George Lopez (TV series)

George Lopez
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	Bruce Helford; George Lopez; Robert Borden;
Starring	George Lopez; Constance Marie; Luis Armand Garcia; Masiela Lusha; Valente Rodriguez; Belita Moreno; Emiliano Díez; Aimee Garcia;
Theme music composer	Thomas Allen, Harold Ray Brown, Morris Dickerson, Gerald Goldstein, Lonnie Jordan, Lee Levitin, Charles Miller, and Howard E. Scott
Opening theme	"Low Rider",; performed by War
Ending theme	Instrumental closing theme, composed by Nicholas "Aqua" McCarrell (select episodes of seasons 2–6 seen in syndication)
Composer(s)	W.G. Snuffy Walden (season 1); Nicholas "Aqua" McCarrell (seasons 2–6)
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	120 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Bruce Helford; Deborah Oppenheimer; Sandra Bullock (all; entire run); Robert Borden (season 1-6); Dave Caplan (seasons 3–6); Mark Torgove &; Paul A. Kaplan; George Lopez (seasons 4–6)
Camera setup	Film; Multi-camera
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Fortis Films; Mohawk Productions; Warner Bros. Television
Distributor	Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
Release
Original network	ABC
Picture format	NTSC (480i) (SDTV); NTSC (1080i) (HDTV)
Audio format	Surround (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Original release	March 27, 2002 – May 8, 2007
External links
	www.nickatnite.com/shows/george-lopez/

George Lopez is an American television sitcom created by comedian George Lopez, Bruce Helford and Robert Borden, which originally aired for six seasons, 120 episodes, on ABC from March 27, 2002, to May 8, 2007. It is currently in syndication. George Lopez stars the titular comedian George Lopez, who plays a fictionalized version of himself and revolves around his life at work and raising his family at home. The series was produced by Fortis Films and Mohawk Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. The executive producers consisted of George Lopez, Bruce Helford, Deborah Oppenheimer and Sandra Bullock. On September 2, 2016, George Lopez announced through his Instagram that there are talks to bringing the show back on the air, but nothing has been announced.

Premise[edit]

A scene from Season 2, Episode 11, "Meet the Cuban Parents." The main cast of the show for much of the series is pictured here.

The comedy revolves around a fictionalized portrayal of George Lopez, working at the Powers Brothers aviation factory and raising his family consisting of his wife Angie, his daughter Carmen, and his son, Max, after having endured a dysfunctional and unhappy childhood at the hands of his alcoholic, remorseless mother Benny, who is portrayed as careless and unloving. Other characters include Angie's indulgent father Vic Palmero, a wealthy doctor, and George's closest childhood friend Ernie Cardenas, noted for his fecklessness at dating and his socially awkward behavior. After Carmen's departure from the series, the role fulfilled by her character was replaced with Angie's overindulged niece Veronica, with a large trust fund that has been entrusted under George's care.
Multiple storylines in the series are established through the unveiling of a secret guarded by Benny throughout George's whole childhood, most notably the discovery that his father Manny is still alive after George had been convinced by his mother that he died. Throughout a majority of the program, George tries to locate the whereabouts of his father, who was introduced at last in one episode and was revealed to be a rather rude, yet successful businessman, having remarried with his second lover Lydia and fathered a few more children. However, Manny's personality was commonly depicted as being uncaring toward his son and former wife in the few appearances that he made, before his death in one episode of kidney disease. Nonetheless, he prohibits his son's family from attending his funeral in protection of his reputation, much to George's anger.

Cast[edit]

Character	Portrayed by	Seasons
Character	Portrayed by	1	2	3	4	5	6
George Edward Lopez	George Lopez	Main
Angelina "Angie" Lopez (née Palmero)	Constance Marie	Main
Ernesto "Ernie" Cardenas	Valente Rodriguez	Main
Maximilian "Max" Victor Roberto Magic Johnson Lopez	Luis Armand Garcia	Main
Carmen Consuela Lopez	Masiela Lusha	Main					Flashback
Dr. Victor "Vic" Garcia Lantigua Palmero	Emiliano Díez		Recurring		Main
Veronica Ann Palmero	Aimee Garcia					Recurring	Main
Benita "Benny" Lopez (née Diaz)	Belita Moreno	Main

Production[edit]

For the first five seasons, the show had an all-Latino cast with the exception of Albanian American actress Masiela Lusha, who played George's daughter Carmen. George Lopez said that due to creative differences between him and Lusha, Lusha's character was written out of the show after season 5. During the show's last season, Aimee Garcia was cast as George's niece, Veronica.
The show's theme song is "Low Rider", performed by War. The theme plays in the opening credits and was present when the show aired on ABC as well as syndication, but was replaced in the DVD releases of all seasons except 1 episode due to licensing costs. At the 9th ALMA Awards in 2007, George Lopez called the song the "Chicano National Anthem".

Cancellation[edit]

The series finale aired on May 8, 2007, after the show was canceled by ABC.^[1] According to Lopez, ABC prime-time entertainment president Steve McPherson called him over the weekend and explained that the network would lose money if the show was picked up again, and that it wasn't doing well financially.^[2] Lopez stated that the explanation was "painful to hear," noting that the show had four different time slots in only five years and had to constantly compete against shows like American Idol, yet the final season of the show was still able to outperform two comedy series that were renewed by ABC: Notes from the Underbelly and The Knights of Prosperity. Lopez said that ABC "dealt with us from the bottom of the deck" and that it was "hard to take after what was a good run."^[2]
Lopez attributed the cancellation in part to the fact that the show was not produced directly by ABC Studios, but instead by Warner Bros. Television.^[2] Lopez also criticized ABC's decision to approve the show Cavemen, being perplexed at the circumstances: "So a Chicano can't be on TV, but a caveman can?" According to Lopez, 170 staff members who worked on the show lost their jobs. Lopez explained that he "took the five years of good, and I did a lot with the good. My popularity, I was involved in charities, I overcame my illness, all on TV. I shared all of that with America – every secret I had... Every emotion. Everything was open to the show. And what happens?"^[2] In spite of the cancellation, nightly episode re-runs continue to air on various networks both in the United States and abroad (see the "Syndication" section below).

[1]

[2]

Kayla's Korner

September 20, 2017