Chico and the Man

Chico and the Man

1974
Chico and the Man
Chico and the Man

Chico and the Man

6.8 | en | Comedy

Chico and the Man is an American sitcom which ran on NBC for four seasons, from September 13, 1974, to July 21, 1978. It stars Jack Albertson as Ed Brown, the cantankerous owner of a run down garage in an East Los Angeles barrio, and Freddie Prinze as Chico Rodriguez, an upbeat, optimistic Chicano young man who comes in looking for a job. It was the first U.S. television series set in a Mexican-American neighborhood.

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Seasons & Episodes

4
3
2
1
EP23  Buenas Dias, Mr. President
Jun. 16,1978
Buenas Dias, Mr. President

Ed becomes agitated when the President decides to visit his garage when he comes to town.

EP22  Waiting for Chongo
Jan. 01,0001
Waiting for Chongo

A motorcycle gang that know Monica comes and pretty much ransacks the garage and Ed doesn't know how to get rid of them.

EP21  The Hot Rock
Jul. 21,1978
The Hot Rock

Louie comes up with an invention. He wants to make a barbecue that relies on solar energy. Enthusiascic about the idea, Ed runs to his insurance company and tries to get money to launch the idea.

EP20  The Peeping Tom
Jul. 14,1978
The Peeping Tom

Ed is falsley accused by a woman who swears that he is a peeping Tom and is watching her on a daily basis.

EP19  Help Wanted
Jul. 07,1978
Help Wanted

Monica upsets Ed by getting a job at a sleazy restaraunt.

EP18  Della and Son
Jun. 30,1978
Della and Son

Della tries to convince her son Tony to help her and her catering business.

EP17  Ed Brown's Car Wash
Jun. 09,1978
Ed Brown's Car Wash

For her Uncle Ed, Monica decides to drum up business by having an all-girl in tight shirts and shorts car wash.

EP16  A New Girl in Town
Jun. 02,1978
A New Girl in Town

In an attempt to add more characters to the show, Monica, Ed Brown's niece, tells her tragic story and moves in with Ed.

EP15  Charo and the Matador
Jan. 27,1978
Charo and the Matador

Charo's Matador fiancee Antonio, comes to sweep her off her feet to get married.

EP14  Raul Runs Away (2)
Jan. 20,1978
Raul Runs Away (2)

Ed goes to Mexico to try and track Raul down. In an old church they meet and Ed explains that he misses the first Chico, but tells Raul that he is afraid that he'll get too attached and that Raul will leave him the same way Chico left him. This is a very touching episode and the only episode that was filmed. They filmed it because they went on location to Mexico. They taped all the others in Burbank CA.

EP13  Raul Runs Away (1)
Jan. 20,1978
Raul Runs Away (1)

Raul finds out about the first Chico who died (Freddie Prinze). He finds the van hidden in the garage. He goes into the van and plays Chico's old guitar. When Ed hears the music an eerie feeling comes over him. He checks the van hoping that somehow Chico came back. When he finds Raul in the van, he gets mad. He bashes the guitar over the van and screams at Raul. Raul runs upstairs and prepares to run away thinking that he cannot replace the first Chico and that Ed doesn't love him anymore.

EP12  The Americanization of Charo
Jan. 06,1978
The Americanization of Charo

Aunt Charo takes her citizenship test and becomes an American Citizen.

EP11  Ed's Team
Dec. 30,1977
Ed's Team

Raul wants to join a basketball team and he can if Ed sponsors it, so that is what he does.

EP10  Ed, the Hero
Dec. 09,1977
Ed, the Hero

On a class report, Ed writes about Ed. He writes that Ed fixes poor people's cars for free. When word gets out, Poor folks from all over the neigborhood swamp Ed with trying to get thier cars fixed.

EP9  Charo Takes Over
Dec. 02,1977
Charo Takes Over

Charo tries to drum up Ed's business by taking matters into her own hands.

EP8  Aunt Charo
Nov. 18,1977
Aunt Charo

Raul's Aunt Charo comes to the Garage to take Raul back to Spain, but he would rather stay with Ed.

EP7  The Proposal
Nov. 11,1977
The Proposal

Ed and Della decide to have Christmas dinner together. As they are eating and drinking wine, they both get drunk and before you know it, Ed proposes marriage to Della and Della accepts. But when they become sober, they realize what they have done and try not to go back on their work no matter what. Will this wedding go ahead?

EP6  The Matter of Privacy
Nov. 04,1977
The Matter of Privacy

Ed tries to teach Raul how important it is to respect one's privacy. The moral blows up when Ed opens a package that is for Raul.

EP5  The Bed
Oct. 21,1977
The Bed

Ed had stuffed 700 dollars in his own mattress. I say had because Raul, knowing that Ed needed a new one, traded the old one in for a newer one. Anyway, they have to go and try to get all the money back.

EP4  The Third Letter
Oct. 14,1977
The Third Letter

Ed needs a third reference letter to officially adopt Raul.

EP3  Take Me, I'm Yours
Sep. 30,1977
Take Me, I'm Yours

When a social worker comes to take Raul away, Ed decides to adopt him as his own.

EP2  Su Casa, Mi Casa?
Sep. 23,1977
Su Casa, Mi Casa?

Ed waits for word from Raul's parents. Later, Ed finds out that Raul is an orphan and needs a parent.

EP1  Who's Been Sleeping in My Car?
Sep. 16,1977
Who's Been Sleeping in My Car?

Ed who returns from Mexico, learns that he has an 11 year old stowaway in the back of his car. This little kid is determined to stay with Ed in the USA.

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6.8 | en | Comedy | More Info
Released: 1974-09-13 | Released Producted By: Wolper Productions , The Komack Company Inc. Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

Chico and the Man is an American sitcom which ran on NBC for four seasons, from September 13, 1974, to July 21, 1978. It stars Jack Albertson as Ed Brown, the cantankerous owner of a run down garage in an East Los Angeles barrio, and Freddie Prinze as Chico Rodriguez, an upbeat, optimistic Chicano young man who comes in looking for a job. It was the first U.S. television series set in a Mexican-American neighborhood.

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Cast

Freddie Prinze , Della Reese , Jack Albertson

Director

James Komack

Producted By

Wolper Productions , The Komack Company Inc.

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Reviews

happipuppi13 At age 6,the night this show debuted,my brothers & I had the TV that night. The parents were out and we basically watched whatever. My oldest brother,age 10,made the choice of this show. It sounded like it would be "cool". Of course it was. I liked Jose Feliciano's opening song and didn't get a lot of the humor but I did understand that Ed Brown (Albertson) was not a nice man. Freddie Prinze was (aside from actors on Sesame Street & Electric Company)the first Latino I had seen on TV,or anywhere for that matter.I somehow recognized some of his actions as funny because I did laugh at his antics of trying to get Ed to take him on at the garage. Especially funny to find him bathing in a large oil drum in the men's room. We watched this show for about 2 to 3 years,constantly repeating the phrase "looking good" all the time and driving our folks nuts with it. Then on January 23rd,1977 we headed out west to California and kind of forgot about it somehow. The night after we arrived,Saturday,January 29th,Prinze took his life. I never saw any of the shows with the replacement actors but I did see the TV movie,"Freddie Prinze : Can You Hear The Laughter" over a year or so later and that's how I found out he was gone. For well over 15 years,I heard nothing about the show,never saw any reruns on TV either. It became a fuzzy memory by the time I was grown up. Then 1999,I saw the pilot show in Spanish on Telemundo and couldn't believe I was actually seeing it! It was almost surreal.Fast forward to the present day and on the internet's In2TV,I once again saw the debut show,sporadically with the annoying stop & start of "loading". I couldn't "save" it though. Then 9/13/2008 , I made an unplanned stop at a local 99 Cent store and there on their shelves were dozens of DVD's featuring 6 episodes (pilot included)of "Chico and The Man"! (All DVDs have the same 6 by the way).I couldn't believe this legitimate WB release,with subtitles included was only $1 + tax! I took it home and watched with my oldest brother who was visiting me. After we watched I checked my copy of "TV Guide Guide To TV" and discovered that I had bought this set on the 34th Anniversary date,Sept. 13th,2008!One of Prinze's last newly aired show from 1977,"Ed Talks To God",is featured on the DVD. In it,Ed wants no one to throw him a birthday party and Chico gets very mad at him for Ed not wanting his friends to show how much they care about him. Another included an appearance by Jose Felicinao who sings both "Light My Fire" (briefly) and the show's theme song as well. Feliciano shows he can be almost as funny as the others,as a Latino superstar cousin of Chico who hits on Chico's girl.In summing up the series overall,I know the show is great,no question. It's sad that Prinze took his life and that NBC didn't have the decency to just let go of the show. "Sanford and Son" and "Chico and The Man" are the two sitcoms people associate with that network in the early 70s,mainly because they had no other "real" successes until "Diff'rent Strokes" & "Facts Of Life" came along after.Good shows,but they pale in comparison to what this series tried to accomplish. Even sadder,it would be over a quarter century until another Latino had a truly successful series,that being "The George Lopez Show". Between those two is 1982's unsuccessful "Aka Pablo" starring comedian Paul Rodriguez. It aired on ABC for only a few short weeks.I wont lower my rating of 10 stars because of that final season,ill advised as it was,but will for the memory of Freddie & Jack and even Scatman Crothers give it top mark. In my view the series is a classic,even though it should have at least run until 1980 or early 1981.Thanks to all who made "Chico and The Man" a reality. (END)
PeruvianJew02 This is one of the only shows that you will literally laugh out loud watching. I began watching it a while ago when I was on vacation and there was a station devoted to old television shows. Though a lot of them don't hold up, this is most definitely does! The pairing of these two talented actors is incredible, it makes the show such a joy to watch. I only wish that it could have been on television longer and that Prinze was still with us today making us laugh and blessing us with his talent. It is very sad to know the tragic end of Prinze's life after watching the show because he really was a unique and wonderful talent and it is clear that he would have gone on to do much bigger things with his career.This show needs to be put back on pronto!
richard.fuller1 For four years this show was on the air, and in that time, it went from a promising comedy into a tragic situation that sought to simply fulfil its bargain and quietly leave the air. Now, it is an interesting study of how things so good can go so bad so quickly. Veteran actor Jack Albertson was riding high on his success in 'Subject was Roses', 'Posiedon Adventure' and 'Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'. Freddie Prinze was making it in stand-up, like Sienfeld and Carrey have done. Put the two together and after 'Sanford and Son' and a hit was born. We watched the shows and laughed, relating more to Prinze than the geriatric Albertson. Guest-stars galore were everywhere from Cesar Romero to Shelley Winters. Then Prinze shot himself and my young mind could not comprehend what that meant. Oddly enough, of his few appearances on programs, someone did joke with him on another show about if anything happened to him, the show would be called "--- and the man". I couldn't grasp the meaning of the words: commit suicide. Albertson, Della Reese and Scatman Crothers carried on with the show and a replacement latino was brought in, Gabriel Melgar. Eventually Reese departed and a young lady named Monica HIll joined the cast. The show had taken a truly bizarre turn. All it was missing by then was occasional musical numbers. Apparently Albertson was just completing any commitment made to the show and then he would not return either. There was an episode where they attempted to address the other Chico with Albertson and young Melgar. Melgar asked what happened to the other Chico, Albertson hesitates to say, but I thought the assumption was he had died. I believed they had even said this much at least. That this conversation is taking place in a church is truly thought-provoking. When Albertson would die a few years later, I thought that was it. Chico and the man were gone now, both of them. Who knows where Prinze could have gone. I have never heard Albertson speak about what happened or if there were any telltale signs that were missed. Della Reese later would have Redd Foxx die in her arms on 'The Royal Family'. It will always be a poignant memory to this child's hood and I will always enjoy the song, sung by Jose Feliciano, who did appear in an episode and sing it.
wishkah7 I grew to love 'Chico and the Man' when they were first showing a marathon of it's episodes on TV Land. I found it to be intriguing, funny, enticing, and intellegent! The show was about the trials and trubulations of an old, embittered, and cynical old man who was an owner of a car garage in Southern California named Ed Brown. And he gets help from his co-workers Chico and Louie. In every episode, Chico always tries to find ways to help Ed Brown break down the walls he built around himself. Jack Albertson had a lot of talent and charisma for this sit-com and so did co-star Freddie Prinze. And the catchphrase, "Lookin' Good" became a popular one. And after Freddie Prinze committed suicide, it was said in the show that Chico moved on and now owned his own garage and Ed Brown adopted an orphan boy named Raul who became his new 'Chico'. The characters in this show are were all funny in their own way, especially Louie the garbage man! Chico and the Man is an awesome sit-com and maybe one of the best ones from the seventies. Try to catch it on TV Land if you can! Take my word for it, it's that good! Call your boss! Call your teachers and principal! Call your co-workers! Call your friends! Inform your family! Watch Chico and the Man! I give this show 5 stars! Oh, and whatever happened to Gabriel Melgar?