Customer Reviews

Chico and the Man

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well who's job is it? To put an entire season of Chico and the Man on DVD? I love this show and enjoyed TV Land's very short run of the classic show a few years ago. When I found out it was coming out on DVD I was ecstatic. However it is NOT season 1. It is one disc with only six "hand picked" episodes of the entire series and they're not in any kind of order...

1. The Pilot
2. If I Were a Rich Man
3. Chico and the Van
4. Chico's Cousin Pepe
5. Chico's Padre
6. Ed Talks to God

There are no extras. Just a French, English, or Spanish subtitle option.
It still gets 5 stars (Loooking Goood!) because I love the show and you can't beat the price. So if you want a handful of of Chico and the Man eps for under $10? This is for you.

Now if jou don' mind I gotta wash my uncle's '64 Chevy with poms poms on the antenna, celophane seat covers, and a little dog in the back window with the head keeps going up and down!

How wonderful for Warner Bros. Entertainment to finally release a few episodes of "Chico and the Man" starring Jack Albertson and Freddie Prinze.
I remember seeing the very first episode on September 13, 1974 when I was 11. The show was funny and when Prinze came on as "Chico", I didn't know what to think of him at first, but the man was funny. He had me laughing throughout the program until my stomach hurt. It became my favorite show and I did not like to miss it. (Darn those boy scout meetings).
I also saw the Million Dollar Rip-off (1976-tv) starring Freddie Prize.
When the tragic announcement was made on the news that Prinze had shot himself and later passed away, I had a real hard time believing it. When you are young, you think that when a person goes to the hospital, they will be fine. HOwever, Freddie Prinze left us.
After reading, "The Freddie Prinze Story" by Maria Pruetzel and John A. Barbour, then I understood why Freddie left us. The stardom, the pressure, constant traveling, the drugs, he would get lonely, depressed and upset. That one night with Quaaludes, Valium and a gun, he was upset and even though his friends and his manager tried to help him that night, Freddie wasn't in a good state of mind and had sleeplessness. The gun went off and Dusty found Prinze slumped over in the hallway. Freddie went through periods of holding his gun not wanting to be without it.
NBC tried to keep the tv series going for Jack Albertson's sake by welcoming young Gabriel Melgar to the cast as "Raul" and Scatman Crothers and Della Reese was with him.
I still continued to watch "Chico and the Man" and the last episode I recall was when "Raul" went back to Mexico.
For many of us, we have not seen Freddie Prinze since his last appearance as "Chico" or his clips from "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson".
This DVD release of "Chico and the Man" is a real treat and a keepsake.
The first episode, the test pilot episode aired, September 13, 1974.
"If I Were A Rich Man", (episode 16) aired, January 31, 1975.
"Chico and the Van" (Season 2, episode 6) aired October 17, 1975.
"Chico's Cousin Pepe" (Season 2, episode 19) aired Feb. 11, 1976.
"Ed Talks To God" (Season 3, episode 18) aired March 4, 1977.

You will recognize the faces of: Scatman Crothers, King Moody, Rodolfo Hoyos, Sidney Clute, Jerry Fogel, Ralph Manza, Penny Marshall, Issac Ruiz, Cesar Romero, Jose Feliciano, Jeannie Linero, Edward Andrews and Carmen Zapata.

Subtitles available in English, Spanish and French.

Bring back the laughter again in your living room.

This DVD is a great show that would have been remembered even more if Freddie Prinze didn't die and the show had gone for a few more seasons. This show was a hit, being featured on the cover of TV Guide Magazine 3 times.
In my opinion, the pilot episode is the best episode. The acting is great, the comedy is great, the writing is great, therefore it is a great show. Also a good episode is "Chico's Cousin Pepe", with one of the greatest musicians of all time, Jos? Feliciano, as the guest star. Although his acting is pretty bad, he performs a number of songs that are just good music. Also "Chico's Padre" starring Cesar Romero as Chico's father. My only complaint is that there are only 6 episodes, and if you search on a search-engine "lol tv" you'll find a website that has about 10 episodes of Chico And The Man that you can watch FOR FREE. 3 episodes at the website are on this DVD. But, if you want to pay the money to watch the show on a TV, get this DVD.

Chico and the Man is truly a timeless classic that should not be missed! Freddie Prinze and Jack Albertson are magnetic to watch. Comedies like this are not being made any more. I hope Warner Home Video will decide to release FULL SEASON sets, as this dvd was great, but only a sampling of how funny the show really was. Freddie's catchphrase of "looking goood" wasn't in any of these episodes, unfortunately, and it would have been nice to have a tribute to Freddie Prinze. During the run of the show, there were other semi-regular cast members, aside from Louie the Garbageman (Scatman Crothers) and Mando (Isaac Ruiz), including Mabel the Mail Carrier (Bonnie Boland), the Rev. Bemis (Ronny Graham) and Della Rogers (Della Reese). Plus there were several guest appearances on various shows such as, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Orlando, Jose Feliciano, Shelly Winters, Rich Little, Avery Schreiber, Jim Backus and Ceasar Romero. This show stands the test of time and is definetly one of the best! :-)

still remember watching these two go at it, this is a great classic

I was very happy to be able to see Chico and the Man again. I had a huge crush on Freddie Prinze when I was a kid, and these shows brought back a lot of memories. The program itself holds up surprisingly well, particularly compared to other sitcoms of the time. A rare opportunity to see a pioneer Latino stand-up comic whose work is not readily available!

This is a nice little collection of shows. It is not the first season, nor does it have any extras. But, considering the price, it is a nice collection of a few shows. It's not too few shows, but we all wish there could be more. The quality is reasonably good, considering what the age the show was recorded from.

I hope many reviewers do not give this low points for what it is not. Too often, people say things like, "they should have released the whole series, so I am only giving it 3 stars." This was advertised as a few good shows and the price reflects that. If you want to see a few more good episodes, buy this. I am sure that if the studio does well on sales with this, they will release a more expansive (and more expensive) collection of laughs.

Freddie Prize and this show are mostly remembered by 70s children such as myself. But his tragic 1977 suicide relegated him to obscutiry until the rise of his son's career and our generation became old enough to demand things like this from our childhood.

It's as good as I remember, and even better now that I'm old enough to get the jokes and habla muy poquito espanol (speak a little Spanish for the monolingual out there).

Prinze as Chico essentially (and subtly) points out the stupidity of prejudice to the boozing bigot Ed Brown, and the triumph of a positive attutude and the human spirit. In fact, as a child, most of the people around me hated Hispanics. As a ten year old watching this show, I figured they couldn't be that bad (says a lot about the influence of television on children).

I forgot how funny this show was. As a kid my mom was the huge Freddie Prinze fan and that's how I came to know the show. Even though it's not the complete season we are still happy that this dvd has been released. A great deal for very good memories from back in the day.

This DVD contains 6 episodes. Oh how I wish the entire show would be released on DVD. Freddie was the man. I loved this show as a kid and I still think is was one of the funniest shows of the 70s. RIP Freddie. You are missed. They should honor this great comedian by releasing this show ASAP! The chemistry between Freddie & Jack was so terrific. I am wanting more!