Everybody Hates Chris

Chris (Tyler James Williams) commutes to a predominately white school to fulfill his mother, Rochelle’s (Tichina Arnold) wish for a better education, and also move out of the projects into a house. His schedule for this one school day is to go to school, buy lunch with money, come home from school on time to pick up his sibling Drew and Tonya and ensure that his father maintains a stable meal. Unfortunately, the day does not go as planned.

Chris tries to impress the girl of his dreams (Aree Davis) after she is hired to tutor Drew (Tequan Richmond), but his heart breaks when he discovers them kissing. Meanwhile, Julius becomes uncomfortable around Rochelle’s new friend Sheila, due to being around the house all the time.

Because he’s black, Chris is recruited by the basketball team despite the fact he can’t play. Things are made worse when the attention he gets from the school staff and other students hurts his friendship with Greg. Meanwhile, the family decides to rent their upstairs room, but Rochelle becomes increasingly suspicious of Mr. Tate, their new tenant.

Julius buys a crate of cheap sausage, and the family eats it at every meal, except for Tonya (Imani Hakim), who refuses to try it, forcing a standoff with her mother, and later that night, at dinner, Rochelle tries to force Tonya to eat her sausage with Chris, Drew, and Juilus blocking her. Elsewhere, Chris is told he will get detention if there’s anymore trouble after a rumor by every kid in school about Chris getting into a fight with the school bully Joey Caruso and they are saying that Chris beat Caruso up. From one kid to another the rumor spreads and it ends up at the new principal. The kid says ["After Chris kicked his teeth out he said .’And I better not seeing you trying to smile."’] And Caruso beats up Chris every chance he gets. Caruso soon, throws a battery at Chris and Chris throws it back as Caruso stands very calmly and the battery breaks the school window, getting Chris three days of detention. Caruso ends up in detention when he chases Chris in through the school. The gang of bullies start throwing batteries at Chris and gets caught by the principal.

Chris lets a neighborhood kid ride his bike, ignoring Julius’s warning not to, and the kid takes off with it. Elsewhere, Julius’s coworkers go on strike, so he fills his free time with housework, much to Rochelle’s dismay.

Halloween starts out as a treat for Chris when an older girl invites him to a costume party, but Caruso has a trick for the teen—rotten eggs. Meanwhile, Julius buys cheap candy to hand out to the neighborhood kids. Chris wants to go to a Halloween party but is horrified when Rochelle tells him he has to take his siblings trick or treating. Drew gets invited by Keisha to a Halloween party but is more excited about trick or treating. He gives the invite to Chris who is determined to go. At school, Greg is dressed as Spock. Despite the principal’s attempts at maintaining order, the school kids go crazy with eggs and toilet paper. The teachers along with Chris and Greg run for their lives. Chris and Greg wait at the bus stop and are pleased that they have avoided all Halloween pranks. This pleasure is short-lived when Chris gets on the bus and is attacked with eggs from Caruso and his gang.

Julius and Rochelle have a "date night" and hire a babysitter to watch the kids, but she has to leave to take care of a personal matter, so Chris must cover for her. Julius and Rochelle plan a romantic evening out and hire a babysitter, Yvette , to watch Chris, Drew and Tonya. However, Chris turns out to be more of a babysitter when Yvette (Erica Hubbard) continues to come and go from the apartment for some apparent errands. Meanwhile, the restaurant Julius and Rochelle are dining at is robbed and Rochelle knows who one of the robbers are. In the end, Chris tells the truth about the babysitter and Julius demands a refund from Yvette while Rochelle goes to beat her up for not babysitting them (not quite ending up in a bad way for Chris).

A tired Chris spends his Saturday morning with his siblings at a laundromat, and Tonya storms out after arguing with Chris.

Julius finds $200 in food stamps, but Rochelle is too embarrassed to use them, so she dips into the family’s spending money; Chris and Greg have a falling-out over a science project they are working on together.

Chris’s friendship with Greg is jeopardized when they break the rules of Greg’s house. Art: (Gary Basaraba).

Chris wants a portable cassette player for Christmas but his parents cannot afford to buy one. At school, Chris brings in canned goods for the needy and is surprised to find out that the food is for him.

When Chris needs $50 to buy a leather jacket to look cool, Julius suggests he come to work delivering papers with him. Meanwhile, after their school is closed to be re-painted because of paint chips, Drew and Tonya engage in a game of "dares" which ends in tears when Tonya is taken to the hospital after being dared to drink a "hot-sauce shake", making Tonya sick in the stomach. After working with Julius for six months, Chris makes enough money for the leather jacket, however, when Chris bought the leather jacket in the summer with the money, he suddenly felt really hot and fainted afterwards, until the girls crowded Chris for everybody to see.

As school picture day approaches, Chris wants to find the perfect outfit with his mother’s help. Rochelle then begins a job as a cosmetics saleswoman to earn extra money. On picture day however, Chris’ clothes are stolen by Caruso, which causes him to take his pictures in other clothing, such as lost and found clothes and a drama set of clothes. Drew steals Tonya’s shoe in revenge of breaking his model car, and Tonya can’t tell on him without getting in trouble for breaking Drew’s model car.

Caruso annoys Chris by leaving "I Hate You" cards in his locker. Chris breaks up a fight between his "bus crush" (Raven Goodwin) and her boyfriend. Greg gets his first girlfriend. Rochelle and Julius attempt to control the many valentines both Tonya and Drew are receiving.

Chris tries to hold on to his fame as the best Asteroids player in the neighborhood. Meanwhile, Rochelle becomes mad because she runs out of chocolate turtles, and Julius tries to win the lottery for extra money. He gets a winning number and Chris ruins it by playing Asteroids and enraging his dad to beat him up.

While Julius has the gout, he discovers his passion for The Young and the Restless with his neighbor Sheila. Meanwhile, Chris lies to his parents when he earns an F in math, and gets a guy to forge Rochelle’s signature. And when Rochelle finds out, she purposely embarrasses Chris in front of his classmates when he lied about his report card.

Chris’ beloved grandfather (Jimmie Walker) dies from a unexpected heart attack while paying a visit, which causes Rochelle to act nice in a strange way as her extended family comes to town to pay their respects, and causing Chris to act like Rochelle. Eventually, Rochelle becomes fed up with her snotty mother (Loretta Devine) The Family and Rochelle’s Brother Michael (Earthquake) gives her a piece of her mind.

Chris can no longer tolerate the constant bullying, even by a girl, Sydney (Brooke Mackenzie) and in order to attend his neighborhood middle school, Chris attempts to be expelled from Corleone in order to avoid his daily bullying. Meanwhile, Julius finds a new job that pays more than his previous two jobs combined. Unfortunately, no one can stand the smell, and soon Julius quits his new job for his family.

Frustrated at Drew being superior, Chris takes karate and uses a move taught by his karate teacher and purposely breaks Drew’s hand in a fight which backfires on him with Drew being able to do more with one hand then two hands. Meanwhile, Tonya goes to the Beautician and discovers the fun of gossiping, in which Tonya starts gossiping to the women in the beauty shop since Rochelle did not say Tonya cannot gossip to the girls.

Chris steals his father’s Playboy magazine from his toolbox while getting crazy glue to fix the table and brings it to school, where it soon gets confiscated by the vice principal. When Julius discovers that it is missing, he desperately tries to get it back, so Rochelle does not know Julius has been looking in those magazines so she could use it against him. Meanwhile, Tonya discovers Drew’s Arachnophobia, and uses it to scare him, but when Drew retaliates with her fear of clowns, he gets in trouble.

Chris gets tips on raising the most money for a field trip to Washington, D.C. in the school cookie-selling competition from neighborhood crooks, which is saying they fell out of a truck this morning, which gets him in trouble with the police. Meanwhile, Julius’ plan to see Dreamgirls with Rochelle on their wedding anniversary is thwarted when Tonya and Drew catch chickenpox. Features a cameo by Stephen King as a man who steals a box of cookies from Chris.

Chris goes looking for the perfect Father’s Day gift for his father. However, all Julius wants is to spend the day alone, which upsets Rochelle.