'Lopez vs. Lopez' was inspired by George and Mayan Lopez's real life. Season 2 is even more meta
LOS ANGELES — Debby Wolfe hadn't exactly planned to find the inspiration for a family sitcom while doom-scrolling TikTok. But in the wee hours one night, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, another compulsive swipe up on her phone screen led to a video from Mayan Lopez, the daughter of comedian George Lopez. The younger Lopez — also a comedian who, for years, had been estranged from her father — was clearing up some rumors about her parents divorce ... while twerking upside down.
"Mayan had inherited her father's comedy chops — she knew what was funny about her struggles and her pain and was able to poke fun at it," Wolfe says. Sure, OK. But if this was a scene from a mockumentary sitcom, the camera would zoom in on George, who is sitting next to Mayan and Wolfe, and is shaking his head like a proud but defeated father being reminded of his daughter's rump shaking.
This isn't a Danny and D.J. Tanner-type family dynamic. But perhaps the father-daughter dysfunction in "Lopez vs. Lopez" may be more relatable and just as heartwarming and soothing.
Created by Wolfe and the Lopez duo, the meta family comedy stars George and Mayan as fictional versions of themselves as they attempt to mend their fractured relationship. Their characters share their names, but not occupations: Mayan works at a veterinarian's office and George has a moving company, but it goes bankrupt, prompting George to move in with Mayan. It resembles what happened to their family in real life: When the pandemic hit, Mayan and her mother Ann, George's ex-wife who was also an executive producer on "George Lopez," were worried about him — he is immunocompromised — so
