Forgotten Gems from the 70's: Chico and the Man

What's shakin' peoples and welcome to Day 3 of Forgotten Gems of the 70's Week.  I know it has been hard hitting action for the past 2 days so what say we move on in to some comedy instead?  No, we will not be taking in Good Times, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son or the ever racist All in the Family.  The goal of the week has been obscure or forgotten as the theme.  Mind you, I wouldn't mind seeing a little Sanford and Son though.  How about instead a crotchety Anglo Saxon running a battered down garage in East L.A. (barrio country for you whiteys) who is as about as tolerant of the Latino population as Archie Bunker but has a heart of gold as he hires Chico Rodriguez, a young and optimistic kid just looking for a job.  This is Chico and the Man.

Like the sign says...

Chico: Loo-king spoiler!









Curmudgeon Ed Brown (Jack Albertson of Run for Your Life, Changes, Justine, The Red Skelton Hour, Rabbit, Run, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory and The Fox and the Hound)  refuses to fit in the ever-changing East Los Angeles neighborhood and has managed to ostracize most of the residents around him that even his friends and family are stunned when their boy, former Vietnam Vet Chico (Freddie Prinze of The Million Dollar Rip-Off, Cher, Sammy and Company, Tony Orlando and Dawn, The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast: Muhammad Ali and Joys) goes to Ed for a job.  Ed berates him and makes enough ethnic comments to make Archie Bunker send him a Christmas card every year but Chico sees that Ed is just alone and bitter being a widower.

Git out of mah garage you Ompa Loompahs!!

He sneaks in the middle of the night and...  no he does not deface or smash the place.  For crying out loud, people.  Don't jump the gun.  Chico tidies the place up and crashes in a van Ed had inside the garage.  Rather than blast him with a boomstick, call the cops or break out a baseball bat, Ed realizes this kid is a decent sort and the least he can do is give the kid a job.  Pestered by an old neighbor Louie (Scatman Crothers of Meet Me at the Fair, Porgy and Bess, The AristoCats, The Jungle Book,  Hong Kong Phooey, The Shootist, Silver Streak, Roots and The Transformers) who snickered about Ed helping us poor minorities and razzing him every chance.

This combo of grumpy old man and young happenin' kid is not a new formula by any means but literally the first TV series to set in a Mexican-American neighborhood and show the community's strengths and flaws without 60 black and whites and a bunch of kids on the hoods being patted down.  With a grand total of 88 episodes you would think this was a solid shoe-in for more seasons.

Now a few facts about the show.  While fighting a losing battle with depression coupled with new found fame and recognition, Freddie Prinze tragically took his own life with a gun leaving behind his cast mates, his wife Katherine Cochran and his infant son Freddie Prinze Jr.  Beloved by the likes of :Johnny Carson, Sammy Davis Jr., co-star Jack Robertson and Tony Orlando, the Prince of Comedy had passed away at age 22.  A vain attempt to continue out the fourth season ended in dark story arcs, characters that did not go over as well and the magic that was Jack and Freddie could not be duplicated.

I cut you good, old man!