Die Zwei von der Tankstelle

In 1974, NBC capitalized on the success of its Friday night sitcom Sanford and Son with the debut of Chico and the Man. Veteran actor Jack Albertson portrayed Ed Brown, the grouchy garage owner who drank heavily and constantly insulted people. Then along came Chico, played by then newcomer Freddie Prinze and he came in to try to turn around The Man's failing business and move into a van in the parking lot.

The show became a huge success due to the chemistry between Albertson and Prinze and featured a classic exchange that went like this:

Chico: I want my day in the sun. Ed: Then go to the beach.

Unfortunately, Prinze couldn't handle his new found fame and at 22, he shot himself. I felt the show should have ended right there because the rising star was a definitive key to the show's success. Instead, producer James Komack and NBC let the show continue and replaced Prinze with you Gabriel Melgar as Raul. He wasn't as good as Prinze but the show survived on the shoulder of Albertson and the supporting cast, including Scatman Crothers as Louis the Garbage man. His memorable line was "I'm the man who empties your can!" There was also Della Reese as Ed's landlady.

I remember episodes with guest stars such as Sammy Davis Jr. and Jose Feliciano, who wrote and sang the show's theme song.

I really enjoyed Chico and the Man. It was a very funny show but it took a sudden shark jump after Prinze took his life.

"Chico and the Man" broke major ground in two areas: it created a successful series with an ethnic lead and made an overnight star out of Freddie Prinze, the "Chico" of the title.

Every week, Chico would take strides in making the garage he worked and lived in more successful and bringing his boss, "The Man" (Albertson) out from the walls he had built up against the rest of humanity.

There were plenty of laughs every episode; I mean, with a cast like this, how could you miss? Not only were Prinze and Albertson on hand, but so were Scatman Crothers ("Put out your can, here comes the GARBAGE MAN!"), Della Reese, Ronny Graham, and even Isaac Ruiz as Chico's buddy Mando - all making big with laughs, both ethnic and otherwise.

But this was a show that appealed to every demographic; Back in the mid-'70s, you couldn't avoid a teen magazine that didn't have Prinze's face plastered all over it, and there were constant reminders of the show's success on talk shows, specials and variety shows that the stars would appear on.

It was a sad day when Prinze took his life; it left a great void in entertainment as well as the lives of those he left behind. But at least with this series, we can all see the genius of Prinze and witness the effect he's had in the comedy world since.

Ten stars for "Chico and the Man", a classic in every sense of the word.

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.

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.