The title card of the series.
Miguelito is a Brazilian sitcom that aired on the RedeTV network from July 17-22, 2000. It has become infamous for being a blatant rip-off of El Chavo del ocho.
Although 22 episodes were produced, only the first five were aired, over the course of one week. After that, Gugu Liberato forced the network to take the show off the air due to them making negative comments about it, as well as the fact the episodes were getting very low viewer counts.
For over two decades, all of the episodes were lost media, with the little information known about the series being only a sneak peek. This only changed in March 2023, when the five aired episodes were published on the internet by Paulo Dias, grandson of Seu Flodoaldo's late actor Luiz Baccelli. The following 17 unaired episodes remain lost media to this day.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: While Lilica's dad and Marquinhos' mom are members of the regular cast, and Miguelito is an orphan, Bolão's family is rarely commented about. His mother gets a brief mention in an episode, where he mentions there are no socks that can fit her feet correctly; however, his father is never mentioned at all, so it is unknown if he also lives there (if he does, that would make Bolão the only child in the cast to live with both parents).
- Berserk Button: Dona Dina gets really angry whenever anyone calls her by her full name, Leopoldina.
- Big Bad: Mr. Otávio, the owner of the neighborhood, whose main goal is to get rid of all of his tenants, who do not pay the rent, and replace them with new inhabitants that do pay the rent.
- Bottle Episode: All of the available episodes take place entirely inside the neighborhood, with the houses' interiors occasionally being shown.
- Diet Episode: In "O Regime", the other kids force Bolão to go on a diet so that he can lose weight.
- Disappeared Dad: Marquinhos lives only with her mother, which is in a romantic relationship with the owner of the store Seu Picoco. His biological dad is never seen or mentioned whatsoever.
- Expy: All of the characters are inspired by the main cast of El Chavo del Ocho in one way of another, with some being either composite or decomposite characters to make the reference more subtle. Dona Clotilde, Jaimito and Godinez are the only members of the main fixed cast who do not have an equivalent in this show.
- Miguelito takes the role of Chavo, being a poor orphan kid who wears suspenders, hides inside an object (in his case, a box rather than a barrel) and is constantly hungry. It's important to note that, while Chavo did not actually live inside his iconic barrel but rather only used it as a hideout, Miguelito actually lives inside his box.
- Marquinhos takes the role of Quico, as the rich boy always spoiled by his mother. He also has a weird cry and, interestingly, gets paralyzed when he's scared, which is based on El Chavo's garrotera.
- Lilica is a junction of La Chilindrina, as the smart girl that likes to play pranks on her friends, and La Popis, as the Girly Girl who always carries a doll around.
- Bolão takes the role of Ñoño, as the overweight kid who constantly gets made fun of by the other characters.
- Seu Flodoaldo takes the role of Don Ramón, as the lazy guy who does not pay the rent and gets often physically and verbally abused by the respective woman mentioned below. He is Lilica's father, much like Don Ramón is Chilindrina's.
- Dona Tita takes the role of Doña Florinda, as the irritated woman that is always angry and always complains about everything, spoils her son. Seu Picoco is the one person she shows her soft side to, the same way Profesor Jirafales is to Doña Florinda. She also is a great cook, which draws parallels to Doña Florinda having her own restaurant since the final season of the independent show.
- Dona Carola takes the role of Doña Nieves, as a senile prankster old lady. She is Flodoaldo's mother and Lilica's grandmother, similarly to how Doña Nieves is Don Ramón's grandmother and Chilindrina's great-grandmother.
- Seu Otávio is an Evil Counterpart to Sr. Barriga. He is the owner of the neighborhood and has issues with inhabitants who never pay the rent, but unlike Sr. Barriga who simply shows up to demand the rent, Seu Otávio actively tries to make the inhabitants' quality of living worse, in hopes that they will decide to go away.
- Seu Picoco and Dona Dina take the role of Profesor Jirafales. The former is the love interest and Morality Pet to the local grumpy woman, as well as the owner of a nearby shop the kids constantly buy from; El Chavo del Ocho had a similar character, except he was never seen and only mentioned by the kids as a plot device. The latter is the teacher of the children, although (at least in the available episodes) she is never seen at school but instead only at the neighborhood. She also gets angry when the kids call her "Leopoldina", similarly to Jirafales getting angry when he's called "Maestro Longaniza".
- Hollywood Old: Dona Carola is an elderly lady and the oldest character on the cast. However, her actress Luah Galvão was only 27 years old at the time the series aired, and her face is noticeably that of a young woman.
- Invisible Parents: Bolão's mother, Dona Bola, is mentioned in the episode "Cachorrada" but she never makes a physical appearance.
- Just Eat Gilligan: Seu Otávio plots schemes such as polluting the entire neighborhood to try to force the inhabitants to leave, as he wants them to go away because they never pay the rent. However, it would be much easier for him to just evict said inhabitants instead.
- Minimalist Cast: The main cast features only ten characters, which are also the only ones who appear in all the aired episodes. Other characters are sometimes mentioned in passing but never appear.
- Missing Mom: Lilica lives with her father Flodoaldo and her grandmother Carola. Her mother, probably, either passed away or does not live with the rest of her family.
- Never Bareheaded: Miguelito always has his blue hat on.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Miguelito, Marquinhos and Bolão are always called by their respective nicknames by the other characters. Dona Dina invokes this, as she really hates being called by her full name.
- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Despite Dona Dina being presented as the teacher, the school is never shown in any episode (neither is any place outside of the neighborhood, for that matter), and thus she is never seen teaching the kids at school.
- Pink Means Feminine: Lilica is the only girl in the cast and always wears pink overalls.
- Random Events Plot: While the episodes do have a central story element, they mostly consist simply on unrelated events happening.
- Say My Name: Dona Tita, and sometimes the other adults, would often scream "MIGUELIIIITOOOOOO!!!" whenever they get angry at him.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Bolão's mother Dona Bola is mentioned to apparently to be as fat as her son or even more, as he mentions in an episode that she does not wear any socks because she would need an extremely large sock in order to fit on her feet.
- The Smurfette Principle: Among the entire child cast, Lilica is the only girl present.
- Short-Runners: Only lasted one week on air.
- Superhero Episode: One of the unaired episodes centered around Miguelito, Marquinhos, Lilica and Bolão pretending to be superheroes, with their team being named "Os Super-Coloridos". Interestingly, this team name is also briefly mentioned by Marquinhos in the fifth episode.
- Supreme Chef: Dona Tita is an exceptional cook, and often makes food for Seu Picoco to win his heart. As a result of this, the kids end up trying to steal her food, especially Miguelito.
