Tear Jerker / The George Lopez Show

• Max's frustration and fear about being in special education when he realizes he has dyslexia. It is a very real depiction of how it feels for kids with disabilities like that.
  • Also, Max being unable to make friends because he's seen as a geek by his classmates. When Angie realizes one of her beauty customers has a son who's a classmate of Max's, she immediately tries setting up a get-together (even though George warns her Max will be embarrassed by this). We see her talk with the mother in the backyard through the sliding glass door as her son is next to her. The mother begins to agree, only for the boy to begin loudly protesting. Max opens the door with George behind him just as we hear the boy call Max a loser and how everyone sees him as a loser as well. Max's instantly crushed expression is like a gut punch.
  • Cue George immediately calling the boy a loser for trying out beauty products with his mom to turn the sad moment into a MOF.
  • Max does find friends. Unfortunately, they turn out to be street hoods who coerce Max into getting into a fight that gets him kicked out of the mall. George gets so scared and angry he tries to wash the dye out of Max's hair with a hose, screaming he doesn't want Max to end up in juvie.
• George's first confrontation with his biological father Manny in the season 2 finale. George airs out all the anger and hurt he has felt over his father abandoning him and Benny. When Manny makes an insulting remark against Benny, George punches him.
• In "Curious George" Carmen breaking down and crying over Duncan instantly breaking up with her after she refused to have sex with him. While she genuinely liked him, all he wanted from her was sex and nothing more.
• In "George's Grave Mistake Send Him to a Funeral, Holmes", Angie's mother tragically dies. When George screws up and can't get Angie's mother a grave next to her, and then we realize Angie's last words to her mother... It's very heartbreaking for people who are very close to their mothers.
  George: You know, maybe you're not mad at me. Maybe you got a bag of unexpressed emotions.
  Angie: I wish they were unexpressed. Do you know what I did? When we were on the phone last week, I told her I never forgave her for cheating on my dad. I called her a selfish tramp! That... is the last thing I said to my mother.
• Carmen being forced to leave her school after being relentlessly bullied and eventually getting sexually harassed.
  (Carmen walks over to the phone and uses the answering machine)
  Teenage Boy: Hi, this is Jason. I'd like to leave a message for the school whore.
  (he and another kid laugh on the phone)
  George: Who are those boys? I'll get 'em suspended.
  Carmen: (completely broke down in tears) Then suspend everybody! You know what else happened today? A boy followed me into the bathroom and asked me if I wanted to do it! [beat] Another boy pulled on my shirt when I was walking down the hall! Please don't make me go back, please!
• Carmen's best friend Toby moving away in "Halloween Cheer", many kids can relate to losing a best friend like that. Since many of Carmen's problems stem from her being lonely (getting picked on by other kids and making friends with other people who turn out to be a bad influence on her) it makes you wonder how many of those problems could've been avoided if only Toby's family hadn't moved away.
• Carmen running away from home, and George has a flashback of her as a child asking him to decorate some deserts together. She sadly leaves after he tells her he's busy^note He's reading a newspaper and drinking a beer. George in present time seems to realize he's been ignoring her problems for too long.
  • Then in the following episode when George finally finds Carmen he thinks she was having sex with a guy and Carmen repeatedly tries to explain that she didn't and that George taught her better then that, George then goes from being angry to sad as he then says "No, I didn't", admitting that he screwed up at being a dad by not being there for her enough and blaming himself for her running away, fortunately Carmen reassures him that something he said to her as a kid stuck with her and prevented her from making a mistake with a guy.
• When George has a thanksgiving dinner with not only his family, but with Manny's as well, we learn that George's half-brother, George, isn't compatible to give Manny the kidney he needs to survive. While played for laughs, Benny comes out and admits some guilt. It captures almost everyone who wished for someone's death and it actually happens, and the fact that Benny, who wouldn't be seen as entirely evil for thinking this given to what Manny did to her and George, says a lot for her to regret something.
  Benny: I'm sorry Manny, but I feel like this is my fault, I wished that you'd died someday.
  Manny: Come on Benny, you had nothing to do with this.
  Benny: Yes but I specifically asked for kidney disease.
• Manny Lopez's death. Especially George's reaction when Manny requests that he and Benny don't come to his funeral just so they won't "tarnish his reputation." Even when Benny has a chance to say I told you so, she solemnly wishes she wasn't right.
  George: He wants me to keep this watch to remember him by? Y'see, Angie? This is why they're [momentos] just things! (smashes the watch out of sheer fury)
  • Even worse, despite being played for laughs, Manny proves himself to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold as the watch he gave George would have solved all of the latter's financial problems if sold. George destroyed the one way he could have ensured that he and his family wouldn't have to suffer any financial issues.
• In "Super Bowl", Benny had to come to terms with her brother dying. At first, she was still too bitter for a bet she made with him, but after some convincing by George and Angie, she decided to go, for selfish reasons (she wanted his Super Bowl tickets). However, when she spoke to him, they ended up talking and reminiscing about old times when they were kids. After Benny walked out his room, it hits her that, yes, her only brother is dying. She then thinks that, with him gone, she will be the only one left to think about any good childhood memories now. Benny, at the very least, managed to make peace with him before he does pass away.
• Benny's rant at the end of "This Old Casa" will make you feel horrible for her.
  Benny: Who do I thank for making me have to drop out of school when I was fifteen to work at a factory? Who do I thank for getting me pregnant and leaving me at seventeen? (sadness creeps into her voice) Who do I thank for making me feel like I was sixty-eight when I was twenty-five!? But God do I know who to thank for a CUSHIONED TOILET SEAT!!!!!
  • Becomes a more heartwarming version when George just sits down next to her and tells her he loves her—to which she responds with a tense but genuine "thank you".
• Speaking of Benny, her mother's horrifically cruel "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
  Benny: (after the topic of her running away is brought up) What was I supposed to do, stay there and let you hit me some more!?
  Louisa: Why do you have to twist things? We spanked you, sometimes on the face!
  Benny: You shouldn't have done that!
  Louisa: Well you got what you deserved for running around like a little WHORE!
  Benny: I TOLD YOU NEVER TO CALL ME THAT!
  Louisa: Then you shouldn't have acted like one! I knew you would end up like this—worthless!
  (Benny just sits down silently and lowers her head, unwilling to respond)
• After Jason runs away and cuts contact with Carmen, she spends a number of episodes in denial and believing that he'll come back. While it is initially Played for Laughs, George eventually sits Carmen down and pulls her back to reality. The poor girl breaks down when George translates Jason's goodbye letter.
  George: "Carmen, the last thing I wanna do is hurt you." That means here comes the hurt. "Both been through a lot of growth and change." He's tired of you, and he's movin' on. "But we need to pursue other opportunities." He's met someone else. "And keep our minds open." She's black or Asian. "I don't know how else to say this, but it's over." It's over.
  • Jason's cowardly exit is even more heartwrenching because of how he was always like this since his and Carmen's romance — Embarrassed to be seen with her, taking steroids, cheating on her, he's always been a selfish and cowardly person. All of the effort, support, forgiveness Carmen showed him meant nothing.
• The poor state Ernie lives in with his parents in "George Takes a Sentimental Ernie". His routine job is to help take care of his mother, with and without his father's help, such as help her bath, carry her and feed her too. When Ernie and George start playing their songs, they yell at him to turn it off as if he was still a child. George persuades him to move out since he doesn't need to take this, and after some convincing, he does just that. It becomes sadder when Ernie's father gaslights him for doing so and his mother wouldn't even look him in the eye, and after George had to leave him due to a family emergency, Ernie is left all alone in his new apartment, which becomes part of his weight problems later on.
• When Ernie, out of frustration and sadness about his poor luck with women even after leaving his parents’ home, ends up overeating himself into gaining enough weight to wear pants that once fit hit morbidly obese mother. His job comes under risk due to his weight causing an accident at work, he’s in poor health, and as Vic notes he’s well on the same path to not just his mother’s weight but heart disease and other complications. But Ernie is in denial most of the episode, shrugging it off as a couple pounds and still pigging out until George shows him how he looks in his mom’s pants. Ernie is shocked and quietly mutters to himself what he’s probably been thinking all his life, that he’s just a loser. Thankfully, thanks to Angie’s poorly translated wisdom, George is able to help him recognize his pattern that led to his weight gain and he’s able to turn it around and lose the excess weight he gained.
• When the Power's Brothers factory has to be shut down under investigation due to a plane crash that killed two people, Everyone agreed that they should do a Haunted House for Halloween to raise money for an emergency for anyone who needs it. Things are going successfully well, scaring the kids in their costumes one by one, until Benny sees a kid dressed as a Dead guy comes in, in which she breaks down. Benny admits she hasn't really been paying close attention to the parts that she was suppose to inspect, fearing that she could be responsible for two people dying. As someone as tough as Benny to open up like that, especially to George, it's very hard not to feel the amount of Guilt Benny has been holding in.
• Towards the end of the series, Ernie gets rudely turned down by a woman who George and Benny even considered was in his league ^note she was far heavier than Ernie, and by the end of the episode after reeling from this latest rejection, he decides to give up on women for good. You can’t help but feel bad for him. The guy has had absolutely no luck with women, even the few times he has had luck, it was shot down immediately. And constant rejection has made his self esteem suffer and ultimately made his chances even worse. In an earlier episode Ernie had mused to Max that everyone he grew up with paired off or found someone, and he was one of the few hangers on left alone. The one upside though is that he actually takes it with some defiance and dignity, deciding that trying to find a date is just not worth the pain.
• The failure of Vic's marriage did a number on him emotionally: after Emilina wants the marriage annulled, he furiously throws the phone against the wall. In another episode, he picks a fight with George largely because he is lashing out at Emilina taking advantage of him, and even keeping some of his stuff.
• "Leave It to Lopez": After a co-worker dies, it's revealed that George never got life insurance, leading to an argument with Angie. While Exiled to the Couch, he falls asleep while watching TV and dreams he's in Leave It to Beaver, The Munsters, and The Jetsons. All good fun, but each sequence highlights how George has an overwhelming fear of death because of Benny's lie about Manny dying young.
• George's telling his true feelings about Carmen's question if he believes she can make it in college: Simply put, he doesn't. He even admits that he doesn't believe she can make it because she never showed any potential.
  • And the thing is, he's right. Before his aforementioned response, he correctly reminds her and Angie of the former's failed grades, not taking her initial homeschooling seriously, running away with Zack, and being kicked out of an expensive private school that nearly bankrupted her parents. While Carmen may be bright, her need for validation and selfishness has caused many problems for herself and her family.
  • Of course, this gets turned on him when Benny similarly puts George down for his subpar guitar skills and his dyslexia, and George chides her for making fun of him and not encouraging him, and then realizes that he never encouraged Carmen in her interests.