López Vs LópezCurrently airing its third season on NBC, it combines family comedy antics with a dose of genuine heart. George Lopez stars as an alcoholic who is forced to live with his estranged daughter, a status quo change that forces him to rethink his life and strive to do better for the sake of his daughter, grandson, and the rest of his family. The show is co-created by Mayan Lopez, George’s real-life daughter, who also stars as George’s on-screen daughter.
Danielle Fishel is best known to audiences as Topanga Lawrence, the free-spirited romantic lead on ABC’s classic teen-oriented sitcom, Boy meets the worldwhich lasted seven seasons. She reprized her role in the sequel series Girl meets the worldwhich ran for three seasons on Disney Channel. Fishel directed several episodes of Girl meets the world and has since gone on to work behind the camera on several Disney Channel shows, including Sydney to the fullest and Ravenna’s Housebetween others. More recently, she has become a regular behind-the-scenes presence on López Vs Lópezhaving directed several episodes of the series, including a run of five consecutive episodes for this current season.
Screen Rant interviewed Danielle Fishel about her work on López Vs López. She shared her experience working with George Lopez and showrunner Debby Wolfe and discussed how the show toes the line between comedy and drama, serving both in a way that echoes the works of sitcom legend Norman Lear. Finally, she addressed her other ongoing project, the successful rewatch podcast, “Pod Meets World,” in which she and her colleagues Boy meets the world co-stars Will Friedle and Rider Strong look back on their classic series one episode at a time.
“I think Lopez Vs Lopez is doing a better job than anyone else of finding the perfect balance between big laughs and also extreme vulnerability and heart.”
Screen Rant: You’ve directed a lot of stuff, but López Vs López Sounds like a great opportunity for you. It’s such a good show with Norman Lear vibes. Tell me a little about getting to the directing phase. I’ve told some of the actors on the show that the best shows could be presented in a theater as a comedy or a drama, and I feel like George Lopez fits right into that.
Danielle Fishel: That’s really smart of you to realize that. You are absolutely right. What I tell George, week after week, when we talk about the episodes, when we talk about what we love to do on the show, for me personally, as far as the shows that are on TV right now, I think Lopez Vs Lopez is doing a better job than anyone else at finding the perfect balance between big laughs and also extreme vulnerability and heart. They don’t need to sacrifice any of them.
I’ve been very impressed with George, especially this season. And, of course, with Mayan and Selenis too, and really with all the actors in the series. But especially George. This season, he’s found that area of vulnerability, where he’s able to hit the soft spot in the people who are watching, and you go, “Man, I feel that and I relate to that. And then, a second later, let out an absolutely devastating laugh. It’s the perfect target you want to hit with multicam or, as you said, in theater. You could promote it like anyone else. I think it’s truly the best comedy on TV.
Different sensibilities and characterizations, but he has that seriousness and charisma of Archie Bunker. How much of that do you need to get out of him, or is it something that’s just built into the premise of the show?
Danielle Fishel: Well, a lot goes into the premise of the show, and part of that is because it’s a lot about who George is as a person. Debby Wolfe is one of the best showrunners I’ve ever worked with. She pays close attention to who her actors are and how she can bring their personalities to life. And in the case of George and Mayan, how she can bring the dynamics of their real-life relationship to the screen. So by the time we get to the table read, the scripts are already pretty good. And my job, throughout the week, is to work with all the actors and make sure they feel like all the moments and beats they’re hitting are authentic to them and who they are, as a character.
What I love so much about George is that George wants to talk about all these moments. George wants to say, “I’m doing this the way you think… Is there something better I could be doing? Is there a time when you want me to crash more? Where do you think is the most dramatic place for me to cross?” ” ? Where do you think I should sit?” He wants to talk about all of this. And one of the things that makes me love him so much is how much he cares about the quality of the show they put on, week after week. Many actors in his position, or a lot of comedians in his position, say, “I’m a legendary actor, I don’t have to worry so much about each week.” That’s not the case on this show. very fun director.
I can see any actor in their 60s thinking, “Boy, are you going to tell me what to do?”
Danielle Fishel: Exactly! Especially because I’m the youngest of many directors coming in. It’s true that they have some young directors who appear. But yeah, I mean, I haven’t met George in decades. I only met George in Season 1, where I directed an episode at the very end of the season. And I was worried, you know, that maybe we wouldn’t get along! Maybe he won’t respect me!
But it was the opposite, from the beginning. He respected what I thought, asked what I thought, wanted to know my opinion and I always wanted to know his. And I never heard him, since he’s the executive producer of the show, I never heard him or Mayan make a suggestion about something they wanted to happen that didn’t make the show better. They care a lot. And when they say, “Hey, I think we need to tweak this,” it’s always one of those things where you say, “Wow, thanks, I’m glad you said that!
I spoke with Vicki Lawrence and Stephen Tobolowsky this season. Can you tell me a little about directing them? Do you take time or wait until lunch to say, “Hey, remember that thing you did? Remember that?”
Danielle Fishel: I tried to do that before we even started the day. They arrived a little early. I introduced myself before the table read and just said, “I’m going to say this once. I’m not going to talk about it the rest of the week. But I’m a big fan. And I’m really excited to be able to guide you this week.” And so I got that out of the way. And working with them was a dream. Vicki was so sweet and so funny. When I told her, this character you’re playing is really cute. Everything she says, she says with a big smile on her face. And she looked at me and said, “That’s the opposite of who I am as a person!” And I laughed. I said, “Vicki, I adore you.” It was so funny.
And Stephen, every day, he would come to work and say, you know, “I’ve been thinking about this. And I would really love it if there was a time when Vicki and I had a little sign that we gave each other that meant something that only we We both knew.” And I said, “I think that’s great.” And so he and Vicki decided that he would rub that spot in his heart when he talked about what their first wedding dance song was. And she looked at him and just did it. He came to work every day with his own interesting ideas about how to make the character and the scene his own. And again, if you’re talking about what makes a director’s job fun, I can honestly say that I’ve done five episodes in a row and there’s never been a single day where I haven’t woken up and said, “I can’t wait to start working today. . !” I looked forward to it every day, and things like this are exactly why.
Danielle Fishel loves doing The Boy Meets World Rewatch Podcast, Pod Meets World
“We have a lot of topics to discuss and we never seem to shut up!”
The show is in great hands. Changing the subject, you have your repeat podcast. Tell me a little about the origins of this and reflect on this work that you did 20 or 30 years ago.
Danielle Fishel: Really, the idea started with Rider. As you mentioned, The Office Ladies was the first podcast to do this. We started talking about doing this podcast in 2018, before Office Ladies existed, so there wasn’t really a business model for how to do it. We didn’t really know what that meant. We started talking about this after we went to another convention together and we were sitting at dinner having another super fun conversation. And Rider said, “You know, I really think people would like to talk to us as if we were at a dinner table. And if we did that while sharing our experiences and our memories of Boy Meets World, I really think people would enjoy it.”
We had a few meetings and people kept asking us, “How do you do that? Do you watch the show live? Because then you run into a copyright issue.” And we thought, “Well, we don’t really know. We just know we want to talk about the episodes.” Do we watch it live? Do we ask people to take a break? Do we tell people to just watch and then come? Dec 2019 rolled around. We were still having some meetings, but I was with my son, who was in the hospital when he was born. Then the pandemic hit.
It just extended to where, the next time we talked about it, Office Ladies actually existed. More rewatch podcasts started to emerge and there was more of a format for it. And we thought, they set the precedent. “We know what we need to do. Let’s just do our version.” And we really liked it. I mean, I can’t believe we haven’t run out of things to talk about other than recapping the episodes. You know, we have a lot of topics to discuss and we never seem to shut up! It has been very pleasant.
More about Lopez vs Lopez season 3
The family laughs and fights continue in season 3 of Lopez vs Lopez as Mayan and Quinten try to take control of their wedding plans. George continues to deal with his sobriety and the realities of aging, and he doesn’t do any of it gracefully. Rosie isn’t shy about expressing her opinions on marriage and quietly deals with the fallout from her almost-marriage with Josué. Chance begins to rebel against his parents now that he is a strong, independent 9-year-old boy. The entire Lopez family is back and ready to live life to the fullest – loving, crying and everything in between.
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New episodes of López Vs López airs Fridays at 8:30pm ET/7:30pm CT on NBC.