WEBVTT
00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:16.559
Every TV show begins with so much promise, but how many actually fulfill it by the finale?
00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:17.760
I'm Bobby Meadows.
00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:20.079
And I'm Angela Johnson Meadows.
00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:22.480
We're the couple that watches TV together.
00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:24.640
And this is how it started.
00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:31.120
How it ended, where we revisit the first and last episodes of some classic TV shows and answer one question.
00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:33.039
Did they stick the landing?
00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:41.840
So, Angela, what show are we talking about today?
00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:45.039
Today we're talking about Everybody Hates Chris.
00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:50.079
That's right, the semi-autobiographical tale of one of our favorite comedians, Chris Rock.
00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:52.079
Yeah, we saw him in concert.
00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:52.880
We did.
00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:54.479
We saw him a couple times.
00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:56.719
We saw him by himself.
00:00:56.719 --> 00:00:58.560
It was New Year's Eve one night.
00:00:58.719 --> 00:00:58.880
Yeah.
00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:00.880
Madison Square Garden.
00:01:01.039 --> 00:01:01.439
Exactly.
00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:05.359
And then we saw him a few years ago when he opened for Kevin Hart.
00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:12.159
Yeah, we have had a long, decades-long relationship with Chris Rock, even if he doesn't know it.
00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:20.879
I believe the first time I saw Chris Rock was on this comedian's showcase special, and then he joined SNL a few years later.
00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:23.120
Were you watching SNL when he was on there?
00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:26.000
Um, I think I was, although I don't really remember him.
00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:27.519
Was he only on for like a season?
00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:29.040
He was on longer than that.
00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:30.799
His character was Nat X.
00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:32.799
That was his signature character.
00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:34.000
I do remember that.
00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:42.719
But he was on against Adam Sandler and David Spade, Chris Farley, so he was, you know, he was but he was right in with those guys.
00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:44.640
Yeah, definitely remember that.
00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:48.719
Um and so that that was like late 80s at that point?
00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:50.959
Yeah, 80s into the 90s.
00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:56.719
Yeah, and then during that time he started to make his way in movies and he was in uh New Jack City.
00:01:56.719 --> 00:01:57.599
Did you see that?
00:01:57.599 --> 00:01:58.719
Well, of course.
00:01:58.719 --> 00:01:59.840
Of course you saw that.
00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:01.439
Why was I even asking you that?
00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:10.000
Yeah, and then he was on boom in Boomerang, and then he moved over to in Living Color for a I think I think he was on in Living Color for a season.
00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:18.639
Yeah, so he had some memorable movies and also some lines, I think, that people still to this day say, like, "Let me get one rib."
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:20.879
That's right.
00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:22.080
That was pretty good.
00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:24.240
I didn't know you did a Chris Rock impression, baby.
00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:24.800
Well, thank you.
00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:25.599
I didn't know either.
00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:28.319
Learn something new every day.
00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:29.280
There you go.
00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:38.560
And I think what really pushed Chris over because he was popular at the time, but I think what really pushed him over was this 1996 HBO special, Bring the Pain.
00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:46.400
Now that, I used to compare that with like Richard Pryor, the best of Richard Pryor, the best of Bill Cosby.
00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:49.840
And I remember telling my dad, Dad, you gotta watch this special.
00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:51.599
Did you watch that?
00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:52.639
I did.
00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:59.759
Yeah, I think that was when we really realized that he had what it takes to be a true comedian.
00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:06.080
His humor was just so pointed and you know, dealing with race relations and O.J.
00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:06.879
Simpson.
00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:11.120
And and then he had his HBO show, The Chris Rock Show.
00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:13.360
It was an amazing show.
00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:25.120
And the sketch that has always stayed with me and probably many people is him trying to get Howard Beach, a very segregated community in New York City, to rename a street after Tupac Shakur.
00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:30.319
And I know we just watched that sketch, so you can definitely speak to it.
00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:47.840
Yeah, I have to say I missed that show when it was airing in real time because I did not have HBO at the time, but yeah, I've been able to see some clips on uh YouTube and can see why why he got the attention of television execs.
00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:48.719
That's true.
00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:58.080
I mean he has an incredible story where he grew up and and how he rose from it, and so that's what Everybody Hates Chris talks about.
00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:00.719
And so I have to ask you, did you watch that show?
00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:05.199
I watched a few episodes, but I didn't watch it from start to finish.
00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:06.319
Same here.
00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:08.080
And yeah, I've wondered why.
00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:15.439
I do know when this show debuted, it was it was up against Joey.
00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:16.959
Yeah, when did it debut?
00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:21.120
It debuted in 2005, September 2005 on UPN.
00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:30.000
Yeah, which might explain why we didn't see it from the beginning, because that would have been our first anniversary.
00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:35.360
And we were out of the country at that time, so that that could very well be why.
00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:39.040
I know that the network had pretty high expectations for this show.
00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:44.079
It was compared to Cosby, which of course was the biggest show ever back in the 80s.
00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:51.680
Everybody Hates Chris followed the similar path in that it was about an African-American family, though it was very different.
00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:58.160
But yeah, the network had really high expectations, and you have to imagine that part of that reason was because of this cast.
00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:03.680
Now, Tyler James Williams has, of course, blown up, but he was just a kid at the time.
00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:06.000
Were you familiar with him back then?
00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:08.480
No, no, I had not heard of him.
00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:09.759
What about you?
00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:11.680
No, no, absolutely.
00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:13.360
I definitely hadn't.
00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:20.879
But the two actors who played the parents, Terry Cruz and Tishina Arnold, Tishina Arnold, especially.
00:05:20.879 --> 00:05:25.600
I mean, she was, I first saw her in Little Shop of Horrors way back in the day.
00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:30.160
And then, of course, she played Pam on the sitcom Martin.
00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:33.600
That actually might explain why I didn't watch the show.
00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:38.639
Because I will confess I was not a fan of Martin.
00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:39.680
Oh no.
00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:43.920
And I really didn't care for uh Tishina's character, Pam.
00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:48.160
So that wouldn't have been something that would draw me to a new show.
00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:54.800
She played the mom on the show, and then Terry Cruz played Julius, the father, her husband.
00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:58.000
And I was familiar with Terry.
00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:03.279
I know he had been in, at this point, he'd been in um a couple movies that I'd seen.
00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:10.079
And, you know, at the time he was he still wasn't that big yet, but now he's he's definitely huge.
00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:16.639
Including Everybody Hates Chris. he's been on three shows that have had nearly or more than 100 episodes.
00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:23.839
One of the things as we were prepping for the show that I thought was interesting is that there uh the kids in the show.
00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:35.680
So there's there's Chris, there's his brother Drew, and his sister Tanya, and then also um Chris's best friend, Greg.
00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:45.519
They were all 12 when they were cast in these roles, although they're all playing characters of different ages.
00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:47.519
So I just thought that was interesting.
00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:50.800
It's like it was a requirement to be 12 to be on the show.
00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:53.600
Well, I think that's a good jumping off point.
00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:59.839
How about we pause and go watch the show, and when we come back, we'll talk about how it started.
00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:02.000
All right, let's do this.
00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:21.040
Bobby, can you give the listeners a quick summary of what the pilot episode was all about?
00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:22.000
Absolutely.
00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:39.279
Um, in the pilot, what we see is Chris and his family, they open up, their living in the projects, but very quickly they move to Bed Sty, which is supposed to be a better neighborhood, though the family quickly finds that in this crack era that there's really no safe space.
00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:48.079
And the mother is really concerned that Chris goes to a school in an all-white neighborhood, and she's like those white kids, they get an education.
00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:50.319
So there's nothing that Chris can do about it.
00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:59.759
While his parent, while his siblings get to go to the neighborhood school, he has to take two buses to Corleone Junior High School, a godfather reference that I loved.
00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:09.120
This is in an all-white neighborhood where he's the only black student, and he immediately runs afoul of a bully, Joey Caruso, but also makes a friend, Greg.
00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:16.240
Meanwhile, at home, the pilot included a number of hilarious montages that really put on display the family life.
00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:22.079
Mom threatening spankings, dad worrying about money, Chris having to be in charge of his siblings.
00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:33.919
Really, the the plot goes on, and all the hilarious, all the hilarity stems from these really grounded real situations that again make me wonder why we didn't watch this series.
00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:52.720
I think what the show is setting up is that it's it's not just like this coming of age story about Chris, but it's also showing that Chris kind of doesn't feel like he fits in in all of the worlds that he encounters.
00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:56.799
So at school, as you mentioned, he's the only black kid there and feels out of place.
00:08:56.799 --> 00:09:07.840
And then at home, you know, he often feels like he's uh unappreciated or that what he can contribute to the family can be overlooked.
00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:13.840
Um and so I think that is something that will play out as uh as the show progresses.
00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:19.840
Yeah, that seems to make sense, and you're right, because uh he's 12 or I think 13, right?
00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:21.679
Yeah, he's 13, he says that at the beginning.
00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:23.200
And but he's gotta be a parent.
00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:25.679
And Drew's bigger than him, which he hates.
00:09:25.679 --> 00:09:27.600
He he says that's one of the worst things possible.
00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:34.480
So yeah, he's he seems like he's feeling like he's overlooked, and like you said, really unappreciated.
00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:40.240
Were there, you know, were there moments in these specific moments that you particularly liked?
00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:52.879
I think, you know, when I when I think back to that pilot episode, I don't know if there were specific moments, but there were were things definitely resonated with me.
00:09:52.879 --> 00:10:01.840
So in 1982, I was like somewhere in that mix, a little bit younger than Chris, a little bit older than Tanya.
00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:07.759
So that world that they were inhabiting looked very familiar to me.
00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:16.879
I also attended a predominantly white school, so I understood what Chris was experiencing when he went to school.
00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:26.799
I unfortunately did not have the neighborhood to come home to where I would see people that look like me, but I do understand being in a world where you are one of one.
00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:51.919
And then I think one of the things that stood out to me, and I wonder if Chris really recognized this when he was a kid, or if this was more of a reflection that he had since being an adult and perhaps having his own children is when he talks about, you know, he notices that his father is only one of four fathers on the block.
00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:58.080
So he recognizes that his family is different than most families and that they are a two-parent home.
00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:18.799
And that, you know, while his father might have not said to him directly, I love you, the fact that, when he says it in the show, like coming home from work was his father's way of saying "I love you." That and I think just everything that his father would do to make sure that his family had what it needed.
00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:25.200
And you and I, of course, both grew up with our parents, married parents, in the house with us.
00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:30.399
And so, I mean, I could certainly relate to that strong paternal figure in the house.
00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:37.440
I will tell you that, like I said, I mean, I found this pilot, I found the show just really, really delightful.
00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:39.919
It was, I found it so appealing.
00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:46.720
I thought that Toshina Arnold and and Terry Cruz had really great chemistry as a couple.
00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:55.039
I thought the kids were, you know, they weren't like, at least in the pilot, they weren't like smart alecky kids like you can sometimes get on TV.
00:11:55.039 --> 00:12:05.759
And I love that there was at one point, you know, you mentioned the Wonder Years earlier, and one of the things that really struck me was, you know, Chris Rock is doing narration.
00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:10.399
I forgot to mention that in the pilot, that Chris Rock narrates this entire show.
00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:32.159
And where we see Chris and his brother and sister leaving the house, and we see Keisha, the girl next door, and Chris fantasizes about her, and Chris Rock narrates, you know, the hey, the fantasy girl next door, and it made me wonder if she was going to be his Winnie Cooper, you know, the love of his life that he pines for for the duration of the series.
00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:35.360
But that's immediately undercut when she says hi to Drew.
00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:42.799
Chris, you know, he talks about how that Drew is his younger brother, but he's bigger than him, like you said, and he's cooler than him as well.
00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:45.840
So those, you know, I love those dynamics, love them.
00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:51.759
One of the things as I was watching it, and I was like thinking to myself, I am really enjoying the show.
00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:54.320
Why didn't I watch this when it was on?
00:12:54.320 --> 00:13:11.600
Because it was really well done, and I think in a way that we had previously watched Family Matters, and I kind of like sat through it because that was the show that we had picked to watch, but I didn't really enjoy watching those, those episodes.
00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:14.960
Whereas this one, like I might watch the full series now.
00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:18.000
I was seriously going to suggest we do that.
00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:32.559
I think one of the things that I really liked about this show was that it wasn't kind of like that syrupy sweet like sitcom moments with the music.
00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:38.720
Now they did, I don't know if you noticed this, they did have some like sitcom-y kind of music in certain places.
00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:44.559
But what played out in the show actually was almost counter that at times.
00:13:44.559 --> 00:14:02.879
But what I did appreciate was like there was a scene where it's after toward the end of the show, and you know, Chris has had some some challenges during the day where he, you know, he's encountered a bully who's taken his lunch money so he wasn't able to eat.
00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:06.639
So then when he got home, he was really hungry and he ate his father's dinner.
00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:25.679
The bully also stepped on his shoes, so the shoes that he had borrowed from his brother, his good dress shoes, to wear to school had been messed up, and so he used a towel to put shoe polish on them, which then obviously made that towel black.
00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:33.039
And there were moments when the mother, when she discovered this, she didn't yell at him.
00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:39.039
Like she sat down and had a really nice conversation and just said, you know, next time don't eat the biggest piece of chicken.
00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:39.600
Right.
00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:46.080
Um, but it is funny that then you later on she discovers the issue with the towel and she's like, What happened to my towel?
00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:59.120
But you also see that his father did the same thing, and that he's the one who didn't have the food to eat and perhaps should have been even more upset, but also didn't yell at his son for for making that choice.
00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:02.559
He kind of sat down with him and made sure he understood it.
00:15:02.559 --> 00:15:14.639
So in that way, it was a little bit Cosby-ish in the like my parents can be nice to me kind of thing, but it landed differently um than if you had been watching Cosby or another show like that.
00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:26.480
Yeah, and I think like you know, you certainly because he spent the the the pilot has a montage of Tichina Arnold's character yelling a hundred different ways she's gonna beat the kids.
00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:33.200
So you know that there's some bite to that, because this is still early 80s, so they're portraying it that way.
00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:35.600
Um, which was but yeah, you're right.
00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:43.200
I mean, I I love the scene, the scenes, the two scenes that you described with the parents sitting down with Chris and having conversations with him.
00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:47.120
And I love the button where she screams, what happened to my towel?
00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:50.480
Because that that actually, like as you said, that ends the episode.
00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:53.279
Alright, so I think that wraps it up for the pilot.
00:15:53.279 --> 00:16:00.480
So what we're gonna do now, we're gonna take a look at the finale, and when we come back, we're gonna talk about how it ended.
00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:03.200
Everybody hates Chris.
00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:13.039
Alright, so we just watched the finale that aired on May 8, 2009.
00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:16.879
Angela, why don't you let our listeners know what happened?
00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:18.080
Sure.
00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:34.480
In this episode, you know, Chris is now a sophomore in high school, and he's at risk of having to repeat 10th grade because he has had so many latenesses.
00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:41.759
So we see him struggling to be on time for the remainder of the school year.
00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:51.200
We also see Drew now has aspirations of being on Showtime at the Apollo, and Tanya is getting ready to graduate from sixth grade.
00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:56.320
Chris now attends Ta taglia High School, which is another Godfather reference.
00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:58.879
So I was so thrilled when I saw that.
00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:03.519
And that completely went over my head because I have not seen any of the Godfather movies.
00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:06.400
Which is still painful for me, but let's move on.
00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:12.240
You know, I thought that the finale, it really felt like a continuation of the story.
00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:13.680
The characters are all familiar.
00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:15.759
Julius is still concerned with money.
00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:17.359
There's another montage about that.
00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:23.920
Joey, it opens with Joey, the bully, punching out Chris, and so that is something else that had never changed.
00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:29.440
He and Vincent are still, I mean, um Greg, played by Vincent Martella.
00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:35.279
They're still buddies, and um, you know, uh Drew is still cool going out for the Apollo.
00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:38.640
So this felt like a real continuation of the series.
00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:56.559
Yeah, I think this is maybe unusual, and maybe because it was only on for five seasons, but yeah, the entire cast is, the entire core cast is the same, which I appreciated, and also agree with you, like I felt like I felt like I was watching a continuation of the show.
00:17:56.559 --> 00:18:03.680
I didn't feel like this had evolved or changed in such a dramatic way that I no longer recognized it.
00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:14.960
Although there were a few things that changed outside of the script of the show, and that you know, we started watching the show, it was on um UPN and now it's on CW.
00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:26.240
And that's uh a change that happened actually in the second season or before the second season because UPN actually went away um and then it got picked up by uh CW.
00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:30.160
But you know, to me it felt like the tone of the show was the same.
00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:41.759
The the tight-knit family that we met in that first episode is still the same, and you know Chris is still you know having his challenges.
00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:46.640
Um just making it through adolescence as he was in the beginning.
00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:49.039
So yeah, there was a lot of continuity there for me.
00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:50.000
Yeah, definitely.
00:18:50.000 --> 00:19:03.200
And you know, he's still facing the racism, you know, the I guess principal now who, you know, was speaking jive, I guess, when his mom came in to talk with him, and he was like, Mom, this is just what she does.
00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:07.039
And you know, it's funny, but you know, you definitely know he's still facing it.
00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:14.480
And it, the casting that I loved was when Drew was in the barber shop.
00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:16.960
You could tell that those were people who'd been on the show before.
00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:24.640
Ernest Thomas was there, Todd Bridges was there, uh, and then there were other people whose names I just don't know, but I'm sure they were familiar characters.
00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:38.400
One thing I appreciated about the guest starring roles of with Todd Bridges, particularly with Todd Bridges and Ernest Thompson, is that they both were on sitcoms and both family-focused sitcoms.
00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:43.519
And so the kind of that tie-in, I appreciated that nod.
00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:44.240
Right.
00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:47.920
And the montages continue just like they'd been in the pilot.
00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:51.839
This montage of all those guys singing "A House Is Not a Home."
00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:59.440
Yeah, they had they when they said they had all been on the Apollo and they all sang the same song.
00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:00.319
Right.
00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:03.200
Um, but glad that Drew did not go that route.
00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:04.240
Yes, yes.
00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:05.359
Drew was very cool.
00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:09.759
He played the bucket drums and then had dancers and he got applauded.
00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:15.519
And it's it's really like some some happy endings in many ways for a lot of the characters.
00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:18.480
Imani, as you mentioned, graduated sixth grade.
00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:19.279
But
00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:20.160
That'd be Tanya.
00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:23.039
Tanya, played by Imani, sorry.
00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:24.319
I'm getting them mixed up.
00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:26.400
Imani Hakim played Tanya.
00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:39.599
Chris is late to school one final time, and his principal tells him that he's gonna have to repeat 10th grade, and he decided, he told his parents he was going to drop out.
00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:40.960
Which is real life.
00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:45.039
That's what Chris Rock did, the actor, a comedian did.
00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:54.880
He dropped out at the same time, which made me wonder a lot about this show, like how much of it was from taken from Chris Rock's actual life.
00:20:55.200 --> 00:21:08.960
Yeah, and I when I read about the ending and I'm saying that they kind of thought this was the natural spot to end, because this is where real Chris's adolescence really ended.
00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:09.519
Right.
00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:19.200
Um, and so anything going forward from that, if you had kept Chris in school and like that would start to be really fabricated stories that weren't based on his life.
00:21:19.519 --> 00:21:59.839
Yeah, one other um point about the pilot was the finale that carried over was the opening of the pilot was a scene where Chris is imagining being famous, and he walks into the club, he's dressed like Run DMC, he's got women on his on his on his uh arms, and so there was a level of fantasy, surrealness that they had, and it happens again in the finale when he gets to his school and there's this massive shootout between the police and criminals, and he runs through it, and then he has to save a baby, and then he's uh accused of being a robber.
00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:04.079
And the police hold him at gunpoint and then let him go on.
00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:07.119
And so I'm wondering, is that surrealness?
00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:08.960
It must have been part of the show all along.
00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:12.880
And so I once again asking myself, why did I not watch this show?
00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:14.559
Because these seem to be my people.
00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:18.640
One of the things I thought was interesting is how they decided to end the show.
00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:28.400
So the episode focuses on, you know, once Chris has decided that he's not going back to school, somebody brings up the idea of him getting his GED.
00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:31.440
So he goes forward and he takes that test.
00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:40.160
And in the final scene, where the family is gathered for dinner at the diner and they're wondering how he did on the GED.
00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:50.319
And then the father comes in with the envelope and he's like, Yeah, I've got Chris's test results, and he opens the envelope, and I think Chris says, Oh, how'd I do?
00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:52.079
And then it just cuts to black.
00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:52.559
Right.
00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:53.920
And so you don't know.
00:22:53.920 --> 00:23:08.640
I mean, obviously, if you're gonna assume he did fine, you know, if this is semi-autobiographical, and you know, he went on to have a very good adult life, but it was it was very interesting that there was no closure of that.
00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:13.359
But that didn't bother me in a way that I think it might have in a different sitcom.
00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:24.079
Or a different HBO drama, because many, many people, this was an homage to The Sopranos, which ended exactly like that, and many people still hate that ending.
00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:33.039
And so when I saw it, you know, of course I immediately picked up on that, but I was also like, I appreciate the homage to The Sopranos.
00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:45.359
Because that was just fantastic because they're in the diner just like Tony and his wife were in The Sopranos, and there's that guy at the counter who appears kind of sketchy, Chris has his eye on him, and then he walks away, and yeah, like you say.
00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:52.160
It's funny listening to you and your perspective and all these like Godfather and Soprano tie-ins.
00:23:52.160 --> 00:24:00.960
Like, I wonder if that was a consistent thing throughout the show, and it does seem like Chris is very heavily influenced by mob culture.
00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:03.680
Or is that all just coincidence?
00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:04.160
Right.
00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:08.559
I wonder, yeah, is there a scenes somewhere along the way where somebody's asking, Am I a clown to you?
00:24:08.559 --> 00:24:10.799
just like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.
00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:14.480
I guess I will ask you this question.
00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:18.000
Maybe we already know the answer, but do you wish you had watched?
00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:19.440
I do.
00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:20.400
I do.
00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:27.440
I I I genuinely enjoyed the two episodes that we watched, and I think I would have enjoyed the series.
00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:30.079
And so yeah, it's going back to that question.
00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:31.599
Why didn't I watch it?
00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:32.720
Because it was really good.
00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:40.960
Maybe, maybe it's I'm a obviously uh 2026 me is very different than 2005 me.
00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:47.599
So maybe at that point I wasn't ready for a show like this, but uh it does hit really well uh with me right now.
00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:48.720
Yeah, I don't know.
00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:54.480
Obviously, I feel the same way, so I guess we have to keep our Hulu subscription for a while longer.
00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:56.960
And I guess I will ask you, you know, your verdict.
00:24:56.960 --> 00:24:59.920
Does this finale stick the landing?
00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:02.160
I think so.
00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:08.960
Yeah, I I actually appreciated that everything wasn't wrapped up in a nice bow.
00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:23.440
I mean, we did have some closure, like you know, uh Tanya graduated from sixth grade, Drew did really well on the Apollo, but we did have that one point with Chris where we kind of don't know kind of his fate in that.
00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:25.200
And but I'm okay with it.
00:25:25.200 --> 00:25:31.759
And I think I also appreciated that it was very consistent throughout the show that we watched in the pilot.
00:25:31.759 --> 00:25:36.240
It felt like we were watching the same show uh in the finale.
00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:40.160
Yeah, and I I also think it stuck the landing.
00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:51.119
Um, there was another line around the GED when Chris is trying to explain to his parents, and he's like, Bill Cosby got his GED, and his mother says, You want to be a comedian?
00:25:51.119 --> 00:25:55.680
So, so yes, um, I uh feel the same way.
00:25:55.680 --> 00:26:00.480
I thought it stuck the landing and um was really, really happy with this.
00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:07.759
So I guess that's it for "Everybody Hates Chris" until we turn on Hulu in a few minutes and watch episode two.
00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:10.960
Thank you for hanging out with us again.
00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:12.240
I'm Bobby Meadows.
00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:14.160
And I'm Angela Johnson Meadows.
00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:18.079
Join us next time back on the couch for "How It Started, How It Ended."
00:26:18.319 --> 00:26:22.480
Because endings matter, especially to the people who stick around.
00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:30.319
How It Started, How It Ended is produced by Bobby Meadows and Angela Johnson Meadows for Ain't We Cute Media.
00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:34.799
You can find how it started, how it ended wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
00:26:34.799 --> 00:26:40.480
And you can follow us on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram at how it started underscore how it ended.
00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:16.559
Every TV show begins with so much promise, but how many actually fulfill it by the finale?
00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:17.760
I'm Bobby Meadows.
00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:20.079
And I'm Angela Johnson Meadows.
00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:22.480
We're the couple that watches TV together.
00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:24.640
And this is how it started.
00:00:24.879 --> 00:00:31.120
How it ended, where we revisit the first and last episodes of some classic TV shows and answer one question.
00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:33.039
Did they stick the landing?
00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:41.840
So, Angela, what show are we talking about today?
00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:45.039
Today we're talking about Everybody Hates Chris.
00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:50.079
That's right, the semi-autobiographical tale of one of our favorite comedians, Chris Rock.
00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:52.079
Yeah, we saw him in concert.
00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:52.880
We did.
00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:54.479
We saw him a couple times.
00:00:54.479 --> 00:00:56.719
We saw him by himself.
00:00:56.719 --> 00:00:58.560
It was New Year's Eve one night.
00:00:58.719 --> 00:00:58.880
Yeah.
00:00:59.359 --> 00:01:00.880
Madison Square Garden.
00:01:01.039 --> 00:01:01.439
Exactly.
00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:05.359
And then we saw him a few years ago when he opened for Kevin Hart.
00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:12.159
Yeah, we have had a long, decades-long relationship with Chris Rock, even if he doesn't know it.
00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:20.879
I believe the first time I saw Chris Rock was on this comedian's showcase special, and then he joined SNL a few years later.
00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:23.120
Were you watching SNL when he was on there?
00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:26.000
Um, I think I was, although I don't really remember him.
00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:27.519
Was he only on for like a season?
00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:29.040
He was on longer than that.
00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:30.799
His character was Nat X.
00:01:30.799 --> 00:01:32.799
That was his signature character.
00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:34.000
I do remember that.
00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:42.719
But he was on against Adam Sandler and David Spade, Chris Farley, so he was, you know, he was but he was right in with those guys.
00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:44.640
Yeah, definitely remember that.
00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:48.719
Um and so that that was like late 80s at that point?
00:01:49.359 --> 00:01:50.959
Yeah, 80s into the 90s.
00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:56.719
Yeah, and then during that time he started to make his way in movies and he was in uh New Jack City.
00:01:56.719 --> 00:01:57.599
Did you see that?
00:01:57.599 --> 00:01:58.719
Well, of course.
00:01:58.719 --> 00:01:59.840
Of course you saw that.
00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:01.439
Why was I even asking you that?
00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:10.000
Yeah, and then he was on boom in Boomerang, and then he moved over to in Living Color for a I think I think he was on in Living Color for a season.
00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:18.639
Yeah, so he had some memorable movies and also some lines, I think, that people still to this day say, like, "Let me get one rib."
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:20.879
That's right.
00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:22.080
That was pretty good.
00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:24.240
I didn't know you did a Chris Rock impression, baby.
00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:24.800
Well, thank you.
00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:25.599
I didn't know either.
00:02:25.599 --> 00:02:28.319
Learn something new every day.
00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:29.280
There you go.
00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:38.560
And I think what really pushed Chris over because he was popular at the time, but I think what really pushed him over was this 1996 HBO special, Bring the Pain.
00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:46.400
Now that, I used to compare that with like Richard Pryor, the best of Richard Pryor, the best of Bill Cosby.
00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:49.840
And I remember telling my dad, Dad, you gotta watch this special.
00:02:49.840 --> 00:02:51.599
Did you watch that?
00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:52.639
I did.
00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:59.759
Yeah, I think that was when we really realized that he had what it takes to be a true comedian.
00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:06.080
His humor was just so pointed and you know, dealing with race relations and O.J.
00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:06.879
Simpson.
00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:11.120
And and then he had his HBO show, The Chris Rock Show.
00:03:11.120 --> 00:03:13.360
It was an amazing show.
00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:25.120
And the sketch that has always stayed with me and probably many people is him trying to get Howard Beach, a very segregated community in New York City, to rename a street after Tupac Shakur.
00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:30.319
And I know we just watched that sketch, so you can definitely speak to it.
00:03:30.639 --> 00:03:47.840
Yeah, I have to say I missed that show when it was airing in real time because I did not have HBO at the time, but yeah, I've been able to see some clips on uh YouTube and can see why why he got the attention of television execs.
00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:48.719
That's true.
00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:58.080
I mean he has an incredible story where he grew up and and how he rose from it, and so that's what Everybody Hates Chris talks about.
00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:00.719
And so I have to ask you, did you watch that show?
00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:05.199
I watched a few episodes, but I didn't watch it from start to finish.
00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:06.319
Same here.
00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:08.080
And yeah, I've wondered why.
00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:15.439
I do know when this show debuted, it was it was up against Joey.
00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:16.959
Yeah, when did it debut?
00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:21.120
It debuted in 2005, September 2005 on UPN.
00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:30.000
Yeah, which might explain why we didn't see it from the beginning, because that would have been our first anniversary.
00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:35.360
And we were out of the country at that time, so that that could very well be why.
00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:39.040
I know that the network had pretty high expectations for this show.
00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:44.079
It was compared to Cosby, which of course was the biggest show ever back in the 80s.
00:04:44.079 --> 00:04:51.680
Everybody Hates Chris followed the similar path in that it was about an African-American family, though it was very different.
00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:58.160
But yeah, the network had really high expectations, and you have to imagine that part of that reason was because of this cast.
00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:03.680
Now, Tyler James Williams has, of course, blown up, but he was just a kid at the time.
00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:06.000
Were you familiar with him back then?
00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:08.480
No, no, I had not heard of him.
00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:09.759
What about you?
00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:11.680
No, no, absolutely.
00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:13.360
I definitely hadn't.
00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:20.879
But the two actors who played the parents, Terry Cruz and Tishina Arnold, Tishina Arnold, especially.
00:05:20.879 --> 00:05:25.600
I mean, she was, I first saw her in Little Shop of Horrors way back in the day.
00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:30.160
And then, of course, she played Pam on the sitcom Martin.
00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:33.600
That actually might explain why I didn't watch the show.
00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:38.639
Because I will confess I was not a fan of Martin.
00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:39.680
Oh no.
00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:43.920
And I really didn't care for uh Tishina's character, Pam.
00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:48.160
So that wouldn't have been something that would draw me to a new show.
00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:54.800
She played the mom on the show, and then Terry Cruz played Julius, the father, her husband.
00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:58.000
And I was familiar with Terry.
00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:03.279
I know he had been in, at this point, he'd been in um a couple movies that I'd seen.
00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:10.079
And, you know, at the time he was he still wasn't that big yet, but now he's he's definitely huge.
00:06:10.079 --> 00:06:16.639
Including Everybody Hates Chris. he's been on three shows that have had nearly or more than 100 episodes.
00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:23.839
One of the things as we were prepping for the show that I thought was interesting is that there uh the kids in the show.
00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:35.680
So there's there's Chris, there's his brother Drew, and his sister Tanya, and then also um Chris's best friend, Greg.
00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:45.519
They were all 12 when they were cast in these roles, although they're all playing characters of different ages.
00:06:45.519 --> 00:06:47.519
So I just thought that was interesting.
00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:50.800
It's like it was a requirement to be 12 to be on the show.
00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:53.600
Well, I think that's a good jumping off point.
00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:59.839
How about we pause and go watch the show, and when we come back, we'll talk about how it started.
00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:02.000
All right, let's do this.
00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:21.040
Bobby, can you give the listeners a quick summary of what the pilot episode was all about?
00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:22.000
Absolutely.
00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:39.279
Um, in the pilot, what we see is Chris and his family, they open up, their living in the projects, but very quickly they move to Bed Sty, which is supposed to be a better neighborhood, though the family quickly finds that in this crack era that there's really no safe space.
00:07:39.279 --> 00:07:48.079
And the mother is really concerned that Chris goes to a school in an all-white neighborhood, and she's like those white kids, they get an education.
00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:50.319
So there's nothing that Chris can do about it.
00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:59.759
While his parent, while his siblings get to go to the neighborhood school, he has to take two buses to Corleone Junior High School, a godfather reference that I loved.
00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:09.120
This is in an all-white neighborhood where he's the only black student, and he immediately runs afoul of a bully, Joey Caruso, but also makes a friend, Greg.
00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:16.240
Meanwhile, at home, the pilot included a number of hilarious montages that really put on display the family life.
00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:22.079
Mom threatening spankings, dad worrying about money, Chris having to be in charge of his siblings.
00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:33.919
Really, the the plot goes on, and all the hilarious, all the hilarity stems from these really grounded real situations that again make me wonder why we didn't watch this series.
00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:52.720
I think what the show is setting up is that it's it's not just like this coming of age story about Chris, but it's also showing that Chris kind of doesn't feel like he fits in in all of the worlds that he encounters.
00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:56.799
So at school, as you mentioned, he's the only black kid there and feels out of place.
00:08:56.799 --> 00:09:07.840
And then at home, you know, he often feels like he's uh unappreciated or that what he can contribute to the family can be overlooked.
00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:13.840
Um and so I think that is something that will play out as uh as the show progresses.
00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:19.840
Yeah, that seems to make sense, and you're right, because uh he's 12 or I think 13, right?
00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:21.679
Yeah, he's 13, he says that at the beginning.
00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:23.200
And but he's gotta be a parent.
00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:25.679
And Drew's bigger than him, which he hates.
00:09:25.679 --> 00:09:27.600
He he says that's one of the worst things possible.
00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:34.480
So yeah, he's he seems like he's feeling like he's overlooked, and like you said, really unappreciated.
00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:40.240
Were there, you know, were there moments in these specific moments that you particularly liked?
00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:52.879
I think, you know, when I when I think back to that pilot episode, I don't know if there were specific moments, but there were were things definitely resonated with me.
00:09:52.879 --> 00:10:01.840
So in 1982, I was like somewhere in that mix, a little bit younger than Chris, a little bit older than Tanya.
00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:07.759
So that world that they were inhabiting looked very familiar to me.
00:10:07.759 --> 00:10:16.879
I also attended a predominantly white school, so I understood what Chris was experiencing when he went to school.
00:10:16.879 --> 00:10:26.799
I unfortunately did not have the neighborhood to come home to where I would see people that look like me, but I do understand being in a world where you are one of one.
00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:51.919
And then I think one of the things that stood out to me, and I wonder if Chris really recognized this when he was a kid, or if this was more of a reflection that he had since being an adult and perhaps having his own children is when he talks about, you know, he notices that his father is only one of four fathers on the block.
00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:58.080
So he recognizes that his family is different than most families and that they are a two-parent home.
00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:18.799
And that, you know, while his father might have not said to him directly, I love you, the fact that, when he says it in the show, like coming home from work was his father's way of saying "I love you." That and I think just everything that his father would do to make sure that his family had what it needed.
00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:25.200
And you and I, of course, both grew up with our parents, married parents, in the house with us.
00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:30.399
And so, I mean, I could certainly relate to that strong paternal figure in the house.
00:11:30.399 --> 00:11:37.440
I will tell you that, like I said, I mean, I found this pilot, I found the show just really, really delightful.
00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:39.919
It was, I found it so appealing.
00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:46.720
I thought that Toshina Arnold and and Terry Cruz had really great chemistry as a couple.
00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:55.039
I thought the kids were, you know, they weren't like, at least in the pilot, they weren't like smart alecky kids like you can sometimes get on TV.
00:11:55.039 --> 00:12:05.759
And I love that there was at one point, you know, you mentioned the Wonder Years earlier, and one of the things that really struck me was, you know, Chris Rock is doing narration.
00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:10.399
I forgot to mention that in the pilot, that Chris Rock narrates this entire show.
00:12:10.399 --> 00:12:32.159
And where we see Chris and his brother and sister leaving the house, and we see Keisha, the girl next door, and Chris fantasizes about her, and Chris Rock narrates, you know, the hey, the fantasy girl next door, and it made me wonder if she was going to be his Winnie Cooper, you know, the love of his life that he pines for for the duration of the series.
00:12:32.159 --> 00:12:35.360
But that's immediately undercut when she says hi to Drew.
00:12:35.360 --> 00:12:42.799
Chris, you know, he talks about how that Drew is his younger brother, but he's bigger than him, like you said, and he's cooler than him as well.
00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:45.840
So those, you know, I love those dynamics, love them.
00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:51.759
One of the things as I was watching it, and I was like thinking to myself, I am really enjoying the show.
00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:54.320
Why didn't I watch this when it was on?
00:12:54.320 --> 00:13:11.600
Because it was really well done, and I think in a way that we had previously watched Family Matters, and I kind of like sat through it because that was the show that we had picked to watch, but I didn't really enjoy watching those, those episodes.
00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:14.960
Whereas this one, like I might watch the full series now.
00:13:15.440 --> 00:13:18.000
I was seriously going to suggest we do that.
00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:32.559
I think one of the things that I really liked about this show was that it wasn't kind of like that syrupy sweet like sitcom moments with the music.
00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:38.720
Now they did, I don't know if you noticed this, they did have some like sitcom-y kind of music in certain places.
00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:44.559
But what played out in the show actually was almost counter that at times.
00:13:44.559 --> 00:14:02.879
But what I did appreciate was like there was a scene where it's after toward the end of the show, and you know, Chris has had some some challenges during the day where he, you know, he's encountered a bully who's taken his lunch money so he wasn't able to eat.
00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:06.639
So then when he got home, he was really hungry and he ate his father's dinner.
00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:25.679
The bully also stepped on his shoes, so the shoes that he had borrowed from his brother, his good dress shoes, to wear to school had been messed up, and so he used a towel to put shoe polish on them, which then obviously made that towel black.
00:14:25.679 --> 00:14:33.039
And there were moments when the mother, when she discovered this, she didn't yell at him.
00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:39.039
Like she sat down and had a really nice conversation and just said, you know, next time don't eat the biggest piece of chicken.
00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:39.600
Right.
00:14:39.600 --> 00:14:46.080
Um, but it is funny that then you later on she discovers the issue with the towel and she's like, What happened to my towel?
00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:59.120
But you also see that his father did the same thing, and that he's the one who didn't have the food to eat and perhaps should have been even more upset, but also didn't yell at his son for for making that choice.
00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:02.559
He kind of sat down with him and made sure he understood it.
00:15:02.559 --> 00:15:14.639
So in that way, it was a little bit Cosby-ish in the like my parents can be nice to me kind of thing, but it landed differently um than if you had been watching Cosby or another show like that.
00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:26.480
Yeah, and I think like you know, you certainly because he spent the the the pilot has a montage of Tichina Arnold's character yelling a hundred different ways she's gonna beat the kids.
00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:33.200
So you know that there's some bite to that, because this is still early 80s, so they're portraying it that way.
00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:35.600
Um, which was but yeah, you're right.
00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:43.200
I mean, I I love the scene, the scenes, the two scenes that you described with the parents sitting down with Chris and having conversations with him.
00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:47.120
And I love the button where she screams, what happened to my towel?
00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:50.480
Because that that actually, like as you said, that ends the episode.
00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:53.279
Alright, so I think that wraps it up for the pilot.
00:15:53.279 --> 00:16:00.480
So what we're gonna do now, we're gonna take a look at the finale, and when we come back, we're gonna talk about how it ended.
00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:03.200
Everybody hates Chris.
00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:13.039
Alright, so we just watched the finale that aired on May 8, 2009.
00:16:13.039 --> 00:16:16.879
Angela, why don't you let our listeners know what happened?
00:16:17.519 --> 00:16:18.080
Sure.
00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:34.480
In this episode, you know, Chris is now a sophomore in high school, and he's at risk of having to repeat 10th grade because he has had so many latenesses.
00:16:34.480 --> 00:16:41.759
So we see him struggling to be on time for the remainder of the school year.
00:16:41.759 --> 00:16:51.200
We also see Drew now has aspirations of being on Showtime at the Apollo, and Tanya is getting ready to graduate from sixth grade.
00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:56.320
Chris now attends Ta taglia High School, which is another Godfather reference.
00:16:56.320 --> 00:16:58.879
So I was so thrilled when I saw that.
00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:03.519
And that completely went over my head because I have not seen any of the Godfather movies.
00:17:03.840 --> 00:17:06.400
Which is still painful for me, but let's move on.
00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:12.240
You know, I thought that the finale, it really felt like a continuation of the story.
00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:13.680
The characters are all familiar.
00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:15.759
Julius is still concerned with money.
00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:17.359
There's another montage about that.
00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:23.920
Joey, it opens with Joey, the bully, punching out Chris, and so that is something else that had never changed.
00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:29.440
He and Vincent are still, I mean, um Greg, played by Vincent Martella.
00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:35.279
They're still buddies, and um, you know, uh Drew is still cool going out for the Apollo.
00:17:35.279 --> 00:17:38.640
So this felt like a real continuation of the series.
00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:56.559
Yeah, I think this is maybe unusual, and maybe because it was only on for five seasons, but yeah, the entire cast is, the entire core cast is the same, which I appreciated, and also agree with you, like I felt like I felt like I was watching a continuation of the show.
00:17:56.559 --> 00:18:03.680
I didn't feel like this had evolved or changed in such a dramatic way that I no longer recognized it.
00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:14.960
Although there were a few things that changed outside of the script of the show, and that you know, we started watching the show, it was on um UPN and now it's on CW.
00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:26.240
And that's uh a change that happened actually in the second season or before the second season because UPN actually went away um and then it got picked up by uh CW.
00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:30.160
But you know, to me it felt like the tone of the show was the same.
00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:41.759
The the tight-knit family that we met in that first episode is still the same, and you know Chris is still you know having his challenges.
00:18:41.759 --> 00:18:46.640
Um just making it through adolescence as he was in the beginning.
00:18:46.640 --> 00:18:49.039
So yeah, there was a lot of continuity there for me.
00:18:49.359 --> 00:18:50.000
Yeah, definitely.
00:18:50.000 --> 00:19:03.200
And you know, he's still facing the racism, you know, the I guess principal now who, you know, was speaking jive, I guess, when his mom came in to talk with him, and he was like, Mom, this is just what she does.
00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:07.039
And you know, it's funny, but you know, you definitely know he's still facing it.
00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:14.480
And it, the casting that I loved was when Drew was in the barber shop.
00:19:14.480 --> 00:19:16.960
You could tell that those were people who'd been on the show before.
00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:24.640
Ernest Thomas was there, Todd Bridges was there, uh, and then there were other people whose names I just don't know, but I'm sure they were familiar characters.
00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:38.400
One thing I appreciated about the guest starring roles of with Todd Bridges, particularly with Todd Bridges and Ernest Thompson, is that they both were on sitcoms and both family-focused sitcoms.
00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:43.519
And so the kind of that tie-in, I appreciated that nod.
00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:44.240
Right.
00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:47.920
And the montages continue just like they'd been in the pilot.
00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:51.839
This montage of all those guys singing "A House Is Not a Home."
00:19:54.160 --> 00:19:59.440
Yeah, they had they when they said they had all been on the Apollo and they all sang the same song.
00:19:59.839 --> 00:20:00.319
Right.
00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:03.200
Um, but glad that Drew did not go that route.
00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:04.240
Yes, yes.
00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:05.359
Drew was very cool.
00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:09.759
He played the bucket drums and then had dancers and he got applauded.
00:20:09.759 --> 00:20:15.519
And it's it's really like some some happy endings in many ways for a lot of the characters.
00:20:15.519 --> 00:20:18.480
Imani, as you mentioned, graduated sixth grade.
00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:19.279
But
00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:20.160
That'd be Tanya.
00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:23.039
Tanya, played by Imani, sorry.
00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:24.319
I'm getting them mixed up.
00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:26.400
Imani Hakim played Tanya.
00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:39.599
Chris is late to school one final time, and his principal tells him that he's gonna have to repeat 10th grade, and he decided, he told his parents he was going to drop out.
00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:40.960
Which is real life.
00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:45.039
That's what Chris Rock did, the actor, a comedian did.
00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:54.880
He dropped out at the same time, which made me wonder a lot about this show, like how much of it was from taken from Chris Rock's actual life.
00:20:55.200 --> 00:21:08.960
Yeah, and I when I read about the ending and I'm saying that they kind of thought this was the natural spot to end, because this is where real Chris's adolescence really ended.
00:21:09.200 --> 00:21:09.519
Right.
00:21:09.759 --> 00:21:19.200
Um, and so anything going forward from that, if you had kept Chris in school and like that would start to be really fabricated stories that weren't based on his life.
00:21:19.519 --> 00:21:59.839
Yeah, one other um point about the pilot was the finale that carried over was the opening of the pilot was a scene where Chris is imagining being famous, and he walks into the club, he's dressed like Run DMC, he's got women on his on his on his uh arms, and so there was a level of fantasy, surrealness that they had, and it happens again in the finale when he gets to his school and there's this massive shootout between the police and criminals, and he runs through it, and then he has to save a baby, and then he's uh accused of being a robber.
00:21:59.839 --> 00:22:04.079
And the police hold him at gunpoint and then let him go on.
00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:07.119
And so I'm wondering, is that surrealness?
00:22:07.119 --> 00:22:08.960
It must have been part of the show all along.
00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:12.880
And so I once again asking myself, why did I not watch this show?
00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:14.559
Because these seem to be my people.
00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:18.640
One of the things I thought was interesting is how they decided to end the show.
00:22:18.640 --> 00:22:28.400
So the episode focuses on, you know, once Chris has decided that he's not going back to school, somebody brings up the idea of him getting his GED.
00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:31.440
So he goes forward and he takes that test.
00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:40.160
And in the final scene, where the family is gathered for dinner at the diner and they're wondering how he did on the GED.
00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:50.319
And then the father comes in with the envelope and he's like, Yeah, I've got Chris's test results, and he opens the envelope, and I think Chris says, Oh, how'd I do?
00:22:50.319 --> 00:22:52.079
And then it just cuts to black.
00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:52.559
Right.
00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:53.920
And so you don't know.
00:22:53.920 --> 00:23:08.640
I mean, obviously, if you're gonna assume he did fine, you know, if this is semi-autobiographical, and you know, he went on to have a very good adult life, but it was it was very interesting that there was no closure of that.
00:23:08.640 --> 00:23:13.359
But that didn't bother me in a way that I think it might have in a different sitcom.
00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:24.079
Or a different HBO drama, because many, many people, this was an homage to The Sopranos, which ended exactly like that, and many people still hate that ending.
00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:33.039
And so when I saw it, you know, of course I immediately picked up on that, but I was also like, I appreciate the homage to The Sopranos.
00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:45.359
Because that was just fantastic because they're in the diner just like Tony and his wife were in The Sopranos, and there's that guy at the counter who appears kind of sketchy, Chris has his eye on him, and then he walks away, and yeah, like you say.
00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:52.160
It's funny listening to you and your perspective and all these like Godfather and Soprano tie-ins.
00:23:52.160 --> 00:24:00.960
Like, I wonder if that was a consistent thing throughout the show, and it does seem like Chris is very heavily influenced by mob culture.
00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:03.680
Or is that all just coincidence?
00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:04.160
Right.
00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:08.559
I wonder, yeah, is there a scenes somewhere along the way where somebody's asking, Am I a clown to you?
00:24:08.559 --> 00:24:10.799
just like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas.
00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:14.480
I guess I will ask you this question.
00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:18.000
Maybe we already know the answer, but do you wish you had watched?
00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:19.440
I do.
00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:20.400
I do.
00:24:20.400 --> 00:24:27.440
I I I genuinely enjoyed the two episodes that we watched, and I think I would have enjoyed the series.
00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:30.079
And so yeah, it's going back to that question.
00:24:30.079 --> 00:24:31.599
Why didn't I watch it?
00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:32.720
Because it was really good.
00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:40.960
Maybe, maybe it's I'm a obviously uh 2026 me is very different than 2005 me.
00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:47.599
So maybe at that point I wasn't ready for a show like this, but uh it does hit really well uh with me right now.
00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:48.720
Yeah, I don't know.
00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:54.480
Obviously, I feel the same way, so I guess we have to keep our Hulu subscription for a while longer.
00:24:54.480 --> 00:24:56.960
And I guess I will ask you, you know, your verdict.
00:24:56.960 --> 00:24:59.920
Does this finale stick the landing?
00:25:00.960 --> 00:25:02.160
I think so.
00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:08.960
Yeah, I I actually appreciated that everything wasn't wrapped up in a nice bow.
00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:23.440
I mean, we did have some closure, like you know, uh Tanya graduated from sixth grade, Drew did really well on the Apollo, but we did have that one point with Chris where we kind of don't know kind of his fate in that.
00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:25.200
And but I'm okay with it.
00:25:25.200 --> 00:25:31.759
And I think I also appreciated that it was very consistent throughout the show that we watched in the pilot.
00:25:31.759 --> 00:25:36.240
It felt like we were watching the same show uh in the finale.
00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:40.160
Yeah, and I I also think it stuck the landing.
00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:51.119
Um, there was another line around the GED when Chris is trying to explain to his parents, and he's like, Bill Cosby got his GED, and his mother says, You want to be a comedian?
00:25:51.119 --> 00:25:55.680
So, so yes, um, I uh feel the same way.
00:25:55.680 --> 00:26:00.480
I thought it stuck the landing and um was really, really happy with this.
00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:07.759
So I guess that's it for "Everybody Hates Chris" until we turn on Hulu in a few minutes and watch episode two.
00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:10.960
Thank you for hanging out with us again.
00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:12.240
I'm Bobby Meadows.
00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:14.160
And I'm Angela Johnson Meadows.
00:26:14.480 --> 00:26:18.079
Join us next time back on the couch for "How It Started, How It Ended."
00:26:18.319 --> 00:26:22.480
Because endings matter, especially to the people who stick around.
00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:30.319
How It Started, How It Ended is produced by Bobby Meadows and Angela Johnson Meadows for Ain't We Cute Media.
00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:34.799
You can find how it started, how it ended wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
00:26:34.799 --> 00:26:40.480
And you can follow us on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram at how it started underscore how it ended.
