The George Lopez Show

A sitcom that aired on ABC from 2002 to 2007 starring stand-up comedian George Lopez, not to be confused with Lopez Tonight. Repeats can currently be seen on Nick At Nite.

Noteworthy for being the first American Sit Com with a mostly Hispanic cast, and, in the final season, an all-Hispanic cast. Also the second longest running show with said cast.

The series provides examples of:
"Vic Palmero!Worm: You are having a hallucinogenic reaction to me. I'm in your belly. Watch me dance."
 * Abusive Parents: George's mom. This, along with his father's Parental Abandonment causes George to have some issues.
 * In her defense, his father walking out on her was a big reason for it and her parents were much worse than she was, taking this to Complete Monster level.
 * Accidental Innuendo: In universe example: George reads Carmen's IMs in one episode and her boyfriend describes her "doing something over and over again until she gets it right".
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking In one episode, when Max tries to upgrade the computer but breaks it, Angie says that it contained all her business files, photos of the family's vacation, and a journal containing her private thoughts.
 * Inverted in "Curious George". Carmen, Angie and Benny are talking about why men suck. Carmen says that her ex Duncan was a jerk, Angie says that her first boyfriend dumped her for someone with bigger boobs and Benny says that her first boyfriend knifed her and stole her car.
 * In one episode where Benny meets Manny's wife, Lydia, she says that Benny was the first person to dance with Manny, the first person he married, the first person to pull a knife on him.
 * Axes At School: One episode had a student bring a gun to Max's school. The incident occurred offscreen, with the episode instead focusing on the psychological effects that the experience had on Max
 * Back to School: George goes back to school after there is a PTA meeting specifically targeted at parents who didn't go to college. Max decides he doesn't need to go either so George wants to teach him a lesson. In the next episode, George drops out and tells the teacher he was in the military and got sent to Iraq. Hilarity Ensues.
 * Bratty Teenage Daughter: Carmen
 * Veronica even moreso.
 * Butt Monkey: Ernie. George sometimes too.
 * Ernie can never seem to hold an actual relationship with anyone, even Gina wouldn't want him in one episode.
 * Calling the Old Man Out: George frequently does this to his mother, but one episode he finally tracks down his long-lost father who abandoned them and punches him out. George's mother is happy at this and even George's boss approves of this action.
 * Catch Phrase: "Whah-pah!" "I got this!" "Estás loca?"
 * "Why you cryin'?!" certainly gets thrown around enough times to qualify.
 * Don't forget "I can't do NOTHIN'!".
 * "Sabes qué?"
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Claudia, Mr. Needles, Accident Amy (granted, she could have been permanently hospitalized for... anything).
 * Closer to Earth: Both played straight and viciously subverted - George is foolishly impulsive, but while generally more sensible Angie tends to be idealistically naive: when her sensibility goes up against his street smarts a favorite gag for the show to use is for her to initially win out, only for her reasonable solution to be nowhere near effective and for George to be right all along.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Both Bennie and George
 * Digital Head Swap: Done incredibly obviously in its flashbacks, with the adult actors' heads pasted onto child actors' bodies.
 * Disappeared Dad
 * Do-It-Yourself Theme Tune: Unusual example, in that Lopez himself recorded a theme tune for the DVD release, as it would've been cost-prohibitive to license "Low Rider".
 * Dojikko: Accident Amy
 * Dom Com
 * Double Standard Rape (Female On Male): When Angie discovers that a sexual predator was living in the neighborhood, George riles up the entire neighborhood to confront the predator. The minute they discover the predator is a woman, everyone stops caring and goes home.
 * Averted by Angie herself, who is adamant about trying to convince everyone that what the woman did was wrong, then later by George, when he becomes frightened when he sees Max come out of the woman's house.
 * Fake Nationality: Carmen's actress is actually Albanian-American
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: In one episode, George is unable to have sex because he thinks she's pregnant and sees a... detailed... sonogram. In his final glance at the sonogram, the fetus seems to be giving him the finger.
 * G-Rated Drug: The hallucinogenic worms in his Tequila at Thirsty's.

"Max: Thats what your doing, Dad. You're the chick ruining our band."
 * Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?: An almost laughable use of this trope in one episode, where a girl that can easily be confused for having to fathers has one or both of the men say some line that assures the audience that they sleep with tons of women all the time, multiple times, in every scene that they were in.
 * Gratuitous Spanish: George is fond of this. At least one episode title (Sabes Quake) uses this trope
 * Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Mentioned every episode. Usually Bennie says something about how much she hugged George and then George would say something like "That was when you were drunk!"
 * Not just his childhood. The Tag for one episode was Benny serving up a plate of ice-cream, but letting the dog have a shot at it first. "George! Your ice cream is ready!"
 * Benny's, too, according to Carmen, Max, and either the studio audience or (far more likely, since the laughter wasn't the least bit nervous) the Laugh Track. Disappeared Dad? Tragic. Eleven-year-old pretending to be his grandmother's father and (literally) belting her in effigy until the watermelon bust's eye fell off? Mind-bendingly hilarious.
 * Hot Mom: Angie
 * Hypocritical Humor: In "George Rocks to the Max and Gets Diss-Band-ed", George tells Max that they can't have chicks around the band because they'll just end up controlling them, then Max ends up calling him out on it:

"Benny: "Wow, a month without the stupid, talking sponge. That's gonna hurt!""
 * Incompatible Orientation: Subverted in "What George Doesn't Noah". Carmen brings home what seems to be the perfect boyfriend, Noah, after dating bad boy Zack. George and Benny spy on Noah and find him with another man in a movie theater.
 * Is That What They're Calling It Now?:A non-sexual one. Carmen tells George she was doing "halfpipes" (skateboarding) with her boyfriend and George assumes she is doing drugs.
 * Jerkass: Everyone gets in a moment or two over the course of the series, but special mention has to go to Bennie whose social and child-raising skills border on sociopathic.
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: Seasons 1 & 2 have been released on DVD. No plans as yet for Seasons 3-5.
 * Kissing Cousins: Max continuously tries to flirt with Veronica, who is his first cousin. George himself gets squicked out by this even though its pretty much one-sided.
 * Also Vic has kissed both Benny and Linda.
 * L Is for Dyslexia: Max. Almost every episode after he is diagnosed talks about it. George allegedly has it too.
 * Lady Drunk: George's mother Bennie, though she is not rich.
 * Lethal Chef: Angie is constantly told she's this by almost everyone, especially Benny.
 * Marty Stu: In-universe. Jason is probably supposed to be a parody. When George and Angie grill him after Carmen brings him home, it is revealed that he is a straight-A athlete on the debate team who spends his afternoons helping his disabled brother.
 * Mister Seahorse: Continuing after an episode of when Carmen runs away, one scene of George Lopez shows Carmen (his daughter) returning home, but with a twist — she is pregnant! After this, George then realizes not only his daughter is pregnant, but also is his wife and his mother. Then, his son Max walks into the room with a large belly as well. After asking his father, "Where is this going to come out?", George abruptly wakes up and responds aloud, "If you're lucky, your bellybutton!" It was all just a dream induced from all the stress of worrying to where Carmen ran away.
 * In a completely different way, George was wearing a seahorse hat at Carmen's quinceanera.
 * Mushroom Samba
 * The Munchausen: Vic
 * Noodle Incident: George and Angie apparently had a very memorable "trip to the lake" that is mentioned in several episodes.
 * Obnoxious In-Laws: While just about everyone in Angie's family looks down on George, its her father, Vic, who tops them all.
 * Angie doesn't have it any better with her mother-in-law.
 * Paedo Hunt: Subverted. See trope entry.
 * Pinch Me: The 2 times he eats the worm in his drink at Thirsty's.
 * Politically-Motivated Teacher: The Treetop Rangers leader who tells them that recycling is bad and that cops should profile Mexicans. When George confronts him, he says "Oh not like you. I mean one of those "Me no speakee" Mexicans".
 * Pretty in Mink: Angie's mother Emelina wears a fur coat when she comes for Christmas. Only Bennie comments on it, but that's Bennie's nature. Angie also mentions she had to stop her parents from buying a fur for Carmen, more because they don't want to spoil her.
 * Pseudo Crisis: One of the later seasons ended in a multiple-cliffhanger scenario, one of them comes out of nowhere, it includes George's friend, Ernie, worrying that his and George's place of work might shut down. Next episode, it turns out that it wasn't really going to happen.
 * Real Song Theme Tune: "Low Rider" by WAR
 * Recognition Failure: Carmen runs away and becomes a groupie for the rapper Chingy. George ends up being the only person who doesn't know who that is.
 * Reset Button: Averted. Take, for instance, the time Carmen gained a reputation as a whore. Turned out her boyfriend had propositioned her, and she turned him down, he started the rumor, and George forces him to take it back. This would be an ordinary Very Special Episode, except that the episode ends with Carmen still being teased at school, and George and Angie realize that they're going to have to find her a new school. Ouch.
 * Rich Bitch: Veronica
 * Running Gag: George's big head.
 * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Ernie and George.
 * She Is All Grown Up: A major source of frustration for George is the fact that his little girl Carmen has grown into a four-alarm hottie, which has not escaped the notice of the menfolk.
 * Shout-Out
 * A particular one that comes to this editor's mind is the one in "Why Are You Crying?":

"Gina: I guess I have standards. Hey, I'm as surprised as you!"
 * Shower of Awkward: One episode has George walking into a shower expecting to see Angie and surprise her, only to spot Benny instead!
 * Sleeps With Everyone but You: Gina from will sleep with Anything That Moves...anything, that is, that can get past the initial nausea. At one point, Ernie decides he's finally gotten desperate enough to make a pass at her, which she turns down.

"Claudia: Will Victor Palmero please step forward.
 * Special Guest: Done quite well, including Lou Diamond Phillips as George's wastrel, long lost half brother.
 * Sorry I Left the BGM On: Angie and George's song play while George sits down sadly, only for Benny to come onto the screen carrying a boom box.
 * Spicy Latina: Angie and Benny.
 * Standardized Sitcom Housing: Subverted; the family has the usual kitchen/living room setup, but the vast majority of the action takes place in the kitchen or backyard.
 * Stealth Insult: When Angie goes into selling makeup, a makeup seller advises Angie to use these to make women feel insecure enough to buy makeup.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: George's niece Veronica, who eventually replaced Carmen as she was written off the show (by going to college) due to real-life issues with her actress, Masiela Lusha.
 * Take Five: Used when George and Angie have to talk about their finances and Ernie just opens a can of orange soda during the discussion. He doesn't want to leave since "he just opened this can," and George gives him a rather nasty look.
 * Token White: Carmen's boyfriend Jason in later seasons.
 * Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Subverted in that George often talks about how lucky he is to have gotten Angie.
 * His Real Life (ex-)wife picked the actress, despite being an aversion herself.
 * The Unfavorite: Carmen is treated like this from time to time, although George does cop to it.
 * Unresolved Sexual Tension: Occasionally, Benny and Vic. Canon in one episode where they made out when the Lopezes went to Colorado on vacation.
 * Video Wills: Done quite humorously when Angie's late sister-in-law Claudia leaves all of her money to her daughter Veronica, to be managed by a trustee. She manages to get in one last jab at her father-in-law before naming George as the trustee:

[Vic steps forward]

Claudia: Good. Now bend over and kiss George Lopez's ass, because I choose him."


 * You Keep Using That Word: George uses the term "catching them in bed together" to refer to literally finding Jason and Carmen in her bed asleep (with their clothes on, no less).
 * Where Did We Go Wrong?: George and Angie feel this way about Carmen, especially after she runs away and becomes a groupie for Chingy.