El Chavo del Ocho

El Chavo del Ocho or simply El Chavo, is a Mexican series created, shot, directed and starring Roberto Gómez Bolaños (known as Chespirito), produced by Televisa, that aired on Canal 8 from to.

El Chavo is the most watched comedy series in history in Spanish-speaking countries, which has been very popular among adults and children for decades. The series focuses on the vicissitudes of El Chavo, an 8-year-old orphan boy who lives in a neighborhood in Mexico City, and shares with many neighbors, each with their own characteristics, including his best friend and rival Quico, a spoiled child, and a bit selfish and cocky; his ladina friend Chilindrina and his father Don Ramón, a charismatic man with a good heart, but with an explosive character; Quico's mother, Doña Florinda, a grumpy widow who is always angry; and Profesor Jirafales, the teacher at the children's school, who is in love with Doña Florinda. There is also Señor Barriga, the owner of the neighborhood, who is often teased by the children for being very fat, and always suffers the blows that El Chavo gives him, which are always by accident, and not on purpose.

The peculiar characteristics of each character cause misunderstandings to break out between them, which are very funny. Although they always argue and fight with each other, there is always a common brotherly feeling.

Cast
El Chavo del Ocho was born as a sketch of a few minutes in a program called "Chespirito", also by Roberto Gómez Bolaños, in 1972. Said sketches program brought together various characters created by the Mexican comedian. Given that at the beginning the series still maintained this style of sketch, El Chavo in its first three seasons shared space with other sketches, as an entremés, which were broadcast before each episode. This custom would be set aside from the third season, in 1975.

The main secondary sketch of the program was "Los Caquitos" (diminutive of 'caco', a colloquial word in several Latin American countries for 'thief'), in which two thieves, Chómpiras and Peterete, try to carry out a robbery, but given the clumsiness of both always fail in their attempts, and never steal anything, which is why they are presented as 'the harmless ones'.


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Broadcast
El Chavo has been broadcast in all Latin American countries and Spain. It has also been broadcast in the United States on Spanish-speaking television stations. It was also very successful in countries like Argentina, Chile and Peru, during which the series lasted more than 30 years on the air.

Currently, the broadcast of the program is temporarily suspended. On August 1, 2020, all stations that broadcast El Chavo and other Gómez Bolaños programs in various countries had to suspend the broadcast of the series on their services due to conflicts between Televisa and Grupo Chespirito (heirs of Gómez Bolaños), who owns the characters and episode scripts.

International versions

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