Chico and the Man
| Chico and the Man | |
|---|---|
Chico and the Man title screen
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| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | James Komack |
| Directed by |
Peter Baldwin Jack Donohue James Komack |
| Starring |
Jack Albertson Freddie Prinze Della Reese Scatman Crothers Bonnie Boland Isaac Ruiz Ronny Graham |
| Theme music composer | José Feliciano |
| Opening theme | "Chico and the Man" performed by José Feliciano |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 88 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | James Komack |
| Producer(s) |
Hal Kanter James Komack Michael Morris Ed Scharlach |
| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 22–24 minutes |
| Production company(s) | The Komack Company Inc. Wolper Productions |
| Distributor | Warner Bros. Television Distribution |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Audio format | Monaural |
| Original release | September 13, 1974 – July 21, 1978 |
Chico and the Man is an American sitcom that aired on NBC for four seasons from September 13, 1974 to July 21, 1978. It stars Jack Albertson as Ed Brown (the Man), the cantankerous owner of a run-down garage in an East Los Angeles barrio, and (until his suicide late in the third season) Freddie Prinze as Chico Rodriguez, an upbeat, optimistic young Chicano who comes in looking for a job. It was the first U.S. television series set in a Mexican-American neighborhood.
Comedians Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong (better known as the comedic duo Cheech & Chong) have stated that series creator James Komack followed the comedians on tour for three months; Chong wrote in his 2009 book Cheech & Chong: The Unauthorized Autobiography that Komack based the show on Cheech and Chong skits titled "The Old Man in the Park" and "Pedro and Man" and had acknowledged that fact to Chong after the television series' release. Cheech and Chong have both stated that Komack had originally approached them to star in the show, but they turned down the offer, preferring to stick to films.
Komack told the Associated Press that he first tried working with Cheech and Chong on a show about a Chicano and a Nisei. Komack said he decided to make the show about a young Chicano and a "seventh-generation WASP" after he and the comedy team "couldn't get it together".
A hard-drinking Anglo widower, Ed stubbornly refuses to fit in with the changing East L.A. neighborhood and has alienated most of the people who live around him. He uses ethnic slurs and berates Chico, a Latino, in an effort to get him to leave when Chico comes looking for a job. 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. Over the course of the show, Ed grows to see Chico as family, although Ed denies this on several occasions.
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