'Lopez Tonight'
One star
10 p.m. weeknights on TBS
"The revolution begins right now!" announced George Lopez on the first installment of his late-night talk show.
Lopez is determined to be different. The show opened with a tight shot of two go-go dancers writhing, and a crowd of 400 that refused to sit down. It looked like the kind of nightclub that doesn't have a bouncer, with the name "Lopez" emblazoned in some sort of glowing yellow demon font. Lopez, in a suit, was overdressed for his own show.
Was he comfortable? Yes. Confident? Oh yes. Overconfident? Possibly. He lost momentum with a stock, vanilla monologue that targeted Sammy Sosa, Glenn Beck and Sinbad.
Ellen Degeneres appeared in her jammies to offer congratulations on this "important" show. "Everybody needs to be represented on television," she said before passing out Jell-O shots.
Clearly, the racial elephant in the room is not going to be ignored - everyone will have a chance to take a ride in this circus. Lopez called two audience members up on stage, to essentially perpetuate ethnic stereotypes. 'They watched street interviews, and then made snap judgments as to whether a black man had been to jail (yes); whether a snaggle-toothed Madonna fan had ever used the "n" word ("Of course"); and if an Asian man had undersized tackle. ("Yes," he said without flinching.)
The only real insight from this exercise? That Lopez isn't afraid to get tacky.
One bright spot was first guest Eva Longoria-Parker, who was so at ease with her pal she volunteered that she was wearing a wig, and then performed a perfunctory pole dance. Keep at it, Eva.
We also learned that:
*Audience members will be able to shout questions at guests such as Kobe Bryant.
*Lopez will be bleeped repeatedly.
*Jamie Foxx and Marc Anthony will grace tonight's episode.
Will Lopez urge them to pole dance, too? Now, that would be some real diversity.
It seems that whenever change happens, such as in Late Night Talk Shows (a format that has been on the air since before Johnny Carson) Anglo-Americans are scared. They fear Latinos because they do not understand their culture, their traditions, their language and most of all their sense of humor. Talk shows like THE TONIGHT SHOW and LATE NIGHT are boring and stale with low ratings. These guys have had free reign of the airwaves for years and now a Latino comes along with "some spice & flare" and they fear him. Afraid that he will steal all the ratings (which he is) and their sponsors (which he will). Latinos are the largest movie-going audience in the country and soon will be the majority of the population. So look out: It's time for a change, Pinche Gringos! This is a taste of the future in this country! Latinos – Please keep watching the show and the ratings will continue to go up.