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List Price: $29.98 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 8681
Released: October 10, 2006 |
| Our Price: $17.95 |
| Used Price: $14.47 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Inspired by his childhood experiences, comedian Chris Rock narrates the hilarious, touching story of a teenager growing up as the eldest of children in Brooklyn, New York during the early 1980s.
Description of Everybody Hates Chris - The First Season:
Beginning with its assured pilot episode, it's love at first sight for Everybody Hates Chris. This loosely autobiographical family sitcom has a distinctive voice (belonging to co-creator Chris Rock, who also serves as narrator) and a strong sense of time (1982-83) and place (Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy neighborhood). For Chris (the winning Tyler James Williams), turning 13 is anything but a wonder year. He is the only black kid in an all-white junior high school (to which he is bused) that offers him "not a Harvard-type education, just not a sticking-up-a-liquor-store-type education." At school, he is befriended by the geeky Greg (Vincent Martella), and mercilessly tormented by the red-haired bully Joey Caruso (Travis T. Flory). At home, his father, Julius, (former NFL player Terry Crews) works two jobs to make ends meet, and knows the cost of everything ("That's 49 cents of spilt milk on my table"). His mother, Rochelle (Tichina Arnold), also works part-time and knows "100 recipes for whooping ass." Chris is often called upon to be "the emergency adult" to his younger brother, Drew (Tequan Richmond), who is taller than Chris and better at everything from karate to girls, and his younger sister, Tonya (Imani Hakim), who is Daddy's favorite and delights in getting Chris into trouble.
While Chris's family is much more functional than Roseanne's clan, it, too, etches a vivid portrait of a family struggling to get by, as when Rochelle explains to Julius the "debt system" of paying bills. But most of the humor is universal, from Chris's life-changing discovery of his father's Playboy magazine to his anxiety over Picture Day at school. Everybody Hates Chris also manages to show the love without being mawkishly sentimental. In the pilot, narrator Rock notes that his father didn't express his feelings, but as he was only one of four fathers on the block, his "'I'll see you in the morning' meant he'd be coming home. And that was his way of saying, 'I love you.'" --Donald Liebenson
Everybody Hates Chris - The First Season Reviews:
Funny perspective for a sitcom. Talented cast. Good Fun. : ) 
2009-11-25 - I bought season one of "Everybody Hates Chris" used at a pawn shop. The lady at the pawn shop let me have the first season for FIVE DOLLARS, so if I hated the show I wouldn't be out much money. Being a white male I wasn't sure I would like this show. I have liked somes shows with mostly black casts but not everything appeals to me. For instance, I never cared for Living Color or the Wayman brothers. However, back in the day I used to watch "Good Times" all the time. I also used to watch "What's Happening", even though it was not as good as "Good Times", imo.
Anyway, I must say I got my money's worth and more out of season one. All of the actors are talented. However, in season one I can't say that Chris' brother did much for me at all. I guess it is mostly a question of the concept of the character. That character is simply a chick magnet. That character simply doesn't have to do much. But the father, mother and little sister are all hillarious. I must say though that I think perhaps the mother got too much of a role in the first season, but if the father was always at work then I guess that was what life was all about, life with mom. I love how Chris accused his mother of being a ghetto snob. That is such a riot. The father is a penny pincher, a real cheapo, that is funny too, but not nearly as funny. And the story is so real at times that I feel like slapping the wife. I can just see Chris' mother quitting her jobs telling folks how her man has two or three jobs. And then the mother tries to work from home, another funny concept. I come away feeling sorry for the father though. I think the father is the hero of that family. I also like Chris' friend, he seems like a real buddy and all around good guy. I wanted to see Chris get even with the white red headed bully also, but that didn't happen in season one. Based upon season one I will look for the other three seasons. The show is real good fun. The one thing that got on my nerves in season one though is the THEME SONG. That song got very OLD very QUICK. I started skipping past the theme song because it was really getting on my nerves.
Anyway, if you haven't seen this show it is well worth your while. Also, Chris Rock is the narrator, of course, and it's really good fun to hear him narrate the episodes. Also, it is a who's who of black actor special guests on this show, folks like the guy who played J. J. Walker on Good Times, and the guy who played Raj on What's Happening and the guy who played Huggie Bear on Starsky and Hutch, aka, Antonio Vargas. Plus the black guy who was on The Mod Squad was a tenant in one of the episodes. It's fun to see all of these people who are now old.
Oh, and the funny perspective of this show is that it is a black guy's perspective of LIFE in a mostly white school. Chris was bused to a white school.
very funny, kind and human...
2009-10-30 - i really liked this one - reminds me of my childhood, brings a lot of fun and warmth inside...actin crew is fantastic and real. thanks guys!
Full of laughs...
2008-07-07 - I enjoyed watching these episodes - since I missed most of them when they were broadcast. Funny content - especially the penny-pinching dad.
The first year of Chris Rock's "autobiographical" Emmy-worthy series
2007-05-21 - Tyler James Williams has the title role in this comedy gem, now in its second year on the CW Network. Creator (and narrator) Chris Rock has crafted a show that chronicles (with much "poetic license") his growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn and paints a warmly humorous look at his family.
Williams is perfect as the boy that must deal with home life as the eldest that is held responsible for his younger siblings while dealing with a school where he is an oddity: the only Black person in the school. The latter allows Rock to mix comedy with social commentary, something that he does quite well.
The rest of the cast is fantastic. Terry Crews plays the stern and hardworking father, Julius; Tichina Arnold (formerly of Martin Lawrence's series) shines as the mother; Tequan Richmond is Chris's younger but larger and more-appealing-to-the-girls brother Drew; Imani Hakin is Keisha, the sister that makes life miserable for her older sibling; and Vincent Martella plays Chris's only friend at school, Greg.
The twenty-two episodes on the disc are self-explanatory and offer a sly nod to the show's premise by containing the words "Everybody Hates" in their titles ("Everybody Hates Basketball," "Everybody Hates Sausage," " Everybody Hates Food Stamps," and "Everybody Hates the Gout," just to cite a few).
The compilation disc also contains cast commentaries on selected episodes and fascinating featurettes on the director/co-creator, the integral part that music plays in the show, and auditions, along with others.
The quality of the DVD is excellent and the show is presented in the widescreen format.
Hopefully, sales will be strong enough to persuade the release of season two at its end.
Everybody Hates Chris Show DVD
2007-01-10 - One of the funniest TV shows around. Tells of this kid's trials and tribulations of dealing with his family, growing up in a primarily black urban neighborhood while being bussed to an all white school. This is a must. Hysterical!!! Can't wait for Season 2 to come out.
