Vecinos opens season with a tribute to “Benito Rivers” and songs like the vaccine

This Sunday, March 27, comes to the television screen the twelfth season of the series Vecinos, a comedy program that since 2005 has conquered the Mexican public by telling the adventures of a group of tenants in an apartment building.

With the transmission of three continuous episodes every Sunday, and the participation of the base cast that has starred in the sitcom over the years: Mayrín Villanueva, Lalo España, César Bono, Macaria, Ana Bertha Espín and Manuel “Flaco” Ibañez, among others, the new season of Vecinos is also loaded of nostalgia.

And it is that after the death of actor Octavio Ocaña - who played the remembered “Benito Rivers” -, occurred at the end of October 2021, the production of the program has shown its shock. Infobae Mexico talked to the show's producer, Elías Solorio, about this new season that will touch on current issues and pay tribute to the renowned actor.

“This season is emotional, but at the same time we try to make it as fun as possible... to pay tribute to Octavio Ocaña, our Benito, and we are going to pay homage to him, we will see that in the first week of transmission,” said the director.

This tribute to the actor comes from a plot idea that was nurtured by the contributions of the cast, the staff members and even the fans themselves of the show in which characters such as “Frankie Rivers”, “Magdalena Pérez de López”, “Silvia Olvera” and “Germán” appear.

“In the chapter where we talk about it, it's a very different chapter because we wrote it together, when I say together I mean the audience, the actors, the writers, the production team, people sent us some ideas on social networks and here we talk about them. That will give it a different touch because it is a chapter made between all of us and it is a tribute that we are all going to do to him,” said the fellow producer of other comedy shows such as La familia P. Luche and XHDRBZ.

The audience wonders what will happen in the plot with the popular character of “Benito”, however they will have to wait to see the show: “I prefer it to be a surprise and I hope you like it”.

Regarding Octavio Ocaña, the producer revealed that the Pérez Ocaña family attended the program's forum a few weeks ago, where he was able to learn about the environment in which “Benito” was developed for several years. Solorio revealed that there will be a surprise starring Octavio's relatives, which will be seen in one of the next episodes of Vecinos.

In addition to its comic dynamics and the usual interaction between the characters “in each department”, the twelfth season of the show will touch on a current theme, with which, although it is not intended to educate, it does seek to reflect a reality with which the public identifies.

“We are going to continue to touch on issues that are still current, we are going to touch on the subject of the pandemic, we have a chapter of the vaccination campaign, which reflects what we come to see: the one who does not believe in the vaccine, the one who does not believe, the one who says they are going to put a chip on it, the one who is afraid of whether or not they will know how to use it, even the one who suffers when they put it on,” said the producer about the program that will also address the topic of the home office: “It's not educating, but it is to say, listen 'if we do this we all take care of ourselves”.

After 17 years of doing the program, the creation of the jokes and comic situations that are often presented there are contributions not only by the writers of the program but also by the whole team in general, that is the formula of success in teamwork that is reflected in the permanence of Vecinos. This is what Elias Solorio said:

“When we are not recording, we gather ideas, then we brainstorm ideas to see what themes we can develop and we choose. The actors, staff, makeup, hairstyle, they all contribute”, he said.

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