| Everybody Hates Chris | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by | |
| Based on | Teenage years of Chris Rock |
| Starring | |
| Narrated by | Chris Rock |
| Music by | Marcus Miller |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 88(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | |
| Production locations | Paramount Studios,Los Angeles,California |
| Cinematography | Mark Doering-Powell |
| Editors |
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| Camera setup | Single-camera |
| Running time | 21–23 minutes |
| Production companies |
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| Original release | |
| Network | UPN |
| Release | September 22, 2005 (2005-09-22) – May 11, 2006 (2006-05-11) |
| Network | The CW |
| Release | October 1, 2006 (2006-10-01) – May 8, 2009 (2009-05-08) |
| Related | |
| Everybody Still Hates Chris | |
Everybody Hates Chris (stylized inall lowercase) is an Americanself-parodysitcom created byChris Rock andAli LeRoi that originally aired onUPN from 2005 to 2006, and then onThe CW until 2009.[1] The series is based loosely on Rock's personal experiences as a teenager living inBedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City from 1982 to 1987. However, Rock's real-life adolescence took place from 1978 to 1984, having been born in 1965.[2][3][4][5][6]
The series' title is a parody of theCBS sitcomEverybody Loves Raymond. It was originally developed to air onFox before being passed over to the UPN.[7] The series was shown on UPN for its first season until it was moved to the CW, where it aired its remaining three seasons. In 2009, Rock announced that the series' ending suited his own past and he felt it was time to end the story.[8][9][10] It received acclaim from both critics and audience for its writing, directing, humor, tone, and performances of the cast.
The show is afamily sitcom, patterned on Chris Rock's recollection of his teenage years growing up in the 1980s with a wholesome, tight-knit, African-American family, while living in drug-and-gang infestedBedford–Stuyvesant, a neighborhood ofBrooklyn,New York, and also attending a cross-town, all-white public junior high school.[4][5][7][10][12]
The real-life Chris Rock provides intermittent narration throughout the show, at times interjecting his young self's thoughts or sometimes simply recounting the situation he's describing.
Chris's family is firmly dominated by strong, loving parents: Julius, a hard-working, frugal laborer who works two jobs while remaining carefully loyal to his wife,[3][11][12] Rochelle, a conscientious and powerful housewife (later the manager of a beauty salon) and mother who is fiercely protective of the family, while also being fiercely demanding of all in it, especially eldest son Chris.[3][11][12]
The series starts just after the parents have moved their children "out of the [low-income housing] projects," and into a more-upscale two-story apartment in Brooklyn's Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood—known for its roughness as "Bed-Stuy, do-or-die."[4][12]
Chris is a skinny, nerdy young teen.[3][11] His mother decides to send him to a mostly-white school across town ("two bus rides away") in an ethnic-Italian neighborhood to ensure he gets a better education. The school is slyly named "Corleone Junior High School" (an apparent reference to the fictionalCorleone mafia family from the movieThe Godfather or its real-life parallel, theCorleonesi).[6][4][12]
Chris finds the new school difficult to adjust to because of social ostracism and the ire of a red-haired bully named Caruso. Ms. Morello, a well-meaning white teacher, treats Chris with naive, condescending assumptions derived from crude racial/ghetto stereotypes. She later becomes the principal of Chris's high school. The bright spot in school is Chris's best friend, Greg (played byVincent Martella)—a smaller but similarly nerdy white kid.[3][5][11]
At home, Chris is often left in charge of his siblings—his younger-but-bigger brother, Drew, and an ornery little sister, Tonya.[4][12] Mother Rochelle usually keeps a firm grip on the family, while their exhausted breadwinner father, Julius, struggles to catch sleep between jobs.[12]
Chris interacts with various characters in the neighborhood—diverse personalities based on real people Rock would see as a kid in his community. These personalities include some hoodlums who try to take advantage of him, a demented old homeless man nicknamed Kill Moves, a shrewd, miserly-but-grandfatherly storekeeper named Doc, and Doc's neurotic, paranoid, combat-veteran nephew Monk. For several episodes, an overbearing neighbor lady is played byWhoopi Goldberg, grandmother of Tasha, a pretty girl, next door.
The show—laced with comedy andfarce—is primarily about adolescence and family life in inner-city poverty, the determined struggles of good, decent parents to provide a better life and values for their family, and the challenges their children present to them, and to each other.[3] The series is an example of1980s nostalgia.[13]
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 22 | September 22, 2005 | May 11, 2006 | |
| 2 | 22 | October 1, 2006 | May 14, 2007 | |
| 3 | 22 | October 1, 2007 | May 18, 2008 | |
| 4 | 22 | October 3, 2008 | May 8, 2009 | |
UPN
The CW
| Season | Time Slot (ET/PT) | Season Premiere | Season Finale | TV Season | Rank | Viewers (in millions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thursday 8:00 PM | September 22, 2005 | May 11, 2006 | 2005–2006 | #120 | 4.3 |
| 2 | Sunday 7:00 PM | October 1, 2006 | October 8, 2006 | 2006–2007 | #137 | 2.7 |
| Monday 8:00 PM | October 16, 2006 | May 14, 2007 | ||||
| 3 | Monday 8:00 PM | October 1, 2007 | December 10, 2007 | 2007–2008 | #198 | 2.3 |
| Sunday 8:00 PM | March 2, 2008 | May 18, 2008 | ||||
| 4 | Friday 8:00 PM | October 3, 2008 | May 8, 2009 | 2008–2009 | #176 | 1.7 |
The show aired regularly on broadcast TV during the week, and aired onFox,MyNetworkTV andThe CW affiliates. The show started airing on September 7, 2009, onNick at Nite, becoming the youngest syndicated show onNickelodeon. The series has since aired onTeenNick,TV One,Up,MTV2,VH1,BET,BET Her, andFuse,Bounce TV andLaff. The series currently airs on the free-to-airDABL network.[16]
In Canada, the show has aired on the networksYTV andMuch. In the UK, the show formerly aired onChannel 5,Paramount Comedy 1 andSky Comedy. InBrazil, the series premiered onRecordTV in October 2006 and, as of 2022, reruns are still regularly broadcast on Sundays due to its immense popularity in the country.
In Kenya, the show aired onKenya Television Network between 2006 and 2009. Between 2006 and 2008, the series used to air on Sunday at 7:35 am. In 2009, the show used to air on the same TV channel on Saturday 7:35 am.
Everybody Hates Chris wonNAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series (for Ali LeRoi), Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series (for Tichina Arnold), and Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series (for Tyler James Williams).[17][18] It has also been nominated for aGolden Globe and threeEmmy Awards. In December 2008,Entertainment Weekly listed theKwanzaa episode from this show as seventh on the magazine's "Must List: 10 Holiday Things We Love."[19]
All four seasons ofEverybody Hates Chris were released on DVD by Paramount (under the labelCBS DVD) inRegion 1 andRegion 2.[20][21][22][23] The complete series was released on DVD on August 18, 2009.[24]
The series is available to stream onParamount+,[25]Amazon Prime Video (included with Prime, and through Paramount+),[26]Hulu,[27]Disney+ (through Hulu), andPeacock,[28] and can be streamed for free onCW Seed,ITV X,Pluto TV, andTubi.[29][30][31] The series is often streamed with Season 1 incomplete, but Paramount+ and Peacock now have the complete season set. The series is also available to be purchased on theiTunes Store,Google TV,YouTube, andVudu. InMexico, the series is available to stream onHBO Max andAmazon Prime Video.[citation needed]
TheKazakh sitcomAta-Ana, Bala-Şağa is based on this sitcom, but, instead of moving to Bedford-Stuyvesant, the family moves to the city ofAlmaty.
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