Nearly 20 years after its debut, Everybody Hates Chris remains a beloved show in the fabric of TV history. What made the Chris Rock-created series so endearing is that it managed to seamlessly inject humor into the real-life tribulations that working class families face. Given that approach, a number of its storylines surely hit home with viewers and, as it turns out, one has a personal tie to a cast member. Tichina Arnold, who played family matriarch Rochelle, revealed that the food stamps episode was actually inspired by her own life experience.
Everybody Hates Chris put Rochelle in some interesting situations over the course of its four seasons. During the series’ run, the no-nonsense wife and mother tended to her home and attempted to forge a professional path for herself from time to time. An installment that pertains to the former is Season 1’s “Everybody Hates Foodstamps.” In it, Rochelle finds $200 worth of food stamps, which her family could really use. However, she is too embarrassed to use them, noting that “when I pull out food stamps, people look at me like I ain’t got no husband, they talk to me like I ain’t got no sense, they treat me like I ain’t got no class.” She then resorts to using the family’s savings instead, a decision that she attempts to keep from her frugal husband, Julius. All in all, it makes for a funny, yet poignant,
The episode now takes on an even deeper meaning following Tichina Arnold’s interview with Page Six. The actress, who currently stars on CBS’ The Neighborhood, told the news outlet that her mother actually found herself in a predicament that was similar to her character’s:
The food stamps episode was totally my mother because that really happened to me. My dad bought home food stamps one time and my mother was like, ‘I’m not using no food stamps.’ It’s not a bad thing to do. You have a lot of mothers who had children who fed their children on food stamps but never told them that they were getting fed through food stamps.
There are indeed a number of families who’ve depended on food stamps and continue to do so today. As the actress pointed out, one should not turn their nose up at the notion of using them. People simply need to do what’s necessary in order to make sure that their families are fed. Everybody Hates Chris should be commended for tackling the topic with such honesty and a bit of humor thrown in for good measure.
It’s easy to imagine that subject matter like this will also be covered on the upcoming Everybody Hates Chris reboot. Lead actor Tyler James Williams didn’t believe the former UPN/CW comedy would return but, by July 2021, rumors suggested that Chris Rock’s autobiographical coming-of-age series would return in the form of an animated series. That TV comeback was confirmed in August 2022 when it was announced that the show would debut on Paramount+. Rock will also return as an EP and serve as the series’ narrator.
There’s currently no word on whether any of the original cast members will reprise their roles. I’m personally hoping that Tichina Arnold and at least a few of her co-stars lend their voices to the production and that in the process, they get to tell more humorous and socially conscious stories.
All four seasons of Everybody Hates Chris can be streamed using a Paramount+ subscription and are available to Hulu subscription-holders as well.
