Televisa's El Chavo del 8

TV Kids Weekly, July 25, 2006

NAME: El Chavo del 8

ORIGIN: An original idea based on a popular live-action,
family-oriented series that first aired on Televisa in 1971.

CREATOR: Actor and comedian Roberto Gómez Bolaños, also known as “Chespirito”.

TV SHOW: The animated show will consist of 26 half-hour episodes,
and, just like its live-action predecessor, is situated in a Mexican
neighborhood and depicts the life of El Chavo, his friends Quico and La
Chilindrina, and other neighbors including Don Ramón, Doña Florinda and
Professor Jirafales.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Roberto Gómez Bolaños.

COMMISSIONING BROADCASTER: Televisa in Mexico.

TV SALES: The new animated El Chavo del 8 has already been sold to numerous territories in Latin
America, including Mexico and Argentina, and also to Spain. The original
live-action show has aired in more than 40 countries.

MAJOR TOY LICENSEES: Licensing agreements have been signed in a variety of
categories, including plush, interactive games, play sets and action figures.

OTHER PRODUCTS: The property has been able to spin off consumer products in
almost every category, from DVDs, apparel and school supplies, to packaged food
and candy. Several product lines will be launched in October and November.

STRATEGY FOR ROLL OUT: The animated El Chavo del 8 will premiere in the fall across Latin America. The show
will kick off with a live special from Mexico and will be supported by ad
campaigns generated by each of the local broadcasters. The toy, apparel and
school supply lines will be launched simultaneously during the Christmas
season. In the second phase, the series will also be sold to pay TV.

“El Chavo has always been a massive product; [the live-action series] has always aired on free-TV and [the animated series] deserves a free-TV debut,”
says María del Carmen Rotter, Televisa’s managing director for licensing and
brands. “It doesn’t matter that El Chavo is
a Mexican product, it has been adopted by all the Latin American countries as
if it were their own. It therefore has a nostalgic factor to it, since it’s
something that people have grown up with for over 30 years and it has roots in
Hispanic culture, even in the United States.”

Rotter continues, “El Chavo [the live-action series] has cultural roots, and it’s that
part that is missing in the Hispanic properties in the U.S.,” she says. “El
Chavo has become what it’s become and is
able to sell everything it sells because it is real, it is present everywhere
and it continues to be Galavisión’s top-rated show. That’s why we have such
great expectations for the animated series.”

Rotter explains that Televisa is
trying to reach new generations with a series that has been on the air for more
than 30 years, and that hasn’t been produced for 10 years. “Sooner or later those
tapes will run out of shelf life, so we started the animation as a way to
immortalize the character.”

Roberto Gómez Bolaños wrote the
scripts for the animated series, which also features episodes based on story
lines from the original live-action show. “What makes it different is that a
lot of the scripts come from the best episodes of the original series and, in
fact, people will recognize them right away,” says Rotter. “A key element in El
Chavo is the use of imagination, but that
couldn’t be done in live action because we had a limited budget and
technological limitations. Now, with the animated series, we have all the
possibilities.”