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"The one thing that has never left me is my sense of humor, or my ability to find humor in the most tragic or the most serious things."
George Lopez has done a lot in his long career. But now, with NBC's Lopez vs Lopez, George knows what's most important "is the people you get to be around and get to talk to." One of those people includes his daughter, Mayan Lopez, who he created the show with. The two play fictionalized versions of themselves as they rekindle their estranged relationship both in the show and in real life. "Everything came very difficult to me, and I think everything's meant to be." One thing he never expected to be is the rare example of a Latin American success story on network TV. "When I sat at my grandmother's house and I saw I Love Lucy and Chico and the Man, I never really thought that I would be that guy." But now that he is that guy, thanks to the success of this series, his stand-up and his popular first self-titled series, George knows what connects him to his audience. "You don't want to forget people have real lives, and if for some reason they find you and you give them comfort, and if you can make them laugh, that at the end of the day [is what matters]."
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Editor's Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication.
The fact that you're back on TV is a big deal for a lot of fans. Have you heard that?
I'm gonna say yes. If I had waited to be cast, I think I'd still be waiting. And as difficult as it is for something to happen, I wouldn't say it's more difficult because of who I am or what I portray. It's just always really difficult. There's a lot of people that I saw that were really great comedians, but maybe personality wise not the best. I mean, there's so many things that you have to be able to do even remotely well in order for the whole picture to fill in.
Why don't you think you wouldn't have been cast necessarily?
When the first show premiered [George Lopez in 2002], in the calendar section of the L.A. Times, there was a picture of myself and Constance Marie, who played my wife, and the headline said, "Is this the one?" And maybe the first few paragraphs were about the show and about who I am, and then the rest of it just was a list of every failure of every Latino show on television. So I went to work that day, we're rehearsing, and you could feel something different about everybody. I said, "Hey, did you guys see the L.A. Times?" I called the actors into the makeup room, and I wasn't a leader, just a show had my name. But I said, "I'm sure you saw this, this show is going to succeed on the strength of the people that are watching it, and not the critics." Anything I've ever done or any of those shows were never critically acclaimed, but the people who were acclaiming them were not the right people to make that decision. So I told them, if they saw me worry, then they should worry. But it wasn't that I was extremely confident, I wasn't, I just felt that to me, it was my first one, but also felt like it would be the one. I stayed longer than everybody else. I remember myself and [co-creators and executive producers] Bruce Helford and Robert Borden were sitting in a room with a writer's assistant, and I went through my life. I would cry, and in the beginning, she [the assistant] would stop, and I would say, "No, no, no, no, no, we're gonna keep going." And then I'd cry a little bit more the next day, everybody would be laughing, and then we'd be crying. And I thought, it's sad, but it's funny, and in order to hit oil, you have to dig deep.
I remember your daughter, Mayan, mentioning on The View, how that since George Lopez ended and Lopez vs. Lopez started, it's still a rare example of a Latino show on network television. Does the poignancy of that stand out to you?
Yeah. When I sat at my grandmother's house and I saw I Love Lucy and Chico and the Man, or just saw comedy in general. I never really thought that I would be that guy. I never thought that I was that guy. Everything came very difficult to me, and I think everything's meant to be. Everything I had to do, I had to either talk myself into or talk myself out of. But also, I always trusted my gut, intellect, whether something was right or whether something was wrong, and I took that trip, and like Mayan said, I've taken this trip pretty much on my own. But I will say that, looking back now, there's more writers—male and female—that are Latinos and all different kinds, directors and people of different ages, and that was not the case 22 years ago. So maybe we're lacking in front of the camera, but they've made tremendous success behind the camera.
One of the things that I think stands out from your character on Lopez vs. Lopez is the relatability of your character's socioeconomic situation. An older American falling on hard times and leaning on his family. Does that stand out to you?
I think the writers are aware of that. I, not so much. But I would say that [my character] living with a daughter, it's not my place, but yet I'm over speaking my bounds, I'm telling them how to live their lives or how to do this. Meanwhile, I'm staying in their house. People forget that there are boundaries and, I think, as you get older, you just interpret anybody younger doesn't have the boundaries, and your boundaries are more important than theirs. As the show takes a journey, [my character] takes that journey where I try to be more caring and less inappropriate, but also I'm not perfect, and I don't want to be perfect, and I want to be able to make those mistakes. I remember one time I was on the first show, I was out of town and doing a show, and this guy gets emotional and says, "I can't believe that you're next to me because I watch you alone in my trailer. I lost my mom, and I watch you alone in my trailer. My mom and I used to watch you, so you being here is like, I can't believe it." I'm going to talk to that guy, you don't want to forget people have real lives, and if for some reason they find you and you give them comfort, and if you can make them laugh, that at the end of the day [is what matters]. I've seen kids put pictures up and videos, they tell me when they see me, "You're my childhood," or get emotional when they see me. They get emotional. You can clearly see that it means everything to me, too.
The societal landscape for Latin American audiences is different today than what it was like when your first show was on the air. We're clearly a divided country when it comes to topics like immigration. So to have you on TV does have an impact for people who may feel they aren't represented fairly by the media or popular culture all the time, don't you think?
Somebody said, Well, "AI is going to replace people." And we do a lot of work outside, and I would say, "Oh yeah? Put that computer outside, and then we'll work outside, and we'll see who overheats first." In my stand-up, I say, everything you touch, we've touched first, don't bite the hand that feeds you. But I'm not one to carry the flag or hit you over the head with the message. The message is already clear.
Your presence on television is the message.
And with Mayan and the divorce and the things that we went through as a father and a daughter, I grew up around people and still know people that would have just terminated that relationship. Because I don't think you've been taught how to be sorry, or how to say, "I hurt you," or how to take responsibility. I grew up around people that never took responsibility. Or my grandmother [would] be like, "Say it was like that when we got here." It wasn't like that when we got here, but say it was like that. So, in salvaging my relationship with Mayan, it's taught me a lesson—maybe one of the most valuable lessons—that in her being able to forgive me, that I probably will ever have in my life.
You've done so much in your career and represent a lot for a lot of people. What's something that stands out to you from your career that brings you joy?
Freddie Prinze in '73 was like my love-at-first-sight moment. I didn't know a comedian could have a television show. I didn't know even what a comedian could do. I watched the Tonight Show all those years. When I used to go to Hollywood Boulevard with a friend of mine when we were 15, he drove, and at 10 o'clock we'd all meet, and we'd go over there, and we'd get coffee, and we'd go to Grauman's Chinese [Theatre], and we'd walk up and down Hollywood Boulevard. It's like the summer of 1975, '76, best time. And I would see George Burns' star, and I would imagine my name on the star. But in order to get a star, you have to have a body of work. [In 2006] Johnny Grant came to me and said, "I think it's time to enshrine you into the Walk of Fame." And I said, "I'm not going unless Freddie Prinze goes in before me." And then he said, "I think he's in." And I was like, "No." And then they call me like three days later, "He's not in, but if you want to get him in, you can sponsor him." So I said, "I'll do that." So I paid the $10,000 and his wife was there, Kathy, [Freddie Prinze] Junior was there, all Freddie's friends, people that were there with him the night he committed suicide were there, and they got a chance to honor him. And then Junior says to me, "My grandma wants to talk to you." I remember in the late '70s [there was] a show called Let's Rap on channel 11 out here, and Freddie Prinze's mom was on. I didn't know it was taped, I thought it was live. So I called channel 11, and it rang and rang, and then the host of the show answered, and I said, "Hey, is Freddie Prinze's mom on?" "No, we taped that." Now cut to decades later and she says, "You know, George, thank you for not forgetting my Freddie. Everybody forgot, and you didn't," and [she went on to say] how he and I would have been friends. And you're just like, wow, man, it's just incredible. But the fact that that was more important to me than myself going in, I wouldn't have gone in if he wouldn't have gone.
Growing up, we didn't have integrity. You had whatever you could find. They jumped at every opportunity. That's a personality thing that I didn't have growing up. Nobody taught me. I don't know how I got it, but it's vital. I'm living for the fact that I get to go to work with my daughter. I'm healthy, and those things are great. I thought they were when I was growing up. I thought they were everything, and now that you've achieved them, I understand that what is everything is the people you get to be around and do it around, and the people you get to talk to, is everything. So the fact that I have those stories, the fact that people can see those things, are what's more important to me than the actual accomplishment that I have. That's what makes me the proudest. The one thing that has never left me is my sense of humor, or my ability to find humor in the most tragic or the most serious things. And that is whatever God-given thing that's given to me. I appreciate it. It's been the wildest thing to have this thing, a gut instinct, that will never leave you and that will always be able to make people happy.
