What Chico and the Man meant to me

[Waginator]

To TJ, the Administrator,

It looks like you're from Marietta, GA if I read it right. I live in Lawrenceville, GA not too far from 85. I am originally from Philadelphia.

I wanted to let you know IMHO that I really liked your Chico and the Man page on the sitcomsonline server.
I dont have cable, but I had stopped over my friends house in Duluth because we were all supposed to go out, but neither myself or my friend Scott could take our eyes off the screen. His wife and my female friend waited impatiently for us to get moving. I had not seen a picture of Freddie or heard anything about him in 23 years.

Well there are two exceptions to that: many years ago I was thumbing through a fall 1974 issue of "Broadcast Magazine" that I found in a library. The article mentioned that there was opposition to the show because Hispanics felt that Freddie played a stereotype, and he was working for a white man,etc. but it did mention that the show WAS an instant hit.I xeroxed that article and put it up on my bedroom wall.
The next was I was flipping through a collector's magazine called "Big Reel". In it was an ad selling a reel of 16mm film of Freddie's apearance on the Mike Douglas show.
Now, a lot of people here in Atlanta don't even know who Mike Douglas was, let alone Freddie Prinze! The ad said that they wanted $125 for it, complete with original commercials. I'd still like to see that tape, but I couldn't justify the $125 at the time.
Maybe TV land can get a hold of it.

I always liked the show when it was on the air and was suprised it took this long to syndicate it. I always felt I identified with the show for this reason-- My father ran a small business in North Philadelphia, in the puerto rican section. The only man that worked for him till the end was a Puerto Rican man named Juan. Juan was a very nice
quiet man and seemed to be the only one who could put up with my Father's crabbiness. There wasn't the extreme age difference like with Chico and Ed, Juan was only about ten years younger than my father, but I saw a
resemblance in the circumstances.

The theme song, catchy and simple, was very much with the times, hoping for a better future, what with the US just pulling out of Vietnam, a fallen President, inflation, the gas crunch, and try to rediscover the free spirited innocence we knew before the
Vietnam era.

I was optimistic at the time, watching Jimmy Carter take his inaugural oath, and knowing we were shedding ourselves of the Nixon legacy as Gerald Ford, Nixon's former VP, was not reelected. But just a week later, the man that Julio Iglesias sang his hopeful song about left this earth.
The LA neighborhood scenes they show in the credits mirror Philadelphia's street scenes of the era. Remember in the credits the little boy chasing the pigeons in the park? I could show you a park in Philly that looks just like that.
I remember when Freddie died, I was about 9. At the time I didn't understand the concept of having a drug problem, and I didn't realize how young 23 was. I was upset, and I assumed at the time that the show would automatically be cancelled.
It wasn't, but I had lost interest. It wasn't until Elvis died later that same year that I began to understand the highs and lows of being famous. When your famous you have no privacy. You can't walk down a city street and get a hamburger like a normal person anymore. You can't go to a park and hang out and watch the world go by anymore. If Freddie, or Elvis wanted to go to the park and appreciate the "morning sun" he would have to go with bodyguards.

Elvis must have had a thicker skin because he survived 20 years longer than Freddie before he self destructed. Or maybe Freddie was just that sensitive and overwhelmed. He accomplished a lot between 1974 and 1976.

The only good thing that came out of Freddie's passing was that his best friend, Tony Orlando, got his wake up call
and got better. BTW I was also a big fan of the Tony Orlando and Dawn show,Captain and Tennile, and Donny and Marie.

The fact that Tony Orlando got a wake up call and got better...
You call that a GOOD thing??????

[Moon]

Well, the only song by Tony I liked was "Knock Three Times" (I guess it's this Ellie Greenwich thing that is the factor with me) but who'd want him croaked? I mean, I'm no fan of Ricky Martin but I don't want to see him croaked either.

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It was late one night by the pale moonlight all the vegetables gave a spree.

[Yemanafan]

Tony Orlando and Dawn were good. As a matter of fact that's how I got my name. Mom and dad named me after the "Dawn" of Tony Orlando and Dawn.

Dawn