TV for two

There's a week back in 1999 that stands out in the memories of husband and wife Bradley Whitford and Jane Kaczmarek. Both were making a living as actors, but they hadn't achieved break-out success. And they were the parents of a 1-year-old.

"We always remember a week in May when the phone rang one day and it was NBC saying 'West Wing' had gotten picked up," Kaczmarek said. "And the next day Fox called and said 'Malcolm' had gotten picked up. And the next day the doctor called and told me I was pregnant again.

"So we just thought, 'Wow, I wonder if our lives are going to change?' "

Yeah, just a little. Seven years, six Emmy nominations and another baby later, Kaczmarek, 50, is easily identified as Lois, the "Malcolm in the Middle" mom. Whitford, 45, has three Emmy nominations and one win for his role as Josh Lyman on "The West Wing." Coincidentally, both shows end their seven-season runs opposite one another on Sunday — "West Wing" at 7 p.m. on NBC/Ch. 5; "Malcolm" at 7:30 p.m. on Fox/Ch. 13.

Seven years of starring in TV series wasn't something they were anticipating. Kaczmarek had appeared in dozens of series and movies, but "I was also suffering the indignities of an actress in my early 40s during pilot season." And she was "very happy not acting and taking care of my baby."

But she loved the "Malcolm" pilot script, even though she never for a moment thought it would get on the air.

"I thought it was just so good that it wouldn't get picked up," Kaczmarek said. "My husband was doing the pilot for 'The West Wing,' and we were renovating a house. . . . And he kept saying, 'Are you sure you want to work?' And I said, 'It'll never go. And if it does, I'll be the mom on a kids show and I'll work one day a week.' "

But Lois turned out to be a full-time job.

"I thought that doing the pilot would pay for the new bathroom on the house. Never in a million years did I think this would turn into what it did."

Whitford, meanwhile, couldn't resist the offer to join "The West Wing."

"It is a miracle to make a living as an actor. It's a miracle to make a living in a non-humiliating way as an actor," he said. "And it is an incredible miracle to have a situation like this."

The odds against one actor landing a role on a TV series that runs seven years are astronomical. The odds against two actors married to each other doing it at the same time are incalculable.

"These television shows, they're like alchemy," Whitford said. "It's like a miracle when it works."

As "Malcolm" and "West Wing" draw to an end, "Our lives are certainly going to change again," Whitford said.

And, for the moment, slow down quite a bit.

"Oh, it's heaven," Kaczmarek said.