if you look at my face, i look a little indian. i'm a little sanjay gupta but then i'm a little bit mexican as well. so i'm not native american enough to get a casino but i did blackout when i drink occasionally. >> difficult childhood, the end of his marriage, and the woman he says gave him his life and career. his good friend, sandra bullock. plus, an exclusive sneak peek at latest project. george lopez on this hour of "piers morgan" tonight. george, welcome. >> piers, i'm very excited to be here. >> how do you like being interviewed? as a man you interview so many other people. >> i don't have a problem with it as much as some of the people i work with. i'm going to try to be honest. i always try to be honest. i do. you know, it's been interesting for me. i've exceeded my own expectations seriously of what i had planned out when i first started in the business. so, you know, it's all fun. every day is -- >> do you find as you get more famous and successful being very honest and candid is problematic? >> you know, it really is, because when i do stand-up you're your own boss. you're very free. you are an enclosed area. i try my best to curtail people either using their cameras or video cameras because some things are just meant for that particular room. it's chased some very good comedians out of clubs. >> your stand-up routines are brilliant but pushes boundaries you couldn't push on television. do you find a constant conflict between those two roles? >> as a child growing up, a lot of our great sitcoms come from adaptations of british shows. "all in the family," carroll o'connor created a comedy you probably could not do today. in a sense, social commentary for comedians have been what people look forward to. dick gregory, lenny bruce, chris rock, there have been a lot of comedians who have fallen in that vein. you hope that as you progress further in years that unique window shuts. >> are you more hispanic, latino? i saw when we got the stats. >> you're going to breakdown my ethnic breakdown? >> apparently she did this, revealed your dna. 55% european, 32% native american, 9% east asian, and 4% african. but you relate most to being latino. >> you know, it's an interesting -- i mean, if you look at my face, i look a little indian. i'm a little sanjay gupta but then i'm a little bit mexican as well. so i'm not -- i'm not native american enough to get a casino but i do blackout when i drink occasionally. so i would say that of all of those things, i'm happy to be all of those things. i'm happy to have a little bit of african-american in me. i love the asian part in me. and then i like that nativeness because i come -- i think my father was -- i didn't know my father but i believe that he was from an area of mexico has been inhabited by indians. >> are you seen by the la latinos, are you seen by one of them, are you seen as their guy on television now? >> i would believe and have to say yes. the most difficult part for me and to get people to understand is before i came along, there wasn't somebody who had a successful show on tv that portrayed a mexican-american family successfully. they had tried but not one that ever went 120 episodes. it's interesting because you know, i can be very edgy and i can be very across the line on several occasions with things in stand-up. then i'm fortunate enough to do movies that kids like. i'm in "smurfs" and i was in "rio." you can maintain that and maintain an audience that follow me, i have been around the last ten years when they were 12. i'm not a new kid but also i've maintained a fan base. >> you often see a new world now on this tv late night war zone, as people call it, which has many caucuses, rotting bodies of people who have been chewed up and spat out. how do you feel about that? do you like being that competitive? are your ratings chaser? do you mind all of the attention that comes with such a swap? >> i like the show. i like what it is. i like that it wins awards for diversity and portrayal of people of color. i went into it thinking i could change the -- you know, the pallet of late night tv, to give it a little bit of flavor, a little bit of spice. you've been on the show. the audience is tremendous. it is diverse. >> incredible energy. i notice very beautiful young women, george. >> yes. i'm for nate as there, as well. but it is difficult because you are trying to do something that has -- the most people have failed at. >> yeah. >> and you want to have partners. and i believe i do at tbs and as well as warner bros. that have shared that same vision from when we started november 9th. it's not easy. it is a grind -- it is more of an abusive schedule than i imagined it when we first put it down on paper you were gracious in welcoming conan to take your old time slot on pbs. you described jay leno as the biggest two-faced dude and a back stabber. >> was that me? >> i'm afraid it was, yes. >> yes. you know, i will say this. i do not have a personal relationship with jay leno. we are not -- we are not friends, nor have we ever been friendly. i've heard some things said about me by him that i took exception to. >> like what? >> you know, there were things that he said that i was not appropriate to people of my own color. >> really? >> which i found disingenuous from somebody else. that's a pretty big chip to pull out. and i disagreed with that. and we -- >> what do you mean by that, do you think? >> i think when you understand the material, you understand it. and when you don't get it, you might think that i'm negative towards my own people. >> also strikes me as strange. i've met jay leno, five or six times on his show. he's always been unbelievable courteous. comes back, chat, cup of coffee, have a laugh and yet he seems to attract, from all of his competitors, extraordinary amount of antipathy. >> there's not a -- there's not a union of super heroes amongst late night talk show hosts. i just met david letterman really for the first time i did his show. i waited 28 years to do it. i've known conan for a while. i know jimmy kimmel, craig ferguson. to a man, i think one thing we agree on is we're all not crazy about jay leno. >> why is that? >> i don't know. i think in our own personal dealings, some people get along and some people don't. >> is he much more competitive than people realized, do you think? >> i don't -- you know, i don't know if competition is the right word. i think he's a little bit more interested in everybody else than he should be. >> do you think he sees you as threats? >> no, no. listen, i'm struggling to maintain my audience. >> doesn't everybody in the end in this game, don't you all aspire to the "tonight" show? isn't that the holy grail still? >> if you ask me personally, you didn't ask me, who i thought should have been the host of "the tonight show" when johnny carson left, i did that show with him in 1991, i think the heir apparent would have been david letterman. >> you still believe that? >> i do. david letterman is the best late night talk show host hands down and has been since he first took the desk. >> how did you feel when conan and jay had their huge split? >> well, you know, personally, in my opinion, i don't think that the "tonight show" should have been offered to jay -- to conan o'brien. i think they probably should have kept jay in there. he was doing well. ratings were great. so when they made that move, and conan was happy at 12:30 and he was doing all right. i think they messed with the formula that was already fine as it was. and then it just shook up everything else in late night. >> as a result, neither of them talked to each other. >> they don't talk to each other, no. >> complete silence. >> complete. >> it's a shame. >> it is. this business is a game. when you are done with the show you take your uniform off and go home and there's another game tomorrow. >> can you do that? do you do that? >> absolutely. piers, i don't watch the ratings and i don't watch the show. i like to think that, almost like music, use your ears. >> how do you know when you've done a good show but when you go home and you shut the door and it's just you and you look around, how do you know when it's really going well? what do you look for? >> i trust what i've always trusted. i trust my instincts and my heart and my head. when you were on. you and i met at the dodger game and the nba all-star game and you and i got along well. we you were on the show we had fun, i made you laugh and we got some stories out and we truly enjoyed each other's companies. that's what i go by. an awkward moment you feel in your gut and in your heart. i'm sure we'll have one, but when you were on, you were fantastic. >> funny enough, i don't mind awkward moments on this show. i quite like them. >> right. >> i think it can often be quite revealing about the person you're interviewing. i don't look for it. i don't seek out an awkward moment. but if it does get awkward for any reason, there's often a fascinating reason why. >> i agree with you. the question you asked, is how do i like it and i slid over so that conan o'brien would be at 11:00. i thought that we would make a better team together and it would give me a nice lead-in in that thing. tbs had never been in late night. they had only been in the baseball and sports and they covered golf and they did a lot of shows that were already out of production, syndicated shows. >> i want to play a clip from when i was on your show recently. >> okay. >> and then come back to you after this, george. >> i'm not convinced they're all here for jordan knight. >> i will see you on your show. i'm taping your show on friday. >> you are. >> to air at another time. >> you are. thank you. >> hey. and nothing is off limits. >> you're going to get it, lopez. so, george, nothing is off limits. >> that's what apparently was said. i think i was misquoted. >> i deliberately replayed that. go into the first break with you now feeling like there's a sentence you wish you had never said on air. see you in a moment, george. >> you bet. almost tastes like one of jack's cereals. fiber one. uh, forgot jack's cereal. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? um... try the number one! [ jack ] yeah, this is pretty good. [ male announcer ] half a day's worth of fiber. fiber one. [ male announcer ] get ready for the left lane. the volkswagen autobahn for all event is back. right now, get a great deal on new volkswagen models, including the jetta, awarded a top safety pick by the iihs. that's the power of german engineering. hurry in and lease the jetta s for just $179 a month. ♪ visit vwdealer.com today. we're going to do something my mother never did for me. >> you're going to breast-feed him? >> we're going to go outside the family and get somebody to help. we're going to get him a tutor. >> you don't need a tutor. you know, having a dumb kid is nothing to be ashamed of. i wasn't. >> that's from "the george lopez show." six seasons on abc. do you miss doing the show? >> you know what, i do. i miss the people. i had a lot of great relationships. it's interesting because when the show first started i was so disconnected from people that the first thanksgiving that we had there i went to my dressing room and closed the door. i couldn't be involved because i couldn't see people happy to be someplace. so i had -- i was uncomfortable with that. as the show progressed i got more and more involved. if it wasn't for that. the community is very closed off and troubled. so it revealed a lot of the things that have always been wrong with me. >> your life is completely fascinating. i had no idea about most of your life. and when i met you a few times, i must find out about george lopez and i read up about you. i was quite shocked, actually, what you had been through. you talk about troubled comedians but your life was beyond that. i read this, this quote here. i was never encouraged or congratulated by anybody or for anything, i didn't come from a home where people asked did you have a good day or cared what others were doing or what i wanted to do. i fill that void now with laughs and adulation from doing comedy. i hear a lot of comedians talking about a lack of love in their early lives which led them to seek applause and affirmation from an audience. never quite as strikingly as you seem to have done. >> of all the comedians that i've met i don't think any of them had the situation they had. i never knew my father. my mother was epileptic and illiterate. >> they both left before you were like 10 or 11 years old? >> yeah, yeah. it was difficult for her to be around because mentally she was probably like an 8-year-old. and when you have a child like that, it didn't matter to her what i did. and if i would have been raised by her i'm not sure what would have happened to me. there's a lot of stories ability me being neglected and being left and my grandmother ended up taking me. my grabbed mother wasn't much better. very hard woman, hard life but ultimately wouldn't let anybody mess with me. and even though there was the negativity, she never learned to be positive. everything i tried to do for her was met with negativity and, you know, i took her one time to see her house toward the end of her life and i was redoing the house for her and i walked in and she says, it looks horrible. and it wasn't done. but to her, it just wasn't -- nothing was ever enough. and i kept trying. i remember going home and sitting on the edge of the bathtub thinking that is the only person in my life that could ever make me feel like i'm 10 years old again. no one else. >> that's heartbreaking. >> it is heartbreaking. it is. it hasn't been easy. it's very difficult. you have success and you have people that love you but then you have to make sure that you appreciate it when no one taught you to appreciate it. that's the hardest thing i think i deal with every day. >> neither your parents nor your grandmother never told you they loved you? >> no, no. you know, the only -- the only encouragement i got that i never forgot, it's amazing how different my life would have been if i had gotten it every day. there was a guy who came to our elementary school. probably in third grade. and he was a aa or aaa baseball player for the baltimore orioles. and he said if you stay in school and you stick to what you want to do you can become anything. that's the first time i ever heard that from anybody and it came from somebody that i didn't even know at an assembly with most of the kids who ent 3 %ang i ised3 y le blod ls 3 y, er ii' gteali vehed atitr.3 % y, er ii' gteali vehed atitr.3 % >> really? >> yeah. >> where do you keep her? >> i keep her in my dressing room. >> do you really? >> yeah. yeah. >> wow. >> i look at her every day. >> when you look at her, what do you think? >> i think that i wasted -- i think that i wasted a lot of time not seeing her when i should have spent more time with her. and that goes for all people. you know, i should have spent more time with her when she was alive, whether she was lucid or not. and you know, it wasn't until the end that i really appreciated all the times that we spent together and missed all the times that we could have spent together. >> is there anything you wish you would have said to her that you didn't have the chance to? >> i wish i would have told her that there was nobody that loved her more or anybody that would have protected her more than me. and that when she wasn't around, that i would think of her every day and never forget her. >> do you think she knew how much you cared about her? despite the fact that she wouldn't show that, do you think she knew? >> yeah, i think she did. i think she did. i think she knew. yeah, i think she knew. i'm not even going to say i hope, i think that she did know, because i did things for her that nobody would have done for her. and i made her a promise in 1988 that i would take care of her after her husband died. and i did, until she passed away. >> so you did the right thing. >> i did the right thing. >> don't you ever think at your parents or are they just something you blanked out? >> you know, on father's day this year, a friend of mine, we had just come back in town. my daughter was in costa rica, not with me on father's day. we were watching golf, the u.s. open, i'm a huge golfer, u.s. open is always held on sunday, father's day. he was fortunate -- he was nice enough to spend an afternoon with me knowing that i was going toby myself. and as we're watching rory mcilroy win and hug his father i looked over at him and said the one thing i regret in my life is not having a father because i think every boy should have a father. not a father figure but it would have been nice to have a father. >> short break, and come back and talk more about your life. we spent together and missed all the times that we could have spent together. >> is there anything you wish you would have said to her that you didn't have the chance to? >> i wish i would have told her that there was nobody that loved her more or anybody that would have protected her more than me. and that when she wasn't around, that i would think of her every day and never forget her. >> do you think she knew how much you cared about her? despite the fact that she wouldn't show that, do you think she knew? >> yeah, i think she did. i think she did. i think she knew. yeah, i think she knew. i'm not even going to say i hope, i think that she did know, because i did things for her that nobody would have done for her. and i made her a promise in 1988 that i would take care of her after her husband died. and i did, until she passed away. >> so you did the right thing. >> i did the right thing. >> don't you ever think at your parents or are they just something you blanked out? >> you know, on father's day this year, a friend of mine, we had just come back in town. my daughter was in costa rica, not with me on father's day. we were watching golf, the u.s. open, i'm a huge golfer, u.s. open is always held on sunday, father's day. he was fortunate -- he was nice enough to spend an afternoon with me knowing that i was going toby myself. and as we're watching rory mcilroy win and hug his father i looked over at him and said the one thing i regret in my life is not having a father because i think every boy should have a father. not a father figure but it would have been nice to have a father. >> short break, and come back and talk more about your life. >> all right. >> it's been a pretty extraordinary journey for you. >> thank you. george, you finally did meet and fall in love with someone. your ex-wife, and you were together 17 years. what did marriage bring you, given all that you had been through? >> you know, ann was great. you know, and ann came from a family that was very connected. you know, both her parents were doctors. i was just to say, you know, we're opposites because both her parents were doctors and mine never went to the doctor. so she brought a sense of family and of home, you know. and the holidays were important to her, very important, every holiday. it was great for my daughter to grow up with that. i battled that in the beginning, going over the top at christmas or the tree or spending a week to do the lights and doing the lights to the as a family. it's all -- it was all very different for me and hard for me to do. >> you had never been used to. >> no. >> you blank that out and say that's not for me, that kind of thing. >> and she was giving -- very giving of other people and very considerate of her friends and things like that. and you know, i was fortunate enough to be married to her for 17 years. and, you know, as marriages go, you know, it was fun. i mean, we used to look at each other and laugh and, you know, we had nothing when we started, you know. so it was -- it was a great period. you know, it's funny because i look at pic