Lopez Vs Lopez Guest Star Stephen Tobolowsky Praises The "Live Theater" Vibes Of Sitcom Television

Lopez Vs Lopez, the hit NBC sitcom starring George Lopez, is currently airing its third season. The show combines classic family sitcom trappings with some genuinely heavy subject matter, as the main character is an erstwhile deadbeat dad struggling with his alcoholism while trying to reconnect with his daughter, played by Lopez’s real-life progeny, Mayan Lopez, as well as his future son-in-law, Quinten, portrayed by Matt Shively.




Quinten’s father, Sam, made his debut in season 1 of the series, played by Stephen Tobolowsky in the episode, “Lopez Vs Van Bryan.” Sam initially seems like a perfect father-in-law, particularly with regard to his genuine love and appreciation for his son’s beau. However, after getting a little inebriated, Sam reveals an unflattering resentment towards his son for not being a business-savvy, money-minding patriarch. Ultimately, Sam reconciles with his son and admits the error of his ways. Audiences will get to find out if the lesson stuck with the upcoming Season 3 episode, “Lopez Vs In-Laws,” which sees the return of Tobolowsky as Sam Van Bryan, alongside his wife, Quinten’s mother, played by comedy legend Vicki Lawrence.

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ScreenRant interviewed Stephen Tobolowsky about his role in Lopez Vs Lopez. He talks about working with massive talents like George Lopez and Vicki Lawrence, and how the Lopez Vs Lopez set compares to his last big sitcom appearance, as a series regular on the reboot of One Day at a Time. He also talks briefly about working on the upcoming Freaky Friday sequel and how a sudden and unexpected health scare had him doubting himself before getting his mojo back, so to speak, on the set of Lopez Vs Lopez.


Stephen Tobolowsky On Returning To The World of Lopez Vs Lopez

“This is a great, funny, family comedy. But with extremely serious undertones!”

Screen Rant: I re-watched your episode from Lopez vs Lopez season 1, and it’s really a fantastic episode. There’s so much depth to your character. I can’t wait to see him show up again, this time with backup, but we’ll get to that. First, can you tell me about that first appearance?


Stephen Tobolowsky: I’ve always been a big fan of George. Walking onto the set, I was already a big fan of George, but I didn’t really know what the show was. And then, as we began working on the show, I saw like, oh, this is a great, funny, family comedy. But with extremely serious undertones! (Laughs) And nobody pulls that off better than kind of like George. The thing that totally freaked me out was, George knows everybody from my past. And he knows them well. He knows Belita Moreno, who I went to high school with, who was my friend for years. He asked if I know Beth Henley. I lived with Beth Henley for 16 years! It’s like, he knows everybody I knew!

And what was it like when you walked onto the set?


Stephen Tobolowsky: It was more like a set where you would do a play. And the directors were aimed that way. I mean, Danielle Fishel was our director on this episode. And the directors really approached this thing very much from character and from point of view. And quite amazingly, a lot of times, the writers who were sitting off to the side would write to the way you were responding. And so you ended up having a kind of true theater experience doing a sitcom, which is difficult to do because of the time constraint. But the writers are so good. And the second time around, I don’t know if you’ve looked at the list of writers, but a lot of the writers from One Day at a Time migrated over to Lopez. And so you have that same degree of character insight given into these people, and at the same time, it’s funny.

I’m glad that you pointed that out, because to me, the mark of a great sitcom is if you could stage it in a theater and have people watch it.


Stephen Tobolowsky: (Laughs) Yes! And of course, because they’re dealing with serious issues or big life issues like falling in love, marriage, having big steps, trying to change your life for the better, making the big apologies in your life… Those kind of things, in a sitcom, a lot of times end up coming off thin. But in Lopez, they don’t come off thin. And the first show, I remember (Laughs) this was a terrible thing. I got carried away, I guess the scene where I get drunk in the trailer. So I’m talking to George and I’m getting drunk in the trailer, talking about my past. Of course, I’m not really getting drunk.

However, I kept referencing a name, Lyndon, referring to my son. And I finished the whole speech, the entire speech, and the audience is really quiet and everything. And then George goes, “Wait a minute, who’s Lyndon?” I said, “What?” He says, “You’re calling my son Lyndon. Did you call my son Lyndon?” And I said, “I don’t know, did I? Can we play that back?” And I said that to the AVs, and so they played it back and the audience is laughing and George is laughing. He says, “You know, I didn’t notice because I was so taken by the speech. I didn’t really think the fact that I don’t know who Lyndon is.” And so, then the director was laughing too. He says, “Well, can we do it again and this time just use the right names?”

I had no idea why I switched those names. I have no idea why I did that. But it was the kind of thing that the audience ended up loving. George ended up loving. And boy, when he did his monologue on the couch, that was one take, one print. And nobody could breathe in the theater. One thing people don’t realize about George… Well, maybe they do, and it was just new to me. He takes up the entire room. He has a presence that fills whatever space you’re in. And when you’re in that theater, when you’re in the studio and you have a big studio audience there, you can feel George’s vibes hit the back wall and bounce back. It’s that big.

Now, I’ve worked with other actors who go the other way, and they’re small. They try to be small and they try to make everything very small and conversational and personal. George doesn’t. And it doesn’t come off like he’s big or overdoing anything. It just comes off like he’s passionate. And I think his passion really drives the show. At least from my point of view, from my two episodes.


That’s wonderfully said. Yeah, you need that. He’s not an Archie Bunker, but that gravitas.

Stephen Tobolowsky: Yes, you got it. Carol O’Connor’s presence filled the entire theater as well. He’s not Archie Bunker. George Lopez is not an Archie Bunker kind of character, but he fills the whole theater. And maybe it’s his experience as being a comic playing huge, huge venues. But he is enormous and his presence is enormous. And it’s easy to play off of.

Working With Vicki Lawrence On Lopez Vs Lopez Is A Treat

“It’s so good working with somebody who’s such a pro.”

George and Rosie high five in Lopez vs Lopez season 3

Excellent. And this time, you’ve got backup, like we teased. How is Vicki Lawrence as a scene partner? I mean, she’s a sitcom legend. I used to watch Mama’s Family every morning before I’d go off to school.


Stephen Tobolowsky: Well, she is a legend, and she was one of my heroes, you know, watching TV. The first time I worked with Vicki was on The Cool Kids, and we had a bedroom scene together! So that’s how I met Vicki. We were under the sheets together, and that was pretty amazing. (Laughs) To be able to tell my wife Anne, “Anne, I’m sleeping with Vicki Lawrence today on TV!” I can’t believe it.

The thing is, all that work she did with Carol Burnett and all of that, all of her past, arch professional. And she walks onto the set and with such surety and at the same time, she’s like any great actor you’d work with on Broadway. She’s in the moment. She’s playing off of you. She listens to everybody. She responds in the moment. It’s so good working with somebody who’s such a pro that any of the kind of little mistakes people make in sitcom, she had done it 20 years ago. You know, she’s through with that. Now she’s just, she looks you dead in the eye and she says what she means and she means what she says. And that’s the best thing for an actor to play off of. When you look at that person and they mean it.

And then, consequently you have to give as you get. And so I have to respond to her 100%, too. So if George is a person who gives you a kick in the pants energy wise, Vicky is a person who’s a truth monitor. (Laughs) She’s always there. She’s always happening. I love her. I love her to death.


Stephen Tobolwsky Had An Unexpected Health Scare On The Set Of Freakier Friday

“I was doing a scene and I forgot every line I had… I couldn’t see the words!”

Stephen Tobolowsky in One Day at a Time

You’ve been on a million sets, but are you cozier as a regular on this kind of show, like with One Day at a Time? Or do you like being a special guest star where you’re like, “Oh, here’s this big, exciting episode just for me. And… I’ll see you next year!”

Stephen Tobolowsky: Well, well, it’s the kind of set that it would be easy to be a regular on because everybody’s treated with such equality and with respect. And it was the same thing with One Day at a Time. Everybody was treated well on that set. And it all comes from the top. You know, in this case, now, Deb Wolf, who was on One Day at a Time, is the showrunner here on Lopez Vs Lopez. Everybody on the set is treated with the absolute respect. So it’s easy to be a regular or to be on however many episodes they want on that set because you’re always treated like family. You’re not treated like competition. Everybody has their own. Everybody has enough. It’s a friendly set, just like One Day at a Time was a friendly set.

I had just finished Freaky Friday part two when I started Lopez, Lopez. And my last day on Freaky Friday Part Two, I had a horrible thing happen to me. I was doing a scene, and I forgot every line I had. The camera was not on me, it was on the other people. So they gave me the script, and I could not see the words on the page. I couldn’t see the words! When they turned the camera back on me, I was fine, and I was able to say my lines. I remembered them, finally. I apologized to the director. She hugged me, and she said, “Don’t worry, we have it all. It’s going to be fine.” But I felt terrible about it.

And the very next day I called Debby Wolfe, of Lopez Vs Lopez. I said, “I had this horrible thing happen to me. And I want you to know, because I don’t know what it was.” I don’t want to ruin the show, because what I was doing was film, and Lopez Vs Lopez is theater. I don’t want the audience to love this family, and then have this one person come out who can’t do what they’re supposed to, who can’t remember their lines, and can’t even read their lines! I ended up going to a neurologist, and he did some sort of neck adjustment to me, and it started making me feel better. But what I have since learned is, it’s one of the symptoms of long COVID. The symptom is this thing happening to you where you get vertigo; you can’t remember things, and you can’t see. It was a Long COVID symptom. Now I don’t know if that’s what I had. I had COVID a few months ago. Maybe that’s what it was. It went away.


So you were able to do the show okay?

Stephen Tobolowsky: This is what Deb did for me on Lopez Vs Lopez. This is the kind of group they are. She said, “Would you feel okay if we made sure we got all your scenes in the can before the audience came?” And I said, “Deb, that would be great if you could do that.” And she said, “We will do that. And then you could either do the audience scene if you want to do it for the live audience for the laughs, or we’ll have the scene that we can just show the audience.” That’s what she did for me to enhance my level of comfort. And over the week on Lopez Vs Lopez, we got all my scenes in the can before the audience came in. And then when the audience did come in, I felt so relieved and confident, we did almost everything in front of the audience to get the real laughs. That’s the kind of family group it is. It’s a wonderful group of people.


That’s honestly such a relief to hear. Because after Norman Lear passed, there’s that fear. Can we get these shows againthat are this good, that have lessons, and are still funny?

Stephen Tobolowsky: Yes, and like I said, several of the writers from One Day at a Time migrated to Lopez Vs Lopez. The tone and taste of the show is certainly that top shelf kind of thing.

More About Lopez Vs Lopez Season 3

George hugs a little boy in Lopez vs Lopez


The laughs and family spats continue in Lopez vs Lopez season 3 as Mayan and Quinten try to take control of their wedding plans. George continues to deal with his sobriety and the realities of getting older, neither of which he does gracefully. Rosie isn’t shy about voicing her opinions about the wedding and silently deals with the aftermath of her near marriage to Josué. Chance begins to rebel against his parents now that he’s a strong, independent 9-year-old. The whole Lopez familia is back and ready to live life to its fullest – loving, crying and everything in between.

New episodes of Lopez Vs Lopez air Fridays at 8:30pm ET/7:30pm CT on NBC.

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