Welcome back.

Paul Rodriguez was my hero in the 80’s and early 90’s. Hey, a guy that looks like me, talking in English, on TV and making people laugh. Awesome. Ricky Ricardo (“I Love Lucy”) was also in the picture, but I was just a little boy back then.

Now comes George Lopez (“The George Lopez Show”), and I think he’s awesome. In the show he’s a middle class, well dressed, home owner (not the mechanic), kind of guy. His recent bout with kidney disease makes him only human. I had noticed he had lost a lot of weight, not sure if that was related to his disease or not.

In his interview, Lopez speaks of his kidney disease and Latinos in comedy. He says the media doesn’t want to acknowledge the success of his mostly Latino show because Latinos are not important to Hollywood. That this ‘quiet revolution’ of Latinos on TV is being ignored. True. Keep doing what you’re doing George, take care of your self, be grateful for your life and your incredible wife and keep making people laugh. Your time is coming.

A stand-up wife helps Lopez stay on a roll:

“‘This is a Chicano’s worst nightmare,’ he quips in the voice of his cynical stand-up character, the hard-boiled barrio bad guy. ‘Something that makes you owe your wife — forever!'”

Lopez, however, feels the program hasn’t received the credit it deserves as a broadcast milestone. His wife agrees.

and…

“This is the first sitcom with a Latino family,” she says. “Chico was Latino, the Man was not. Ricky Ricardo was Latino, his wife was not. This is an entire family of Latinos, and this is the first time in history that’s been done…. This is groundbreaking, and yet everyone has just kind of ignored it.”

“You know why?” adds Lopez. “They don’t want to acknowledge we’re important.”

Into the future,

davidT