Network: ABC; Genre: sitcom; Average Content Rating: TV-PG (strong adult content); Classification: Contemporary (1 - 4);
Season Reviewed: Season 3+
While ABC's decision to put the slightly cruder 'George Lopez' as the lead-in to it's re-launched TGIF line-up is a judgment call I question, it does make for a slightly out-of-field comparison: 'Lopez' is cooler, edgier, funnier and more substantive than anything I remember from the line-up once populated with 'Full House' and 'Family Matters'.
Developed by the Deborah Oppenheimer/Bruce Helford crowd that brought us 'The Drew Carey Show' back when self-titled sitcoms from stand-up comics were all the rage. 'Lopez' falls somewhere between the crude, edge of 'Carey' and the standard family sitcom. But the scripts are consistently a triumph of avoiding standard sitcom clichés, instead the show has turned toward a comedic spin on domestic drama where George Lopez (obviously as himself) struggles though (sometimes cataclysmic) events in his work and family life all the while trying to make sense of his family's past and his maniacal, brazenly without shame mother Benny (Belita Moreno). Season 3 (I could take or leave seasons 1 and 2), was ripe with domestic confrontations, family secrets revealed and a long lost father and siblings for George. In more than one way the tone of the show recalls you might get if you burned away all the rawest, sharpest edges from Fox's 'Titus'.
George Lopez shines in the show. The biggest crack in the armor is in the supporting cast. Where 'Titus' had a strong one in the legendary Stacy Keach and Cynthia Watros, Moreno doesn't have the presence of a chief antagonist and often just comes off obnoxious - so much so it will prompt me to change the channel during her scenes. Constance Marie is stuck in a largely thankless role as Lopez's wife, much of the time just staying out of Lopez's way. The show hasn't put her in the typical whiny sitcom mom role which is appreciated more than anything she does, but when the story requires Marie is able to step up in a way that the rest of the cast can't. Really, that only marginally matters, because it's quite literally all Lopez's show. George Lopez tears through the sharp dialog like a Tasmanian devil, spitting it all out with an impeccable comic delivery able to get big laughs from little lines like "Stitch it on a pillow sister, we need cash". He is the tent pole that almost all the laughs swing around and the show is at it's best when it knows that - allowing for the supporting cast, in all their limited acting ability, to stand as plot-device in Lopez's way.
'George Lopez' is the first mainstream, successful American sitcom with an almost all Hispanic cast. It sprinkles touches of cultural authenticity all around - and in ways I'm sure I don't get, but for the most part the family is largely mainstream. I can understand that some might view is a copping out. I see it more as the show's desire to present a traditional sitcom family that happens to be Mexican. Now, if there were a lot more shows on TV like this, then we might have an issue.
One of my favorite bits in the series is the way it brought back the time-tested tradition of a conservative father debating with his liberal daughter (Masiela Lusha). Season 3 opened with a bang in the hour-long episode "Dad, Dubya and Dating" where Lopez tries to keep daughter Carmen from joining an anti-war protest. In a later episode, in a funny spin on preachy series, Carmen says her rights have been violated by "the New England Patriots Act", to which George replies "That's about gay marriage, don't you pick up a newspaper". We get the sense that 'George Lopez' doesn't want to be seen as a pioneer sitcom, nor does it want to make a political statement. It just wants to be funny - and it is that. It's also substantive and genuine which is rare. It's one of the better family sitcoms on TV right now.
* * * / 4
