El Chavo del Ocho, often shortened to El Chavo, is a Mexican television sitcom series created by Roberto Gómez Bolaños (Chespirito). The show was based on a series of sketches performed on Gómez's eponymous sketch show, Chespirito, which were first performed in 1972. El Chavo became its own series in 1973 and aired until 1980, becoming one of the most popular television programs in the world. Following its cancellation and the relaunch of Chespirito, the El Chavo sketches returned in 1980 and continued to be performed on Chespirito until 1992 when Gómez Bolaños, by this point in his sixties, discontinued them due to his advancing age.

The show follows the life and tribulations of the title character, a poor orphan child (played by Roberto Gómez Bolaños) that lives on a Mexican housing complex, typically called a vecindad. He is accompanied by a cast of neighbors, children, and other characters. All the characters, including the children, were played by adults on El Chavo.

Summary Character Chespirito El Chavo Chespirito El Chavo Animado 1972 1973 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 El Chavo colspan="55" La Chilindrina colspan="3" colspan="18" colspan="55" Quico colspan="8" colspan="14" colspan="7" Don Ramón colspan="9" colspan="10" colspan="7" Doña Florinda colspan="21" colspan="55" Doña Clotilde colspan="21" colspan="1" colspan="7" Señor Barriga colspan="21" colspan="1" colspan="7" Profesor Jirafales colspan="55" Doña Nieves colspan="6" colspan="7" colspan="4" colspan="1" colspan="55" Jaimito, el cartero colspan="8" colspan="2" colspan="1" colspan="10" colspan="1" colspan="7" Popis colspan="3" colspan="5" colspan="55" Noño colspan="3" colspan="5" colspan="55" Godínez colspan="3" colspan="6" colspan="6" colspan="6" colspan="8"

Main characters El Chavo

Portrayed by Roberto Gómez Bolaños Years: 1972–1992

El Chavo del Ocho is an 8-year-old orphan and the main protagonist of the series. "Chavo" is a Mexican Spanish slang for "kid" or "boy"; Chavo's real name is unknown. Generally, Chavo is very enthusiastic, creative and good-natured, but on the other hand he is also rather naïve and very gullible. He is not particularly bright (which Roberto Gómez Bolaños insinuated on the launch of the animated series may be a consequence of poor nutrition) and is remarkably clumsy, often hitting Quico, Don Ramón and Señor Barriga with balls, brooms, shoes, hammers, bricks, chairs and other objects. Chavo's typical attire consists of a green plaid baseball cap with ear flaps, a striped t-shirt, khaki shorts held up by a pair of orange suspenders he wears with both straps over one shoulder, and brown shoes without socks.

Chavo arrived at the neighborhood at the age of four and apparently lived in the apartment #8 with an elderly woman (who is never seen, but is mentioned in the novel El diario de El Chavo del 8). After her death, Chavo still lives in the apartment, although he spends most of his time inside an abandoned barrel that he calls his "secret hideout". He has a great craving for ham sandwiches, a popular kind of sandwich in Mexico. He has a big crush on Paty, along with his best friend and rival, Quico (which is their first fight over their crush, although she kisses Chavo in the animated series). Despite being a hungry 8-year-old child, he seems to have an incredible physical strength, since his punches are able to stun or even topple a full-grown man, mostly Don Ramón. One of his main traits is "the Garrotera" (Stiffs), in which his body tenses and 'shrinks' to become paralyzed after being frightened. The cure is being splashed with cold water. He has supposed friend called Chente, short for Vicente, but probably is just a imaginary friend. According to Chavo, looks a lot like himself.

In the English dub of the animated adaptation, he is voiced by Mona Marshall. Unlike in the original series and the original Spanish version of the animated series, instead of being called "Chavito", he is called "Chavorino" by his friends sometimes. Also, the "El" part of his name was officially removed from his character's bios in the animated series, possibly to keep in with the show's English production on Americanizing the series. Instead of ham tortas, he has a great craving for ham sandwiches, although the Christmas specials state that he also has cravings for jelly sandwiches for mysterious reasons, but those jelly sandwiches are actually ham tortas (ham sandwiches) in the original Spanish version, called jelly sandwiches in the English version. Also, his friend "Vicente" (or Chente) is renamed as Chova (switching the A and the O around).

In Brazil, his name was changed to Chaves, because the word chavo would not make sense in Portuguese. "Chaves" is a Portuguese-language surname, with a Spanish-language version, spelled Chávez.

La Chilindrina

Portrayed by María Antonieta de las Nieves Years: 1972–1973, 1975–1980, 1980–1992

La Chilindrina is the daughter of Don Ramón. "Precocious" is the best way to describe Don Ramón's intelligent and mischievous daughter, who likes to take advantage of her slow-witted friends to play pranks on them and take their toys or snacks. She lives in the apartment #72 with her father, Don Ramón. She usually wears a green dress, white shorts, and a red sweater that is always twisted on the back. She has freckles, horn-rimmed glasses, a missing front tooth, and two pigtails that are always uneven, one significantly higher than the other one, just like her socks. "Chilindrina" is the name of a typical Mexican bun, with brown sugar sparkles on top, reminiscent of the character's freckles. In early episodes, La Chilindrina used to have longer pigtails which were cut by El Chavo. In most episodes, she is seen to have a big crush on Chavo, and is very jealous of his crush on Paty.

La Chilindrina was not included in the El Chavo animated series due to legal disputes with Roberto Gomez Bolaños (creator of all El Chavo characters) and María Antonieta de las Nieves (Chilindrina's portrayer) about who owned the rights to the character and if the character was allowed to be used publicly outside of El Chavo. María Antonieta de las Nieves was able to win a legal battle over Chespirito in 2003, which gave her permission to act as La Chilindrina in public, and granted her rights over the character so that character is separated from the cast, but still be on it by the fans. For old episode remakes, Chilindrina's role in the animated version was primarily taken over either by La Popis (Phoebe) or Ñoño (Junior), the latter of whom came to have her same mischievous personality.

In Brazil, her name was changed to Chiquinha, a diminutive for Chica, which in turn is a nickname for Francisca.

Quico Portrayed by Carlos Villagrán Years: 1972–1978

Federico Matalascallando Corcuera (Frederiko Strumkiller Jr.) known as Quico, is a spoiled, greedy, overprotected 9-year-old boy, son of Doña Florinda and a late naval captain (also named Federico), who reportedly died when his vessel was attacked and, according to Quico, was eaten by a white shark. He lives in the apartment #14 with his mother, Doña Florinda. Being very arrogant, selfish, manipulative, and envious, he always wants to draw everyone's attention all to himself, either by screaming loudly or by showing off his newest toy. Because of this, he usually gets El Chavo in trouble when he does something wrong, especially to Don Ramón, after which Don Ramón hits El Chavo angrily on the head. Partially due to his mother's bad influence to him (and former wealth and status as the wife of a naval officer), he believes that he and his mother are superior to everyone else in the neighborhood. He still finds time to play with—as he and his mother call them – chusma ("rabble" or "riffraff"), namely Chavo, Chilindrina, and Don Ramón. However, Quico has proved many times to be Chavo's best friend and sometimes rival, often assisting him in Chavo's mischievous acts, as seen due to the fact that they are mostly seen playing together in the front yard, and that he was genuinely hurt when El Chavo left the neighborhood in the episodes "El Ratero de la Vecindad" and "El Billete de Lotería". Moreover, Quico is a good kid deep inside, even though there are several occasions in which he acts self-centered. Quico wears a rainbow-colored beanie cap, a dark blue naval officer's shirt with a red ascot, bright yellow socks he pulls all the way up to his knees, and white low-top shoes. He is also widely identified by his enormous cheeks, which he can puff out quite largely, and his minuscule intelligence, often responding to the Spanish words for idiot, stupid, dummy, etc. (he even displays delight about being called such things, oblivious to the fact that all these words are insults). Despite his stupidity, Quico displays more deceptive abilities and common sense than Chavo, and is the most likely to break the fourth wall (especially regarding that four of his quotes do this so). Often in the series, Quico mentions that he has or that his mom will buy him a "square ball" and in "Termina el Romance" he and El Chavo refused to help Profesor Jirafales reconcile with his mother due to Profesor Jirafales having promised to them a square ball. In 1979, when Carlos Villagrán permanently quit the show, Quico is said (in the episode named "El Cine") to have gone off to live with his rich godmother, reportedly "unable to stand the riffraff anymore." No one in the show ever talked about him afterwards, or said anything about his absence, as if he had never existed. Villagrán's character, Quico, starred in a rather short-lived spin-off series, ¡Ah qué Kiko! in the late 1980s, which attempted to revive the series using a "hip-hop" twist and gave Villagrán's character a slight wardrobe make-over.

In the English dub version of the animated series, the main role is sometimes as the antagonist, he is voiced by Doug Erholtz. Instead of being called "Tesoro" (treasure/darling), he is called "Muffin". His name was also retained in said dub, as well as in the official English subtitles for the Netflix print of the original.

Don Ramón

Portrayed by Ramón Valdés Years: 1972–1979, 1981, 1982: Guest.