With Friday’s “Lopez vs. Lopez” season three kickoff, the show’s star, George Lopez, attributes the series’ success to the strong stories that drive the characters.
“Every character has his or her own backstory. They’re mostly based on experiences of mine or Mayan’s,” said Lopez, referring to his daughter, Mayan Lopez. The two play fictionalized versions of themselves on the show.
Fans will remember that season two ushered in big changes for the Lopez family.
George started on his path to sobriety. His ex-wife Rosie’s (Selenis Leyva) engagement fell apart. And their daughter Mayan became engaged to boyfriend Quinten (Matt Shively) in the season finale.
The series is carried on the surface by the highs and lows of George and Mayan’s father-daughter relationship. But Lopez says that this is only the tip of the iceberg, with many layers of family and community stories underneath.
“Being estranged from Mayan those years after the divorce was the foot in,” he said. “I think what the show has done is look at the mother and daughter dynamic, responsibility, truth and forgiveness, sobriety; the smallest thing can become something important.”
And this is the case for season three. While Mayan realizes that her fears of getting married could stem from her complicated relationship with her father, the show shines the spotlight on what the wedding could mean for different characters.
“Mayan and Quinten are engaged and finding out what their wants and needs are for each other,” Lopez said. “Rosie is dealing with wanting to dive into help mode and take over the planning of Mayan’s wedding as a way to help her deal with her broken engagement to Josué” (Jaime Camil).
“Lopez vs. Lopez” is one of the few Latino shows renewed on primetime TV. And this has had a big impact on the cast and crew.
“It’s clearly very significant to all of us,” Lopez said. “We don’t really spend too much time focused on that aspect of the show, but are incredibly supportive of the writers and the crew and each other as actors — we know how good the show is, and aware of its place in television.”
A report from UCLA showed that Hollywood hit a diversity milestone in 2023 with three franchise movies—“Creed III,” “Scream VI” and “John Wick: Chapter 4”—posting the highest earnings for their respective series with at least half of the casts made up by actors of color.
But data also revealed that Latino representation has not improved. Even though they make up roughly 20 percent of the population, they only make up a little over 7% of all theatrical film roles.
But Lopez believes that things are changing. And the industry has stepped up.
“I have 22 years of hindsight and I can say it’s been progress in leaps and bounds in comparison to 2001 when we started to cast and write my first show,” he said. “It’s an improvement and every studio has made the effort to support Latinos in getting and finding a way into this business.”
When asked about a strategy to maintain the success of the show, Lopez explained that it simply tries to connect with everyone.
“The appeal to me is that we don’t hit anyone over the head with blatant messages, the mixing of cultures, and really relatable and hilarious moments that are just funny and fun,” he said.
“Lopez vs. Lopez” airs Fridays at 8:30 pm ET on NBC, and via streaming on Peacock the next day. (Comcast NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC and NBC News). The first two seasons are also available on Netflix.
