In America, one of the greatest pass times is watching television (T.V.) sitcoms. A sitcom is genre of comedy centered on characters who share a common environment, such as a home, workplace, or even a bar. Many of these made for T.V. sitcoms have a comedic dialogue that dealt with social issues. Chico And The Man was one of these T.V. shows. This was the first T.V. sitcom that headlined a Mexican character as the star of the show.The show used racial prejudices and stereotypical satire to captivate its audience. The shows characters were Ed Brown (the Man) played by Jack Albertson, the racially prejudiced, alcoholic seventh generation White Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP) garage owner not willing to except the racially changing city of East Los Angeles. Then there is Freddie Prinze, who plays Chico Rodriguez (Chico), the Chicano mechanic who desires to become the business partner of Ed, but ends up as a employee to the bigoted owner. At every turn Ed berates Chico’s heritage with ethnic slurs. In return Chico would responds to those racially derogatory statements with factual statements highlighting the greatness of his culture. This sitcom tackled the never ending racial divide between race and culture in our society through laughter.
The sitcom made its debut September 13, 1974 thru July 21, 1978. The garage was set in a East Los Angeles neighborhood in which Ed is upset that East Los Angeles was being taken over by Chicanos in Ed’s view. In his first episode Ed uses ethnic slurs highlighting his dislike for Chicanos. Ed belief is that he likes Mexicans, but he does not like Chicanos. In a statement to Chico Ed asks him ”what is the difference between a Mexican and a Chicano? Mexicans know where their from and go home, Chicanos do not”. These type of stereotypical racial satire displays the disdain toward the immigration of minorities. In Ed’s view he has no problem with Mexicans because in his opinion “they know their place”, which is to stay out of the way of WASPs. On the other hand Ed thinks Chicanos are peasants and do not know their place in society. One thing that Ed soon realizes is that Chico is a part of his family, despite his ethnicity.
Chico’s character is a proud Chicano that tries everyday to elevate the thinking of Ed’s racial stupidity. There is a sense that Chico understands the fears of Ed’s naive thinking and tries to show Ed the error of his ways through comedy. Chico advises Ed that Chicanos are proud Mexican Americans that are descendants from this land before White America took over the country. This sitcom dove into racial inequality that Mexican immigrants had to deal with on a daily basis. Which is ironic that this is the plight of every immigrant that comes to America today. On July 21 1978 was the last airing of this show due to the accidental death of Freddie Prince from an drug overdose. He died during his second season on the show. The show continued on for two more seasons, but the rating continued to decline until the end of season 4, which was it’s last.