Los Angeles ? When George Lopez received a new kidney this year to replace his failing ones, it didn’t just restore him to good health. The transplant ended up enriching his comedy, he says, not to mention making him a better man.

It’s also given a creative boost to his ABC series, “George Lopez,” although illness isn’t a theme in the life of the fictional George, a working-class plant manager.

“I’m more connected. I go to the writing room,” Lopez said. “We got Antonio (Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa) on the show. … I went to the writers and pitched it, and I wouldn’t have done that before. I would have been home asleep.”

Lopez isn’t exaggerating. A kidney condition, caused by a genetic defect of the urinary tract, had become so debilitating that he was in bed 12 hours a day and could barely drag himself to the studio or focus on his wife, Ann, and their daughter.

“When I left the house in the morning, I’d feel like people do at the end of the day when they come home thinking, ‘God, I’m glad that day’s over,'” Lopez said.

He kept working even as his condition worsened, filming a Showtime comedy special, “George Lopez: Why You Crying?” – just out on DVD – and writing his 2004 autobiography (also titled “Why You Crying?”, a catch phrase from his difficult childhood).

Lopez kept his illness secret to avoid being cast as the “sick guy” in an industry that tends to lack sympathy for the weak. “In this business I’m in, there’s not an incredible amount of loyalty,” he said.

He put on a comedy game face on the show’s set, keeping up appearances for the cast and crew. As a cover, he told them he was anemic.

“I think I joked more when I was ill, but it was all false. It was all adrenaline-based. Now I’m actually more into the work and I’m not as fun-loving as when I was sick. That was all fake,” he said.

No need anymore for pretense. Rehearsing an episode for the series’ fourth full season, Lopez moved easily between his duties as star and executive producer. He’s slimmed down, part of the effort to safeguard his newfound vitality.

“George Lopez,” which premiered this season as the top-rated show in its new 7 p.m. Wednesday time slot, is even providing coattails for newcomer “Freddie” (7:30 p.m.) starring Freddie Prinze Jr.

It irks Lopez that the sitcoms, both starring Hispanics, have been referred to as a “Latino block”: “If you had ‘Yes, Dear’ and ‘Still Standing,’ they wouldn’t call that ‘the Anglo-Saxon hour.’ It tells you where we are, that we still categorize everything by color when content and funny and ‘I like this show’ is what counts.”