‘George Lopez Show’ Hits Its Stride

ABC’s “The George Lopez Show� kicks off its second season tonight at 8:30 with perhaps its funniest show to date, as a stunned George witnesses the unraveling of a long-held family secret.

Lopez, a stand-up comic who was staked to the sitcom last year by executive producer Sandra Bullock and her company, is back as George, an aerospace assembly-line worker in L.A. who wins a promotion to plant manager. But he has returned as a much more self-assured performer who has also managed to lose last season’s distracting habit of popping his eyes while delivering punch lines. And it’s a good thing, because the premiere is stuffed with killer lines from writer Rachel Sweet, with Lee Shallat Chemel ably handling direction.

A chance meeting with a relative tonight results in George learning that the father his mother Benny (Belita Moreno) had told him had been dead for nearly 40 years instead may be alive. Benny tries to explain why she deceived him, but that only seems to make things worse.

“Who knows what else she lied to me about?� George muses. “Maybe Santa Claus does like Mexican kids!�

He fantasizes about his father (played by Esai Morales) in some truly funny flashback and dream sequences, and George begins wrestling with the idea of trying to track him down. The wife (Constance Marie as Angie) and kids (Masiela Lusha as Carmen and Luis Armand Garcia as Max) provide some support, but they have their hands full with their own problems, namely a sickly dog they rescue from the streets.

“The George Lopez Show� had its moments last year, but now the series appears to have found the rhythm it needs to become a breakout hit. Now if the Lopezes can only find George’s dad.