User Reviews

"Who's Been Sleeping in My Car?" opened the fourth season of CHICO AND THE MAN, the producers coming up with a new Chico totally unlike the departed Freddie Prinze. The answer, for better or worse, was 12 year old Gabriel Melgar as Raul Garcia, a stowaway on Ed's recent trip south of the border, sleeping with the fishes in the trunk of his car. Ed is dividing the spoils with Louie, who objects to getting all of the smaller ones: "little fish taste better...that's why big fish eat the little fish!" Raul pops out of the trunk, demanding the 50 cents he charged for loading the fish, dismayed to learn that he's now in East Los Angeles rather than Tijuana. By morning the boy makes himself right at home, sweeping up the garage as Chico used to do, and managing to charm Della out of a free meal. When 'Uncle Ed' suggests calling immigration or driving Raul back to Tijuana himself, the kid runs away. At the very end, the two sleeping in Ed's bed, the Man accidentally says good night to 'Chico': "by me, all you kids are named Chico!" (so much for justifying the title). Much of it echoes the pilot, though now with an even younger Chico (Bill McLean even returns as a customer). If rehashing old material was the best that the producers could come up with, then the series was truly doomed to the same early grave as the late and much missed Freddie Prinze.