The George Lopez Show (2008)

In ''My Wife and Kids''' regular Wednesday–at–8 p.m. slot, the series has just been paired up with George Lopez, another family sitcom that's a lot less painful than the show it's temporarily replacing, Jim Belushi's torturous ''According to Jim.''

Lopez, a stand-up comic and former L.A. deejay, has the shaggy, lumpy likability of a Latino Oliver Platt. He plays a blue-collar manager, an airplane-parts factory worker recently promoted to oversee his old comrades on the assembly line. One of them happens to be his domineering mom (''Perfect Strangers''' Belita Moreno), whom he is asked to lay off in the pilot episode. He does it, only to be told later by his boss that it was just a test of his corporate loyalty. ''That's why I work in a factory,'' says George. ''I'm no good at tests.''

Lopez wrings genuine laughs out of such gentle one-liners, and his show benefits from the appealing presence of Constance Marie (''Tortilla Soup'') as his wife, Angie. Also turning up in the April 10 episode is Sandra Bullock, one of the series' executive producers, as a klutzy factory employee. You can certainly see why the ''Speed'' star would want to be in business with Lopez. Even when he's firing his own mom, he seems bighearted.

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