Why has Chico and the Man never been released as a series on DVD?

[Rewound50]

I fear Chico and the Man will never see the light of day with the current volatility of society and social issues. Young people are too judgmental and do not know how to recognize growth through tolerance and understanding. This show is a great study of that.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by Rewound50

I fear Chico and the Man will never see the light of day with the current volatility of society and social issues. Young people are too judgmental and do not know how to recognize growth through tolerance and understanding. This show is a great study of that.

I hate that is not even on youtube which means it will always be a lost sitcom of the 70's

[DJM77]

There's quite a few full episodes of Chico And The Man on dailymotion.

https://www.dailymotion.com/search/c...e%20man/videos

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by DJM77

There's quite a few full episodes of Chico And The Man on dailymotion.

https://www.dailymotion.com/search/c...e%20man/videos

Thank you so much for this.

[DJM77]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

Thank you so much for this.

You're welcome. I watched a lot of them there a few years ago and I really enjoyed them.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by DJM77

You're welcome. I watched a lot of them there a few years ago and I really enjoyed them.

This show was filmed in front of a studio audience right?

[DJM77]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

This show was filmed in front of a studio audience right?

Yeah, it was.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by DJM77

Yeah, it was.

I decided to give up. I couldnt watch it because it was two 40 second ads in the first 10 mins of the episode. That is too many for a short period of time and too long. Atleast youtube is only 5 seconds.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by TMC

Also, the later episodes w/ Freddie Prinze are kind of uncomfortable to watch in hindsight anyway because you can tell how much he deteriorated due to the effects of substance abuse.

To add to my original point, the sales results on the 2005 DVD release of a selection of episodes weren't very good. Studios have done test releases like this often, releasing a low priced episode selection or a first season only. The resulting sales data was used to calculate the profitability of releasing full or subsequent seasons. There are a number of series that only had a season one release with no following seasons due to sales results.

Simply put, if they couldn’t generate enough interest in the mid-2000s heyday of TV on DVD, it is highly unlikely it would be released now that we are into a major decline of packaged media sales. Companies don’t go through that process unless they think they are going to make a profit. They may or may not obviously but they aren’t going to do it if they think they will lose money.

And quite frankly, it seems apparent that Chico and the Man simply doesn’t have the fan base that is willing to buy a DVD set to warrant a release. The show as it stands also hasn't really aged well even if you take out the tragic circumstances surrounding Freddie Prinze's death. The show was about a Mexican guy who is caught sleeping in a van inside of a racist old white man’s garage. "Hilarity" ensues and what basically follows is a near endless stream of racial and ethnic jokes, tied together by a supporting cast of Black actors (who oddly are not the butt of any of the jokes).

[smittykins]

Originally Posted by TVFactFan

This show was filmed in front of a studio audience right?

I can still hear Freddie in my head say “‘Chico And The Man’ was filmed in front of a live studio audience at NBC Studios, Burbank, California” at the end of the show.(IIRC, Jack Albertson and Scatman Crothers said it later.)

[TMC]

This is going to sound a tad bit harsh, but another possible reason for why it has never been released on DVD is because none of its cast arguably has a significant following in this era. While Jack Albertson, Della Reese, and Scatman Crothers were all exceptional performers, they are largely forgotten by modern audiences.

Freddie Prinze sadly did not live long enough or do enough to establish himself as a longterm talent. His premature death ended any hopes that he would have a lengthy television career or even a film one and so there’s little to attract new viewers (or even older ones who remember the program) to the series.

His tragic death as alluded to before, was always going to be the proverbial elephant in the room. After he killed himself at the end of its third season, Chico and the Man as a series essentially ended from that point going forward. Let's be real here, there’s not much call for a sitcom where the star kills himself in real life.

The fourth season quite frankly, really never should have been produced, nor aired. So on that end, there’s not much to see and releasing a DVD box set so abbreviated would almost certainly be a money loser.

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by TMC

This is going to sound a tad bit harsh, but another possible reason for why it has never been released on DVD is because none of its cast arguably has a significant following in this era. While Jack Albertson, Della Reese, and Scatman Crothers were all exceptional performers, they are largely forgotten by modern audiences.

Freddie Prinze sadly did not live long enough or do enough to establish himself as a longterm talent. His premature death ended any hopes that he would have a lengthy television career or even a film one and so there’s little to attract new viewers (or even older ones who remember the program) to the series.

His tragic death as alluded to before, was always going to be the proverbial elephant in the room. After he killed himself at the end of its second season, Chico and the Man as a series essentially ended from that point going forward. Let's be real here, there’s not much call for a sitcom where the star kills himself in real life.

The third season quite frankly, really never should have been produced, nor aired. So on that end, there’s not much to see and releasing a DVD box set so abbreviated would almost certainly be a money loser.

What kind of following did the cast of Angie have? That show ran 2 seasons and out on DVD. And the star killing himself shouldnt stop the show being on DVD only syndication

[DJM77]

Originally Posted by TMC

His tragic death as alluded to before, was always going to be the proverbial elephant in the room. After he killed himself at the end of its second season, Chico and the Man as a series essentially ended from that point going forward. Let's be real here, there’s not much call for a sitcom where the star kills himself in real life.

The third season quite frankly, really never should have been produced, nor aired. So on that end, there’s not much to see and releasing a DVD box set so abbreviated would almost certainly be a money loser.

Freddie died during the third season. I'm unsure if filming had wrapped up for that season yet or not, it was January when he killed himself. It was the fourth season that had that Raul kid.

[Cbalducc]

Originally Posted by TMC

This is going to sound a tad bit harsh, but another possible reason for why it has never been released on DVD is because none of its cast arguably has a significant following in this era. While Jack Albertson, Della Reese, and Scatman Crothers were all exceptional performers, they are largely forgotten by modern audiences.

Della Reese is probably best remembered by “modern audiences” for Touched By an Angel.
“Chico” wasn’t the only series featuring Della Reese where the lead actor died during production.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ro...ily_(TV_series)

[TVFactFan]

Originally Posted by Cbalducc

Della Reese is probably best remembered by “modern audiences” for Touched By an Angel.
“Chico” wasn’t the only series featuring Della Reese where the lead actor died during production.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ro...ily_(TV_series)

It was nothing funny about her so dont know why she was so high in demand