Paul Rodriguez: Remembering “a.k.a. Pablo”

Paul Rodriguez starred in "a.k.a. Pablo" in 1984.
From left are Joe Santos; Rodriguez; and Katy Jurado.
Source: https://www.episodate.com/tv-show/a-k-a-pablo
(May be subject to copyright)

These days, he may be the endearing father of Gary Mendez on “A Million Little Things”, but the minute I saw him, I was taken back to the 1980s and a little known sitcom called “a.k.a. Pablo”.

Such was my first exposure to Paul Rodriguez.

Coming soon

More than anything, what I remember about “a.k.a. Pablo” was all the publicity. There was a lot of talk about it well in advance of it airing. Much of what I saw was on “Entertainment Tonight”.

A lot of the talk was that Paul Rodriguez had become quite successful as a comedian on the stage. “a.k.a. Pablo” was an attempt to bring that comedy act to television. More than that, he had caught the attention of Norman Lear.

Lear produced groundbreaking shows that pushed the limits of the time such as "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons". These shows had their share of social commentary on race relations in America, and in "a.k.a. Pablo" he was looking to expand on that.

“a.k.a. Pablo”
The show centred on Paul Rivera, who still goes by his given name Pablo around his family. It delved into the life of a comic from a Hispanic family, who often made ethnic jokes about his Mexican-American heritage.

Co-starring with Rodriguez was Joe Santos, who had made a name for himself as Lieutenant Dennis Becker, the police friend of Jim Rockford in “The Rockford Files”. There were a lot of Mexican jokes, and references to K-Mart, which I did not get, but I was like 14 or so. Incidentally, we didn’t have K-Mart where I grew up although Kresge’s in Lethbridge did sell K-Mart brand products.

When the show finally aired in March of 1984, it really did not catch on, and was gone almost as fast as it debuted. It lasted a total of six episodes.

As was so often the case, by the time it hit peasant vision on CBC Channel 9 I believe, I was pretty sure it was already cancelled. I do remember watching it, and being more taken with Joe Santos playing the dad, than Paul Rodriguez.

The years after
The next time I saw Paul Rodriguez was in 1986 in the movie “Quicksilver” starring Kevin Bacon, where they both played bicycle messengers.

Rodriguez would go on to do movies and TV shows, and a lot of comedy – specials and movies, right up to the present.

His most recent role was as Gary Mendez’s father on “A Million Little Things” where he was absolutely brilliant.

Parting thoughts
Television is full of shows where stand-up comics brought their acts to television. It started with Bill Cosby and “The Cosby Show”, but moved on to Jerry Seinfeld in “Seinfeld”; Paul Reiser in “Mad About You”; Tim Allen in “Home Improvement”; and Ray Romano in “Everybody Loves Raymond”.

Paul Rodriguez endeavoured to do that too, but “a.k.a. Pablo” just was not the right vehicle.

Still, he would go on to have a solid career in comedy, entertaining crowds to this day, with his own brand of comedy about the Mexican-American experience.

The interesting thing is, the role I will remember him best for is the loving, supportive and slightly inappropriate dad on “A Million Little Things”.

If you look close enough, maybe you see a little Pablo Rivera in that role too.