Los García

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Los García was a Puerto Rican television comedy show from the 1970s. Shown weekly on Ricavision channel 7, it depicted the fictional lifes of Los García (The Garcias), a fictional family that was based on a real life family.

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Tomás Muñiz, a famous producer from Puerto Rico, met Juan Bautista García, a Corsican immigrant who had his name changed, as a baby, into a Spanish sounding name upon his arrival in Puerto Rico during 1906.

After many years, Tommy Muñiz, Tomás Muñiz's son, met and befriended Bautista García. Rafo Muñiz, Tommy Muñiz's son, befriended Bautista García's son, Rodofredo García. Long after Tomás Muñiz died and shortly after Bautista García himself had died, Tommy Muñiz, who had been inspired by a painting that Bautista García had done in a school where Muñiz's children attended, came with the idea of dedicating a television show to the Bautista García family. Tommy Muñiz did play Juan Bautista García, and Rafo Muñiz was Godofredo García.

The show began in 1975, quickly becoming a public favorite. Gladys Rodríguez played Ms. García, while Otilio Warrington also had appearances. Edgardo Rubio, who would later on achieve fame in WAPA-TV's El Barrio Cuatro Calles, made his television acitng debut as a member of Los García.

Los García is considered by many Puerto Rican television critics to be among the best comedy shows in Puerto Rican history. The show ran until the early 1980s. A strike by some of channel 7's actors, by then owned by Tommy Muñiz, affected the show. Increased competition in the show's 7 p.m. time slot from other channels that showed telenovelas during the same hour also affected the show.

Tommy Muñiz made the phrase Sia mi vida!! (Damn be my life!!, which he said every time his character got mad for some reason in the show), a trademark of his during this show.

After the end of Los García's successful run, the members of the show went on to do other things: Warrington, popularly nicknamed Bizcocho, for example, moved on to channel 2, where, among other things, he hosted a cooking show with Luis Antonio Cosme and crossdressed to play comical character Cuca Gómez in a show named Los Kakucómicos. Like Manela Bustamante, Rafo Muñiz almost quit acting at all, returning sporadically to the profession that first gave him popularity, but he became a successful show producer, representing many singers in Puerto Rico with his Promotores Latinos company. In 1989, he produced a version of MTV's Remote Control, but the United States network threatened to sue and the show was taken off the air. Edgardo Rubio had a productive career as an actor, although he did occasionally battle with drugs. Gladys Rodríguez went on to star in many telenovelas and some comedy shows, and, in 1989, she and Tommy Muñiz reunited to play another romantic couple, in Jacobo Morales' film, Lo que le Pasó a Santiago, which was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film.