The Brothers Garcia

The Brothers Garcia was an American sitcom that premiered in 2000 on Nickelodeon and ended in 2004. It was among the first projects of Sí TV, an effort to produce programming featuring Latino characters, but aiming it at a diverse audience. (Sí TV has since launched its own cable television network.)

The series aired on the programming block Nick on CBS from March 14 to September 11, 2004, where the series ended its initial run. Reruns on The N started on April 7, 2008, and ended in June 2008. This series has some similarities to the style of The Wonder Years and Everybody Hates Chris, with an older version of the main character narrating each episode in a witty and sarcastic manner.

The show revolves around the Garcias, a Hispanic family of six living in San Antonio. There are three brothers: Carlos, the popular one who's most likely to get into trouble; George, the slightly nerdy one, and Larry, the youngest (who narrates every episode). There's also a sister, Lorenna, and of course, the parents.

Tropes used in The Brothers Garcia include:

• Aerith and Bob: A strange example considering that it's set in the present day, but we have Spanish names such as Lorenna, Carlos and Sonia as well as English names like George, Ray and Larry. Justified for the last two, being shortened forms of "Raimundo" and "Lorenzo".
• Affirmative Action Girl: In-universe example when the family temporarily adopts a girl from El Salvador.
• An Aesop: Several.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: During a Lent episode that had the kids giving up various things, they all dramatically confessed to their parents at the table and Sonia adds "and I bought a really expensive pair of shoes today". When they look at her blankly she replies "well I felt bad about it".
• Australian Accent: The girls at school swoon over an Australian exchange student.
• Bad Bad Acting: Sonia when she tries to shoot a commercial for her salon.
• Be a Whore to Get Your Man: Okay it's a family sitcom so all Lorenna does is wear a tube top and don lots of makeup to try and get a boy to notice her. Deconstructed then when he shows interest in another girl who isn't wearing makeup at all. Sonia gives Lorenna a Be Yourself speech and suggests the boy went for the other girl because she was more confident in her own skin.
• Big Eater: George in early episodes. This was eventually dropped when the actor lost weight.
• Bottle Fairy: Ray's sister, Tia Gabbi.
• Brainless Beauty: Carlos gets this at times. Highlights include not knowing the difference between Austria and Australia, and thinking Central America means Kansas.
• Casanova: Carlos is a sixteen-year-old version.
• Chatty Hairdresser: The mother, Sonia, is one.
• Continuity Nod: When Larry trains to eat Ray's salsa, clips are shown of George and Carlos trying.
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: When Carlos fails a Spanish test he is forced to watch novellas with Lorenna for the whole day and must report to the family in Spanish at dinner.
• Cool Mask: Larry (see Pro Wrestling Is Real below).
• Cool Old Lady: Sonia's mother.
• Cosmetic Catastrophe: One episode has Sonia rushed off her feet trying to fix the hair of women who were unfortunate enough to be subjects at Annabelle's Beauty School. One girl wanted her hair bleached and the hairdresser in question used actual bleach.
• Couch Gag: The opening credits for the first few seasons would show clips of the characters from the episode in question. The fourth season went with standard opening credits.
• Dialogue Reversal: Sonia tells Ray to not be annoyed with George's new look, saying he's just expressing himself. When she flips out at what Lorenna is wearing to school Larry sarcastically says "isn't she expressing herself?".
• Fan Disservice: In-universe example from the first episode where the boys stage a backyard wrestling match. One girl tells George he needs to put his shirt back on.
• Full Name Ultimatum: Lampshaded by Larry ("Sometimes I think parents only give you middle names to let you know when you're in big trouble").
• Hidden Depths: Carlos and Lorenna are the two shallowest characters but get episodes showing their depths.
• Hollywood Tone Deaf: Averted. Lorenna aspires to be a singer and her singing is fairly passable.
• Hot for Teacher: Larry for his teacher Miss Aztecka.
• Hypocritical Humour: Sonia's mother lectures the family on how much they've changed since winning the Lottery but when she goes mad tearing up the house when she hears the Lottery ticket is missing.
• Imagine Spot: Larry has a Romeo and Juliet inspired one only for the girl to snap him out of it and ask if he was listening.
• Important Haircut: The plot point of an episode revolves around Larry getting a haircut from someone other than his mother. The same episode has Sonia deciding to do the same (see The Makeover below).
  • In another episode Carlos shaves his hair off to show support for a girl with cancer.
• Informed Deformity: Sonia mentions she has way too many grey hairs, but none of them is visible to the audience.
• Lottery Ticket: The family legitimately win the lottery but it turns out that a hundred other people also won it so they only win about $1400 which is after they've gone wild with the spending.
• Magical Camera: The family manages to film an entire commercial in the salon without Sonia noticing despite having only one camera. The end commercial includes closeups that wouldn't be possible if they were trying to keep the camera hidden.
• Magical Nanny: When Sonia is too busy with work in the salon, she gets a friend of their aunt's to look after the house. She ends up sorting things out just in time for the end of the episode.
  • Subverted in the episode where the aunt herself comes to visit. The advice she gives the kids lands them all in detention and Sonia says she wishes she could be more fun but then she and Ray wouldn't be good parents.
• The Makeover: One episode has Sonia tired of her look, so she opts to go wild and get a new hairstyle. At the end of the episode, everyone comments on how great it looks, then we find out she still has the same style.
• Manly Tears: Carlos, see Very Special Episode below.
• Mistaken for Pregnant: Thanks to some bad eavesdropping Larry thinks Sonia is going to have a baby when she's really just preparing to babysit a friend's baby. When the baby gets dropped off at the house, the kids assume it was adopted instead.
• Never a Self-Made Woman: Averted. While everyone is known as a member of Larry's family (it's from his perspective), Lorenna and Sonia do get plenty of plots for themselves that don't revolve around their relationships with men.
• Not Listening to Me, Are You?: Sonia is showing Ray dresses to wear to a work party and he's just busy reading his speech. Sonia cops on when she holds up a sock and he says "that's the best one yet".
• One Steve Limit: Subverted when Ray acts as a substitute teacher at the school. Carlos and George simply pretend they're not related.
• Positive Discrimination: One episode has Ray stopped for speeding by a male and female cop. The male cop is overweight, balding and is willing to go easy on Ray while the female cop is tall, thin, cleanly dressed and gives him a ticket.
• Pro Wrestling Is Real: Double subverted. The boys stage a backyard wrestling match and have Larry wrestle George and say Larry will win. However George hears a girl cheering for him and pins Larry anyway.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Carlos learns An Aesop about this when he is forced to take a job as a perfume boy (which involves wearing a pink smock). A girl he likes stops by the shop and says she doesn't mind it at all.
• Running Gag: Ray has a special salsa sauce that only he can eat, the other boys trying several times to eat it but finding it too hot.
• Samus Is a Girl: One episode deals with the family adopting a teenager from El Salvador named Alex Fernández. Cue the the kids all worrying about what it'll be like with another boy in the house. Their reaction changes when Alex turns out to be a girl.
• Shout-Out: The hairdryer in Sonia's salon is named R2D2.
• Sibling Seniority Squabble: Larry and Lorenna do this quite a bit since Lorenna is one minute older than Larry.
• Slapstick Knows No Gender: Lorenna does get some slapstick, notably in one episode where the kids have a water fight.
• Spiky Hair: Carlos has this style. One episode shows him charging his mother's customers $1 to spike it for them after she cuts it.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Parodied when another family moves in next door and a big feud starts with each of the family members having a rival, except Larry who was in love with the family's youngest daughter. It even gets a Romeo and Juliet Imagine Spot.
• The Smurfette Principle: One episode deals with this and Lorenna eventually confesses how hard it is being the only girl in the family. However the show is not actually an example of the trope as while Lorenna and Sonia are the only women in the family, the show has plenty of recurring female characters such as Sandy, Samantha, Lindsey, Nicole and all of Carlos's love interests.
• Theme Twin Naming: Lorenna and Lorenzo.
• Token Minority Couple: Averted pretty well with girls of many different ethnicities serving as love interests.
• Traumatic Haircut: Larry's attempted Important Haircut turns into this after his siblings scare him about the barber in question cutting people's ears off.
• Uncanny Valley Makeup: Lorenna tries to look like a famous model visiting her mother's salon. The result is...slightly creepy (especially considering she's fourteen).
• Very Special Episode: A downplayed one pops up where Carlos finds out that a girl at school has cancer. It's handled very well and has quite a touching ending.
• Walk On the Wild Side Episode: Larry gets sick of being called a goodie two shoes and tries to throw a Wild Teen Party that predictably gets out of control.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: For Sonia it's rodents. And ants.
• Wild Teen Party: Larry and George throw one while the parents are away. They actually do get away with it but end up confessing to the parents anyway, along with a whole list of other stuff. The parents are so stunned by this stream of honesty that they ground the kids for a week and call it even.
• Women Are Wiser: Inverted. While Ray and Sonia are both very capable parents, Sonia is the more irrational one and most likely to flip out. Ray frequently has to calm her down though he does have his moments as well.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Sonia repeatedly tests her hair colours on Sandy and one episode has her go for a blue and pink striped colour.