The CBS/The CW sitcom Everybody Hates Chris was an amazing show, a family semi-autobiographical satire series narrated by Chris Rock starring Terry Crews, Tyler James Williams, and Tichina Arnold that chronicles young Chris’s life in Bedford Stuyvesant, New York.
This show ran for four seasons and eighty-eight episodes in a half-hour format from 2005 to 2009 with hilarious tropes about life in the 1980s for a lower middle-income black family in New York city as each of them navigated the challenges of life, love, relationships, and family life. But why did the show end if it had so many good ratings and traction? Let’s put that under the microscope to find out why.
Everybody Hates Chris Premise
On Everybody Hates Chris, we meet a teenager Chris and his nerdy ways, his dad Julius, a hard-working, and utterly penny-pinching dad, Rochelle, his overbearing, temperamental, disciplined, and neurotic mom, Drew, Chris’s athletic brother, and Tonya, Chris’s young sister whose spite for Chris is hilarious and is often overpampered by her dad.
The show balances a few spots of drama, hilarious family-centered comedy, and farcical moments, we see Chris’s dad trying to save every single penny out there, going as far as to have the family get extremely hot during the summers or shutting down the furnace and heater during the winter and giving them sweaters and coats.
We see how Rochelle, a tempered, oftentimes angry black housewife lays down the law on the rest of the clan while having some soft spots and mistakes of her own as well as Chris trying to be a normal nerdy kid at school.
Filmed under the roof of CBS Paramount, the show was aired weekly by networks like Fox, The CW, and some affiliates of CBS due to syndication agreements, eventually managing to land at Nick at Nite’s segment.
Also Read: Top 10 Best Chris Rock Movies and TV Shows That You Shouldn’t Miss
Why Did Everybody Hates Chris End?
With four seasons and eighty-eight episodes, Everybody Hates Chris was canceled in 2009 with major storyline plotholes and a cliffhanger at the end of season four. The reason behind this cancelation came out of executive producer and narrator Chris Rock himself, who decided to pull the plug as he felt that the storyline, the character development arcs and the chronology of Chris moving on was catching up to Chris Rock’s real life.
Retired Big And Through The Golden Gates
Chris Rock wanted the show to be fun and entertaining, and he accomplished that, he wanted to make a semi-autobiographical satire of his early years and he accomplished that, and what he didn’t want was the show to be a long-running series. It would have been tiresome for him, for writers and even the actors would eventually get tired of it too.
Actor’s Legacy
Casting actors like Tichina Arnold, Terry Crews and even Academy Award-winner Whoopi Goldberg —who played Chris’s grandma— were massive hits for the show as well as the show serving as a stepping stone for Tyler James Williams, who went on to work in other hit shows like AMC’s “The Walking Dead” as Noah, cameos in Law & Order: SVU, House, and films like “Detroit”, “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” and even voice acting jobs like the one he has in Harley Quinn.
In that same fashion, we can comment about Tichina Arnold’s long career in film and entertainment, or Terry Crews, who’s done all sorts of work in film and television.
Everybody Hates Chris was a Chris Rock project that he grew and banked on its success, gained him, the crew, and the actors lots of traction, and like all good things that start they must also end. Chris Rock loved doing that show, and when he’s asked about it always has nice things to say about it, even when they prospect the possibility of a reboot. In any case, the show, if you haven’t seen it is worthy of your time and laughs.
Also Read: Everybody Hates Chris: Ending Explained & Plot Summary
