The Box: How George Lopez Laid The Groundwork For Latino Representation On Television

Paul Archuleta

As one of television’s biggest comedic talents, George Lopez has become one of the most influential figures in bringing Latino representation to audiences at home. Beginning his career in the 1980s performing standup, to date Lopez has built a lasting career in the entertainment industry that has seen him blossom into a major comedian and actor, in addition to spreading his talents into other ventures including hosting and filmmaking. Making his Mexican American background a core feature of his work, Lopez has pushed an authentic exploration of Latino identity into the mainstream as few have done before him.

Born and raised in California’s San Fernando Valley, Lopez created his own brand of comedy that acted as a catharsis for his traumatic upbringing. From a young age, Lopez experienced rejection after rejection in what seemed to be a never-ending onslaught of neglect and a complete lack of attachment from his family. Lopez was abandoned by his father as an infant, then later abandoned by his mother at 10-years-old and left to the supervision and care of his grandparents, who raised him but failed to offer much affection. In his 2004 autobiography, Why You Crying?: My Long Hard Look at Life, Love, and Laughter, Lopez recounts the pain he felt from the lack of emotional bonds with his family: “Hard as I try, I can’t conjure up a single happy memory of my mom.” His strongest memory of his mother, he said, was not a shared experience or a smile from her, but rather “her body odor.” After the death of his grandfather, his grandmother Benita became the only constant family figure in his life, but even then, she never showed much interest in her grandson’s aspirations. One example offered by the comedian was an instance in which he had invited Benita to a live taping of his television show, to which she responded by complaining that the performance- which received a standing ovation from the audience- had run too long. Though Lopez started his life with almost no family bonds, he would later channel this pain into his work.

Lopez started his career in 1983 performing in comedy clubs, growing his following across the country until he was able to elevate his platform and became a household name with late-night standup performances on Comedy Club and The Arsenio Hall Show. The popularity of his act prompted him to record comedy albums, starting with Alien Nation in 1996 and 2001’s Right Now Right Now. His subsequent albums, 2003’s Team Leader, 2007’s George Lopez: America’s Mexican and 2009’s George Lopez: Tall, Dark & Chicano would all become Grammy-nominated hits, but none would come close to the fame and impact Lopez made when his ABC sitcom George Lopez aired in 2002.

The origin of George Lopez dates to 2000, when high-profile actress Sandra Bullock drove all the way down to Orange County from Los Angeles to watch one of Lopez’s standup shows. Bullock had been hoping to develop a Latino-centered sitcom and was scouting Latino comics to helm the potential series. In an interview with Howard Stern, Lopez revealed that Bullock had not only been a fan of his work for some time, but after having a conversation with him was inspired by his own life story with his family and wanted to build the series around his personal experiences. Bullock confirmed his account, stating that she “fell in love with his life story,” as she felt that Lopez “had a real likeability…ripe for comedy, but in a loving way.” The actor had previously stated his desire to star in a Seinfeld-esque sitcom, and in collaborating with Bullock had finally found an opportunity to star in a sitcom that would not rely on negative stereotypes, having vowed to never take on a role as a criminal character. Never shy to express his gratitude to the film star, Lopez remarked that her role in the series’ creation came from “a love for the culture and because of a lack of visibility for Latinos on TV.”

Premiering in 2002 and running for six seasons, George Lopez centers on a fictionalized version of Lopez’s family and sees main character and dedicated family man George working as the manager of a Los Angeles manufacturing plant for airplane parts. Aside from following George’s work life, much of the series revolves around the antics of the Lopez family, which includes his wife, two kids and meddlesome mother. The most striking character in the series- apart from Lopez himself- is George’s mother, played by Belita Moreno. Aptly named “Benny,” the sharp-tongued character was based on Lopez’s grandmother and constantly acts as a source of criticism and insults towards the rest of the family, directing much of her comically portrayed abuse towards her son. While the series replaced the role of Lopez’s mother with the personality and background of his grandmother, the fictional Lopez was still like the real Lopez in that he was also abandoned by his father at a young age. The sitcom’s success put Lopez in the company of Desi Arnaz, Freddie Prinze and John Leguizamo as one of the few major comedic actors of Latino descent to star in an American television series.

Unlike most sitcoms at the time, George Lopez not only featured a cast made up almost entirely of Latino actors but also put Latino identity and storylines at the forefront of its episodes. While there are times that the show made concessions in order to appeal to the widest possible audience, such as limiting the amount of Spanish dialogue spoken by its characters early on in the series, there were aspects of it that were unapologetically Latino, such as openly envisioning the majority of its characters coming from East Los Angeles, which boasts the country’s largest Chicano/Mexican population. Although George Lopez was not the first Latino-starred sitcom to ever air on a major broadcast network, it was arguably the first to focus on an average family. A core feature of George Lopez was Latino identity, but it was still made in a way in which a broad audience could relate to the everyday quarrels and experiences had with friends and loved ones. Many Latino-centered predecessors had failed in this regard because they were often unrelatable, as with Common Law’s central focus on a Latino lawyer, or extreme, as with I Married Dora’s plot being based on undocumented immigration. With George Lopez, audiences were finally offered a normalized portrayal of a Latino family that was no different from the way that most mainstream sitcoms present their family-centered plots. While George Lopez struggled to produce sustainable ratings numbers, the series ran long enough to enter into syndication, where its popularity continues to run strong, and bolstered Lopez’s status from a niche comedy star into a mainstream A-lister.

Following the end of George Lopez in 2007, the comedian was able to leverage his newfound status as an A-list star into other projects. That same year, Lopez gave filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez behind-the-scenes access into his work and personal life for the documentary Brown is the New Green: George Lopez and the American Dream. With its focus on Lopez, the documentary explores the exploitative nature of Latino-focused entertainment that often forces Latino creatives to choose between “ethnic authenticity and primetime appeal.” The feature would later win the 2008 Imagen Foundation Award for Best Documentary for its exploration of Latino image and identity in entertainment. Continuing his work in the realm of comedy, Lopez went on to host his own late-night talk show Lopez Tonight from 2009 through 2011, and starred again as a fictionalized version of himself- this time focusing on his life as a celebrity- in TV Land’s 2016 single-camera comedy Lopez. In addition to starring in his own productions, Lopez has been a mainstay for other series in special guest roles, appearing on notable comedies including the long-running Reno 911! and the Kevin Hart-starred Real Husbands of Hollywood.

Most recently, Lopez has found success returning to standup, filming specials for HBO and now Netflix. In the same way that Lopez understood the importance of his eponymous sitcom for what it meant within the larger scheme of Latino representation in television, the comedian understands the impact that his work continues to make. “The ability to see someone that looks like you goes a long way…growing up, I was a fan of Richard Pryor, I was a fan of George Carlin…of a lot of comedians who didn't look like me, that weren't even Latinos…” Hoping that his work will “ignite” Latino viewers, Lopez has made clear his desire to continue to be a trailblazer for the next generation of Latino creators, especially in comedy.

Television and the entertainment industry at large still have a lot of work to do when it comes to Latinx representation, both onscreen and behind the camera. While the fight to expand Latinx visibility is nowhere near finished, George Lopez has been one of the most pivotal figures in opening the doors for Latinx creators and stories, and if his most recent work is any indication, he will continue to play that role for years to come.