Based on a highly successful Radio comedy series from before the Fidel Castro era.
To this day (July, 2018) reruns of the original radio show are still programmed every morning on an important Mexican radio network. This has been so for decades, with a few short interruptions.
Created in Havana Cuba during the 1940s by Castor Vispo, a Spaniard that became Cuban citizen, the radio show reruns were broadcast and gained Latin American popularity during the 1960s (the Cuban production was coming to an end at the beginning of the decade with the Fidel Castro administration.) The success abroad was such that it boosted spinoffs of the series, now on television, in other countries.