The George Lopez Show/Headscratchers

• Did the writers have a nervous breakdown after a while, or what? The Lopez's had more crap thrown at them over the course of the later seasons than most Long Runner sitcom families. None of it would have been so bad, except they kept track of continuity, so when things went bad, they hung around and thus, things kept getting worse. It got so bad, this Troper couldn't even laugh at the genuinely funny moments.
• Is anyone else bothered by Angie's "superiority" over George at times? I mean, half the time, it's right, and the other half is "what the hell is she thinking". I mean, she let in a former gang-member into her house, and asked George if she could stay at their home for a bit more, even though she took Carmen to a bar without their permission. It just aggravates me.
• George being a total jackass. I mean, I get it, he's an idiot who thinks he's always right. But when he ends up basically verbally abusing his wife and kids? Not cool.
• The episode when George rebuilds his mothers bathroom pissed me off completely. He went out of his way to do a incredibly nice gesture for her and the cunt actually insulted him. She didn't even say thank you, but it doesn't end there. George is reprimanded for being selfish that he's asking for a thank you, then she gets mad at George for being selfish when he hounds her for a simple thanks by reminding him she's a single mother and didn't get to live out her life because she was pregnant, and acts like it was George's fault she got pregnant at 17. What the fudge, excuse my language, writers?
  • Not that two wrongs make a right, but it's been the other way around at times too. Benny has done nice things for George and he was less than appreciative. Like the time George's garage burned down. He needed $17,000 to to pay off Angie's cosmetics or else, he'd be sued by the company. Benny, knowing he can't do it on his own, calls his father for help and he gives George the money. Rather than be grateful and take it, George yells at Benny for going to Manny (George's father) for help. Angie has to talk some sense into him to get him to think about things. Now yes, his father was absent from his life and yes, Benny was not the best mother, but still. His family is in trouble and he cares more about his stupid pride than his family's debt.
    • To be fair, the former incident was only good, and Benny was only rude. The latter, however, was brought back from a father who he thought was dead and who he didn't want to talk to ever again.
  • Excuse your language for fudge, but not for Country Matters?
• Why doesn't Angie leave George? Seriously, if I lived with someone who treated me and my kids the way George treats his family, I would've walked right out the door. Either that or kicked him out. Is Angie aware of what she could possibly be teaching her kids by putting up with George's behavior and even worse, excusing it?
  • Examples? The only things I can remember off the top of my head is typical jerk behavior of sitcoms and George's resistance in bending over backwards for his family unless truly necessary.
    • What about the time he insulted his daughter because she was dating someone he didn't approve of and caused her to run away? He was a complete Jerkass in that episode and got off scot free. Nobody hated him, not even his best friend. Angie even said it wasn't his fault and he was trying to protect her. Uh, What? Uh, I don't think you're getting it. Your freaking husband told your daughter to leave and he wouldn't come looking for her and you're saying it's not his fault?!?!?! I don't think that's protecting her.
    • My guess is that you experienced a similar situation and are siding with Carmen because you relate to her, because I don't understand how someone can be on Carmen's side after all she keeps doing, something Benny and at times even Vick point out how she keeps doing this things because they are incredibly lenient with her: she pretends to be a slut to be cool, she runs away with her boyfriend (who already got a girl pregnant and does whatever he want) she sneaked out to go into her other boyfriend Jason's house who was now living alone and they threw a party where someone brought drugs, she convinced George and Angy to then make her boyfriend live in their house (he wasn't gonna be left homeless he was going to move back with his rich parents) and then she wants to get married (at 17) with him, and when they don't approve she wants to get pregnant on purpose so they have to get married, seriously what really bugged me is that she never got any reprecutions for any of those things (she falsely got the reputation of a slut at school but that wasn't really her fault so it counts more as she being a victim of bad people and not a result of her actions) after a while I came to the conclusion that the show was trying to show people how wrong it is to raise your child that way.
    • OP here. I agree with the example provided (thank you, by the way). I'm not excusing Carmen's behavior, but come on! He told her to get out and she did. Here's another example: When Carmen ran away, she called home (I assume to see if her parents were worried). Angie asks her if she's been eating and what is George's response? "Who cares if she's been eating?" What?!! What kind of parent says that?! Also, what about the time he made of fun of her dreams of pursuing poetry and told her to her face that she had no potential? Heck, he has even favored Max over Carmen at times (a big example of this is the episode "I Only Have Eyes For You!"). Also, back on the topic of Carmen running away, she left a a voicemail message for her parents. I can't remember the whole message, but one line I remember is "I'm sorry I'm not the daughter you wanted." Think about that for a minute. I don't think that's something a truly rebellious/bratty teen would say. That basically says she doesn't feel her parents love her. And George seems to confirm it!
    • Honestly, she kinda deserved to be punished in IOHEFY for putting Max in the hospital. She had him humiliated and he got into a fight and lost and beat up because of her. But the first time, when she sprayed him in the eye, I was kinda siding with her. But George was being a little to hard on her saying it was all "teenage drama" with her and how she was acting towards him. And this is kinda unrelated, though, but how'd she even put the picture on his school's bulleton board in the first place? They don't even go to the same school.
      • You understand what I'm saying. I agree she did deserve to be punished the second time, but the first, I took her side. I was mostly disgusted at how George blew it off not just by saying it was just "teenage drama", but also by saying that Max was just "being a boy". Max is old enough to know better, just like Carmen.
        • I was the one who made the original complain about Carmen, and I'm not defending George but he at least gets called out on all of those thing you mention (he says she didn't raised her as good as he could, he gets called out even by Benny for his favoritism over Max and him not understanding that not everything is teenage drama) and its true George overreacted, but that's it, he was given reasons to be angry, just that he took it up a knock, and he does show that he cares for Carmen since he was complaining that she shouldn't go out with someone who told him directly he just wanted to get in her pants and who is known by everyone to be that kind of guy, he cares for Carmen, he put his work on the line twice on the same episode for her. I would had sided more with her if Angy would had acted at least reasonably mad at her, but she keeps defending her and comforting her, it's a big of a selfish decision to run away with your boyfriend when you only have reason to think that only "one" of your parents wants you gone since the other keeps being understanding even when you're wrong. The top reason I think it was really more spoilness/brattiness than George behavior is how she keeps threatening with running away when all they're doing is just not bending over to her every whim (letting her be dependant on them but do whatever she wants, something that even Earny who is in the same situation but it's actually an adult would be wrong for doing) taking so much advantage of Angy until she has enough and realizes that it's only furthering Carmen's behavior. As for your original thoughts on why Angy doesn't just leaves George, well even on this page you'll see complains on Angy, Max and of course Carmen, so the whole family is screwed, not just him.
• Were we supposed to feel sorry for Benny being hit by her parents when it's been mentioned that not only she has hit George, but had given her boyfriends permission to hit him too, all to uproarious laughter. Double Standards much? Benny's mom was basically Benny raising a daughter instead of a son.
  • What's worse is that "GEORGE" sided with Benny, even though he's the living example that you can break the pattern even when you have kids like Max and even more so Carmen.
• Maybe this doesn't go here, but I don't know where else to put this. Why does TV tropes list this series as "The George Lopez Show?" It's just "George Lopez" No "The" No "Show" It's the difference between "The Bob Newhart Show," "Newhart," and "Bob" or "The Bill Cosby Show," "The Cosby Show," and "Cosby." Guess I'm a bit nitpicky.
  • Perhaps to differentiate between the person and the TV show.
• In the episode that starts with them saying they need to ask each other before they spend a big amount of money, why is it automatically assumed that George was being unreasonable? George asks for a hundred dollars for poker, bringing up some good points like it relaxing him and him making money doing it (especially since he's using a certain deck that makes Ernie give away when he has low cards), so Angie gives him the money. Angie then asks for two hundred dollars for a pair of shoes, George says no and people assume it's because he's being a jerk and not wanting to give her money. 200 dollars for a single pair of shoes sounds pretty dang stupid to me.
  • They were trying to make it seem like George was a Jerkass for not allowing Angie to have money when she had just allowed him to have money. Personally, this troper agrees with you.
  • While this troper also agrees, I have to admit I figured they were trying to make George seem like a jerk because he went crazy over Angie spending $300 on a spa treatment (and hadn't even gotten touched) while he spent $900 on golf clubs, which is obviously a lot more than $300.
• In the episode "The Trouble with Ricky", George learns of Max's friend Ricky's troubled life at home (absent father, alcoholic mother). He wants Ricky to stay with them for some time longer, but Angie is against it, with her reason being concern for Max. Okay, wait a minute. This woman has no problem letting an ex-gang member stay in her house around her kids (Marisol in the episode "Girls Night Out") or letting her daughter's boyfriend live with them, but she's opposed to letting her son's 10-year-old friend from a troubled home stay with them. How does that work?
  • It's Fridge Brilliance when you think about it, her bad experience with Marisol was probably the main reason why she didn't want Ricky staying over, she already housed one troublemaker, so it's quite understandable that she dosen't want to let another one stay over, especially since Ricky burned down the garage(albeit by mistake) along with her beauty products(putting the family so far in debt that George almost borrowed money from his estranged father).