Everybody Hates Chris is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-nominated American sitcom broadcast on the The CW, featuring fictional characters and situations broadly based on real people and situations. The show, which is produced by CBS Paramount Television, is inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock (who narrates the show), while growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. The title of the show parodies the title of another well-known program, Everybody Loves Raymond. Unlike other CW sitcoms at the time of its debut, Everybody Hates Chris is shot using a single camera^[1] with no studio audience laugh track. On September 22, 2005, the series' premiere achieved higher ratings than NBC's season premiere of Joey, giving UPN, its original network, its third highest rating in history. With seven million viewers, it was fourth highest-rated program at the 8 p.m. ET time slot. It is also the first TV show to be available for free preview on Google Video.

Everybody Hates Chris won an NAACP Award for "Outstanding Comedy Series."^[2] Due to the show's popular and critical success, the CW network gave the show an early full-season renewal for 2007?08, its 3rd season.^[3] The 3rd season of Everybody Hates Chris premiered on Monday, October 1, 2007.^[4] The show aired on Monday nights at 8:00/7:00c on The CW Television Network, ^[5] however on February 10, 2008 it had move to Sunday nights at 8:00/7:00c. Despite the 2007-2008 Writers' Strike, Everybody Hates Chris had a full twenty-two episode season for 2007-08 because of early production. On March 2, 2008, the series returned with new episodes after the 2007-2008 Writers' Strike, in order to wrap up the third season (2007-2008). The third season finale aired on Sunday, May 18, 2008.

According, to TV Guide, it has been confirmed that Nick at Nite had bought the rights to the show, and it will air in the fall of 2009. ^[6] With the recent cancellation of Girlfriends and the WWE's decision to move SmackDown to MyNetworkTV in the fall of 2008, Everybody Hates Chris, along with America's Next Top Model, will be the last running television programs to have aired both on UPN and on the CW. The show's first season began just before the merger between UPN and the WB, leading to the CW.

In addition for The CW's fall 2008-2009 season, new seasons of Everybody Hates Chris, The Game and America's Next Top Model moved to Friday night primetime where Everybody Hates Chris leading at 8:00pm, The Game at 8:30pm and encore presentations/new season of America's Next Top Model at 9:00pm. The 4th season of Everybody Hates Chris premiered Friday October 3, 2008.

Plot summary

The show revolves around the everyday life of Chris, a 16 year-old tenth grade student. Chris is just an average boy (and one of the few 'normal' characters on the show), surrounded by a collection of crazy characters that act as if they hate him. Chris attends an all-Caucasian school where students and teachers alike pick on him, and lives in a dangerous neighborhood. Similar to Wile E. Coyote, if events progress favourably for Chris throughout an episode, they will almost certainly backfire on him by the end. Likewise, if a situation isn't going Chris' way, it always manages to get even worse for him, whether or not he tries to change the course of events.

The guest characters on the show all seem to detest Chris for some unknown reason. In fact, comedian Chris Rock, upon whose early life the show is based, made a guest appearance as the school's guidance counselor, Mr. Abbott, who also disliked Chris and unhelpfully focused on how Chris was in trouble academically. Even the warmest of guest characters have some inexplicable dislike of Chris, such as one character also named Kris (Richard Lewis), who was injured and in hospital.

In the third season finale, Chris graduates from Corleone Junior High School, but his joy is cut short when his best friend Greg moves to a new school -- Chris quickly hatches a plan to go to Greg's high school.

When Chris goes home, things don't get any easier because his bizarre family life presents its own set of problems. The show is comparable to both Wonder Years and Malcolm In The Middle.

During the series' run, Everybody Hates Chris was set in different time periods throughout the 1980s. The first season was set in 1982–1983. The second season was set in 1984–1985. The third season was set in 1985–1986. For the fourth season, the series is set 1986–1987.

Cast and Characters

Main

While the fictional family is loosely based on that of the real-life Chris Rock, its surname has not been revealed.

• Chris (Tyler James Williams), the main character.
• Drew (Tequan Richmond), younger brother of Chris.
• Greg Wuliger (Vincent Martella), the best friend of Chris.
• Julius (Terry Crews), father of Chris.
• Rochelle (Tichina Arnold), mother of Chris.
• Tonya (Imani Hakim), younger sister of Chris.

Supporting

• Doc (Antonio Fargas), the local grocery store owner, who appeared late in Season 1.
• Jerome (Kevontay Jackson), a predatory older teenager in the neighborhood, who robs small kids, like Chris, on the block.
• Joey Caruso (Travis T. Flory), the racist school bully who routinely picks on Chris.
• Mr. Omar (Ernest Thomas), a funeral director, who lives above Chris and his family from early in the second season.
• Ms. Morello (Jacqueline Mazarella), Chris' naively racist teacher.
• Principal Edwards (Jason Alexander), the eccentric new principal of Corleone,
• Tasha (Paige Hurd), she lives with her grandmother and sees Chris frequently.
• Vanessa (Jackée Harry), Rochelle's bubbly and best friend.
• Preacher (LaVan Davis), the minister of the church, who appeared early in Season 1.

Trivia

• All episode titles start with the phrase Everybody Hates....
• The character Drew is loosely based on Chris Rock's brother Tony Rock. Growing up, real-Chris Rock said that Tony was cooler than he was.^[7]
• The first episode scored the highest rating for a comedy premiere on UPN and the third best rating for any program on UPN.
• After the first season, the show was picked up by The CW, which was created by the merger between UPN and The WB.
• According to the season 1 DVD release of the show, the episode Everybody Hates the Babysitter on the disc has the cast commentary in the episode and said that Tichina Arnold ad-libbed a lot of the things she says in the show.
• Tequan Richmond auditioned for the role of Chris, but Ali LeRoi and Chris Rock thought he was too cool for that role so they chose him to play Drew.
• Chris Rock's real family had mom, dad, 6 other brothers, 1 other sister, and himself. He said that using 6 brothers and 1 sister would've been weird, so he thought it'd be better to use some of his sibling's personalities to make 2 siblings for the show.
• Chris Rock's mother's name in real life is Rose.^[8]
• Tichina Arnold composed a theme song for the show and recorded it with 2 of her friends. However, Ali LeRoi and Chris Rock already had some themes in mind, so they kept the ending of it to put in at the end of episodes and before commercial breaks.
• The schools Chris attend to were named after two families from The Godfather series: Corleone and Tattaglia. Clemenza High School is cited too.

Awards and nominations

U.S. broadcast history

UPN

• September 2005 ? May 2006: Thursdays 8:00pm/7:00pm

The CW

• October 2006-October 2006: Sundays 7:00pm/6:00pm
• October 2006 ? March 2008: Mondays 8:00pm/7:00pm
• March 2008 - May 2008: Sundays 8:00pm/7:00pm
• October 2008 - Fridays 8:00pm/7:00pm

International broadcast history

Everybody Hates Chris is broadcast on the following stations (and many others) around the world:

References

External links

• ''Everybody Hates Chris'' at The CW

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