship with Mary Ingalls and the two later married.
During his time on the show, he became increasingly interested in production and what works behind the scenes, learning from the crew members in “Little House of Prairie”. After the show ended, he shifted his focus more to production and writing, taking on fewer and fewer acting roles.
Production and Writing
Linwood did not appear as a guest on several notable shows until the 1980s, when he began to develop his skills as a writer. Some of his projects during this period included ‘Fantasy Island’, ‘The Love Boat’ and the soap opera ‘The young and the restless”. He eventually got credit for writing episodes of several notable shows, including “Night Court” and “The Boys Are Back”.
LINWOOD BOOMER Earthstock 2019: Profiting the Future Coalition. #linwoodboomer pic.twitter.com/6cYOoUGPWZ
— Linwood Boomer Page (@BoomerPage) April 10, 2020
He also worked on “3rd Rock from the Sun”, a sitcom that aired on NBC, telling the story of four aliens who pose as humans to study the titular planet.
During this time, he planned to create a show of his own, but had many failed attempts to produce pilots for shows such as “Nice Try” and “Family Business”, which were never picked up. He then helped produce an American version of “Red Dwarf”, which followed a similar story to the original British comedy. Due to numerous issues with executives, the US version paled in comparison to the original, and was heavily criticized.
He also worked on the pilot of “Big”, a show based on the movie of the same name, but it didn’t get picked up either.
Malcolm in the middle
After many failures, Boomer finally struck when Fox accepted his pitch for the show”Malcolm in the middle’, which essentially told his life story as a middle child in a lower-middle-class family. The show starred Frankie Muniz as the titular Malcolm, who has genius-level intelligence but is somewhat normal and takes special classes that caused him to be bullied by his peers. Other cast members on the show included Jane Kaczmarek, Bryan Cranston, and Christopher Masterson.
The show quickly gained success, with many critics praising its concept, realism, comedy, writing and acting, so it was very popular and a major draw to the network, running for seven seasons and considered a television classic. For his work, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series and guest starred on one of the show’s later seasons. Since the show’s end, he has continued to produce and work as a writer. He threw a show”The Karenskysfor CBS, but which was not picked up.
He also made a guest appearance on the show “Santa Clarita Diet”, his first acting appearance in eight years.
Private life
Linwood married producer Tracy Katsky who is known for her work in ‘Mr. Show with Bob and David”, “Lucky Louie” and “Help Me Help You”. They have four children together and live in Los Angeles, California. He enjoys working mostly behind the scenes and prefers a quieter and private life instead of being an actor. He is still working on many productions, but does not reveal much personal information. There are numerous fan pages of him, but he does not have a public online page himself.
