El Chavo

For the animated series, see El Chavo (animated series).

El Chavo
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Roberto Gómez Bolaños
Starring	Roberto Gómez Bolaños María Antonieta de las Nieves (1971-1973; 1975-1992) Carlos Villagrán (1971-1978) Florinda Meza Ramón Valdéz Rubén Aguirre Angelines Fernández Edgar Vivar Horácio Gómez Bolaños Raúl Padilla (1979-1980; 1982-1992)
Country of origin	Mexico
Language(s)	Spanish
No. of seasons	10
No. of episodes	290
Production
Running time	30 minutes with ads
Broadcast
Original channel	XHTIM-TV
Original run	June 20, 1971 – January 12, 1992

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.^[1] 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).^[1] 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.

History

Origins

By 1971, Roberto Gómez Bolaños 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.

The cast of the series in 1979, just after Quico left the show.

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.

Broadcast history

In 1973, Telesistema Mexicano 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.

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

Main article: El Chavo (animated series)

After several years of successful reruns, 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.

Characters and cast

Main article: List of El Chavo characters

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 balero (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.

Episodes

Main article: List of El Chavo episodes

Humor style

El Chavo is a farcical sitcom: it relied heavily upon physical comedy, running gags, literal interpretations, double entendres, 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:

• 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, slapstick). 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 story, 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 raspberry), their dignified stage exit, and Don Ramón's trademark tantrum (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 bell 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 Juliet plays in the background. Jirafales approaches her on impulse (in ballet-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 America:

• ¡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.

• ¡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).^[1].

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.

• Yo le voy al Necaxa... (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.

• ¡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.

• 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 wall (by looking at the audience when saying this).

• ¡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.

• ¿Que diablos quiso él dicer? (What did he mean by that?[lit. What the Devil 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.

• ¡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 proxima 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 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.^[2] It has been rerun on several TV stations since the 1970s. El Chavo del Ocho is also highly popular in Brazil, 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.

File:Street-chaves.jpg

Street Chaves - Opening scene

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 franchises 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).^[3] 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.^{[citation needed]}

Denied series finale

During a visit to Peru 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^[4][5].

Product promotions

• Chocopunch El Chavo - A cream confection produced under the Winter's brand 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 Televisa Consumer Products and copyright by Roberto Gómez Bolaños.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} "El Chavo del 8 — Historia" (in Spanish). Chespirito. http://chespirito.com. Retrieved 31 January 2011. 
2. ^ "A mexican sitcom about a street boy". slate.com. http://www.slate.com/id/2129387/?nav=tap3. Retrieved 2008-09-09. 
3. ^ "Street Chaves on Youtube". youtube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZBY6G72et4. Retrieved 2009-05-11. 
4. ^ Pudo matar al Chavo - El Mañana - La Tarde
5. ^ Terra - Chespirito contó desenlace fatal que iba a tener El Chavo del 8: morir atropellado - Entretenimiento

External links

In Spanish

• Chespirito's Official Website
• Chavo del 8, Chapulin Colorado y Chespirito
• Homenaje a El Chavo del Ocho
• Homenaje Retrato El Chavo on YouTube

In English

• El Chavo del Ocho at the Internet Movie Database
• Slate article on its popularity in the United States

In Portuguese

• Chaves Homepage in SBT website