George Lopez didn’t hold back on his final night at the helm of his TBS talk show, “Lopez Tonight.” The show premiered in 2009, but suffered after it was bumped to midnight to make room for an 11 p.m. Conan O’Brien show.
“I just figured out what I’m gonna do, said Lopez in his opening monologue. “We’re gonna take ‘Lopez Tonight’ and I’m gonna go play in Turkey.”
And so it began. Or ended. Not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Lopez, who appeared to be taping this final show without his usual stage makeup, did try to keep things light, but his bitterness at losing the show — the second he’s lost (ABC’s “George Lopez”) kept bubbling to the surface. Not surprising considering that the announcement came a little more than 24 hours earlier on Wednesday (Aug. 10).
After bantering with “Creepy Little White Girl,” a recurring character, about the cancellation and driving home the point that Latinos are underrepresented on TV, the show went to commercial to the sound of Cee-Lo Green’s “F— You,” which was obviously bleeped.
Lopez held court with Eva Longoria, Arsenio Hall, Derek Fisher and Ron Artest (aka “Metta World Peace”) and all appeared to be imbibing. Longoria held on to a glass of wine throughout the show and exclaimed that Lopez reeked of tequila.
“Hey don’t spill wine on that couch,” said Lopez to Longoria, “it’ll be in my house by Monday.”
Things kind of devolved from there, though it was fun watching Artest do his stand-up comedy routine while wearing short shorts and knee-high socks. The guy gets an A for effort, but we didn’t get it.
After an obligatory clip montage and a round of thank yous for everyone from the camera guys to show backer Sandra Bullock, it was all over.
Next stop Turkey?
Liz Kelly Nelson / zap 2 it
