El Chavo del Ocho


El Chavo, also known as El Chavo del Ocho is a Mexican television sitcom series created by Chespirito and produced by Televisa. It premiered on February 26, 1973, and ended on January 7, 1980, after 8 seasons and 312 episodes, and aired across Latin America and Spain.
A poor orphan boy known as "El Chavo" played by the show's creator, Chespirito, chronicles his adventures and tribulations, and those of his friends, frequently leading to comedic confrontations among the other residents of a fictional low-income housing complex, or "vecindad", as it is known in Mexico. The sitcom explores the problems that many impoverished children face daily, such as hunger, sadness, loneliness, and a lack of adult supervision and attention, in a comical manner. Each episode uses comedic strategies, such as slapstick, irony, recurring jokes, and funny situations in which the characters are usually getting into. It includes the use of pre-recorded laughter tracks to emphasize comic scenes. Some episodes conclude with a lesson, such as to not judge a book by its cover or to maintain good hygiene.
The series theme song is a rendition of Ludwig van Beethoven's Turkish March, rearranged by Jean-Jacques Perrey and retitled "The Elephant Never Forgets".
Chespirito, produced by Televisión Independiente de México, debuted El Chavo as a skit in 1972. Produced by Televisa, it began as a weekly half-hour series in 1973 after Telesistema Mexicano and TIM merged. In the mid-1970s to 1980, the show averaged 350 million Latin American viewers per episode, The show continued until 1980 when it became a segment of Chespirito. A Brazilian Portuguese dub titled "Chaves" has been broadcast by Brazilian television network SBT since 1984 and featured on Brazilian versions of Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and Multishow. In the United States, the show debuted on Spanish International Network in October 1974, it continues to air on the network as well as UniMás.
A successor to El Chavo was produced by the same creator, Chespirito, in an animated style. The show titled El Chavo Animado, aired from October 21, 2006, to June 6, 2014, just a few months before Bolaños' death.
El Chavo continues to be popular with syndicated episodes averaging 91 million daily viewers in all markets where it is distributed in the Americas. Since it ceased production in 1992, it has earned an estimated US$1.7 billion in syndication fees alone for Televisa. El Chavo is available on Netflix in select countries. It was removed in 2020, but was added back on August 11, 2025.

Plot and setting

The titular character, nicknamed as "El Chavo", whose real name is never revealed, is an eight-year-old orphan boy who lives in a neighborhood where he and several other characters, both residents and non-residents, interact with each other daily.
The central courtyard is the setting for most of the episodes. Surrounding it are the homes of Doña Florinda and Quico in #14, Doña Clotilde in #71, and Don Ramón and Chilindrina in #72, and episodes from 1982 onwards, Jaimito "El Cartero", who lives up the stairs in #23. The hallway on the right between #71 and #72 leads to another other courtyard, which has a fountain in the middle. On the street facade at the left, a corner store and a barber shop are shown adjacent to the neighborhood's entry.
El Chavo was filmed in a fictitious neighborhood set at studios 2, 5, and 8 of Televisa San Ángel in Mexico City.
In the later seasons, sometimes an unnamed park was shown. Several episodes are set in Profesor Jirafales' classroom, where he teaches; all the child characters in the sitcom attend the same classroom, sometimes with their parents. Others are set inside Doña Florinda's restaurant, a barber shop, and a sidewalk located at the entrance of the vecindad. Three episodes were filmed in Acapulco, which also served as a vacation for the entire cast, forming the famous three-episode saga Vacaciones en Acapulco, which became a popular cult for fans. The last El Chavo sketches were filmed in 1992 in Profesor Jirafales' classroom. The final sketch for El Chavo was a 1992 remake of "Clases de Inglés".

Characters and cast

  • Roberto Gómez Bolaños as El Chavo
  • * The main character of the series, an 8-year-old boy, who arrives in the neighborhood after running away from an orphanage where his mom abandoned him. He is accustomed to hiding in a barrel located at the entrance of the neighborhood, but he lives in #8, where a nice lady lets him sleep. His real name does not come up in any of the episodes. One of his main traits is "the ''Garrotera" ,'' in which his body tenses and 'shrinks' to become paralyzed after being frightened. The cure is being splashed with cold water.
  • Carlos Villagrán as Quico
  • * An 8-year-old boy whose real name is Federico. In one of the episodes, it is mentioned that his father was a naval officer, so he is usually dressed in a sailor suit. He lives in #14 with his mother, Doña Florinda. He is arrogant and envious at the same time, which is why he usually gets into disagreements with other children in the neighborhood.
  • María Antonieta de las Nieves as La Chilindrina and Doña Nieves
  • * An 8-year-old freckled girl, daughter of Don Ramón. She is mischievous and intelligent. She is friends with El Chavo and Quico. She is in love with El Chavo, so she dislikes Paty, his love interest, in one of the episodes.
  • *Doña Nieves is the grandmother of Don Ramón, resembling La Chilindrina.
  • Ramón Valdés as Don Ramón
  • * Lives in #72 with his daughter Chilindrina. He is unemployed and over 14 months behind on rent, indebted to Señor Barriga, so he always tries to avoid him as soon as Señor Barriga enters the neighborhood.
  • Florinda Meza as Doña Florinda and Popis
  • * Lives in #14 with her son Quico. She is prideful, cocky, irritable and haughty. She belittles her neighbors due to financial situations, referring to them as "chusma". She is in love with Profesor Jirafales.
  • * Popis is the niece of Doña Florinda and generally stays with her in the apartment when she visits. She also attends the same class Profesor Jirafales teaches. She is always carrying a doll, Serafina. Popis is as her nickname is: stuck-up.
  • Rubén Aguirre as Profesor Jirafales
  • * An elementary school teacher where the neighborhood children attend. He has a romantic relationship with Doña Florinda. One of his most expressive characteristics is the exclamation, "Ta, ta, ta, taaaa, ta!" when he gets angry. His tall stature is made fun of amongst El Chavo and his friends. His name comes from the word "jirafa", another reference to his height.
  • Édgar Vivar as Señor Barriga and Ñoño
  • * The owner of the neighborhood. In most episodes, he is greeted by being hit by El Chavo while playing on the patio. Due to his obesity, his is constantly made fun of by the children.
  • * Ñoño is the son of Señor Barriga. He is obese and, like his father, is the target of ridicule by the other children. He also attends the same class Profesor Jirafales teaches.
  • Angelines Fernández as Doña Clotilde "La bruja del 71"
  • * A single woman who lives in #71. Her appearance and strange mannerisms dubbed her "The Witch of 71" by the neighborhood children. Having a dog named "Satanás" and conducting a spiritual session only confirmed the children's beliefs. She is in love with Don Ramón.
  • Horacio Gómez Bolaños as Godínez
  • * Attends the class Profesor Jirafales teaches. Normally ignores any questions directed at him.
  • Raúl Padilla as Jaimito "El Cartero"
  • * An old, gentle man in charge of the mail in the neighborhood. He lives alone. He always walks by his bike because, to get the mail delivery job, he was required to know how to bike. However, he lied.

    Symbols in the series

In the series, many objects are used as symbols of either the characters or the neighborhood itself. The most iconic of these was the wooden barrel near the neighborhood entrance. The barrel is used as El Chavo's "secret hiding place", and most characters within the show were unaware that he had an house where he lived. A running gag about this is that they believed this was El Chavo's actual residence, which El Chavo was quick to clarify. Other symbols in the series include Quico's ball and other toys, lollipops, and balloons that represent the children, Don Ramón's cap, Doña Florinda's curls, Profesor Jirafales' cigar, the flowers of the budding romance of the latter two, Doña Clotilde's broom, etc.

History

Origins

By 1971, Gómez Bolaños was already well known in Mexico for his self-titled sketch comedy show, Chespirito, which was produced by Televisión Independiente de México and aired on XHTIM-TV, channel 8. He had already introduced El Chapulín Colorado and other characters.
The first drawing of the show, created by Gómez Bolaños, premiered in 1972, and depicted an 8-year-old child competing with a balloon seller in a park. Character development was given much attention in the program, and each character was given a unique personality. Even though the program was about adults playing children, Gómez Bolaños decided from the start that El Chavo would be aimed at an adult audience.

Development and casting

Gómez Bolaños was the show's main creator and star. He first called Florinda Meza to act in the show; Chespirito and Meza later married. Vivar was the second actor chosen for the show. A mutual friend recommended Vivar to Gómez Bolaños when he started casting. Gómez Bolaños cited Vivar at Forum 8 at Telesistema Mexicano – where the shooting was taking place. Vivar showed up as a scene was shooting; he laughed, and the scene had to 'cut'. Gómez Bolaños approached him, asked him if he was Vivar, and told him they would not be using an earpiece, to which Vivar responded that he didn't know what he was talking about. He hired him on the spot. Gómez Bolaños recruited Valdés because he had known Valdés for years and had seen multiple movies Valdés had made. Then, Aguirre was cast in the show as the character of "Profesor Jirafales". Aguirre and Gómez Bolaños had been working on scripts together for years, and Aguirre had already been playing the character of Profesor Jirafales on another Chespirito show, Supergenios de la Mesa Cuadrada, which spoofed current events panel discussion. Villagrán just happened to be a friend of Aguirre and 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 Gómez Bolaños about his friend's hidden talent. Villagrán was promptly hired for the show. Antonieta de las Nieves was a voice-over-only actress who used to go to Televisa to make announcements. Hearing her voice, Roberto Gómez Bolaños thought she was perfect for the show. At first, she refused by telling him she was not a comedy actress. However, Gómez Bolaños' retort challenged her: "Then you're not a good actress; there are no dramatic or comic actors—there are only actors." The last additions to the show were Angelines Fernández, a former film actress, and Horacio Gómez Bolaños, Gómez Bolaños' younger brother who had never considered acting before, was tasked to oversee the show's marketing.
The first El Chavo sketch was "El ropavejero", broadcast on May 11, 1972, it was created to replace the sketch Los Chifladitos, in which Chespirito and Rubén Aguirre played two madmen, Chaparrón Bonaparte and Lucas Tañeda. As Rubén Aguirre had left the program, the sketch needed to be replaced, and that was when Chespirito created El Chavo Del Ocho. 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.