This is a list of episodes for the television series Chico and the Man, which ran from 1974 to 1978 (despite the death of actor Freddie Prinze, who played Chico, in January 1977).
Series overview
edit| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 | September 13, 1974 | March 14, 1975 | |
| 2 | 22 | September 12, 1975 | March 3, 1976 | |
| 3 | 21 | October 1, 1976 | April 8, 1977 | |
| 4 | 23 (1 unaired) | September 16, 1977 | July 21, 1978 | |
Episodes
editSeason 1 (1974–75)
edit| No. overall |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Pilot" "The Man Meets Chico" | Peter Baldwin | James Komack, Don Nicholl, Michael Ross, Bernard West | September 13, 1974 | |
|
Chico Rodriguez successfully persuades cranky, bigoted garage owner Ed Brown to take him on as an employee and partner in the business, and to let him live in the garage in Ed's old van. | ||||||
| 2 | 2 | "Second Thoughts" | Peter Baldwin | Adele Styler, Burt Styler | September 20, 1974 | |
|
Ed has second thoughts about hiring Chico and tries as best he can to get rid of him. | ||||||
| 3 | 3 | "Old Dog" | Peter Baldwin | James Komack | September 27, 1974 | |
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Ed thinks that he's lost his mechanic skills. | ||||||
| 4 | 4 | "New Suit" | Peter Baldwin | James Komack | October 4, 1974 | |
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Ed does not want to attend his former Army reunion. | ||||||
| 5 | 5 | "Borrowed Trouble" | Peter Baldwin | Norman Barasch, Carroll Moore | October 11, 1974 | |
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Chico tries to persuade Ed to take a loan from the bank to improve the conditions of customer service. | ||||||
| 6 | 6 | "E Pluribus Used Car" | Peter Baldwin | Norm Liebmann, Larry Markes | October 25, 1974 | |
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Louis gives Ed and Chico his used car to sell, which gives Chico the idea of selling used cars as a part of Ed's business. | ||||||
| 7 | 7 | "Lifestyle" | Peter Baldwin | Ron Friedman | November 1, 1974 | |
|
Ed thinks that something kinky was going on between Chico and his girlfriend when he caught them in the back seat of Chico's van... but was Ed just jumping to conclusions? | ||||||
| 8 | 8 | "The Veterans" | Peter Baldwin | Robert Hilliard, Michael Morris, Bud Wiser | November 8, 1974 | |
|
Chico and Ed try getting Veterans financing from the Government. | ||||||
| 9 | 9 | "No Room in the Garage" | Peter Baldwin | Bill Dana | November 15, 1974 | |
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A pregnant Spanish woman comes in the garage, and Ed thinks that Chico may be the father of the unborn child. | ||||||
| 10 | 10 | "The Letter" | Peter Baldwin | James Komack | December 6, 1974 | |
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Chico wants to participate in his cousin's business in New York. | ||||||
| 11 | 11 | "Natural Causes" | Peter Baldwin | Steve Gordon | December 20, 1974 | |
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When Ed hears about a death of a friend, he begins to think that he may be the next one to meet his maker. | ||||||
| 12 | 12 | "The Manuel Who Came to Dinner" | Peter Baldwin | Elias Davis, David Pollock | December 27, 1974 | |
|
A car is towed into Ed's garage and it turns out that the man was a Chicano friend of Ed's from the past. | ||||||
| 13 | 13 | "Garage Sale" | Peter Baldwin | Ed Jurist | January 3, 1975 | |
|
Ed's garage is inspected, and when the inspector finds a pile of junk in front of an emergency exit, he issues an ultimatum: either get rid of the junk, or get a hefty fine. Ed then decides to profit from the ultimatum by having a garage sale. | ||||||
| 14 | 14 | "Out of Sight" | Peter Baldwin | Ron Friedman | January 17, 1975 | |
|
Ed is determined to go to court to testify on a car accident that he may have witnessed despite his eye problem. | ||||||
| 15 | 15 | "The Beard" | Peter Baldwin | Robert Hilliard, Michael Morris | January 24, 1975 | |
|
Harold, a cheating husband, counts on Ed to cover for him on his wild nights out. | ||||||
| 16 | 16 | "If I Were a Rich Man" | Bill Foster | Jerry Ross | January 31, 1975 | |
|
Ed tries to snap Chico out of spending too much on a woman he has fallen in love with. | ||||||
| 17 | 17 | "Ed Steps Out" | Peter Baldwin | Jerry Ross | February 7, 1975 | |
|
A widowed baker buys a bakery in the area and has her dibs on Ed. | ||||||
| 18 | 18 | "Sammy Stops In" | James Komack | Martin Donovan, Robert Hilliard, Michael Morris | February 14, 1975 | |
|
When his car acts up, Sammy Davis, Jr. pulls into the garage to get it fixed, and fans are soon crawling out of the woodwork. | ||||||
| 19 | 19 | "The Doctor Story" | Jack Donohue | Ed Jurist | February 21, 1975 | |
|
Ed would rather fix his aching shoulder himself than go to see a doctor. | ||||||
| 20 | 20 | "The Giveaway" | Jack Donohue | Eric Cohen, Robert Hilliard | February 28, 1975 | |
|
Chico is carrying large amounts of cash and working strange hours. | ||||||
| 21 | 21 | "Louie's Retirement" | James Komack | Art Baer, Ben Joelson | March 7, 1975 | |
|
Louie, who has retired, wants to spend his remaining years hanging around the garage. | ||||||
| 22 | 22 | "Long Live the Man" | Jack Donohue | Michael Morris | March 14, 1975 | |
|
Everyone thinks that Ed died, and when Ed finds out about it, he gets upset because nobody had cried for him when they heard the misleading news. | ||||||
Season 2 (1975–76)
edit| No. overall |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | 1 | "The Paint Job" | Jack Donohue | Ron Friedman | September 12, 1975 | |
|
Ed and Chico clash over the wall of their alley for an art competition. | ||||||
| 24 | 2 | "This Hallowed Garage" | Jack Donohue | Ron Friedman | September 19, 1975 | |
|
The city plans to demolish Ed's garage to open a newer, more enhanced power gas station. | ||||||
| 25 | 3 | "Aunt Connie" | Jack Donohue | Howard Albrecht, Sol Weinstein | September 26, 1975 | |
|
Ed develops the hots for Chico's visiting Aunt Connie (Angelina Estrada). | ||||||
| 26 | 4 | "Play Gypsy" | Jack Donohue | Ron Friedman | October 3, 1975 | |
|
A Gypsy named Miklos (Avery Schreiber) wants Ed to train him to be a good mechanic. Miklos appears again in "The Misfortune Teller." | ||||||
| 27 | 5 | "The Disappearance" | Jack Donohue | Michael Morris | October 10, 1975 | |
|
Chico sees Ed sneaking out of the garage and going to a bar where he and his late wife used to spend their anniversary. Chico worries that Ed is spending too much time dwelling on the past and not getting on with his life, and he and Louie set out to bring Ed back to the present. | ||||||
| 28 | 6 | "Chico and the Van" | Jack Donohue | Ann Gibbs, Joel Kimmel | October 17, 1975 | |
|
A city "Truant Officer" tells Chico that his van is illegal in the states, so Chico moves upstairs with Ed, but the closeness may actually drive them apart. | ||||||
| 29 | 7 | "Ms. Liz" | Jack Donohue | Jack Mendelsohn, Lynn Roth | October 31, 1975 | |
|
Chico falls head over heels for a woman named Liz. In fact, he likes her so much that he decides to marry her. | ||||||
| 30 | 8 | "Mister Butterfly" | Jack Donohue | Ron Friedman | November 7, 1975 | |
|
A Japanese man visits the garage claiming to be Ed's long-lost son. | ||||||
| 31 | 9 | "The Misfortune Teller" | Jack Donohue | Sandy Krinski | November 14, 1975 | |
|
Ed tries to prevent the bank from foreclosing the mortgage on his garage by visiting a fortune teller, namely Miklos (from "Play Gypsy"). | ||||||
| 32 | 10 | "Bird in a Gilded Cage" | Jack Donohue | Bernie Kahn | November 21, 1975 | |
|
A former silent movie actress whom Ed idolized pulls her car into the garage for repairs. Ed still idolizes her and cannot accept her current position as a waitress in a local cafe. | ||||||
| 33 | 11 | "The Strike" | Jack Donohue | Milt Rosen | November 28, 1975 | |
|
Chico joins a union for mechanics, but is forced to picket Ed's Garage. | ||||||
| 34 | 12 | "The Invention" | Jack Donohue | Mike Milligan, Jay Moriarty | December 5, 1975 | |
|
Ed creates a new invention: training wheels for motorcycles. While trying to get the idea patented, they get swindled out of $500 for the patent process. | ||||||
| 35 | 13 | "The Juror" | Jack Donohue | Sandy Krinski | December 19, 1975 | |
|
Chico is assigned jury duty, and he finds out that the defendant on his jury is actually a good friend of Ed's. | ||||||
| 36 | 14 | "The Dream" | Jack Donohue | Ron Friedman | January 9, 1976 | |
|
Chico tries to persuade Ed to retire and move into a retirement home, but naturally Ed will not go for it. | ||||||
| 37 | 15 | "The Hypnotist" | Jack Donohue | Barbara Tibbles, Doug Tibbles | January 16, 1976 | |
|
Because Louie is too afraid to go to the dentist, he asks Chico to hypnotize him. Ed, who doesn't believe in it, is the one who gets hypnotized. Chico then implants a post-hypnotic suggestion wherein Ed will do whatever he's asked if he hears the words "Will you." But when Flora asks him to marry her, he does. | ||||||
| 38 | 16 | "Reverend Bemis's Altar Ego" | Jack Donohue | John L. Greene, Arthur Phillips | January 23, 1976 | |
|
After Chico guest preaches a good sermon at Reverend Bemis' church, the congregation decides that they would rather have Chico preach instead of the Reverend. | ||||||
| 39 | 17 | "The Big Brush-Off" | Jack Donohue | Larry Siegel | January 28, 1976 | |
|
Chico is having woman problems: a girl that he likes will not go out with him because he looks too much like her ex-fiancé. | ||||||
| 40 | 18 | "The Accident" | Jack Donohue | Ron Friedman | February 4, 1976 | |
|
After Chico gets into an accident, Ed borrows from his own insurance money to send Chico to school. | ||||||
| 41 | 19 | "Chico's Cousin Pepe" | Jack Donohue | Fred S. Fox, Seaman Jacobs | February 11, 1976 | |
|
Pepe Fernando (José Feliciano), Chico's blind cousin, is a famous Latino singer. Pepe shows up in a limo and his driver has to quit the same day. He offers the job to Chico but Ed, while Chico is out, unwittingly talks Pepe into considering Chico's girlfriend! She doesn't know, however, that Pepe is "all hands" when it comes to women. Feliciano briefly sings his classic version of "Light My Fire" and actually sings the show's theme song to Ed and Chico when they start arguing. | ||||||
| 42 | 20 | "The Return of Aunt Connie" | Jack Donohue | Iris Rainer, Mort Scharfman | February 18, 1976 | |
|
Chico's Aunt Connie (from the episode "Aunt Connie") visits and when she does, Chico and Ed realize that she is a con artist. | ||||||
| 43 | 21 | "Too Many Crooks" | Jack Donohue | John L. Greene, Arthur Phillips | February 25, 1976 | |
|
Ed, not knowing that he gave a handout to a crook, eventually has all kinds of crooks from the neighborhood coming to him for a handout as well. | ||||||
| 44 | 22 | "The Face Job" | Jack Donohue | Howard Albrecht, Sol Weinstein | March 3, 1976 | |
|
Ed's public life is almost destroyed when he is offered a free face lift. | ||||||
Season 3 (1976–77)
edit| No. overall |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45 | 1 | "Della Moves In" | Jack Donohue | Hal Kanter, Michael Morris | October 1, 1976 | |
|
Ed gets a new neighbor, but to his dismay it's a loud-mouthed liberal woman named Della Rogers (Della Reese) who now owns his garage and threatens eviction. | ||||||
| 46 | 2 | "Second Coming of Della" | Jack Donohue | Hal Kanter, Michael Morris | October 8, 1976 | |
|
When Ed lays off the fighting with his new landlady, Della decides to renew Ed's lease. | ||||||
| 47 | 3 | "Chico Packs His Bags" | Jack Donohue | Marty Nadler, Freddie Prinze | October 22, 1976 | |
|
Chico decides that he would rather move out on his own, away from Ed, than give in to Ed's rules. | ||||||
| 48 | 4 | "Chico's Problem" | Jack Donohue | Howard Albrecht, Sol Weinstein | November 5, 1976 | |
|
Chico's girlfriend decides to quit being a nurse, so she can spend more time with Chico. She then changes her mind after saving Ed's life. | ||||||
| 49 | 5 | "In Your Hat" | Jack Donohue | Hal Kanter | November 12, 1976 | |
|
Ed's lucky hat is stolen, and while he needs to have an operation, he won't go under the knife until he gets his hat back. | ||||||
| 50 | 6 | "Ed's Recuperation" | Jack Donohue | Hal Kanter, Michael Morris | November 19, 1976 | |
|
After finding out that the nurse that Ed hired wants to marry him, Chico and Della try to talk her out of it. | ||||||
| 51 | 7 | "Ed Brown vs. the IRS" | Jack Donohue | Patricia Jones, Donald Reiker | November 26, 1976 | |
|
After Ed refuses to pay his taxes, Chico and Louie decide that the only way to get them in is to forge Ed's name to the document. | ||||||
| 52 | 8 | "Morgan and the Man" | Jack Donohue | Carol Gary, Doris Prouder | December 3, 1976 | |
|
Chico is reunited with his old high school girlfriend. Thinking the magic is still there, he proposes to her, but she ends up not wanting to marry him. | ||||||
| 53 | 9 | "Mucho Macho Ed" | Jack Donohue | Si Rose | December 10, 1976 | |
|
A woman visits the garage claiming that Ed is the father to her unborn kid. When he hears of this, he wonders how. He then decides to ask for her hand in marriage. | ||||||
| 54 | 10 | "Old Is Gold" | Jack Donohue | Jack Mendelsohn | December 17, 1976 | |
|
Ed gets the idea of hiring a senior citizen for the garage when Della persuades him through a debate that seniors don't have the same rights that younger people have. | ||||||
| 55 | 11 | "Ready When You Are, CB" | Jack Donohue | Si Rose | December 24, 1976 | |
|
Everyone has places to go and people to see on New Year's Eve except Ed. Talking on the CB radio, he connects with a woman on the road who also has no New Year's Eve plans, and he invites her to the garage. | ||||||
| 56 | 12 | "The Dress" | Jack Donohue | Ben Starr, Charles Stewart | January 7, 1977 | |
|
Ed donates his deceased wife's dress to raise money for a charity auction. He later regrets doing this when a cross-dressing man is interested in buying it. | ||||||
| 57 | 13 | "A Minority of One" | Jack Donohue | Robert O'Brien | January 14, 1977 | |
|
Ed is elected President of a Mexican Better Business bureau. | ||||||
| 58 | 14 | "Champs Ain't Chumps" | Jack Donohue | Ben Starr, Charles Stewart | January 28, 1977 | |
|
Ed worries about Chico when Chico decides he wants to fight as a professional. | ||||||
| 59 | 15 | "Chico's Padre" | Jack Donohue | George Arthur Bloom, Ron Friedman, Henry Irving | February 4, 1977 | |
|
Gilberto (Cesar Romero), Chico is incredulous when his wealthy father whom he hasn't seen in years, returns to try to give Chico a chance to better his life by living with him. Note: This was the first episode to air after Prinze's death; during the opening credits of the original broadcast, series creator and producer James Komack's voice thanked everyone for their sympathy. During the closing credits, Jack Albertson did the same. | ||||||
| 60 | 16 | "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" | Jack Donohue | Si Rose | February 18, 1977 | |
|
Della plays matchmaker at trying to set Ed up with a woman. However, when Ed gets word that Della did the matchmaking, he immediately wants to call the whole thing off. | ||||||
| 61 | 17 | "Black Tie Blues" | Jack Donohue | John Fenton Murray | February 25, 1977 | |
|
Della wants to attend a formal dance and needs a host to go with her. Nobody wants to go, so they all try to find ways to get out of it. | ||||||
| 62 | 18 | "Ed Talks to God" | Jack Donohue | Michael Morris | March 4, 1977 | |
|
Ed does not feel like appearing at his own birthday party. Chico, however, tries to find a way for Ed to go; he gets a hold of a good old friend of Ed's and has him impersonate the voice of God via sound equipment and a microphone. Note: This episode marks the final appearance of Freddie Prinze. | ||||||
| 63 | 19 | "Gregory Peck Is a Rooster" | Jack Donohue | George Arthur Bloom, Beverly Bloomberg | March 18, 1977 | |
|
Ed sells a rooster that belongs to him, but when he finds out that the rooster's purpose is to cockfight, he tries to get the bird back. | ||||||
| 64 | 20 | "Louie's Can-Can" | Jack Donohue | George Arthur Bloom, Beverly Bloomberg | April 1, 1977 | |
|
Louie hires Ed to be a garbage truck driver, after he is forced to retire his job and decides to open his own garbage collecting business. | ||||||
| 65 | 21 | "Uncle Sonny" | Jack Donohue | Henry Irving | April 8, 1977 | |
|
While Ed is away, his daring uncle comes to visit and throws an all-night girl party. | ||||||
Season 4 (1977–78)
edit| No. overall |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 66 | 1 | "Who's Been Sleeping in My Car?" | Jack Donohue | George Arthur Bloom, Beverly Bloomberg | September 16, 1977 | |
|
Ed, who returns from Mexico, learns that he has an eleven-year-old stowaway in the back of his car who's determined to stay with Ed in the United States. | ||||||
| 67 | 2 | "Su Casa, Mi Casa?" | Jack Donohue | Gary Belkin, Jerry Ross | September 23, 1977 | |
|
Ed waits for word from Raul's parents, only to find out that Raul is an orphan and needs a parent. | ||||||
| 68 | 3 | "Take Me, I'm Yours" | Jack Donohue | Ben Starr, Charles Stewart | September 30, 1977 | |
|
When a social worker comes to take Raul away, Ed decides to adopt him as his own. | ||||||
| 69 | 4 | "The Third Letter" | Jack Donohue | Ben Starr, Charles Stewart | October 14, 1977 | |
|
Ed needs a third reference letter to officially adopt Raul. | ||||||
| 70 | 5 | "The Bed" | Jack Donohue | Gary Belkin | October 21, 1977 | |
|
Raul tries to do a favor for Ed by trading in his old mattress towards a new one, unaware that Ed had stuffed $700 in the old one. | ||||||
| 71 | 6 | "A Matter of Privacy" | Jack Donohue | Chet Dowling, Sandy Krinski | November 4, 1977 | |
|
Ed tries to teach Raul how important it is to respect one's privacy, but forgets his own lesson when he opens a package meant for Raul. | ||||||
| 72 | 7 | "The Proposal" | Jack Donohue | Bob Shayne | November 11, 1977 | |
|
Ed and Della decide to have Christmas dinner together. As they are eating and drinking wine, they both get drunk and before you know it, Ed proposes marriage to Della. | ||||||
| 73 | 8 | "Aunt Charo" | Jack Donohue | Bill Daley, Gene Farmer, Peter Gallay, Norm Liebmann | November 18, 1977 | |
|
Raul's Aunt Charo (played by Charo) comes to the garage to take Raul back to Spain, but he would rather stay with Ed. | ||||||
| 74 | 9 | "Charo Takes Over" | Jack Donohue | Bill Daley, Gene Farmer, Peter Gallay, Norm Liebmann | December 2, 1977 | |
|
Charo tries to drum up Ed's business by taking matters into her own hands. | ||||||
| 75 | 10 | "Ed the Hero" | Jack Donohue | Carmen Finestra | December 9, 1977 | |
|
In a class report, Raul writes about Ed, saying that Ed fixes poor people's cars for free. When word gets out, poor folks from all over the neighborhood swamp Ed trying to get their cars fixed. | ||||||
| 76 | 11 | "Ed's Team" | Jack Donohue | Adele Styler, Burt Styler | December 30, 1977 | |
|
Ed sponsors a basketball team that Raul wants to join. | ||||||
| 77 | 12 | "The Americanization of Charo" | Jack Donohue | Bill Daley, Gene Farmer, Norm Liebmann | January 6, 1978 | |
|
Aunt Charo takes her citizenship test and becomes an American citizen. | ||||||
| 78–79 | 13–14 | "Raul Runs Away" | Jack Donohue | Bill Daley, Gene Farmer, Peter Gallay, Norm Liebmann, Michael Morris | January 20, 1978 | |
|
Raul discovers Chico's belongings, which had been stored in the van where he lived. Ed finds out when he overhears a guitar playing. In anger, Ed — still having trouble coming to terms with Chico's death months earlier — shoos Raul from the van and smashes the guitar in anger. Raul takes this as a cue that Ed hates him and he runs away. Ed, deeply regretting his words that led Raul to run away, forms a search party to search for the young lad. Everyone later suspects Raul may have returned to Tijuana, Mexico, to search for his family. Acting on the tip, Ed eventually finds Raul in an old church, leading to a reunion. Ed apologizes and explains that Chico had died (though not how), and Raul agrees to go home. | ||||||
| 80 | 15 | "Charo and the Matador" | Jack Donohue | Bill Daley, Norm Liebmann | January 27, 1978 | |
|
Charo's matador fiancé, Antonio, comes to sweep her off her feet to get married. | ||||||
| 81 | 16 | "A New Girl in Town" | Jack Donohue | Michael Morris, Don Segall | June 2, 1978 | |
|
Ed Brown's garage has a new tenant in teenage runaway Monica, who comes to Hollywood to seek fame and fortune. | ||||||
| 82 | 17 | "Ed Brown's Car Wash" | Jack Donohue | Bill Daley, Norm Liebmann | June 9, 1978 | |
|
Monica decides to drum up business by having an all-girl car wash, with the girls in tight shirts and shorts. | ||||||
| 83 | 18 | "Buenas Dias, Mr. President" | Jack Donohue | Bill Larkin, Tom Sawyer | June 16, 1978 | |
|
Ed becomes worried when the President is supposedly going to visit the garage and Secret Service agents are going to do security checks. | ||||||
| 84 | 19 | "Della and Son" | Jack Donohue | Gary Belkin, Jerry Ross | June 30, 1978 | |
|
Della tries to convince her son, Tony, to help with her catering business. | ||||||
| 85 | 20 | "Help Wanted" | Jack Donohue | Terry Hart | July 7, 1978 | |
|
Monica upsets Ed by getting a job at a sleazy restaurant. | ||||||
| 86 | 21 | "The Peeping Tom" | Jack Donohue | Sam Locke, Al Schwartz | July 14, 1978 | |
|
Ed is falsely accused by a woman who swears that he is a peeping Tom and is watching her on a daily basis. | ||||||
| 87 | 22 | "The Hot Rock" | Jack Donohue | Ron Friedman | July 21, 1978 | |
|
Louie comes up with an idea for an invention: a barbecue that relies on solar energy. Enthusiastic about the idea, Ed runs to his insurance company and tries to get money to launch the project. | ||||||
| 88 | 23 | "Waiting for Chongo" | Jack Donohue | Jim Belcher | unaired | |
|
Monica's hitchhiking brings a group of bikers to the garage with their leader Chongo. | ||||||