A visitor poses next to a wax figure of El chavo del ocho performed by comedian Roberto Gómez Bolaños at the Wax Museum in Mexico City in 2014 (Credit: Portal/Carlos Jasso)
Like it or not, a lot of television comedy in Mexico stems from it Roberto Gomez Bolaños, Chespirito. As a writer, screenwriter and producer, he also worked to train other stars until he got the chance to shine and become one of the most admired characters on the small screen.
Just before the beginning of the 1970s, Gómez Bolaño was offered his own half-hour on television XHTM TV, channel 8, this retail chain owned by Eugenio Garza Sada, owner of Grupo Monterrey and Teleproductora Independiente de México (TIM). In this signal, the brilliant librettist presented Los supergenios de la mesa cuadrada and later Chespirito, a program based on various sketches from which emerged El chapulín Coronado and The guy from 8.
The latter, El chavo del 8, was given its own half-hour series, consisting of one episode per week, airing on Channel 8 in prime time and then at 8pm. The plot was very simple: to portray the experiences of a group of people living in a neighborhood where its main character, El Chavo (a boy played by Gómez Bolaños), together with his friends, performed pranks that were mostly innocent and comical, often in Misunderstandings and quarrels between the neighbors themselves ended.
Rubén Aguirre (“Professor Jirafales”), María Antonieta de las Nieves (“Chilindrina”), Ramón Valdés (“Don Ramón”), Florinda Meza (“Doña Florinda”/”la Popis”), Carlos Villagrán (“Quico”) Édgar Vivar (“Ñoño”/”señor Barriga”), Angelines Fernández (“doña Clotilde”) and many others were part of this universe, which was first broadcast on June 20, 1971.
“My father tried to find universal children’s values, with characters that can have great contradictions and opposing elements, that’s how comedy is born (…) and he knew it perfectly,” said Roberto Gómez Fernández, Chespirito’s son, in an interview for the program The story behind the myth.
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By 1972, the adventures and misadventures of this child (played by a then 42-year-old adult) had become one of the most successful programs on Channel 8, taking first place among audiences with 55 to 60 ratings.
Businessman Emilio Azcárraga Milmo would have tricked Gómez Bolaños into getting El Chavo to move his neighborhood to Channel 2 of Telesistema Mexicano with the promise of a better salary.
The comedian, loyal to Garza Sada, initially turned down the tempting offer. But fate led to the fact that the ambitious businessman and the creative comedian met again. in 1973 when Channel 2 and Channel 8 merged to form Televisa. Anything Chespirito created would also be part of the catalogue the resulting chain.
In April 1973, Televisa announced with great fanfare the arrival of a new child in its famous starry space, but made a risky decision: since it would no longer be broadcast on Channel 8, They thought about changing the name in honor of their new home, Channel 2, and then giving it a call The guy from 2.
“The guy who’s worth two. Because Chavo is so good (…), now he’s with Televisa. See 2’s new Chavo. Mischievous, friendlier and funnier than ever in the solid image with national projection. El Chavo is waiting for you at 2. The most important channel in the Spanish-speaking world”, was part of the advertisement carried out.
The decision obviously failed and Gómez Bolaños was able to keep the original name of his program.
To justify the use of 8, Gómez Bolaños explains in his book El diario de El Chavo del Ocho that his character did not live in a barrel, but that this was only his “occasional” hiding place and that he did in fact have an address, a House number 8 in the neighborhood, a house that was never seen on camera.
According to the same book, the infant was abandoned by its mother in a nursery; He later escaped and arrived in the neighborhood, where an old woman (who also did not appear on screen) greeted him.
“This 8-year-old old lady’s hands were shaking badly, so she couldn’t do many things. That’s why I helped her (…) until one day I came home and noticed that her hands weren’t shaking anymore. Hands.” ; and she was very, very quiet. I believe she was buried the next day. But shortly after that, another person came to occupy house number 8, so I had to leave there. However, since I already had many friends in the neighborhood, one day they invited me to sleep in their house and another day in another.”
“El chavo del 8” became one of the biggest hits on television, retaining its name and popularity to this day.