Editing Chico and the Man (section)

==Synopsis==
[[File:Chico and the man.JPG|thumb|left|250px|Jack Albertson and Freddie Prinze, 1976]]
A hard-drinking widower, Ed stubbornly refuses to fit in with the changing East L.A. neighborhood and has alienated most of the people who live around him. He uses [[stereotype|ethnic slurs]] and berates Chico, a Latino, in an effort to get him to leave when Chico comes looking for a job. Yet Chico sees something in Ed, and sneaks back in at night to clean up the garage and move into an old van that Ed has parked inside. As Ed sees all the effort Chico has put in, he begins to warm up to Chico. Over the course of the show, Ed grows to see Chico as family, although Ed denies this on several occasions.

The chemistry between Jack Albertson's "Ed" and Freddie Prinze's "Chico" was a major factor in making the show a hit in its first two seasons. It debuted in the top 10 and remained in the top 30 for its second season.

As the show progressed, Chico's background was revealed as being Mexican on his father's side and Puerto Rican on his mother's side, and (in a nod to Prinze's faux-Hungarian ancestry) "...&nbsp;my grandmother speaks a little [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]]!" (though Prinze's paternal ancestry was actually German, in his stage-act he would claim his father was Hungarian, thereby allowing him to comically refer to himself as "Hungarican"). Chico was revealed to have spent part of his childhood in Hungary following the death of his mother, being raised by his aunt Connie (a character who appeared in two other episodes). Chico attempts to explain his situation to Ed by portraying it as the dilemma of his distant cousin in Hungary, torn between the farmer for whom he now works and whom he has grown to love, and another farmer who has offered him a better job. During this scene and this episode, the love between these disparate characters was made clear for the first time, which Chico's cousin Carlos (played by actor Richard Yniguez)<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=April 20, 1975 |title=TV listing |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/3289773/ |newspaper=The Bakersfield Californian |access-date=January 8, 2015 |via=Newspapers.com |url-access=registration  |quote=Ed Brown reacts explosively to Chico's plans to move to New York and the crisis continues until Cousin Carlos (Richard Yniguez) arrives at the garage.}}</ref> notes when he releases Chico from his promise. By the second season, Ed begins to see that he is a part of a bigger world, although he still complains about it. By this time he has found himself a girlfriend by the name of Flora (played by [[Carole Cook]]).

The theme song was written and performed by [[José Feliciano]].

===Prinze's death===
After struggling with depression and drug use, Freddie Prinze shot himself on January 28, 1977.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,914757-1,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080130034740/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,914757-1,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 30, 2008|title=Freddie Prinze: Too Much, Too Soon|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=February 7, 1977|access-date=9 September 2010}}</ref> He was taken off life support and died the following day at the age of 22.<ref>''The Show Must Go On: How the Deaths of Lead Actors Have Affected Television'', Douglas Snauffer, Joel Thurm. Mcfarland Press. p. 73.</ref>

The last episode to star Prinze, "Ed Talks to God", was taped several hours before Prinze's death.

====Post-Prinze episodes====
After Prinze's death, the producers considered canceling the show, but opted instead to try replacing the character. To write Chico out of the script, they had the other characters comment that he had gone to visit his father in Mexico. The third season finished out with three episodes without Chico, focusing on the other characters in the show.

In the opening episode of the fourth season, a replacement for Chico was introduced. Instead of an adult, the producers brought in 12-year-old Raul, played by Gabriel Melgar. His first appearance came when Ed and Louie go on a fishing trip to [[Tijuana]] and find the Mexican orphan hiding out in their trunk on their return. At the end of this episode, Ed is putting Raul to bed and accidentally calls him Chico. Raul corrects him and Ed remarks, "You're all Chicos to me." Ed eventually adopts Raul, only to have Raul's overprotective Aunt Charo – played by  actress/singer [[Charo]] – come from [[Spain]] and try to become a part of the "family", as well.

A two-part episode ran in the final season in which Raul discovers Chico's belongings in a closet. Ed catches Raul playing Chico's guitar and Ed smashes it on the van in anger. Raul believes Ed does not love him anymore and runs away to Mexico. Ed goes after him and finally explains to Raul that Chico died, but did not say how, putting a measure of closure on the fate of Chico in the series.

In January 1978, after one further episode, NBC placed ''Chico and the Man'' on hiatus. The show returned in June, and the unaired episodes were broadcast through the summer of 1978, although one episode remained unaired during the final network run.

Toward the end of the show's final season, actress Julie Hill was added to the cast as Monica, Ed's attractive 18-year-old adopted niece. She had come to Los Angeles to break into show business, and lived in Chico's old van while awaiting her big break. ''Chico and the Man'' was canceled  at the end of the fourth season. The show's ratings declined steadily after Prinze's death and never recovered.<ref>{{cite book|last=Snauffer|first=Douglas |author2=Thurm, Joel|title=The Show Must Go on: How the Deaths of Lead Actors Have Affected Television Series|publisher=McFarland|year=2008|page=78|isbn=978-0-7864-3295-0}}</ref>