Chico

"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.

Finally, the show is on DVD. So far, just a one disc set, but it contains six great episodes, including the pilot and important episodes that really focus on the relationship between Chico and Ed Brown, and the personalities of both men to help explain how two such different people could care so much for each other. This was a terrific show and had Freddie not died, it could have run for a decade, if Freddie wasn't a movie star by then. Let's hope we can see more episodes released in the future. This was a show that Chicanos could be proud of and that still entertained everyone else.

And yes, the "Cousin Pepe" episode is in there!

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.

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!