Children and their parents often suffer serious disputes, but they rarely make them into a sitcom. That’s exactly what comedian George Lopez and his daughter, Mayan, have done with “Lopez vs. Lopez,” premiering on NBC Friday.
“My parents got divorced about 10 years ago,” recalls Mayan Lopez, 26. “There was a time where we didn't speak and were estranged for about three years. But the pandemic brought us back together. And within the last two years, my dad and I really solidified our relationship.”
Mayan says she started creating TikToks to try to reconnect with her family. “And (TV producer) Debby Wolfe was scrolling one day and she saw one of our TikToks. And this whole ‘Lopez vs. Lopez’ was born from that idea.”
The elder Lopez is no newcomer to comedy. He started as a stand-up comedian and helmed his own series, “George Lopez,” on ABC for six seasons. He hosted the late-night talk show on TBS called “Lopez Tonight,” and enjoyed a brief sitcom stint in “Saint George” on FX.
“To leave (TV) for 15 years and to have Debby see Mayan do TikToks about our unfortunate break in our relationship ... to create a beautiful thing from something that was so painful and so much my fault is just a wonderful thing,” says Lopez.
“This is an experience of a lifetime, to be able to do this with my father,” adds Mayan.
“I have studied personally to be a comedian," she continues. "But the inception of my love of comedy started at a young age. And the ‘George Lopez’ show started when I was 5 years old. So I've been around sound sets. ... And now, making that switch to working with him every day... .
“I'm playing a different version of myself, which at first I thought, ‘Oh, well, I've gone to therapy!’ Like, I'm going to be teaching ‘Mayan the character' some things about my dad, but, really, ‘Mayan’ is teaching me things that I'm actually gaining more confidence in my relationship with my dad.”
She thinks that functioning as coworkers changes the whole complexion of their relationship. “There has to be some emotional separation, but the bond and the love shows very clearly on screen — not just with my dad but with the entire cast of ‘Lopez vs. Lopez.’ And so it is just — it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.”
As for her dad, he says, “When I look at Mayan, I can see the different times in her life every day,” says Lopez. “I look at her being 5 and 10 and 13. I mean, my eyes have seen a lot of incredible things, but what I get to see every day, I never imagined would ever be something I would be able to do.”
Being back on NBC is doubly gratifying for Lopez, 61. “I was on ‘Johnny Carson’ in '91. ... I came here when I was 13 and saw all the things that people see today. And to just know that Johnny Carson, Freddie Prinze, ‘Sanford and Son,’ (all aired on NBC) at the most critical time of my childhood, my junior high years, that those people kept me connected to just not having the loneliest childhood. And the fact that I would be here and be able to see these trams go by, when I was IN the tram ... it's unimaginable to me.”
Lopez, who was deserted by his father at birth and by his mother when he was 10, was raised by his grandmother, so family is important to him. “I used to give up on people,” he says,” whether it was my fault or not.
“I would remove people from my life. And if I was to blame, I would just never have to see them again. But this is the one relationship that is the most valuable thing to me in my entire life. So it was very difficult to be able to have to look at yourself and your flawed self and be honest with yourself and know that whether it worked out or not, I was going to do something that was entirely new to me and was going to take me on a very painful journey to look at myself. But much like life, laughter is the best medicine. I don't think it's as good as antidepressants, but it can be a good medicine.”
Spielberg's 'The Fabelmans' arrives Nov. 11
Steven Spielberg’s latest film, “The Fabelmans,” hits selected theaters on Nov. 11 and goes wide on Thanksgiving. It’s not surprising that it’s about a 16-year-old wannabe filmmaker (so was Spielberg), played by Gabriel LaBelle. Four-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams portrays his artistic mom. Williams was a teenager herself when she came to Hollywood to try her luck. “I think it takes the sheer guts and stupidity of being 15,” she says, “that feeling of being completely invincible; nothing can touch you, hurt you, harm you. You're a superhero. Of course you'll escape beautiful and unscathed. Then, all of a sudden, you realize that people can hurt you and words can harm you and situations can screw with you, and you learn through the process.”
She’d been living in San Diego with her parents and driving to Los Angeles for auditions, she recalls. “I had a terrible agent. I started at the bottom of the barrel — slowly worked up from there, commercials, little TV parts, little movies — somehow I ended up here,” she smiles.
Josh Groban back on PBS
Singer Josh Groban returns to the Big Apple for his “Great Performances: Josh Groban’s Return to Radio City Music Hall” special via PBS Nov. 25. Filmed last April, the show will feature the baritone along with guests Cyndi Lauper, Tony-nominated Denee Benton and New York City Ballet dancer Tiler Peck. Groban has been a favorite of public television for some time.
“I was thinking back to the first time I filmed a concert special for PBS,” he recalls. “And I had never toured before. When I think back now to how many hundreds of performances I’ve done and how many concerts, I still get just as nervous.
“But the nerves now are an excitement. I’m able to channel the nerves now to a place of really wanting to go out there and take control of the night and have a good time. Before, the nerves would be debilitating. Before, I would second-guess, and I would get tight. Now it’s just more of a pacing and, ‘I can’t wait to get out there’ kind of thing.
“But I care just as much before every show and especially on a night when you know it’s in a city that has given you so much, a venue that has such a storied history, and when you know there’s also 17 cameras,” he says.
“There’s a little bit of just an added nervousness. So at that point, when you have everybody out there, that choir has already sung with you on five or six other songs. That orchestra has been playing so gorgeously all night. We are all, at that point, really exhausted, really happy. You know, there’s no greater feeling in the world than that moment where you are able to say goodnight and leave everything that you have left in you on your final few songs and then say ‘Good-bye.’”
Carpenter emcees 'Godzilla'
Say what you will about the festering monsters that have been created to scare the wits out of you – none can QUITE compare with that slimy sea monster, Godzilla. He first appeared in a cheesy Japanese movie in 1954, followed by a chain of them. But the lizard-like beast went on the star in 32 movies as well as video games, TV shows and comic books and became his own ‘best’ enemy.
All the while the caliber of the creature didn’t change much. To get your Godzilla groove on, you can check out “Masters of Monsters,” a “Godzilla Monster Marathon” beginning Saturday and running through Nov. 9 via Shout! Factory TV, TokuSHOUTsu, Scream Factory TV and Shout! Cult. The best part is that the series will be hosted by horror-meister John Carpenter, the director who brought us “The Thing,” “Christine,” “Halloween,” “Starman,” “Tales of the Crypt” and on and on.
Carpenter tells me he didn’t start out to be a horror movie master. “My career found me — I didn’t find it,” he says. “I got into this business to make westerns. When you need a job, you take any movie that comes along. A distributor said, ‘I got this movie I want to make about a babysitter and a psychopathic killer.’ And I said, ‘OK.’ And off I go.”
Carpenter says you need to persevere to survive in the competitive field of filmmaking. “You have to have talent, first of all, ... thick skin, and the will to survive – the same qualities that make anybody do anything that's impossible. Making movies is impossible. You can't do it, but somehow you do it,” he says.
“You’re born with some voice and the need to express yourself. I went to movies as a kid. We didn’t have a TV set. I was terribly influenced by images on the screen, so I responded to that. I said, ‘I want to do that. I want to put those images up. I don’t quite understand how it's done, but I want to do that.’”
———
