Lopez vs. Lopez came to NBC in the 2022-2023 TV season as a fresh kind of family sitcom, featuring the real-life father/daughter duo of George Lopez and Mayan Lopez. The show was enough of a hit to earn a full season order, and the new year will showcase a new side of Matt Shively’s Quinten when his dad comes into town, played by One Day at a Time alum Stephen Tobolowsky. Shively spoke with CinemaBlend about his goal to play the best father on TV, what it was like to work with Stephen Tobolowsky on their second show in common, and more.
While fans will have to tune in to NBC's new episode of Lopez vs. Lopez on January 20 to see how well Sam Van Bryan and George get along (or don’t get along), I spoke with Matt Shively about getting to play a great dad to Chance and supportive partner to Mayan in a sitcom. It turns out that those qualities in Quentin go way back to the beginning stages of the show, after shooting the pilot and before they started shooting for the season. The actor shared:
I met with all the writers and we had a conversation of where we wanted to go with the character and what I was looking for. I said, 'I've seen these sitcoms a million times, and I've seen every dad on them and I want to be the opposite of what these dads are.' Most of the time they're playing the bumbling fool who's not paying attention, who loves their kids but at the same time is still very kind of self-obsessed and absorbed in their own world and living how they want to live, and I wanted to do the opposite. I wanted to be empathetic and understanding and compassionate, and the person that both Mayan and Chance could come to for anything and everything and can be heard and seen.
Those qualities of empathy and compassion have made Quinten the punchline of some of George’s jokes, and Matt Shively joked that his character is "the perfect punching bag, and I love being the punching bag." Lopez vs. Lopez has showcased those qualities as what make the character such a great partner and father. If anything, Quinten living with George despite all the jokes is just another sign that he’s far from – to quote Shively – ”self-obsessed and absorbed.” The actor went on:
I basically pitched it as, 'Listen, every trope, everything that sitcoms have done with dads before, I want to go against it and I want to do the opposite,' which ended up working great because George still is playing that character. It makes it a great balance of the two different types of fathers and where each of them can learn from each other. But my main goal was just that I wanted to be the best TV dad that there's ever been, when it comes to being there for your child and for your significant other and for your family.
Quinten has stiff competition when it comes to the claim of “best TV dad,” up against candidates like Danny Tanner (played by the late Bob Saget) from Full House and Uncle Phil (played by the late James Avery) from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, to name just two! The Lopez vs. Lopez character definitely stands out, however, as he’s younger than many sitcom dads and faces different kinds of challenges, which he has (so far) been able to rise to. Matt Shively didn’t give away all the details about how his character will handle having his own dad in town, but did share how much the new episode means to him:
This episode is so special to me, because I feel like it was the episode where I, halfway through, looked at it and went, 'Oh wow, we're really accomplishing that.' They took that note and they ran with it and they turned it into a reality. I love the fact that every time Quinten is on screen, you just love this guy, because he just cares so much about his family and how they feel and how they're doing. I feel like that's something that isn't showcased very often in family sitcoms like this.
Who could root against a character who is just always willing to prioritize his family and loved ones, usually with a smile on his face? It’s hard to say what he was like before he was a father to Chance and partner to Mayan, but the arrival of his father will undoubtedly shed some light on how he became the man he is today.
And as it turns out, working with Stephen Tobolowsky on Lopez vs. Lopez isn’t the first time that Shively and Tobolowsky have appeared on the same show. When asked what his reaction was to learning that Tobolowsky would be playing Sam Van Bryan, the actor explained the backstory:
It's actually kind of funny. One of the first shows I was ever on was True Jackson, VP, which was a Nickelodeon show 15 years ago. One of the other actors [was] Robbie Amell, and Stephen Tobolowsky actually played his dad on that show. So when I found out he was coming to play my dad on this show, it just reminded me how crazy and weird it is being an actor and how you just basically toss around fathers from one person to the next. He's a legend… When I found out he was the dad, I was like, 'Oh, there's nobody better,' and I was right. He was incredible.
After working on the same show more than a decade ago, the two actors are back sharing the screen for Lopez vs. Lopez! Interestingly, True Jackson, VP actually featured several actors who would move onward and upward from Nickelodeon. In addition to Matt Shively earning a spot in Lopez vs. Lopez, Robbie Amell went on to projects like The Tomorrow People and The Flash before Amazon’s Upload, while Keke Palmer (who recently opened up about playing the titular True Jackson) has appeared in notable films including Husters and Jordan Peele’s Nope.
And now, Stephen Tobolowsky is coming to Lopez vs. Lopez! With the next episode of Lopez vs. Lopez featuring George, Sam, and Quinten as dads, how do they compare as fathers? While it's a safe bet that George Lopez and Tobolowsky have the sitcom experience to become a hilarious duo, Matt Shively previewed that what’s ahead for the three men may not be all laughs. He shared:
Quinten had an example of what a good father is and what a bad father is, and he was able to learn from his father the things that he didn't want to be, and his father's much more the expectations of success and failure and all those things weigh a lot heavier on him, rather than George who kind of like goes with the flow and wasn't really there. [He’s] kind of, ‘Whatever you end up wanting to do, you go do it.’ Whereas Quinten's father was very much more of a, 'You need to become a very successful doctor, or very successful architect' or things like that.
Quinten has found a different kind of success than becoming a doctor or architect, and definitely hasn’t followed the same path of fatherhood as George, even with George working to be there for his family now. Matt Shively went on to say that after “Quinten became a father at 17 years old,” then parenthood “became his job.” The actor explained:
His dream job ended up becoming a father and being able to take the blueprint of both what George was and what his father was, and kind of make sure that he was the opposite of those things to make sure that he was empathetic and compassionate and caring and understanding and all these things. It's cool, because in this episode, you're going to see three different styles of dad, and by the end of it, you're going to realize that the youngest of us is the one who kind of has it figured out the most, and may in turn, be the best dad of the three.
How will the sitcom put a spin on fatherhood with the introduction of Stephen Tobolowsky as Sam, while also delivering the usual laughs from the live studio audience? Find out with the next new episode of Lopez vs. Lopez, called “Lopez vs Van Bryan,” on Friday, January 20 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC ahead of a new episode of Young Rock Season 3. You can also find past episodes streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription.
