STILL MUY BUENO
‘One Day’ retains sparkle in network switch
A network move hasn’t changed “One Day at a Time” one bit.
The heartwarming family story, a Netflix remake of Norman Lear’s 1975-1984 sitcom, opens its new season — it’s fourth— on the Pop TV network with a slightly clunky reintroduction to the Alvarezes: mom Penelope (Justina Machado), daughter Elena (Isabella Gomez), son Alex (Marcel Ruiz), neighbor Schneider (Todd Grinnell), ever-present boss Dr. Berkowitz (Stephen Tobolowsky) and, most importantly, Rita Moreno as family matriarch Lydia.
But beyond welcoming new viewers, “One Day at a Time” looks exactly the same on Pop TV as it did on Netflix — a diverse, funny, sweet show about a messed-up family with more love than they know what to do with.
“It’s an immigrant story,” Machado told the Daily News. “Most of us came from somewhere else, but it’s also a universal story about love, about family, about all of those things that you could relate to. It’s the specificity of the show (that) makes it so special. Like Latinos always using Vicks Vaporub! I don’t even know what the hell Vicks does! Everybody has something in their culture that they can say, ‘yes, that’s mine.’
“It’s an immigrant story no matter what color, what ethnicity, what religion.”
The Alvarezes, Cuban and proud, each struggle to retain their heritage or, for Alex and Elena, learn it. Their roots are important to both the family and the show, which premieres at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“Justina and I are very vigilant,” Moreno told The News. “We had some Spanish to speak in [one episode], but it was Mexican Spanish. We have to change that. It’s different accents, words that are very very different from other Spanish dialects.”
Moreno’s character speaks mostly in Spanish, subtitled for non-speakers, with an over-the-top accent she borrowed from her mother. Lydia cooks “ropa vieja” for dinner and talks vividly and fondly of growing up in Cuba.
“It’s a family show. It happens that this particular one is Hispanic, it’s Cuban,” she told The News. “We bring a lot to the table in that respect. Not just the humor — we are very funny people — but the music, the enormous energy, the enthusiasm, the food. We bring a great deal of our heritage to these characters.”
For Moreno, 88, a rare EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner, portraying a Hispanic family on TV is an opportunity the Puerto-Ricoborn actress never had growing up.
“We had nothing. There were no role models in my time and my era. I chose Elizabeth Taylor, who was the only young girl my age who had success,” she said.
“I never went into this profession to be anybody’s role model. I went into this because, as a child, I wanted to be a movie actress. I wanted to be a star. It was never my intention to become anybody’s role model. I didn’t think it was possible.”
But now, she said, through
“One Day at a Time,” she is.
“They call me ‘la pionera,’ ” Moreno said. “The pioneer.”
On the other end of the family tree is Gomez, the 22year-old Colombian actress who plays Moreno’s granddaughter on the show. More than 60 years younger than the “West Side Story” icon, Gomez has seen far more representation on TV, but even she knows it’s not enough.
“I obviously have a different perspective than a lot of older generations, have a Hollywood that is a little more diverse, but hopefully this is just the beginning of opening doors for others,” Gomez told The News.
Machado, in the middle, has seen the improvement, too. But she grew up on “Growing Pains” and “Family Ties,” lily-white family shows.
“Everybody had Rita. Who did Rita have?” she told The News. “Isabella comes at a time — and I’m very happy for her — that you’re seeing more representation, but it’s still not that much. We’re about 100 shows behind.”