Heff, Alistair McCello is meli’s boyfriend. He’s such a good boyfriend that he introduced her to us 
gt, the show was called “El gran circo de TVE”. Google “los payasos de la tele”.
First, TVE: once upon a time, in Spain there was only national TV. Two channels: la 1 and la 2. La 2 has always been the one with more documentaries and other Cultural stuff. There is also a third channel: TVE Internacional.
TVE collaborates with “our sister televisions” quite often; for example, in Latin America it’s common to see newsclips with the TVE logo. They aren’t just from the Spanish news agency, it’s directly the TVE images. Between collaborations, TVE Internacional and the amount of latin channels that directly “steal”* TVE’s footage, it may actually be the most watched chain in Hispanicland.
- If TVE doesn’t think it’s worth it to bring out the lawyers to sue some televangelic chain in Costa Rica for playing TVE-logoed, VCR-recorded footage of a concert in Montserrat, it’s not really much of a steal, is it? I mean, if the original owner doesn’t mind, what crime? It’s like the difference between rape and bondage.
The Aragón family have been clowns for generations; it’s also one of those families where the options for number of children are “none” and “a dozen”. I’ve won a couple of bets when I said that a performer whose lastname isn’t Aragón was one, someone else said no, we investigated a bit… her mom or his grandmom were Aragón, nyah, nyah (and the guy in question has the family looks big time, in her case I just happened to know it).
El Gran Circo (which started in the '70s) would have a bunch of guest artists (some of whom became quite famous as well) but the main dish was always the singing and the three brothers: Gaby, Fofó y Miliki. Gaby (Gabriel) was the eldest; he doubled as master of ceremonies and wore a black tail-coat, no makeup. He was the “serious one” always amazed by the things his brothers came up with. Fofó (Rodolfo) was the composer; he was very good with shy kids. Miliki (Miguel) was the one that had the highest ability to get all the kids roused up; I think he’s actually cousin to the other two. They were joined quite soon by Fofito (Fofó’s eldest son, also called Rodolfo). The three “funnies” wore similar clothes that can best be described as overlong red T-shirts, reaching down to their ankles; big black shoes, clown noses, blush but not “clown makeup” and hats. Fofó wore a red bowler hat; Fofito a tiny black one; Miliki, the most horrid cap I’ve ever seen (my WAG is he must have stolen it from a golfer). The show ran for a long time, almost 20 years I think.
In this picture you can see, from left to right: Fofito, Miliki, Fofó and Gaby.
Miliki recently released a record called "A mis niños de treinta años which didn’t sell out faster because that would have made Einstein sad.
For some reason, the one anecdote of their lives that’s always stuck with me is that one about being living in Chicago, wanting some chorizo, not being able to find any, deciding to buy a pig and make the chorizo themselves… and every Hispanic immigrant ten towns around “dropping by”. They started a chorizo factory.
Miliki’s eldest son, Emilio Aragón, “Milikito”, who was also with the Circo for a while, is Spanish TV’s most succesful producer. His first show was (judging from your descriptions) similar to SNL. Interviews, music (anybody in that family plays at least two instruments), sketches. One of his sketches still cracks people up 20 years later, “la larga línea amarilla”, a reference to the signs in Barajas airport. In Barajas there are two colored lines on the floor that you’re supposed to follow to go from a terminal to another, but, like too many signs in airports, train stations and roads, it’s not very helpful unless you already know where you’re going; you could be following the “real” yellow line and find yourself staring at a wall. OK, if you’re supposed to take the escalator, why doesn’t the line go there? Misteries of science. Emilio’s version of the yellow line was initially the one in Barajas, but in due time it took him to deserts, mountains, and even across a Madrid street in peak traffic (the opposite of rush hour traffic: it’s when everybody is going dang fast).
He’s starred in several of his own productions; usually comedies, not because he can’t act in other roles but because he knows that’s what people expect. Médico de familia (family doctor), which was not a medical show but a sitcom about a doctor and his very large family, still has the all-time audience records (all-time since Spain got more than one channel, of course).
