Chico and the Man (September 13, 1974 – July 21, 1978)

Format: Sitcom
Created by James Komack

Starring:
Jack Albertson
Freddie Prinze
Scatman Crothers
Bonnie Boland
Isaac Ruiz
Ronny Graham
Della Reese

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

Ed doesn't want Chico's help and distrusts all Chicanos. A hard-drinking widower, he stubbornly refuses to fit in with the changing neighborhood and has alienated most of the people who live around him. Ed uses ethnic slurs and berates Chico in an effort to get him to leave. Yet Chico sees something in Ed, and sneaks back in at night to clean up the garage and move into an old van that Ed has parked inside. As Ed sees all the effort Chico has put in, he begins to warm to Chico. Eventually, Ed grew to see Chico as a son, although he will deny this on many occasions.

The chemistry between Jack Albertson's "Ed" and Freddie Prinze's "Chico" was a major factor in making the show a hit in its first two seasons. It started in the top ten and never left there over those seasons.

The show was created by James Komack who produced other shows like The Courtship of Eddie's Father. Freddie Prinze was discovered by Komack after he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in December 1973. Komack thought he would be perfect for the part of Chico Rodriguez. As the show progressed, Chico's background was altered to being Mexican on his father's side and Puerto Rican on his mother's side (with a nod to Freddie's Hungarian ancestry in the same line which stated these facts, as Chico remarks in his Hispanic accent, "...and my grandmother speaks a little Hungarian!").

Popularity
Fans of the show saw the ethnic jabs as a part of the endearing, if acerbic, relationship between "Chico" and "the Man." As Chico once fondly put it, Ed was a minority himself, the barrio's "token white man".

The "Hungarian side of the family" was also mentioned in an episode during the first season, in which Chico plans to leave Ed. Keeping his half of a childhood bargain, Chico's cousin Carlos has invited him to come be the head mechanic in his used-car agency in New York. In a nod to Freddie's background, Chico was revealed to have spent part of his childhood there following the death of his mother, being raised by his Aunt Connie (a character who appeared in two other episodes). Chico attempts to explain his situation to Ed by portraying it as the dilemma of his distant cousin in Hungary, torn between the farmer for whom he now works and whom he has grown to love, and another farmer who has offered him a better job. During this scene and this episode, the love between these disparate characters was made clear for the first time, which Carlos notes when he releases Chico from his promise. The fondness between the characters, and the chemistry between Albertson and Prinze, were largely responsible for the show's popularity.

The show also had a veteran and talented supporting cast. Scatman Crothers portrayed Louie Wilson, Ed's friend and garbage man; Bonnie Boland played Mabel, the mail lady; Isaac Ruiz portrayed Mando, Chico's friend; and Ronny Graham played Rev. Bemis. Also, Della Reese played Della Rogers, Ed's neighbor and landlady.

By the second season, Ed begins to see that he is a part of a bigger world, although he still complained about it. He also found a girlfriend (Flora, played by Carole Cook).

Freddie Prinze's death
At the start of the third season, the reality of Freddie Prinze's drug use began to affect the show's sunny portrayal of ethnic harmony. From when Prinze came on stage several minutes into the first episode (in which Chico moves out of the garage into a roach-infested apartment), Prinze looked haggard and much older than his 22 years. In the storyline, this was covered by Ed complaining before Freddie's entrance that Chico had been staying out too late at night.

In the two-part episode that followed — which introduced landlady Della Rogers — his weight loss became quite evident. Later in the season, an episode in which Chico became a professional boxer took a different approach -- Freddie was often shown shirtless, muscles rippling as he punched a heavy bag. This was the episode that producers chose to run on January 28, 1977, as Freddie lay mortally wounded from a self-inflicted gunshot. Executives were concerned that the episode originally scheduled for that night — in which Cesar Romero portrayed Chico's long-lost father — would be difficult for fans to tolerate under the tragic circumstances.

In the last episode to star Prinze, which was filmed just hours before he shot himself (Ed Talks to God) there are many scenes in which Prinze appears to be "out of it,". Specifically, when Ed's old army buddy is pretending to be God, speaking over a PA system in an effort to convince Ed to attend his own birthday party, Freddie sits beside the other actor on the couch, apparently not paying attention to what is going on around him. Then, in the final scene, when Ed reveals that he knew all along that his buddy and Chico were in on the "God" ruse together, Freddie picked up the knife beside the birthday cake and holds it to his own throat, inviting Ed to use it in revenge.

Post-Prinze episodes
After Prinze's death the producers considered canceling the show, but opted instead for trying to replace the charismatic young comic. To write Chico out of the script they had the other characters comment that the now absent Chico had gone to visit his father in Mexico.

An effort was made to find a new Chico, but the season finished out with episodes based on the other characters in the show. Early in the fourth season, a replacement for Chico was introduced. Instead of an adult, the producers brought in twelve year-old Raul, played by Gabriel Melgar. His first appearance came when Ed and Louie go on a fishing trip to Tijuana and find the Mexican orphan hiding out in their trunk on their return. At the end of this episode, Ed is putting Raul to bed and accidentally calls him Chico. Raul corrects him and Ed remarks that, "You're all Chicos to me." Ed finally adopts Raul, only to have Raul's overprotective aunt — played by the singer Charo — come from Spain and try to become a part of the "family" as well.

A two-part episode ran in the final season in which Raul discovers his predecessor's belongings in a closet. Ed catches Raul playing Chico's guitar and smashes it on the van in anger. Raul decides Ed doesn't love him anymore and runs away to Mexico. Ed goes after him and finally explains to Raul that Chico died, but did not say how, putting a measure of closure on the fate of Prinze's character.

Cancellation
Toward the end of the show's final season, Julie Hill was added to the cast as Monica, Ed's attractive 20-year-old adopted niece. She had come to Los Angeles to get into show business, and lived in Chico's old van while awaiting her big break.

Despite the cast additions, Chico and the Man was not able to pull in its previous share of the audience in its final season. The show's ratings declined after Prinze's death, and the show was cancelled at the end of the fourth season.

Notable guest stars
Other notable guest stars included: Tony Orlando as Chico's look-alike, the ex-fiance of a hostile woman he wants to date; Jose Feliciano, who wrote the theme song, as Chico's womanizing famous-singer cousin Pepe Fernando; Sammy Davis Jr. as himself; Shelley Winters as the owner of the local bakery, Shirley Schrift (her real name); Jim Backus as Ed's friend who uses him as a "beard"--pretending to be playing cards with him when cheating on his wife (Audra Lindley); silent-film actress Carmel Myers as a former star who has fallen on hard times, brings in her car for repairs, and stays in the garage while looking for work; George Takei as Ed's supposed long-lost son from his time in Japan during WWII; Cesare Danova as Aunt Connie's Spanish aristocrat boyfriend, the Count de Catalan, in the second episode in which she appeared; comedian Joey Bishop as an inept robber; Bernie Kopell as a plastic surgeon; Rose Marie as a CB radio enthusiast with whom a lonely Ed connects on New Year's Eve; Penny Marshall, as a waitress; football star Rosey Grier as himself, Della's date for a charity benefit dance; Larry Hovis as a customer in the second episode of the first season; and Jim Jordan (of radio's Fibber McGee and Molly) as a mechanic who used to be a big businessman, until he was victimized by his own company's retirement-age mandate).

Additionally Jeannie Linero appeared in several episodes as one of Chico's more constant girlfriends, nurse Liz Garcia.

Syndication
Chico and the Man was only shown in syndication in few markets and only for a relatively short periods. TVLand aired reruns during 2001. Currently the show appears on the AmericanLife TV Network, Toronto's SunTV (CKXT-TV), and will also appear on ION Television.[1] Selected episodes of the show are also available online on sites including AOL's In2TV.

The series was rerun on NBC's morning schedule from May-December 1977.

Possible reasons for Chico and the Man's lack of success in syndication include the following: - Only 88 episodes were produced (typically shows offered for syndication will have a minimum of 100 episodes) - The violent circumstances surrounding Freddie Prinze's death - Prinze exhibited noticeable signs of drug abuse, especially in his final episodes. - The post-Prinze episodes were neither well received commercially nor popular with viewers.

Theme song
The producers originally approached Carlos Santana to write and perform the theme song. He turned down the offer, so the producers turned to Jose Feliciano. Feliciano and his wife wrote two songs for the show and the producers decided to use both: One during opening credits, and the other at the end.

The opening theme song is:

Chico, don't be discouraged,
The man, he ain't so hard to understand.
Chico, if you try now,
I know that you can lend a helping hand.

Because there's good in everyone,
And a new day has begun.
You can see the morning sun, if you try.

I know things will be better,
Oh yes they will for Chico and the Man,
Yes they will for Chico and the Man.

The closing theme song is:

Chico was born in El Barrio,
Spent much of his time on the street.
His mind was thirsty for knowledge,
His belly for something to eat.

Now times are hard,
For Chico and the Man.
Times are hard,
For Chico and the Man.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Allright.

The closing theme song is voiced over by a random member of the cast who announces:

“Chico and the Man was filmed before a live studio audience at NBC Studios, Burbank, California.”

Source: en.wikipedia.org