Chico and the Man

That being of 67 year old Jack Albertson as the cranky old garage owner Ed Brown and 20 year old fresh face Freddie Prinze playing a young Latino mechanic - Chico - in search of a job. Prior shows had united characters on screen coming from different points of view - Archie and "Meathead" on All In the Family, and Sanford and Son in, well, Sanford and Son. But these were two unrelated characters coming from entirely two different places in life. Chico is the poor Mexican American kid with everything in life ahead of him. His boss, Ed, is worn down by life, missing his late wife, missing the way the neighborhood used to be it is - East LA is now heavily Latino, and drinking heavily to deal with all of this, believing everything is behind him. And yet these two very different people become friends as well as coleagues. I am having to rely on a 41 year old memory here, but I THINK when Ed admits to a young ward that Chico is dead he actually weeps.

My rating of 8/10 is for how fresh it was in 1974, utilizing great talents Scatman Crothers and Della Reese as supporting characters. But you know, one character really sticks out in my memory. That would be the mail lady Mabel played by Barbara Boland. The reason for this is that every time she delivers the mail she has some tawdry tale about her love life, and yet she looked pretty homely to be getting all of that male attention! She was only on six episodes, and this site says she has had no filmed roles since, and yet she is still alive at 75 as I am writing this. I wonder what she's been doing all of these years.

The show had one of the great TV theme songs, written and performed by Jose Feliciano, at a time when several TV shows had great theme songs - it was rather a golden era for them. It was a real soul tickler.

So why is this TV show so obscure? It has only had one DVD release and that was with six disjointed episodes by Warner Brothers. Apparently it did not sell well, and I guess that meant no complete series release. I'd think at least it would warrant a "burn on demand" Warner Archive release. The ancient "Medical Center" is even in the Warner Archive!

I began to watch "chico and the man" on TV Land. I fell in love with this show. Freddy Prinze had to glow to him and it was beautiful. Watching the episodes of "chico and the man" after Prinze's death is haunting. You sit there watching and thinking who the hell are all these other people? Like everyone else I wished it had a different ending.

Chico and the man was the essence of my TV watching childhood. The mid 1970s were my developmental years, and I like to think that this timeless sitcom was and is a sentimental and forever memorable fixture in my growing years and even now. In the mid seventies, Friday night was a line up for my 'obsessions'. Sitcoms and police shows and the cast on 'Chico and the man' I felt to be an extension of my family. The comedy was quick and strong and the duo of Albertson & Prinze was a special chemistry, so unbelievable and loving, I feel a bond like that one might never be accomplished again. All of these comical plots always centered around some sort of life lesson always 'giftwrapped' in friendship and caring. Freddy & Jack & the others, looking down on myself and all of the 'Chico' lovers, can only nod in absolute agreement(like that little mounted dog, on his back dash, with the spring form neck and head that would bob up & down.

This show was well on its way to becoming one of the all time classics when the tragic death of Freddie Prinze occurred. You had the two classic themes in the show. One was the theme of age versus youth and the other was the clash of cultures between Chico and Ed. This latter them is reminiscent of the show which aired on the same night and network as this one, "Sanford and Son". You could pretty much see Ed in the Fred Sanford role and Chico in the Lamont role and it basically was the same, the older father figure constantly clashing with his young charge over how to run the business. It was these qualities that helped make this show the semi-classic that it was. Also, the supporting cast of Scatman Crothers as Louie, Della Reese as Della and Ronny Graham as Reverend Bemis really made it a fun show. Unfortunately, when the tragedy happened and they brought in Gabriel Melgar to play Raul (a.k.a. the new "Chico") that's when the show went downhill. They should have canceled the show at that point and spared us the pain of watching it decline. If that had happened it probably would still be remembered as a good sitcom.

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!