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El Chavo (TV series)
Encyclopedia
El Chavo del Ocho, commonly known as El Chavo, is a Mexican television sitcom that gained popularity in Spanish
-speaking America
as well as in Brazil
, Spain
, United States
and other countries. It centers around the adventures and tribulations of the title character, El Chavo — an orphan played by the show's creator, Roberto Gómez Bolaños
, and other inhabitants of a fictional apartment building, or, as called in Spanish, vecindad.
The show traces back to June 20, 1971, where it appeared as a sketch in the "Chespirito" show, produced by "Televisión Independiente de Mexico", broadcast on Mexico's Canal 8, XHTIM-TV (now XEQ-TV
, Galavisión
). In 1973, El Chavo moved to Televisa
(Telesistema mexicano and Televisión Independiente de Mexico merger) and became a weekly half-hour series. The show was cancelled in 1980, but shorts were still produced in Chespirito from that year until 1992. At its peak of popularity during the mid-1970s, El Chavo, having 350 million viewers worldwide, was the most watched show in Mexican television.
The frequent occurrence of Mexican idiomatic expressions makes El Chavo very hard to translate into other languages, save for Portuguese
which is similar to Spanish. Theme music for the series was "The Elephant Never Forgets
", a playful version of Beethoven
's "Turkish March
" in 1967 by electronic music
pioneers Perrey and Kingsley
.
In Brazil, Peru and other South American countries, the series is still very popular and has developed a large cult following
by generation Y
. It has been broadcast by SBT since 1984 and, since November 1, 2010, it has also been broadcast by the Brazilian version of Cartoon Network
. Since May 2, 2011, the show has been airing in the United States on Telefutura
.
was already well-known in Mexico for his self-titled sketch comedy
show, which aired on Televisión Independiente de México
. He had already introduced El Chapulín Colorado
and other characters.
Roberto Gómez Bolaños
was the show's main creator and star. He called Florinda Meza
to act in the show first; Chespirito and Meza later married. Edgar Vivar
was the second actor chosen for the show. Roberto Gómez Bolaños recruited Ramón Valdés
because he had known Valdés for years and had seen multiple movies Valdés had made. Then, Rubén Aguirre
was cast in the show as the character of "Profesor Jirafales". Aguirre and Roberto Gómez Bolaños had been working on scripts together for years, and Aguirre had already been playing the character of Professor Jirafales on another Chespirito show, Supergenios de la Mesa Cuadrada, which spoofed current events panel discussion. Carlos Villagrán
just happened to be a friend of Aguirre who was a newspaper reporter, and he went to a party hosted by Aguirre. Villagrán did a comedy step where he blew his cheeks out of proportion, and Aguirre told Roberto Gómez Bolaños about his friend's hidden talent. Villagrán was promptly hired for the show. María Antonieta de las Nieves
was a voice-over only actress who used to go to Televisa to do announcements. Upon hearing her voice, Roberto Gómez Bolaños thought she was perfect for the show (she first refused telling him she was not a comedic actress, but Roberto Gómez Bolaños's retort challenged her: "Then you're not a good actress: there are no dramatic or comic actors — there are only actors."). The last ones to be added to the show were Angelines Fernández
, a former telenovela
actress and Horacio Gómez Bolaños
, Roberto's younger brother who had never considered acting before; he was originally to oversee the show's marketing.
The first El Chavo short appeared on June 20, 1971 and featured El Chavo, Chilindrina and Don Ramón. Several "Chavo" sketches produced before the start of the half-hour series were grouped into half-hour segments and are shown before the "official" half-hour episodes in syndication. Many of these were also re-written and re-shot as half-hour long shows later in the show's life.
and Televisión Independiente de México (TIM) merged to become Televisa
. After the merger, El Chavo del Ocho became a weekly half-hour TV series.
The early shows composed of a sketch at the beginning, featuring Dr. Chapatín, El Chómpiras, or one of Roberto Gómez Bolaños' other characters, and two short episodes of the main character. Those episodes were actually sketches filmed in 1972 which probably were supposed to be showed on "Chespirito" which was cancelled. After some of those episodes which introduced the first years of the show, the show began to be comprised by an almost half-hour episode preceded by one sketch starred by the same Roberto Gómez Bolaños characters as the first show structure.
At the end of the first season, María Antonieta de las Nieves
left the show because of her pregnancy. During the episodes of the 1973season, including those probably filmed in 1972, it was noted De Las Nieves generally played the female leads and was the first actor credited after Chespirito. With her absence, Florinda Meza took over the female roles for the non-Chavo del 8 sketches, and El Chavo and Quico became to be a great comic pair.
The 1974 season began with El Chavo and Quico as the comic child characters, including Don Ramón as the charismatic adult character. During that season, the classroom scene began to appear, alongside other child characters like Ñoño (the son of Mr. Barriga) and the relaxed Godínez (played by Horacio Gómez Bolaños
, brother of Roberto Gómez Bolaños).
De las Nieves was given "distinctive" last billing when she returned in 1975. After Valdés and Villagrán left in 1979, she was moved to top billing after Chespirito again. On the hour-long "Chespirito", De las Nieves was often given third billing behind Chespirito and Florinda Meza if playing another character besides Chilindrina, otherwise she always got the special final credit.
When Carlos Villagrán left the show, it was explained that his character had gone to live with his rich grandmother. "He couldn't stand the riffraff anymore", Doña Florinda explained. Not long after, Ramón Valdés also left the series, Chilindrina explained that her father left the country to look for a job and that he wouldn't return until he was a millionaire. In 1980, El Chavo was cancelled by Televisa.
launched simultaneously in all Latin America an animated version of the program made by Ánima Estudios on October 2006. As a background, a 3D computer model was used, though for the characters, 2D drawings were used, created with Flash
. A huge program was made to launch it in on a scenario made to imitate the computerized background. Some things about the original program were reminisced and they showed how the animated series was made.
The cartoon also allowed depicting the children to the right scale. Previously, since the children were played by adults in the show, the feel was given to the character through their way of dressing, speaking, and mainly through giving them oversized toys. However, this was not the first attempt to animate it. Previously, during the credits, claymation sequences could be watched.
In this animated series, Chilindrina doesn't appear due to on-going disputes between María Antonieta de las Nieves and Roberto Gómez Bolaños
on the rights of "La Chilindrina". De las Nieves feels that she should be entitled to monetary compensation if "La Chilindrina", the character she brought to life in the television series, appears in the animated series. Roberto Gómez Bolaños claims that since he created the character, only he owns the rights to such character. This dispute still hasn't been resolved and so, the character Popis has since taken over the role that once belonged to La Chilindrina.
(the only toy he'd ever had on a regular basis) made of a stick, a tin can, and a piece of string. He begins to play with it as the camera slowly fades out. Some episodes also have educational endings, teaching, for example, that it's good to take a shower and to not judge a book for its cover.
El Patio, the central courtyard, is the setting for most of the episodes. Surrounding the patio, are the homes of Jaimito "El Cartero", Doña Florinda, Doña Cleotilde, and Don Ramon. The hallway on the right leads to another courtyard ("el otro patio"), the other courtyard, which has a fountain in the middle. On the street facade at the left, La tienda de la esquina and a barber shop are shown adjacent to the neighborhood's entry.
In the later seasons, sometimes an unnamed park was shown. Several episodes are set in Professor Jirafales's classroom, where he teaches, all the child characters in the sitcom attend the same classroom. Others are set inside Doña Florinda's restaurant. Three episodes were filmed in Acapulco, which also served as a vacation for the entire cast.
sitcom: it relied heavily upon physical comedy
, running gag
s, literal interpretations, double entendre
s, misinterpretation (and even, sometimes, elements from the comedy of errors
) in order to amuse the audience, and the characters and situations were mostly persistent.
Some of the best-known examples of recurring humor are:
:
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "It figures it was you, Chavo!".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "I did it on purpose, but I didn't mean to".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "I've come to collect the rent".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "You're just not patient enough with me".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "That's true, that's true, that's true".
In the English dub of the animated series, the phrase is "OK, just don't get angry".
In the English dub of the animated series, the phrase is "It just slipped up".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "I heard that! I heard that! I heard that!".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "Your lucky I don't give you another one".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "Oh, shut up, shut up, shut up, you're driving me crazy!".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "I don't like you today!".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "I gotta go now".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "I give up" or "Forget it".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "No, no, no, no... NO!".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "Now I'm gonna pop those chubby cheeks", "Hold still while I punch those chubby cheeks" and "OK, that's it, now I'm gonna pop your cheeks".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "Come along, Quico/Muffin! Let's get away from this lowlife!".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "Yes, mommy! Lowlife, lowlife!".
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "And the next time, (go)... your grandmother!".
, where it has been dubbed into Portuguese
, broadcast by SBT since the beginning of the 1980s it was the biggest audience at many different times according to IBOPE
. This popularity may be explained because Mexico and Brazil have social and cultural similarities, Spanish and Portuguese are similar languages. In the United States
, the show is still shown on TeleFutura
and Galavisión as of 2011. The show in the United States is consistently the No. 1-rated Spanish-language cable program.
The show was so popular in other parts of Latin America and among the Spanish
speaking community of the United States
that in Peru
and Uruguay
, other shows involving the main actors of El Chavo del Ocho began to be televised, in Argentina
. Rubén Aguirre has been able to enjoy some success playing his character at a circus, and in Puerto Rico
, Colombia
, and Uruguay
many of the phrases El Chavo and his friends used have become normal part of everyday dialogue. Chespirito has established legal battles with former El Chavo del Ocho actors out of a desire to prevent them from using the show's characters in Mexico without his permission. Villagrán moved to Argentina in order to use his character's name on his shows (Chespirito is not copyrighted in Argentina).
There is also a Brazilian fan-made game named "Street Chaves - O Lutador da Vila" (in English: "Street Chavo - The Vecindad Fighter", in Spanish: "Street Chavo - El Luchador De La Vecindad"), which parodies various famous fighting games (most notably Capcom
and SNK Playmore
franchise
s such as Street Fighter
, Art of Fighting
and The King of Fighters) using characters from the show (examples: El Chavo parodies Terry Bogard
, Don Ramón imitates Robert Garcia
, Señor Barriga incarnates Chang Koehan, Professor Jirafales impersonates Sagat
, Quico "is" Andy Bogard and so). The game was translated (badly) in Spanish by Carlos Varela. There's also a currently in-building 3D update named "Chaves Arena".
The only Spanish
-speaking country where El Chavo has never been formally transmitted is Cuba
.
in 2008, Roberto Gómez Bolaños
told the media that he originally planned to make a proper finale to El Chavo del Ocho: in this finale, El Chavo would die trampled by a car. However, one of Bolaños' daughters, who is a psychologist, convinced his father to drop the idea, since, according to her, it could depress many children and even lead them to suicide
.
In English
In Portuguese
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
-speaking America
Hispanic America
Hispanic America or Spanish America is the region comprising the American countries inhabited by Spanish-speaking populations.These countries have significant commonalities with each other and with Spain, whose colonies they formerly were...
as well as in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and other countries. It centers around the adventures and tribulations of the title character, El Chavo — an orphan played by the show's creator, Roberto Gómez Bolaños
Roberto Gómez Bolaños
Roberto Gómez Bolaños is a Mexican writer, actor, director, comedian, humorist, songwriter, poet and philosopher. He is best known by his stage name Chespirito .-Life and work:...
, and other inhabitants of a fictional apartment building, or, as called in Spanish, vecindad.
The show traces back to June 20, 1971, where it appeared as a sketch in the "Chespirito" show, produced by "Televisión Independiente de Mexico", broadcast on Mexico's Canal 8, XHTIM-TV (now XEQ-TV
XEQ-TV
XEQ is a Televisa TV station, based in Mexico, Distrito Federal. XEQ is the flagship television station of the Galavisión network ....
, Galavisión
Galavisión (Mexico)
Galavisión is a Mexican television network owned by Televisa. Originating at XEQ-TV in Mexico City, the network is distributed throughout Mexico through affiliates. "Galavisión" should not be confused with Univision's cable TV network of the same name in the United States.-History:Galavisión was...
). In 1973, El Chavo moved to Televisa
Televisa
Televisa is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate, the largest mass media company in Latin America and in the Spanish-speaking world. It is a major international entertainment business, with much of its programming airing in the United States on Univision, with which it has an exclusive contract...
(Telesistema mexicano and Televisión Independiente de Mexico merger) and became a weekly half-hour series. The show was cancelled in 1980, but shorts were still produced in Chespirito from that year until 1992. At its peak of popularity during the mid-1970s, El Chavo, having 350 million viewers worldwide, was the most watched show in Mexican television.
The frequent occurrence of Mexican idiomatic expressions makes El Chavo very hard to translate into other languages, save for Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
which is similar to Spanish. Theme music for the series was "The Elephant Never Forgets
Turkish March (Beethoven)
The Turkish March is a well-known classical march theme by Ludwig van Beethoven. It was written in the Turkish style popular in music of the time....
", a playful version of Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
's "Turkish March
Turkish March (Beethoven)
The Turkish March is a well-known classical march theme by Ludwig van Beethoven. It was written in the Turkish style popular in music of the time....
" in 1967 by electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
pioneers Perrey and Kingsley
Perrey and Kingsley
The musical duo Perrey and Kingsley are pioneers in the field of electronic music. Before their collaboration, starting in 1965, electronic music was considered to be purely avant-garde...
.
In Brazil, Peru and other South American countries, the series is still very popular and has developed a large cult following
Cult following
A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a specific area of pop culture. A film, book, band, or video game, among other things, will be said to have a cult following when it has a small but very passionate fan base...
by generation Y
Generation Y
Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation , Generation Next, Net Generation, or Echo Boomers, describes the demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates for when the Millennial generation starts and ends, and commentators have used birth dates ranging somewhere...
. It has been broadcast by SBT since 1984 and, since November 1, 2010, it has also been broadcast by the Brazilian version of Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network (Latin America)
Cartoon Network Latin America and Brazil is a cable television channel and is an edition of the Time Warner-owned Cartoon Network for the Latin American region and the Caribbean...
. Since May 2, 2011, the show has been airing in the United States on Telefutura
TeleFutura
TeleFutura is a U.S. Spanish-language broadcast television network owned by Univision with headquarters in Miami, Florida.-Overview:TeleFutura Is America’s #2 Spanish-Language Network in prime time...
.
Origins
By 1971, Roberto Gómez BolañosRoberto Gómez Bolaños
Roberto Gómez Bolaños is a Mexican writer, actor, director, comedian, humorist, songwriter, poet and philosopher. He is best known by his stage name Chespirito .-Life and work:...
was already well-known in Mexico for his self-titled sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
show, which aired on Televisión Independiente de México
Televisa
Televisa is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate, the largest mass media company in Latin America and in the Spanish-speaking world. It is a major international entertainment business, with much of its programming airing in the United States on Univision, with which it has an exclusive contract...
. He had already introduced El Chapulín Colorado
El Chapulín Colorado
El Chapulín Colorado is a television series, created and played by Roberto Gómez Bolaños, also known as Chespirito, a successful Mexican comedian and TV show producer, which parodied superhero shows...
and other characters.
Roberto Gómez Bolaños
Roberto Gómez Bolaños is a Mexican writer, actor, director, comedian, humorist, songwriter, poet and philosopher. He is best known by his stage name Chespirito .-Life and work:...
was the show's main creator and star. He called Florinda Meza
Florinda Meza
Florinda Meza García de Gómez is a Mexican actress of film and television; she is also a writer, director, and producer. She started her career when Roberto Gómez Bolaños cast her in El Chavo as "Doña Florinda"...
to act in the show first; Chespirito and Meza later married. Edgar Vivar
Edgar Vivar
Edgar Vivar is a Mexican actor. He is best remembered as "Señor Barriga" and his son "Ñoño" from the El Chavo del Ocho television series, and as "El Botija" from the El Chapulín Colorado and Chespirito television series...
was the second actor chosen for the show. Roberto Gómez Bolaños recruited Ramón Valdés
Ramón Valdés
Ramón Gómez Valdés de Castillo often credited as Ramón Valdéz, was a Mexican actor. He was born in Mexico City...
because he had known Valdés for years and had seen multiple movies Valdés had made. Then, Rubén Aguirre
Rubén Aguirre
Rubén Aguirre is a Mexican actor. He is best remembered for his characterization of in the Televisa's television show El Chavo del Ocho. Aguirre also participated in another well known television show of the era, El Chapulín Colorado, albeit less frequently.-Life and work:Rubén Aguirre was born...
was cast in the show as the character of "Profesor Jirafales". Aguirre and Roberto Gómez Bolaños had been working on scripts together for years, and Aguirre had already been playing the character of Professor Jirafales on another Chespirito show, Supergenios de la Mesa Cuadrada, which spoofed current events panel discussion. Carlos Villagrán
Carlos Villagrán
Carlos Villagrán Eslava is a Mexican comedy actor and former journalist. Villagrán combined both acting and writing at first; he became known for a character named Quico.-Life and work:...
just happened to be a friend of Aguirre who was a newspaper reporter, and he went to a party hosted by Aguirre. Villagrán did a comedy step where he blew his cheeks out of proportion, and Aguirre told Roberto Gómez Bolaños about his friend's hidden talent. Villagrán was promptly hired for the show. María Antonieta de las Nieves
María Antonieta de las Nieves
María Antonieta de las Nieves is a Mexican actress of voice-over, film, and television; best known for her portrayal of "La Chilindrina" in the Televisa sitcom, El Chavo del Ocho...
was a voice-over only actress who used to go to Televisa to do announcements. Upon hearing her voice, Roberto Gómez Bolaños thought she was perfect for the show (she first refused telling him she was not a comedic actress, but Roberto Gómez Bolaños's retort challenged her: "Then you're not a good actress: there are no dramatic or comic actors — there are only actors."). The last ones to be added to the show were Angelines Fernández
Angelines Fernández
Angelines Fernández was a Spanish-born actress of Mexican film and television, best-known for portraying "Doña Clotilde" on the Televisa sitcom El Chavo.Fernández struggled as an actress in Spain. She flew to Mexico in 1947...
, a former telenovela
Telenovela
A telenovela is a limited-run serial dramatic programming popular in Latin American, Portuguese, and Spanish television programming. The word combines tele, short for televisión or televisão , and novela, a Spanish or Portuguese word for "novel"...
actress and Horacio Gómez Bolaños
Horacio Gómez Bolaños
Horacio Gómez Bolaños was a Mexican actor and brother of the more famous Roberto Gómez Bolaños . On the TV show El Chavo del 8, he played the character Godinez. Although Horacio appeared in many of his brother's productions, he preferred to handle the business aspects...
, Roberto's younger brother who had never considered acting before; he was originally to oversee the show's marketing.
The first El Chavo short appeared on June 20, 1971 and featured El Chavo, Chilindrina and Don Ramón. Several "Chavo" sketches produced before the start of the half-hour series were grouped into half-hour segments and are shown before the "official" half-hour episodes in syndication. Many of these were also re-written and re-shot as half-hour long shows later in the show's life.
Broadcast history
In 1973, Telesistema MexicanoTelesistema Mexicano
Telesistema Mexicano is the predecessor of Televisa. Telesistema Mexicano was a television alliance made up of the independently owned television flagship stations XEW Canal 2, XHTV Canal 4, and XHGC Canal 5 in Mexico, Distrito Federal.-History:...
and Televisión Independiente de México (TIM) merged to become Televisa
Televisa
Televisa is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate, the largest mass media company in Latin America and in the Spanish-speaking world. It is a major international entertainment business, with much of its programming airing in the United States on Univision, with which it has an exclusive contract...
. After the merger, El Chavo del Ocho became a weekly half-hour TV series.
The early shows composed of a sketch at the beginning, featuring Dr. Chapatín, El Chómpiras, or one of Roberto Gómez Bolaños' other characters, and two short episodes of the main character. Those episodes were actually sketches filmed in 1972 which probably were supposed to be showed on "Chespirito" which was cancelled. After some of those episodes which introduced the first years of the show, the show began to be comprised by an almost half-hour episode preceded by one sketch starred by the same Roberto Gómez Bolaños characters as the first show structure.
At the end of the first season, María Antonieta de las Nieves
María Antonieta de las Nieves
María Antonieta de las Nieves is a Mexican actress of voice-over, film, and television; best known for her portrayal of "La Chilindrina" in the Televisa sitcom, El Chavo del Ocho...
left the show because of her pregnancy. During the episodes of the 1973season, including those probably filmed in 1972, it was noted De Las Nieves generally played the female leads and was the first actor credited after Chespirito. With her absence, Florinda Meza took over the female roles for the non-Chavo del 8 sketches, and El Chavo and Quico became to be a great comic pair.
The 1974 season began with El Chavo and Quico as the comic child characters, including Don Ramón as the charismatic adult character. During that season, the classroom scene began to appear, alongside other child characters like Ñoño (the son of Mr. Barriga) and the relaxed Godínez (played by Horacio Gómez Bolaños
Horacio Gómez Bolaños
Horacio Gómez Bolaños was a Mexican actor and brother of the more famous Roberto Gómez Bolaños . On the TV show El Chavo del 8, he played the character Godinez. Although Horacio appeared in many of his brother's productions, he preferred to handle the business aspects...
, brother of Roberto Gómez Bolaños).
De las Nieves was given "distinctive" last billing when she returned in 1975. After Valdés and Villagrán left in 1979, she was moved to top billing after Chespirito again. On the hour-long "Chespirito", De las Nieves was often given third billing behind Chespirito and Florinda Meza if playing another character besides Chilindrina, otherwise she always got the special final credit.
When Carlos Villagrán left the show, it was explained that his character had gone to live with his rich grandmother. "He couldn't stand the riffraff anymore", Doña Florinda explained. Not long after, Ramón Valdés also left the series, Chilindrina explained that her father left the country to look for a job and that he wouldn't return until he was a millionaire. In 1980, El Chavo was cancelled by Televisa.
Chespirito
Starting in 1980, "Chespirito" began to air, featuring El Chavo, El Chapulín Colorado and other characters. The debut of El Chavo in this program was auspicious, with a wealth of new episodes being produced. Moreover, in 1981, Valdés returned to the cast, after starring in some unsuccessful shows alongside Villagrán. However, he left again at the end of the year. The number of new episodes started to decline in the late 1980s and early 1990s, so once again, many early episodes were remade. In addition, as Robert Gomez Bolańos grew older, he no longer considered adequate to play the role of an 8-year-old kid. As a result, production of El Chavo stopped in 1992, three years before the cancellation of the "Chespirito" show.Animated series
After several years of successful reruns, TelevisaTelevisa
Televisa is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate, the largest mass media company in Latin America and in the Spanish-speaking world. It is a major international entertainment business, with much of its programming airing in the United States on Univision, with which it has an exclusive contract...
launched simultaneously in all Latin America an animated version of the program made by Ánima Estudios on October 2006. As a background, a 3D computer model was used, though for the characters, 2D drawings were used, created with Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
. A huge program was made to launch it in on a scenario made to imitate the computerized background. Some things about the original program were reminisced and they showed how the animated series was made.
The cartoon also allowed depicting the children to the right scale. Previously, since the children were played by adults in the show, the feel was given to the character through their way of dressing, speaking, and mainly through giving them oversized toys. However, this was not the first attempt to animate it. Previously, during the credits, claymation sequences could be watched.
In this animated series, Chilindrina doesn't appear due to on-going disputes between María Antonieta de las Nieves and Roberto Gómez Bolaños
Roberto Gómez Bolaños
Roberto Gómez Bolaños is a Mexican writer, actor, director, comedian, humorist, songwriter, poet and philosopher. He is best known by his stage name Chespirito .-Life and work:...
on the rights of "La Chilindrina". De las Nieves feels that she should be entitled to monetary compensation if "La Chilindrina", the character she brought to life in the television series, appears in the animated series. Roberto Gómez Bolaños claims that since he created the character, only he owns the rights to such character. This dispute still hasn't been resolved and so, the character Popis has since taken over the role that once belonged to La Chilindrina.
Production and setting
El Chavo is set in "La Vecindad", a typical Mexican townhouse neighborhood, owned by Senor Barriga who constantly comes to collect due rent, especially from Don Ramon. The sitcom explores, in a comic manner, the problems that many homeless children face on a daily basis, such as hunger, sadness and not having someone responsible to watch over them. On one episode, for example, Chavo was sitting on the stair steps of the vecindad at night, dreaming of all the toys he wished he could have and how he'd play with them. It ended with him returning to the present, sighing wistfully, then pulling out a baleroBall in a cup
Cup-and-ball is a traditional children's toy consisting of a wooden cup with a handle, and a ball which is attached to a string, which is attached to the cup. It is popular in Spanish-speaking countries, where it is called "boliche"...
(the only toy he'd ever had on a regular basis) made of a stick, a tin can, and a piece of string. He begins to play with it as the camera slowly fades out. Some episodes also have educational endings, teaching, for example, that it's good to take a shower and to not judge a book for its cover.
El Patio, the central courtyard, is the setting for most of the episodes. Surrounding the patio, are the homes of Jaimito "El Cartero", Doña Florinda, Doña Cleotilde, and Don Ramon. The hallway on the right leads to another courtyard ("el otro patio"), the other courtyard, which has a fountain in the middle. On the street facade at the left, La tienda de la esquina and a barber shop are shown adjacent to the neighborhood's entry.
In the later seasons, sometimes an unnamed park was shown. Several episodes are set in Professor Jirafales's classroom, where he teaches, all the child characters in the sitcom attend the same classroom. Others are set inside Doña Florinda's restaurant. Three episodes were filmed in Acapulco, which also served as a vacation for the entire cast.
Humor style
El Chavo is a farcicalFarce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
sitcom: it relied heavily upon physical comedy
Physical comedy
Physical comedy, also known as slapstick, is a comedic performance relying mostly on the use of the body to convey humour.Physical comedy, whether conveyed by a pratfall , a silly face, or the action of walking into walls, is a common and rarely subtle form of comedy...
, running gag
Running gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....
s, literal interpretations, double entendre
Double entendre
A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
s, misinterpretation (and even, sometimes, elements from the comedy of errors
Comedy of errors
A comedy of errors is a narrative work that is light and often humorous or satirical in tone, in which the action usually features a series of comic instances of mistaken identity, and which typically culminates in a happy resolution of the thematic conflict.-Satire and farce:A slight variation of...
) in order to amuse the audience, and the characters and situations were mostly persistent.
Some of the best-known examples of recurring humor are:
- Señor Barriga and El Chavo: whenever Señor Barriga entered the vecindad, El Chavo would hit him one way or another. Señor Barriga even congratulated El Chavo when he didn't hit him, to which El Chavo would say "You hear that, Quico? This is the first time that I didn't hit Señor Barriga..." and then would turn around, or drop whatever he was holding, ironically hitting Señor Barriga.
- Mysteries surrounding Chavo: characters occasionally ask what Chavo's real name is, where he lives, and who he lives with. Every time he is about to answer, there is an interruption and the subject is never brought up again. He mentioned he lived in the apartment No. 8 of the neighborhood (which was never seen in the series) and being called "del Ocho" ("from the eight") for that same reason (note that this explanation was only necessary after El Chavo moved from channel 8, where the series was born).
- Example: when La Chilindrina asks the Chavo if he lives in his barrel, Chavo says: "But I don't live in the barrel, I live in the house no. 8". And Chilindrina asks him again: "And along with who?"; and when he's about to answer, Quico interrupts him and starts another talk: "Listen, Chavo...".
- Another example: when someone asks El Chavo how is his real name, whenever the orphan is next to divulge it, someone with another chat or something unexpected interrupts the dialogue and it's not brought up again.
- Crying: almost all the characters have their own way of crying, their body language a comedic coda of their general mannerisms. For example, El Chavo always cries with a high-pitched "Pipipipipipipi,", then El Chavo would stay where he is and have a hand on his head, or would go to his Barrel to hide while Quico always leans face-first against the wall of the vecindad entrance when he cries.
- El Chavo getting scared: whenever something spooks El Chavo out, instead of running, screaming or fainting like the others from the vecindad, he suffers a Garrotera ("the stiffs" or "piripaque" in Portuguese): he freezes into an awkward stance with his knees bent, back slouched, left arm dropping down and right arm hanging out with only his hand dropping downward. The only way to return him back to normal is a splash of cold water on his face.
- Quico tops Chavo: anytime Chavo plays with a toy that he makes himself or have something small Quico sometimes goes into his house and get a better, bigger and modern toy that his mom gave to him. Trying to show off Chavo's toys.
- Quico's 'just desert': when ever Don Ramon gets mad at Quico for calling him names, trying to get money by the doing the same way El Chavo did to him, or by messing around with his face, he sometimes pinch Quico's arm which get him upset by crying at the wall or by calling his mom.
- Don Ramón takes the blame: the kids are notoriously mischievous and their games often end in tears (or, more accurately, slapstickSlapstickSlapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
). Don Ramón tends to intervene and confiscate the offending "toy" (be it a brick, a steaming iron, a hammer or something else with potential harm risk), invariably at the wrong time: if Quico was at the receiving end, the tearful kid produces a short account (omitting the culprit) for his enraged mother, Doña Florinda... and Don Ramón, still holding the main body of evidence, realizes his situation; he tries to explain what really happened to Doña Florinda, but she does not care for his version of the storyInjusticeInjustice is the lack of or opposition to justice, either in reference to a particular event or act, or as a larger status quo. The term generally refers to misuse, abuse, neglect, or malfeasance that is uncorrected or else sanctioned by a legal system. Misuse and abuse with regard to a particular...
, soundly slapping Don Ramón. In addition, Quico rarely says to his mom that Don Ramón is innocent. The routine includes Doña Florinda's advise to Quico not to mingle with riffraff ("no te juntes con esta chusma"), Quico's victory dance (a comical imitation of a boxer's movements, accompanied by "chusma, chusma", and ending with a mock punch to the man's chest as he blows a raspberryBlowing a raspberryBlowing a raspberry or strawberry or making a Bronx cheer is to make a noise signifying derision, real or feigned. It is made by placing the tongue between the lips and blowing, making a sound redolent of flatulence. In the terminology of phonetics, this sound can be described as an unvoiced...
), their dignified stage exit, and Don Ramón's trademark tantrumTantrumA tantrum is an emotional outburst, usually associated with children or those in emotional distress, that is typically characterized by stubbornness, crying, screaming, yelling, shrieking, defiance, angry ranting, a resistance to attempts at pacification and, in some cases, violence...
(throwing his hat onto the ground and jumping repeatedly onto it, regardless of where it lands). Occasionally, Doña Florinda also tells or advises Don Ramón to commit "the same action" on his grandma. After this, El Chavo comes and asks him about his grandma, related with the previous event, resulting in Don Ramon feeling offended and answering back by hitting him on his head while saying "Take this!" (producing a bellBell (instrument)A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...
sound effect), commonly known as a coscorrón (a word similar to the English word "noogie"). Also when El Chavo cries his PIPIPIPIPI sound after being hit on the head by Don Ramon, Don Ramon would mock El Chavo by repeating the crying of El Chavo.- Example: after blaming Don Ramón and slapping him because Quico slipped on a banana peel, Doña Florinda says to Don Ramón: "Next time just throw banana peels for your grandma to slip!"; after this, Chavo asks the following: "Don Ramón, is your grandma so slippy?"; the enraged man proceeds to noogie El Chavo in the head, the slammed boy cries and goes to hide inside his barrel, while Don Ramón mocks El Chavo's crying and threatens to hit him again while saying "I don't give you another one only because my grandma was nicknamed Pitty-Butter!".
- Doña Florinda and Professor Jirafales' relationship: whenever Professor Jirafales appears in the vecindad (always carrying a bouquet of roses) and his eyes meet Doña Florinda's, the rest of the world seems to vanish for them, regardless of how conflictive the previous situation: they regard each other in a breathless, stupefied reverie as a fragment of Tchaikovsky's Romeo and JulietRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
plays in the background. Jirafales approaches her on impulse (in balletBalletBallet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
-like steps) and initiates a dialog routine, which always ends with him taking her arm and stepping into her house for "una tacita de café" (a cup of coffee). The entire routine is purposefully cliché and overdone, and despite her obvious interest, Jirafales has not gathered the courage to confess. The most Professor Jirafales wants, and struggles, is to confess he is in love of Doña Florinda. Although it is never officially said so. Doña Florinda's son, Quico, always says: "Some more 38 (or whatever number) cups of coffee, and I have a new daddy". Another weird thing is that in Spanish Doña Florinda talks to Professor Jirafales (and vice versa) in the form of "usted", which in Spanish is the usual way to talk to a person older than you, or a random person you don't have the confidence to talk as a known one, or simply for respect to that person. Professor Jirafales also does some very personal attitudes that simple friends don't. For example he asks Doña Florinda to bake a special cake for him. Once, Quico noticed that Jirafales only ever brought flowers to Doña Florinda, and questioned him about this. After several fruitless arguments, Florinda ended the discussion with her traditional cup of coffee (Quico concludes that Jirafales only gives flowers to Doña Florinda because she only ever gives coffee to Jirafales).
- El Chavo's ill-timed last words: when the kids all talk at the same time and an impatient adult (commonly Professor Jirafales) finally demands silence, El Chavo never notices on time, and his last words (often derisive to the adult in question) resound in a suddenly silent room.
- Example: As a loud chatter takes place, Professor Jirafales says: "Silence... Silence... SILENCE!!!"; and right after the chatter ends, El Chavo talks alone saying such things: "...it all happens just because the teacher has this stupid face!"
- El Chavo's yes & no response: whenever given a question and it needed either a yes or no, El Chavo would sometimes confuse the others by mixing up the word with the head motions: either shaking his head while saying yes or nodding while saying no.
- Don Ramon's slipping up words: whenever Don Ramón engages in conversation with an adult, he would often let words come out of his mouth before he would think about what to say, often resulting as an accidental insult. This mostly happens when he is conversating with Señor Barriga, which he would scramble his name with another adjective.
- Example: "It's a sad "barriga", Señor History... Oh, I mean... It's a sad history, Señor Barriga...".
- Adults demanding the kids to leave: several times, as the adults fell offended by some of the kids' actions (mostly Dón Ramón and Doña Florinda), they commonly say the kids to leave the place where they all are (or do something different) by a very comic way.
- Example: Dón Ramón says: Listen Chavo, GET OUT OF HERE! Chavo says: But, I didn't do anything! Don Ramon insists: GET OUT OF HERE! Chavo: But I didn't... [and as the dialogue continues, their phrases get shorter and faster until the talk ends] GET OUT! But I... GET OUT! But... GET OUT! B... GET OUT!, resulting in the kids giving up and leaving the place – El Chavo always kicks the floor in anger (and sometimes the knees of someone) and Chilindrina always cries while fakingly massaging her own buttocks like if someone has truly hit her there.
Quotes and famous phrases
Chespirito created several words and phrases that nowadays are widely used as part of the Spanish language, at least in Mexico City and country and other countries of Latin AmericaLatin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
:
- ¡Tenía que ser el Chavo del Ocho! (It had to be El Chavo del Ocho!): regularly used by all the victims of Chavo's jokes, mistakes or misunderstandings, most commonly Señor Barriga or Don Ramón.
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "It figures it was you, Chavo!".
- Fue sin querer queriendo... (I didn't mean to mean to do it... [lit. It was without wanting to want to]...): usually used by Chavo when he does something wrong.
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "I did it on purpose, but I didn't mean to".
- ¡Vengo a cobrar la renta! (I came here to get the rent!): generally said by Señor Barriga towards his residents (most frequently Don Ramón, who owes exacty fourteen months of unpaid rent) as his main objective upon arriving at the vecindad.
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "I've come to collect the rent".
- ¡Fíjate, fíjate, fíjate, fíjate! (I'm telling you 4x[lit. Look, look, look, look!]): is a phrase that Chilindrina uses every time she's gossiping or even to solidify any formulated deceptive phrase.
- ¡Ay, Chavo, lo que tienes de bruto, lo tienes de bruto! (Oh, Chavo, what you have in stupid, you have in stupid!): La Chilindrina tells this quote, with an irritated tone, (mostly) to El Chavo when she gets enraged on seeing him doing something very simple incorrectly or idiotically, or when he literally interpretes something told to him. Chilindrina, in some rare instances, also uses the quote to compare the orphan's lack of intelligence to something equally derisive such as "dirty", "dummy", "stupid", etc.
- Es que no me tienen paciencia... ("Ya just don't have any patience..." [It's that you/they don't have patience for me...]): used by El Chavo when he has to explain his misconduct.
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "You're just not patient enough with me".
- ¡Eso, eso, eso! (That, that, that!): often said by El Chavo when someone takes the words out of his mouth, as he raises his hand and moves his index finger up and down, resembling a nodding motion.
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "That's true, that's true, that's true".
- ¡Bueno, pero no se enoje! (Alright, but don't get angry! [lit. Well, but don't get angry!]): El Chavo says it in a pleading tone when someone is mad at him.
In the English dub of the animated series, the phrase is "OK, just don't get angry".
- Se me chispoteó... (Sorry I messed up [lit. I let it slip...]): El Chavo says it in a remorseful tone when he discovers he was being overheard bad-mouthing someone nearby (mostly Professor Jirafales)..
In the English dub of the animated series, the phrase is "It just slipped up".
- ¡Mírelo, eh! ¡Mírelo, eh! ¡Mírelo, eh! (D'you see that, huh? [lit. Look at him, look at him, look at him!]): Ñoño will say it (mostly in the classroom) when he wants to point out to an adult that someone is pulling a prank; usually because he was previously blamed for it.
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "I heard that! I heard that! I heard that!".
- ¿Qué pasó? ¿Qué pasó? ¡Vamos ahí! (Watcha talkin' 'bout? Put 'em up! [lit. What happened? What happened? Let's go!]): this phrase is used by Don Ramón whenever he feels insulted.
- ¡Toma! (Take this!): used by Don Ramón at the very moment he angrily hits Chavo's head, usually as a consequence for him being slapped and offended by Doña Florinda about "doing to his grandmother" what he had tried to "do" to Quico.
- Y no te doy otra nomás porque... (I don't give you another one only because...): used by Don Ramón after angrily hitting Chavo in the head, normally the sentence is left incomplete but in some peculiar instances he completes it with a funny plausible reason generally linked to the previous situation.
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "Your lucky I don't give you another one".
- Yo le voy al NecaxaNecaxaNecaxa is a Mexican football club and is based in the city of Aguascalientes. it plays in the Estadio Victoria. Necaxa is ranked seventh overall and 1st in ranking in Mexican football within the IFFHS Central and North America's Clubs of the Century in the CONCACAF behind CD Saprissa San Juan de...
... (I root for Necaxa...): used by Don Ramón when he doesn't understand someone's ideas.
- ¡Ay, cállate, cállate, cállate, que me desesperas! (Oh, just shut up, shut up, shut up, you're bothering me! [lit. Oh, shut up, shut up, shut up, you drive me to despair.!]): used by Quico when Chavo or other characters start to talk to him and interrupt repeatedly whatever activity they are doing. Sometimes he shouts when there is a loud discussion between other characters at the moment. Although it is Quico's phrase, it is also (but rarely) said by others characters - for example, Chavo says it when Quico talked too much (exactly like El Chavo normally does) and delayed to sign a false document which would give Chavo one million of pesos).
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "Oh, shut up, shut up, shut up, you're driving me crazy!".
- ¡No me simpatizas! ( I don't like you![lit. Don't sympathize with me!]): used by Quico when he is hurt by or angry at someone.
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "I don't like you today!".
- ¡Con una licencita! (Excuse me![lit. With a little bit of license!): used by Quico when he leaves the scene, fearing for himself, in a dangerous situation, regularly after he says or does something he shouldn't and someone gets mad at him.
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "I gotta go now".
- Me doy... (I give up...): used by Quico after listing a few funny or ridiculous things (generally three or four) related to the current subject and playing around with the listener's face with his hand. This is the first of four phrases Quico tells while breaking the fourth wallFourth wallThe fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
(by looking at the audience when saying this).
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "I give up" or "Forget it".
- ¡Ah bueno, así que sí! (Right, so let it be!): the second of Quico's four "fourth wall breaking phrases", he says this (normally in a concordance tone) after somebody explains something that he didn't know before, clears his mind out of some confusion or (mostly) when he piously believes in anything wrong or deceptive, generally told by El Chavo or La Chilindrina, to be completely correct without any possibility of being wrong.
- ¡Que cosas, no! (Funny how things go, isn't it![lit. What things, no?]): the third of Quico's four "fourth wall breaking phrases", said by him generally after he does anything stupid and feels "censored" by a serious glare from the "victim" of his mistake. This quote is also often said directly at his victim's grumpy face.
- ¿Qué diablos quiso él dicer? (What did he mean by that?[lit. What the DevilDevilThe Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
did he mean by that?): the last of Quico's four "fourth wall breaking phrases", told whenever someone tells about/to him something offensive, stupid, nonsense or confusing but the cheeky boy could not understand or interpret the situation properly. Although this phrase belongs to Quico, other characters (rarely) also use it when facing the same situations.
- ¡Ta, ta, ta, ta... TA!: the angry expression shouted by Professor Jirafales when he loses his temper.
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "No, no, no, no... NO!".
- ¡No soy Maestro, ni me apellido Longaniza! ¡Soy Longaniza y me apellido Maestro... Digo, ¡Soy Maestro y me apellido Jirafales! (I'm not Teacher and my name's not Sausage! I'm Sausage and my name is Teacher... I mean, I'm a Professor and my name is Jirafales!): Professor Jirafales generally says this after someone names him "Maestro Longaniza", and commits a small mistake on saying his own name, then he sets himself up and says his name correctly, generalling putting up a "distinct gentleman" posture by grabbing the brim of his suit and giving off a "dignified" upwards looking.
- Ahora sí te descalabro los cachetes! (Now I'm really gonna let you have it. [lit. Now I'm really going to damage your cheeks!]): El Chavo says this aggressively when he is going to hit Quico.
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "Now I'm gonna pop those chubby cheeks", "Hold still while I punch those chubby cheeks" and "OK, that's it, now I'm gonna pop your cheeks".
- ¡Vámonos, Quico/Tesoro! ¡No te juntes con esa chusma! (Come on, Quico/My darling! Don't mingle around with the riffraff!): Doña Florinda generally says this phrase towards Don Ramón in a very scornful tone after slapping him by thinking he was intended to harm Quico (the latter generally completes the situation with the phrase seen below).
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "Come along, Quico/Muffin! Let's get away from this lowlife!".
- ¡Sí, mami! ¡Chusma, chusma! (Yes, mom! Riffraff, riffraff!): generally complementing Doña Florinda's above phrase towards Don Ramón, Quico pushes Don Ramón backwards with a boxing-styled mocking punch in his chest/shoulder while blowing a raspberry at him, leaving the man infuriated with the situation.
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "Yes, mommy! Lowlife, lowlife!".
- ¡Y la próxima vez, vá... con su abuela! (And the next time, go... to your grandmother!): sometimes spoken by Doña Florinda to Don Ramón after the classic slap scene, telling the unlucky man to do "the same" to his grandmother instead of "doing it" to Quico.
In the English dub of the animated series, the catchphrase is "And the next time, (go)... your grandmother!".
- ¡Zas, Zas, que yo jugaba... (Yes, Yes, I get to play...): spoken by El Chavo whenever an idea is brought up by anybody or is offered an opportunity (mostly any children from the vencidad) and Chavo gets excited, which is also accompanied by Chavo jumping while swinging his arms and legs back and forth.
- ¡Si serás, si serás... (If only, if only...): spoken by Don Ramón (and sometimes La Chilindrina) whenever he is ticked off or annoyed.
- ¡Papito lindo, mi amor! (Sweet Daddy, my love): spoken by La Chilindrina to Don Ramón whenever she is showing respect towards her father, but sometimes also to ask him something she knows he would deny to her (the girl also sometimes directs this phrase to somebody else by saying the person's name in a (falsely) affectionate voice tone in order to get something easily through emotional blackmailEmotional blackmailEmotional blackmail is a term used to cover a central form of psychological manipulation - 'the use of a system of threats and punishment on a person by someone close to them in an attempt to control their behavior'. "Emotional blackmail.....
).
Impact and reception
The show is the most translated Latin-American show in history, after being shown in several countries. It is the most popular sitcom in the history of Mexican television and lasted for 1,300 episodes. It has been rerun on several TV stations since the 1970s. El Chavo del Ocho is also highly popular in BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, where it has been dubbed into Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, broadcast by SBT since the beginning of the 1980s it was the biggest audience at many different times according to IBOPE
IBOPE
IBOPE was established in Brazil in 1942 and provides the largest collection of information in Brazilian and Latin American markets...
. This popularity may be explained because Mexico and Brazil have social and cultural similarities, Spanish and Portuguese are similar languages. In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the show is still shown on TeleFutura
TeleFutura
TeleFutura is a U.S. Spanish-language broadcast television network owned by Univision with headquarters in Miami, Florida.-Overview:TeleFutura Is America’s #2 Spanish-Language Network in prime time...
and Galavisión as of 2011. The show in the United States is consistently the No. 1-rated Spanish-language cable program.
The show was so popular in other parts of Latin America and among the Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
speaking community of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, other shows involving the main actors of El Chavo del Ocho began to be televised, in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. Rubén Aguirre has been able to enjoy some success playing his character at a circus, and in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
many of the phrases El Chavo and his friends used have become normal part of everyday dialogue. Chespirito has established legal battles with former El Chavo del Ocho actors out of a desire to prevent them from using the show's characters in Mexico without his permission. Villagrán moved to Argentina in order to use his character's name on his shows (Chespirito is not copyrighted in Argentina).
There is also a Brazilian fan-made game named "Street Chaves - O Lutador da Vila" (in English: "Street Chavo - The Vecindad Fighter", in Spanish: "Street Chavo - El Luchador De La Vecindad"), which parodies various famous fighting games (most notably Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
and SNK Playmore
SNK Playmore
SNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....
franchise
Media franchise
A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media , such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in a particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements...
s such as Street Fighter
Street Fighter
, commonly abbreviated as SF, is a series of Fighting Games developed in Japan in which the players pit the video games' competitive fighters from around the world, each with his or her own unique fighting style, against one another...
, Art of Fighting
Art of Fighting
is a trilogy of competitive fighting game titles that were released for the Neo Geo platform in the early 1990s. It was the second fighting game franchise created by SNK, following the Fatal Fury series and is set in the same fictional universe...
and The King of Fighters) using characters from the show (examples: El Chavo parodies Terry Bogard
Terry Bogard
is a video game character created by SNK Playmore , and is the main character of the Fatal Fury series. In the series, he is an American fighter who enters the worldwide tournaments called The King of Fighters to kill Geese Howard, a criminal who killed Terry's father. Terry becomes a formidable...
, Don Ramón imitates Robert Garcia
Robert Garcia
is a video game character created by SNK Playmore, formerly known as SNK. Robert stars in the fighting video game Art of Fighting as the lead character along his best friend Ryo Sakazaki. The game features both of them as practitioners of the Kyokugenryu Karate fighting who search for Ryo's younger...
, Señor Barriga incarnates Chang Koehan, Professor Jirafales impersonates Sagat
Ságat
Ságat is a Sámi newspaper written in Norwegian that is published in the county of Finnmark in Norway with a circulation of 2,717 ...
, Quico "is" Andy Bogard and so). The game was translated (badly) in Spanish by Carlos Varela. There's also a currently in-building 3D update named "Chaves Arena".
The only Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
-speaking country where El Chavo has never been formally transmitted is Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
.
Denied series finale
During a visit to PeruPeru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
in 2008, Roberto Gómez Bolaños
Roberto Gómez Bolaños
Roberto Gómez Bolaños is a Mexican writer, actor, director, comedian, humorist, songwriter, poet and philosopher. He is best known by his stage name Chespirito .-Life and work:...
told the media that he originally planned to make a proper finale to El Chavo del Ocho: in this finale, El Chavo would die trampled by a car. However, one of Bolaños' daughters, who is a psychologist, convinced his father to drop the idea, since, according to her, it could depress many children and even lead them to suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
.
Product promotions
- Chocopunch El ChavoChocopunchChocopunch is a popular name-brand retail confection product made in Peru under the Winter's brand owned by Compañía Nacional de Chocolates de Perú S.A.. The Chocopunch brand was registered in Peru in 1995 and started production in 1997 by Lima-based Good Foods S.A...
- A cream confection produced under the Winter's brandWinter's (chocolate)Winter's is a popular Peruvian brand of chocolates and other food products owned by Compañía Nacional de Chocolates de Perú S.A.. The brand was started in 1997 by Lima-based Good Foods S.A., the largest Peruvian exporter of chocolates. On 1 February 2007, Colombian-based food conglomerate Grupo...
with two flavors (chocolate and vanilla) combined in one 17 gram container. Packaged with Chocopunch El Chavo are mini spoons in the shape of characters from the syndicated cartoon television series El Chavo del Ocho. The injection molded plastic mini spoons come in 12 different shapes and five different colors, with a total of 60 different items in the collection. This product is licensed by TelevisaTelevisaTelevisa is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate, the largest mass media company in Latin America and in the Spanish-speaking world. It is a major international entertainment business, with much of its programming airing in the United States on Univision, with which it has an exclusive contract...
Consumer Products and copyright by Roberto Gómez BolañosRoberto Gómez BolañosRoberto Gómez Bolaños is a Mexican writer, actor, director, comedian, humorist, songwriter, poet and philosopher. He is best known by his stage name Chespirito .-Life and work:...
.
External links
In Spanish- Chespirito's Official Website
- Chavo del 8, Chapulin Colorado y Chespirito
- Homenaje a El Chavo del Ocho
In English
In Portuguese