I haven't seen all the episodes so I'm not sure how they explained Chico not being on the show anymore. I mean we all know why Freddie wasn't there past season 3, but they carried on with the show so how did they explain that within the show?
shareGood question. I was a big fan of the show growing up and never missed an episode. I remember when Freddie Prinze died the show was off the air for 6 weeks or so. I never watched it agin, so I never saw any of the episodes with Raul.
shareChico left Ed to start his own business
shareI would have sworn that they explained it by actually having Chico die. For some reason, I remember Jack Albertson's character being very sad and bitter when the new boy showed up, and crying at the end. It was like Chico had been killed in an accident, or something. But, I could be mistaken.
shareFound it!!
"The most poignant note in the otherwise dismal last season was a two-part episode in which Raul discovers his predecessor's belongings in the old van. Ed catches Raul playing Chico's guitar and smashes it on the van in anger. Raul decides Ed doesn't love him anymore and runs away to Mexico. Ed goes after him and finally explains to Raul that Chico died, but really doesn't say how. For the fans of the show, this seemed to put closure to the fate of Prinze's character." From Wikipedia
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Wow that's pretty powerful. I don't remember ever seeing that episode, and if I can find the show in syndication I'll be sure to watch for it.
Have they ever aired Chico & The Man on TV Land?
- Frank
"We are one big happy fleet!" - KN Singh
Chico & The Man was on TV Land for a while. I remember seeing it once or twice a few years ago.
shareWhat happened in Prinze's last episode?
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The AmericanLife TV Network airs Chico and the Man on Saturday nights at 10PM (est) & replays at 1AM (est).
shareThere was an episode where Cesar Romero played Chico's Father. A couple of the early episodes without Freddie Prinze were explained by saying that Chico wa s in Mexico visiting his Father.
I remember seeing that episode during the original run. I think Ed finally found the boy in a church in Mexico and explained to him about Chico. I also recall being confused because they never mentioned HOW he died.
I have a new philosophy. I'm only going to dread one day at a time.
Well, at the beginning of the fourth season, they said that Chico had left the garage to go into business with his father. But the show got a lot of criticism for writing him out in such an offhand way, so they did the two-parter where Raul finds out about the "first Chico" and runs away. Ed later explains to Raul that he had deluded himself into believing that Chico had gone to be with his father because Ed couldn't deal with what really happened to Chico. But Ed never got into specifics - only that Chico had died.
shareI think the show would have been criticized no matter how they approached Prince's death. They could have cancelled the show outright, but show's generally try to hold on after an actor's death, especially if the show had good ratings, which we watched Chico and the Man back then, or they had to fulfill at best Jack Alberton's contractual obligations, however that works out.
The later shows with the mail lady had a strange look of doing just that, much the same way Laverne and Shirley was in the end.
Episode 4x14 the 2nd half of a 2 parter, Raul runs off to Mexico and Ed chases after him. He finds Raul in a Church. Raul complains that he can't replace the other Chico and he will eventually throw him aside when the last Chico comes back. Ed cries and says the last Chico died and couldn't come to terms with it till now.
shareI've seen the episode several times. Ed tells the kid simply "he died". He asked if the kid wanted to know how, and the kid said, "it really doesn't matter, does it?" Ed says no, sadly shaking his head, and nothing more it said of it.
I remember the conversation between Ed and Raul. Ed explained to Raul that he had been hurt very badly because Chico had left him. Ed made is sound like he had been rejected. To this Raul said, “Well maybe Chico will come back”.
Ed replied, “No he isn’t coming back. You see he died.”
My take on it was although Ed never used the word “suicide” the boy understood perfectly that that was the cause of death. No other explanation for Ed’s behavior would have made any sense.