I always thought it was a Latino version of "Sanford and Son"...but it was an underrated show, It would have been cool to see a Sanford and Son/Chico and the Man crossover episode....they were both set in L.A at the same time...
@cippy2k What,,,as dishwashers and lawncutters ? Pffsshh.....moron......Those are the only jobs left in America except Mickey-D's and Wal-Mart (China-Mart)
I loved chico and the man. I had a big crush on freddie prinze. I never missed a show. I was so hurt and sad when he died. I found some of the shows on a dvd at a salewalk sale. I was in my teens when this show came out. freddie did die by his own hand. so sad. his son is now doing what his dad loved. acting.
I was a very young kid when I saw this show. I loved the first season with Freddie Prinze. But all the other seasons were lame without Chico. I didn't realize until years later Prinze had died by his own hand, so sad.
Nice that everyone is arguing the politics. Me, I was just in love with Freddie Prinze. Cried my heart out when he died. Still think an amazing talent was never fully appreciated. what might have been...
My dad was the same age as Freddie Prinze and was shocked when he heard about the suicide.
Everybody today complains how much better the 60s/70s were as opposed to today, but you have to think, these people are the same ones whom were Freddie's age when people like Ed Brown told them about the 30s/40s. Rinse and repeat.
I see this time and time again with older people. Young adults are usually too ignorant and don't give a damn to care about the old stuff.
You ever look at some of the extras from the theme song and wonder what happened to them?? Like the little kid chasing birds at the end...where is he now some 35 years later?? I know i'm wierd lol.
Highly underrated show. Production values wouldn't fly in the days of Vampires and green screens, but it had a story to tell. Are Latinos better off in the USA than they were in the 70s?
@crittertv This was a wonderful show and I watched it religiously every Friday night in the 1970's. It came on right after "Sanford and Son". Unfortunately, Freddie Prinze commited suicide. The show was never the same after that.....
@69erthx1138 LoL I did the same thing!! No, it's only people in their 40's who would get that! ( wait a second... when did 40ies seem like it not so old, damn)
wish I could have been born 15 years earlier. Nice to see shows back then that weren't just what white people thought black and brown people wanted to see on TV
does anyone know the story behind the shoot for this opening sequence? did the camera operator just go to east LA and start filming passersby at random? did the producers have to get their permission to use their images? i wonder the same thing about the intro to "good times."
Did Freddie Prinze kill himself or did he die of a drug overdose? Does anybody know? Whatever happened to him, does anybody know what his issues were?
@stitchesful I remember that he pulled a hand gun from under his couch and shot himself. He was at the height of his popularity and as a 10 year old I remember being stunned....still am. At the time it was reported he had difficulty being so famous.
@turbo1964 Thanks for the info. I also remember hearing something about it on the news when I was a kid. (I was six at the time). Wasn't he also said to have had a drug problem?
Prinze suffered from depression, and on January 28, 1977, shot himself with a small semi-automatic pistol after talking on the telephone with his estranged wife. His business manager, Marvin "Dusty" Snyder, tried to intervene, but Prinze shot himself in the head, and was rushed to the UCLA Medical Center to be placed on life support following emergency surgery. Prinze's family removed him from life support, and he died at 1 p.m. on January 29. He was 22.
@Arthro92 That's so sad. He was such a talented and good looking guy. I wonder why he felt this way. I remember seeing parts of a movie on television that was based on his life. Didn't he start off as a stand-up comedian? I think I remember something about that in the movie. Didn't he also grow up in poverty and have to really struggle to get where he did? If so, maybe it all really took a toll on him.
um, i'm not exactly sure of his entire biography. but, yes, freddie did start out doing stand up. you know, success isn't always what TV has one to believe. so with any issues freddie may have been struggling with, hollywood not always being so kind to non-whites, only added fuel to the fire. there's no telling what he was going through.
@Arthro92 I didn't even think of that. Having to put up with discrimination and racism from Hollywood must've been another heartache for him in an already long list. From what I remember in the movie, he was desperately trying to get out of the poverty he'd grown up in, and had to overcome one obstacle after the other to get into show business. And nobody ever thought he'd be able to, including his family. Everybody discouraged him. At least that's the way I remember the movie.
@stitchesful Money can't buy you peace-of-mind or 'happiness,' dude. It can buy you therapy from some head-shrinker but that's about it. Some of the most miserable people who ever lived were both rich and famous. It's all a psychological thing, it's from the inside. A lot of times they don't even show it on the outside & then one day, they off themselves out-of-the-blue. In this guy's case it was probably just out-of-control cocaine addiction.
@metamorphosis67 I 100% agree with you, and believe me, I understand that money can't buy the true happiness and peace that comes only from the inside. I guess it just seems like he would've gained some self esteem and had some of that inner well-being once he achieved success. But I guess success doesn't matter, if you didn't feel good about yourself to begin with. Even with success, people can still feel worthless and like they're no good. But you wouldn't think so.
@stitchesful He was half-Jewish & Hollywood is owned by Jews so he was only half-discriminated against, if at all, sort of like Geraldo Rivera who's also half-Jew.
@metamorphosis67 I had had no idea that he was half-Jewish. So then he was racially mixed. Maybe that's why he was so good looking. Not that Latinos aren't also good looking. It just that it seems like the best looking people out there are the ones that have more than one race in them. They can have dynamite looks, like him.
This neighborhood always reminds me of what Wicker Park in Chicago used to be like in the 70's before it turns all artsy and yuppie....Huge Mexican and Puerto Rican community.....
I tell you what you could be back then which is becoming increasingly difficult is HUMAN, what ever Race you think you are today we all seemed to be being made to conform so we act as good consumers.
The best American Comedy shows always seemed to me to be about what it is to be Human , so any one could relate, where ever they were from I just love the music and the series, it could be any one form any culture
It's funny to see this now, in the post politically correct society we live in. If a program similar to this was aired today, with a song intro talking about Chico (hispanics), having a language barrier with white folks (the man), encouraging them to work for "the man" (lend a helping hand), against a back drop of hispanics checking oil in cars, playing bongos, and eating tacos in the barrio, NBC studios would be picketed by protesters crying racism and racial stereotyping. Times have changed.
@mbrk6827 The Latino community today is different than in the 1970s when the show was made, and the show producers admit some of it was exaggerated for comedy's sake. It was well retrieved by many Latinos & the character was likable to general audiences. In the 1970s, many sitcoms on African-Americans at the time are equally outdated. To create & produce a sitcom feature all parts of American life: cultures, lifestyles and ethnic groups, isn't an easy thing to portray without causing offense. +
@demikede1 Bull crap! I'm latino and I know for a fact that it's STILL mostly like what is portrayed on the show. I also live in an area here there are a lot of blacks and they are the same. Why do you think the stereotypes still exist? Because they are still out there. More so than before because its just the way they are and nobody's going to make them give up heir "heritage".
@demikede1 No such thing as life without offense. Mistakes, negligence, ignorance, irrationality & arrogance cause offense on a daily basis between individuals & groups. The offense causes pain, pain is the root of all comedy. Comedy is a form of drama that happens when pain or offense suffered is shown to be absurd & irrational in a skillful & creative way, therefore rendering immunity from further offense. It's a martial art. Bullying on somebody's weaknesses, that's not comedy, just hate.
@mbrk6827 A lot of those shows from the 1970's were actually quite racist. Behind a veneer of liberalism, people--for example--like Norman Lear [the king of the 70's sitcoms] was quite racist. Many of his shows used to recycle old stereotypes and serve them on a national platform to a new generation of viewers, while at the same time pretending to champion minorities. His shows were nothing more than a platform for his "leftist" views.
@Rayarena Oh please? Leftist? No sonny, Norm,an Lear was not even CLOSE to being a "leftist." Understand political labels before you use them. No true Leftist would EVER be involved with US Television! A dyed in the wool LIBERAL yes, but a leftist? NEVER!
@TheArsenalgooner Oh please, I'm not going to split hairs over the definition of what "leftist" means which if you noticed, in my original post, I put within quotation marks. Suffice it is to say that Norman Lear used his power as a TV producer in the 1970s to constantly attack and undermine American values. So-called conservatives were ridiculed and so-called liberals were depicted in an enlightened, progressive manner. He created a two-dimensional caricature of everything.
@Rayarena "Undermined American values"??? What constitutes "American values?" In the states nearly everyone seems to think that big money and old money aka "conservatives" simply "made their fortune the hard way" without stepping on, ripping off or exploiting others Under lying all of your arguments of "conservatives" is the US is race vis a vis white supremacy vs people of colour and the poor of all races. Firestone tires? ahaha what a joke!
@TheArsenalgooner - Add to that the fact that about 75% of the very wealthy made their money the old-fashioned way: they inherited it! (To them -- American values = Ayn Rand rules: enjoy your life and don't even start to think about others who suffer misfortune through no fault of their own. They aren't of the right class anyhow.)
@cooper79jeffr Ayn Rand was talking about the ideal Laissez-Faire capitalism not this communitarian mixed-economy socialist mess you call America now. Capitalist America is over and done with. How can you call a country Capitalist where the average person's taxes added from all sources add up to more than 60% of income?
@metamorphosis67 - America isn't socialist. If anything it is far more laissez-faire and deregulated than it was 35 years ago. That 60% of taxes figure can't be right, and if so that applies more to the poor and lower-middle class than it does to the wealthiest who have made off like bandits since Reagan and company started their assault on middle and working-class America.
@Rayarena It's called Cultural Marxism. It's programmed from the top down in all media, TV shows, movies, magazines, textbooks, etc. The goal is to weaken the dominant culture in any way possible which in the case of the USA & Europe is white. It's all programmed step-by-step & planned decades in advance. Even having as many black athletes as they have now is totally planned. Read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion written over a 100 years ago.
@metamorphosis67 I know what you mean. Example, Norman Lear was a blight on the national landscape. Behind a veneer of entertainment, he pushed his New York City brand of searing satire down the throats of millions of unwitting Americans. Back in the 1970's, he was producing one TV show after the next each one as vile as the next.
@Rayarena - Oh yes, people were forced to watch Maude and "Sanford and Son" with a gun pointed at their heads. (Rolls eyes.) You underestimate so-called "unwitting" Americans.
@cooper79jeffr Spare us your feeble attempts at sarcasm. Nobody was forced to watch any of those shows, but Norman Lear dominated prime time TV back in the 70's. There were limited channels back then and this was what was offered. I'm not saying that the programs weren't at times funny and that they didn't have entertainment value, but they were permeated with political satire. Norman Lear had an agenda and an unwittingly captive audience.
@mbrk6827 For real...Shit, don't even get me started on All In The Family. It wouldn't have even gotten a pilot...The funny thing of all this "political correctness" it's all just a bunch of hipocrisy...
@mbrk6827 at the time it was still breaking barriers to have an "ethnic" (non-white-european-american) as a main character. The main character on "All in the Family" was a bigot, exaggeratedly so, parodying the extreme so that viewers could see the minority side of an issue. Chico was an early glimpse into a society that most of us didn't even know about in our sanitized, "white bread world". Miss ya, Freddie.
Last post: I happen to be part-Cherokee Indian on my mother's paternal side from the Osage Indian reservation near Tulsa, Okla. in the 1920s/30s. If I was a comedy writer, I would make a comedy about an American Indian family deal with issues affecting the Native American community in a nice but comical way. Since my father is French, maybe I can throw in a minor character like a distant relative by marriage, who's a French stereotype. LoL! It hasn't been done on prime-time TV, so go for it. +
Controversial...at the time, when this was cutting-edge. "Chico and the man" is a prime-time comedy set in the Hispanic neighorhood of East L.A. Not many people know Hispanics lived in L.A. throughout the city's history goes back to Spanish and Mexican rule of California.
It was a good comedy, about the humanity we all have no matter what race, color, nationality or culture we happen to be. But sadly, Freddie Prinze took his own life & the series taken the wrong turn without him or Chico. +
I really miss seeing this show & hearing both the intro & end credits theme. This was all good from start to finish. They'll never be able to write something this good. There's no imagination anymore, but we that saw these had the best times. :)
About the Man meaning,that is what it was,but is not ofending is comercial stuff.they were making money so they used reality...and make their cash.Remember is a show,is up to the viewers...
Very glad to see this clip. Back in the 70' many sitcoms were well written, funny and bridged racial and cultural divides. Now it's mostly crap and staged "reality" shows.
@MrDavkoz i know i think it's like press a button a laughs come out but in the 70's they had live audiences and i watched some new sitcoms and it seems like there's a laugh for everything even when things are not funny not like the 70's with serious parts some saddening parts and real funny parts and laughs from actual people who laugh how they like
If TV Land would pull heir heads out of there asses, this is the type of programing they need, 50 60 and 70's when TV was more the crap it is now. The 90's and 80's reruns you can watch on the Networks.
I went to Mission Viejo High in the early 70's. Had a classmate that told many stories of hanging out with Jose. Quite the cool cat, and very talented.
Mexicans ruined this country and they definetly ruined the city of L.A..They are all on welfare are all on section 8 housing and don't know who their fathers are!!! Mexicans should all go back to Mexico!!!
@hoth260 it was...black people and Latinos were barely ever on network television. Good times and Chico and the Man were seen as major victories for blacks and Latinos on tv. As an African american my mother made us watch Chico and the Man because of its historical significance and because everyone loved Freddie Prinze. He was in JET magazine regularly. His death rocked the the black community pretty hard. I still miss him.
@taureanblack Prinze wasn't black or African-American, but in the 1960s & 70s, there was solidarity of African-American, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Caribbean, east Asian & American Indian groups lived together in the USA's urban centers. East L.A. is also mentioned to have some Jewish people, whose families came from Eastern Europe in the turn of the (20th) century. East L.A. was heavily populated by Latino immigrants since then, so the scenery of the show's intro in 1975 is much like it is now. +
Wow...that is a BEAUTIFUL song....Jose Feliciano really can belt a tune.
I remember watching this show near the end of the series when I was maybe 9 or 10 years old. Freddie Prinze spoke across generations and cultures...he was truly gifted. My sisters and I watched the show from Woodland Hills, CA and we LOVED it. Great memories.....beautiful song.
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were invented in 1928 by Harry Burnett Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Milton S. Hershey (The Hershey Company).
T.V.'s "Chico & the Man" trivia: Originally Freddie Prinze was cast to play the role of "Della." The part, of course, was eventually awarded to Della Reese who had invented Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in 1967.
Reading and writing compliment one another. I've always been an amateur researcher. I don't often read novels. My eclectic focus recently has been on vitamin-deficiency diseases and on the mesa near Dulce, N.M. (just north of Albuquerque) , where there's said to be a subterranean alien base that's been linked to cattle mutilations and unidentified aircraft. See: the Disclosure Project, Col. Philip Corso & Phil Schneider. I am suspicious of anything that's reported by the corporate media.
@ParadiseOnLand dude wtf?!? What services? What payment? You're talking this nonsense in the section for comments on THE FUCKIN' THEME SONG FROM "CHICO & THE MAN"!!!!!!!
Why was this controversial?
JaydeeinCali 2 days ago
Ok this was WAY before my time but they had better theme songs back in the olden days
DarkQuietWyattON 3 days ago
I MISS THE 70'S
fruitlooplupe 3 days ago
I always thought it was a Latino version of "Sanford and Son"...but it was an underrated show, It would have been cool to see a Sanford and Son/Chico and the Man crossover episode....they were both set in L.A at the same time...
toonzguy 1 month ago
Good song, love it!
anthonybolds 1 month ago
very cool song
briangsoul 1 month ago
I loved this show. I was mad in love with freddie prince. It broke my heart to find out he died.
sunshine18102 1 month ago
God bless Freddie, Jack and of course Jose. Great TV show, and very memorable song.
SunnyDays951 2 months ago
I used to love this show as a kid. R.I.P. Freddie Prinze.
SULLECRAM1127 2 months ago
I rather be a spic then white trash living in a trailer and having kids with their own sisters. like Deliverence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
rickker20 3 months ago
,,that's just Hollywood speaking to simple-minded gullible teenagers so they can be brainwashed into hating the host country's originators.
PupuTheClown 2 months ago
bad ass lowride chevy near end of video .
SIGNALSTAT 3 months ago 2
This has been flagged as spam show
spics are a filthy race
cippy2k 3 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
now spics take american jobs
cippy2k 3 months ago
@cippy2k What,,,as dishwashers and lawncutters ? Pffsshh.....moron......Those are the only jobs left in America except Mickey-D's and Wal-Mart (China-Mart)
loungelizard5000 3 months ago
chico and the spics was the original titlt
cippy2k 3 months ago
@cippy2k Chingaz tu madre, pindejo.
timmmahhhh 2 months ago in playlist Favorite videos
i agree with,mrdavokz i wish there was channel for all these old shows
usasexygoddess 3 months ago
pimped out chevy is cool.
SIGNALSTAT 3 months ago
I read these comments about modern reality TV and I agree but they're still on all the time. What can we do to get rid of them?
mH8675309 4 months ago
George Lopez owes this guy a lot.....
vitoduval 4 months ago
Haven't heard this intro in years. Such a lovely song, but even all these years Freddie Prinze's death is still too sad.
And yes, 70's shows were so much more adventurous and more of a slice of real life for real Americans. (UNLIKE "reality TV")
ebedgert 4 months ago
Im not A RACIST i HATE EVERYONE EQUALLY
jumpa01 4 months ago
I loved chico and the man. I had a big crush on freddie prinze. I never missed a show. I was so hurt and sad when he died. I found some of the shows on a dvd at a salewalk sale. I was in my teens when this show came out. freddie did die by his own hand. so sad. his son is now doing what his dad loved. acting.
sunshine18102 4 months ago
My mother always watched this show. I think she had a crush on Freddie. My mom had great taste in tv shows in the 70s.
GrapeLola 4 months ago
I was a very young kid when I saw this show. I loved the first season with Freddie Prinze. But all the other seasons were lame without Chico. I didn't realize until years later Prinze had died by his own hand, so sad.
Satchel334 4 months ago
You know... José Feliciano... you got no complaints.
BloatedSensations 4 months ago
@BloatedSensations Fargo?
clintonearlwalker 4 months ago
@clintonearlwalker Bingo! You win a dinner for two at Pancakes House! :)
BloatedSensations 4 months ago
Nice that everyone is arguing the politics. Me, I was just in love with Freddie Prinze. Cried my heart out when he died. Still think an amazing talent was never fully appreciated. what might have been...
jtguppy 5 months ago
My dad was the same age as Freddie Prinze and was shocked when he heard about the suicide.
Everybody today complains how much better the 60s/70s were as opposed to today, but you have to think, these people are the same ones whom were Freddie's age when people like Ed Brown told them about the 30s/40s. Rinse and repeat.
I see this time and time again with older people. Young adults are usually too ignorant and don't give a damn to care about the old stuff.
KratostheThird 5 months ago
I used to love this show back in the 70s - I remember being very sad when I heard about Freddie Prinze's suicide.....
KarenBee09 5 months ago
You ever look at some of the extras from the theme song and wonder what happened to them?? Like the little kid chasing birds at the end...where is he now some 35 years later?? I know i'm wierd lol.
iLiveMusic90 5 months ago
@iLiveMusic90 Don't worry, I feel the same way.
YaoiHuntressEarth 5 months ago
I'm glad I didn't know this was controversial when I was 9!
cupidsdelite 5 months ago
Highly underrated show. Production values wouldn't fly in the days of Vampires and green screens, but it had a story to tell. Are Latinos better off in the USA than they were in the 70s?
8584zender 5 months ago
Ahhh East LA in the 70's. What a cool show and great comedian in Freddie Prinze. He made me laugh the hardest back then.
ff85258 6 months ago
I never saw this show but heard about it, just not my demographic as a kid, didnt freddie Prinz get shot or something? I cant remember..
crittertv 6 months ago
@crittertv This was a wonderful show and I watched it religiously every Friday night in the 1970's. It came on right after "Sanford and Son". Unfortunately, Freddie Prinze commited suicide. The show was never the same after that.....
johnwoa 6 months ago
@crittertv
No, he committed suicide. He shot himself in the head.
Arthro92 5 months ago
OMG I watched this Air Like Yesterday , I Must Be Old :) QC
Quaaludedude714 6 months ago
controversial?
ishredu 6 months ago
Why "controversial theme"? (on description..)
Top100Guitarist 6 months ago
I made a reference from this show at work to a group of people in their 30's, and the looked at me puzzled. I gotta be getting old!
69erthx1138 6 months ago
@69erthx1138 LoL I did the same thing!! No, it's only people in their 40's who would get that! ( wait a second... when did 40ies seem like it not so old, damn)
DinoMireles78 6 months ago
@69erthx1138 Looooking Goood!
cupidsdelite 5 months ago
?@cupidsdelite
69erthx1138 5 months ago
@69erthx1138 I'm in my thirties, and I love this show. Blame their parents for them being total idiots and clueless about good television shows.
ClassicTVful 5 months ago
Thats my cousin at scene 40 wearing the vote shirt.he still watches this on dvd.
SIGNALSTAT 6 months ago
isn't this out on DVD? i like that theme song
troyboy7962 7 months ago
Boyle Heights...FOREVER!!!
bjroberts65 7 months ago
I had a major crush on Freddie Prinze and I cried like a baby when I heard he had committed suicide
siugal 7 months ago
@ 0:41 Mexican Chewbacca
bjroberts65 7 months ago
wish I could have been born 15 years earlier. Nice to see shows back then that weren't just what white people thought black and brown people wanted to see on TV
chikkengrease 8 months ago 2
Fact: The little boy at the end trying to get the pidgeons is my brother Daniel.
dvdtrr 8 months ago 2
@dvdtrr Hopefully his work ethic has improved...LOL
krelbar 8 months ago
@dvdtrr awsome hes a celeb
bighardron 7 months ago
How was this controversial?
discolives79ify 8 months ago
:19 you can see a garage worker loafing and stuffing his face.
pardyhardly 8 months ago
does anyone know the story behind the shoot for this opening sequence? did the camera operator just go to east LA and start filming passersby at random? did the producers have to get their permission to use their images? i wonder the same thing about the intro to "good times."
wallofvideo 8 months ago
@wallofvideo I think it's public domain to go ahead and film anyone you like. You have to get a permit first. Correct me if I'm wrong.
spareaxe 7 months ago
When Freddie Prinze died NBC wanted the show to continue and offered the part to Charo......Charo and The Man...AYE COOCHIE COOCHIE!!
richiebear1969 8 months ago 7
i really like this theme song. i really liked the show when i was a kid.
68Wildhorse 9 months ago
Loved this theme song back in da day. Still love it now. Thanks for posting this song and video.
Cicero589412 9 months ago
Hahaha, I remember this show well. Our family watched it when I was a kid in the 70s. It's a great song. The show was only okay.
pauswa1966 9 months ago
This song always makes me smile. I grew up watching this show and Freddie Prinze
always made me laugh. We were born on the same date in the same city, only he
was a number of years older than me. When I first visited Hollywood in 2007, I went
to visit his crypt at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills and left him a red rose. Still miss him.
JOJO22858 9 months ago
Aso Freddie Jr inherited some of the money that Freddie Sr had in a life insurance policy that Freddie Sr had taken out on himself.
CelesteK 9 months ago
Aso Freddie Jr inherited some of the money that Freddie Sr in a life insurance policy that Freddie Sr had taken out on himself.
CelesteK 9 months ago
Did Freddie Prinze kill himself or did he die of a drug overdose? Does anybody know? Whatever happened to him, does anybody know what his issues were?
stitchesful 9 months ago
@stitchesful I remember that he pulled a hand gun from under his couch and shot himself. He was at the height of his popularity and as a 10 year old I remember being stunned....still am. At the time it was reported he had difficulty being so famous.
turbo1964 9 months ago
@turbo1964 Thanks for the info. I also remember hearing something about it on the news when I was a kid. (I was six at the time). Wasn't he also said to have had a drug problem?
stitchesful 9 months ago
@stitchesful
Prinze suffered from depression, and on January 28, 1977, shot himself with a small semi-automatic pistol after talking on the telephone with his estranged wife. His business manager, Marvin "Dusty" Snyder, tried to intervene, but Prinze shot himself in the head, and was rushed to the UCLA Medical Center to be placed on life support following emergency surgery. Prinze's family removed him from life support, and he died at 1 p.m. on January 29. He was 22.
Arthro92 5 months ago
@Arthro92 I figured that he suffered from depression, but did he also have a drug problem? I can't believe that he was only 22.
stitchesful 5 months ago
@stitchesful
yes, he was a cocaine addict and i think some other drugs. please, don't quote me on the other drugs part, but i do know he did use cocaine.
Arthro92 5 months ago
@Arthro92 That's so sad. He was such a talented and good looking guy. I wonder why he felt this way. I remember seeing parts of a movie on television that was based on his life. Didn't he start off as a stand-up comedian? I think I remember something about that in the movie. Didn't he also grow up in poverty and have to really struggle to get where he did? If so, maybe it all really took a toll on him.
stitchesful 5 months ago
@stitchesful
um, i'm not exactly sure of his entire biography. but, yes, freddie did start out doing stand up. you know, success isn't always what TV has one to believe. so with any issues freddie may have been struggling with, hollywood not always being so kind to non-whites, only added fuel to the fire. there's no telling what he was going through.
Arthro92 5 months ago
@Arthro92 I didn't even think of that. Having to put up with discrimination and racism from Hollywood must've been another heartache for him in an already long list. From what I remember in the movie, he was desperately trying to get out of the poverty he'd grown up in, and had to overcome one obstacle after the other to get into show business. And nobody ever thought he'd be able to, including his family. Everybody discouraged him. At least that's the way I remember the movie.
stitchesful 5 months ago
@stitchesful
and that's maybe why he was so depressed.
Arthro92 5 months ago
@Arthro92 Maybe. But then why did he remain depressed after he became successful and gotten himself some money?
stitchesful 5 months ago
@stitchesful
Who knows?
Arthro92 5 months ago
@stitchesful Money can't buy you peace-of-mind or 'happiness,' dude. It can buy you therapy from some head-shrinker but that's about it. Some of the most miserable people who ever lived were both rich and famous. It's all a psychological thing, it's from the inside. A lot of times they don't even show it on the outside & then one day, they off themselves out-of-the-blue. In this guy's case it was probably just out-of-control cocaine addiction.
metamorphosis67 1 week ago
@metamorphosis67 I 100% agree with you, and believe me, I understand that money can't buy the true happiness and peace that comes only from the inside. I guess it just seems like he would've gained some self esteem and had some of that inner well-being once he achieved success. But I guess success doesn't matter, if you didn't feel good about yourself to begin with. Even with success, people can still feel worthless and like they're no good. But you wouldn't think so.
stitchesful 6 days ago
@stitchesful He was half-Jewish & Hollywood is owned by Jews so he was only half-discriminated against, if at all, sort of like Geraldo Rivera who's also half-Jew.
metamorphosis67 1 week ago
@metamorphosis67 I had had no idea that he was half-Jewish. So then he was racially mixed. Maybe that's why he was so good looking. Not that Latinos aren't also good looking. It just that it seems like the best looking people out there are the ones that have more than one race in them. They can have dynamite looks, like him.
stitchesful 6 days ago
So, is LA still like this clip?
mandaladouble 9 months ago
This neighborhood always reminds me of what Wicker Park in Chicago used to be like in the 70's before it turns all artsy and yuppie....Huge Mexican and Puerto Rican community.....
averypack13 10 months ago
Then Sammy Davis Jr sang it on national tv. That's all kinds of wrong! lol
cobalt279 11 months ago
I tell you what you could be back then which is becoming increasingly difficult is HUMAN, what ever Race you think you are today we all seemed to be being made to conform so we act as good consumers.
The best American Comedy shows always seemed to me to be about what it is to be Human , so any one could relate, where ever they were from I just love the music and the series, it could be any one form any culture
Marcus538 11 months ago
Sadly, the thing I remember most is Freddy Prinz suicide. He was such a beautiful man. I just hat to think he was in that much pain.
sistalinda 11 months ago
It's funny to see this now, in the post politically correct society we live in. If a program similar to this was aired today, with a song intro talking about Chico (hispanics), having a language barrier with white folks (the man), encouraging them to work for "the man" (lend a helping hand), against a back drop of hispanics checking oil in cars, playing bongos, and eating tacos in the barrio, NBC studios would be picketed by protesters crying racism and racial stereotyping. Times have changed.
mbrk6827 11 months ago 9
@mbrk6827 The Latino community today is different than in the 1970s when the show was made, and the show producers admit some of it was exaggerated for comedy's sake. It was well retrieved by many Latinos & the character was likable to general audiences. In the 1970s, many sitcoms on African-Americans at the time are equally outdated. To create & produce a sitcom feature all parts of American life: cultures, lifestyles and ethnic groups, isn't an easy thing to portray without causing offense. +
demikede1 11 months ago
@demikede1 Bull crap! I'm latino and I know for a fact that it's STILL mostly like what is portrayed on the show. I also live in an area here there are a lot of blacks and they are the same. Why do you think the stereotypes still exist? Because they are still out there. More so than before because its just the way they are and nobody's going to make them give up heir "heritage".
cobalt279 11 months ago 2
@demikede1 No such thing as life without offense. Mistakes, negligence, ignorance, irrationality & arrogance cause offense on a daily basis between individuals & groups. The offense causes pain, pain is the root of all comedy. Comedy is a form of drama that happens when pain or offense suffered is shown to be absurd & irrational in a skillful & creative way, therefore rendering immunity from further offense. It's a martial art. Bullying on somebody's weaknesses, that's not comedy, just hate.
metamorphosis67 1 week ago
@mbrk6827 A lot of those shows from the 1970's were actually quite racist. Behind a veneer of liberalism, people--for example--like Norman Lear [the king of the 70's sitcoms] was quite racist. Many of his shows used to recycle old stereotypes and serve them on a national platform to a new generation of viewers, while at the same time pretending to champion minorities. His shows were nothing more than a platform for his "leftist" views.
Rayarena 5 months ago
@Rayarena Oh please? Leftist? No sonny, Norm,an Lear was not even CLOSE to being a "leftist." Understand political labels before you use them. No true Leftist would EVER be involved with US Television! A dyed in the wool LIBERAL yes, but a leftist? NEVER!
TheArsenalgooner 5 months ago
@TheArsenalgooner Oh please, I'm not going to split hairs over the definition of what "leftist" means which if you noticed, in my original post, I put within quotation marks. Suffice it is to say that Norman Lear used his power as a TV producer in the 1970s to constantly attack and undermine American values. So-called conservatives were ridiculed and so-called liberals were depicted in an enlightened, progressive manner. He created a two-dimensional caricature of everything.
Rayarena 5 months ago
@Rayarena "Undermined American values"??? What constitutes "American values?" In the states nearly everyone seems to think that big money and old money aka "conservatives" simply "made their fortune the hard way" without stepping on, ripping off or exploiting others Under lying all of your arguments of "conservatives" is the US is race vis a vis white supremacy vs people of colour and the poor of all races. Firestone tires? ahaha what a joke!
TheArsenalgooner 5 months ago
@TheArsenalgooner - Add to that the fact that about 75% of the very wealthy made their money the old-fashioned way: they inherited it! (To them -- American values = Ayn Rand rules: enjoy your life and don't even start to think about others who suffer misfortune through no fault of their own. They aren't of the right class anyhow.)
cooper79jeffr 5 months ago
@cooper79jeffr Ayn Rand was talking about the ideal Laissez-Faire capitalism not this communitarian mixed-economy socialist mess you call America now. Capitalist America is over and done with. How can you call a country Capitalist where the average person's taxes added from all sources add up to more than 60% of income?
metamorphosis67 1 week ago
@metamorphosis67 - America isn't socialist. If anything it is far more laissez-faire and deregulated than it was 35 years ago. That 60% of taxes figure can't be right, and if so that applies more to the poor and lower-middle class than it does to the wealthiest who have made off like bandits since Reagan and company started their assault on middle and working-class America.
cooper79jeffr 1 week ago
@TheArsenalgooner American rich people are nicer than the super-rich in Mexico.
blindandwatching 5 months ago
@Rayarena It's called Cultural Marxism. It's programmed from the top down in all media, TV shows, movies, magazines, textbooks, etc. The goal is to weaken the dominant culture in any way possible which in the case of the USA & Europe is white. It's all programmed step-by-step & planned decades in advance. Even having as many black athletes as they have now is totally planned. Read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion written over a 100 years ago.
metamorphosis67 1 week ago
@metamorphosis67 I know what you mean. Example, Norman Lear was a blight on the national landscape. Behind a veneer of entertainment, he pushed his New York City brand of searing satire down the throats of millions of unwitting Americans. Back in the 1970's, he was producing one TV show after the next each one as vile as the next.
Rayarena 1 week ago
@Rayarena - Oh yes, people were forced to watch Maude and "Sanford and Son" with a gun pointed at their heads. (Rolls eyes.) You underestimate so-called "unwitting" Americans.
cooper79jeffr 1 week ago
@cooper79jeffr Spare us your feeble attempts at sarcasm. Nobody was forced to watch any of those shows, but Norman Lear dominated prime time TV back in the 70's. There were limited channels back then and this was what was offered. I'm not saying that the programs weren't at times funny and that they didn't have entertainment value, but they were permeated with political satire. Norman Lear had an agenda and an unwittingly captive audience.
Rayarena 1 week ago
@mbrk6827 For real...Shit, don't even get me started on All In The Family. It wouldn't have even gotten a pilot...The funny thing of all this "political correctness" it's all just a bunch of hipocrisy...
PlanTonto 4 months ago 4
@mbrk6827 at the time it was still breaking barriers to have an "ethnic" (non-white-european-american) as a main character. The main character on "All in the Family" was a bigot, exaggeratedly so, parodying the extreme so that viewers could see the minority side of an issue. Chico was an early glimpse into a society that most of us didn't even know about in our sanitized, "white bread world". Miss ya, Freddie.
dammit58 3 months ago
Last post: I happen to be part-Cherokee Indian on my mother's paternal side from the Osage Indian reservation near Tulsa, Okla. in the 1920s/30s. If I was a comedy writer, I would make a comedy about an American Indian family deal with issues affecting the Native American community in a nice but comical way. Since my father is French, maybe I can throw in a minor character like a distant relative by marriage, who's a French stereotype. LoL! It hasn't been done on prime-time TV, so go for it. +
demikede1 11 months ago
Controversial...at the time, when this was cutting-edge. "Chico and the man" is a prime-time comedy set in the Hispanic neighorhood of East L.A. Not many people know Hispanics lived in L.A. throughout the city's history goes back to Spanish and Mexican rule of California.
It was a good comedy, about the humanity we all have no matter what race, color, nationality or culture we happen to be. But sadly, Freddie Prinze took his own life & the series taken the wrong turn without him or Chico. +
demikede1 11 months ago
R.I.P Jessie Valadez owner of Gypsy Rose a lowrider legend from the Imperials car club car is still as beautiful as back then
venime1 11 months ago
Jesse Valadez, owner of "Gypsy Rose" the lowrider shown @ 0:52, passed away on Jan. 29th. Vaya con Dios Jesse.
markko17 11 months ago
I remember this programme and loved the theme song back then. Ahhhh memories!!!!
oxoPCetoxo 1 year ago 2
I really miss seeing this show & hearing both the intro & end credits theme. This was all good from start to finish. They'll never be able to write something this good. There's no imagination anymore, but we that saw these had the best times. :)
YukonPhibes 1 year ago
Loooooking Goood!!!!!!!
fweenerson 1 year ago
The clips in that intro remind me of the East LA I remember as a kid... Thanks for posting!
bruinjer 1 year ago
About the Man meaning,that is what it was,but is not ofending is comercial stuff.they were making money so they used reality...and make their cash.Remember is a show,is up to the viewers...
TheTainoboricua 1 year ago
Chico can mean Boy plus,have other meanings.it can be like,mi DOG,hey Joe.it doesnt mean less, or inferior.
TheTainoboricua 1 year ago
people would riot today if a show have this title
JadeDragon007 1 year ago
@JadeDragon007 All that says is those people are stupid
Chawman 1 year ago
Very glad to see this clip. Back in the 70' many sitcoms were well written, funny and bridged racial and cultural divides. Now it's mostly crap and staged "reality" shows.
MrDavkoz 1 year ago 38
@MrDavkoz i know i think it's like press a button a laughs come out but in the 70's they had live audiences and i watched some new sitcoms and it seems like there's a laugh for everything even when things are not funny not like the 70's with serious parts some saddening parts and real funny parts and laughs from actual people who laugh how they like
trashman654 7 months ago
Great song
artiefun 1 year ago
I loved this show, brings back good memories!!! Thanks for posting this song.
dmd2874 1 year ago
I remember when I was a kid, and I wanted to be on the stage with the people dancing.
laminage 1 year ago
Lookeeeng good! But what was "controversial" about this song?
shmuli9 1 year ago
I was very young when this was on TV, but I remember it! Thanks for posting this!
kajobike 1 year ago
bad ass chevy.
SIGNALSTAT 1 year ago
freddy prinze comitted suicide, so i heard.
IIIIdepechemodeIIII 1 year ago
@IIIIdepechemodeIIII You heard right. He just broke under pressure. God rest him.
driver3464 1 year ago
i've always loved this song & the show too! =0]
tornmask 1 year ago
i completely cry every time i hear this song. reminds of the simple life i longed for but never got a chance to live as a child.
MsPhonics 1 year ago
Beautiful intro!
jenzeppelin 1 year ago
I see nothing controversial about this theme. Perhaps you may have something against Jose Feliciano.
PelicanGuy 1 year ago
i would rather see this on TV Land than three hours of Andy Griffith, Roseanne, or The Nanny
d820m 1 year ago 2
This has been flagged as spam show
I use to love this show growing up.
StaunchComic 1 year ago
I use to love this show growing up.
StaunchComic 1 year ago
If TV Land would pull heir heads out of there asses, this is the type of programing they need, 50 60 and 70's when TV was more the crap it is now. The 90's and 80's reruns you can watch on the Networks.
pieword 1 year ago
Controversial opening?
HUSKY57887 1 year ago
I went to Mission Viejo High in the early 70's. Had a classmate that told many stories of hanging out with Jose. Quite the cool cat, and very talented.
SunnyDays951 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Mexicans ruined this country and they definetly ruined the city of L.A..They are all on welfare are all on section 8 housing and don't know who their fathers are!!! Mexicans should all go back to Mexico!!!
dmtdmt1969 1 year ago
@dmtdmt1969 In cade you don't know, they FOUNDED the city of LA you right wing fake news watching jerk!
auntbecky 1 year ago
I remember the Friday he died there was someone speaking about him while the theme was playing, if someone could upload it.
vitoduval 1 year ago
JenniferKate, what was "controversial" about this theme song? I grew up listening to it.
pnutbutrncrackers 1 year ago
kinda like a hispanic sanford and son
hoth260 1 year ago
@hoth260 it was...black people and Latinos were barely ever on network television. Good times and Chico and the Man were seen as major victories for blacks and Latinos on tv. As an African american my mother made us watch Chico and the Man because of its historical significance and because everyone loved Freddie Prinze. He was in JET magazine regularly. His death rocked the the black community pretty hard. I still miss him.
taureanblack 1 year ago
@taureanblack Prinze wasn't black or African-American, but in the 1960s & 70s, there was solidarity of African-American, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Caribbean, east Asian & American Indian groups lived together in the USA's urban centers. East L.A. is also mentioned to have some Jewish people, whose families came from Eastern Europe in the turn of the (20th) century. East L.A. was heavily populated by Latino immigrants since then, so the scenery of the show's intro in 1975 is much like it is now. +
demikede1 11 months ago
Very nice song for a standard sitcom
screenwitch 1 year ago
this is when TV was worth watching..not like the garbage that's shown today
28teenidol 1 year ago
TV is way better this show was bull. The music was better back then.
Loveboat, Mork and Mindy. I watch spartacus and breaking bad
jabmalassie 1 year ago
I remember this too!!! Lookin' goooood.
msmiche1000 1 year ago
Too bad the show wasn't nearly as good as its theme song.
mediamadman747 1 year ago
Why ppl say this song was controversial? Also the outro to the show was great, if somebody would upload that that would be so awesome!!
aldeb456 1 year ago
Off The wall
BonaDun 1 year ago
The shit !
BonaDun 1 year ago
Wow...that is a BEAUTIFUL song....Jose Feliciano really can belt a tune.
I remember watching this show near the end of the series when I was maybe 9 or 10 years old. Freddie Prinze spoke across generations and cultures...he was truly gifted. My sisters and I watched the show from Woodland Hills, CA and we LOVED it. Great memories.....beautiful song.
mikescircus 1 year ago 15
@mikescircus I watched as a kid but never realized what a great song, and show it really was.
tonywallacess45 1 year ago
James Komack was a greedy S.O.B. After Freddie Prinze committed suicide he had the gall to continue the series with a fake Chico.
DarthSideous63 1 year ago
This is the West Coast counterpart to Welcome Back Kotter in terms of the opening.
Almost the same lettering and the same real footage showing the surroundings with a catchy song.
k0sta5 1 year ago 2
Go for Senior Fellicano..sing it!
143AC 1 year ago
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were invented in 1928 by Harry Burnett Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Milton S. Hershey (The Hershey Company).
Mr070363 1 year ago
My dad use to like this show. He thought the old man was funny. He also liked when Freddie Prinze says, "LOOKING GOOD!"
simwrangler 1 year ago
RIP Freddie and Jack ~
FriPilot 1 year ago
Hahaha, staring della reese as....Della!
DjShini 1 year ago
Chicken? Fish? What's the difference? One swims and one doesn't swim so well.
ParadiseOnLand 1 year ago
T.V.'s "Chico & the Man" trivia: Originally Freddie Prinze was cast to play the role of "Della." The part, of course, was eventually awarded to Della Reese who had invented Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in 1967.
ParadiseOnLand 1 year ago
@ParadiseOnLand no way. you're only trying to play with our minds.
coventrygardens 1 year ago
What kind of car is that :52-:55?
thutton67 1 year ago
@thutton67 It's a 1964 Chevy Impala.Not the SS but the regular version.In those days that's how the lowriders used to fix them up.
1pollo1rabbit 1 year ago
@1pollo1rabbit Nice! Wonder what that a car like that would be worth today!
thutton67 1 year ago
I loved this show when I was a kid.
clovermuse 1 year ago
Reading and writing compliment one another. I've always been an amateur researcher. I don't often read novels. My eclectic focus recently has been on vitamin-deficiency diseases and on the mesa near Dulce, N.M. (just north of Albuquerque) , where there's said to be a subterranean alien base that's been linked to cattle mutilations and unidentified aircraft. See: the Disclosure Project, Col. Philip Corso & Phil Schneider. I am suspicious of anything that's reported by the corporate media.
ParadiseOnLand 1 year ago
@ParadiseOnLand Aliens your ass! There are no fucking aliens! And what the hell does that have to do with the theme song to Chico and the Man?
thutton67 1 year ago
@thutton67
Accepting money for the services that you provide is illegal and immoral.
ParadiseOnLand 1 year ago
@ParadiseOnLand dude wtf?!? What services? What payment? You're talking this nonsense in the section for comments on THE FUCKIN' THEME SONG FROM "CHICO & THE MAN"!!!!!!!
thutton67 1 year ago
@thutton67 : Get off the streets and take care of your children.
ParadiseOnLand 1 year ago
What memories.Classic.
hayli711225 1 year ago
@karolynruffin1 "Amen."
davherex 1 year ago