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Yo soy Betty, la fea (I am Betty, the ugly one),[1] also known as simply "Betty la fea" which translates as "Betty the Ugly", was a popular telenovela (soap opera) filmed in Colombia, written by Fernando Gaitán and produced between 1999 and 2001 by the Colombian network RCN.
The show's main character, Beatriz Pinzón Solano (aka Betty), is an unattractive but intelligent woman working for a fashion design company called Ecomoda. Betty constantly faces the scorn of her prettier workmates, but eventually she is promoted to a senior job, becomes involved with her boss, and gets a makeover.
Although Betty graduated Magna Cum Lade with a Bachelor’s of Economy and has a Master’s degree on Finance, and speaks both English and French fluently, she has been unable to secure an interview in any job because, as she claims, her ugly picture ruins her otherwise impressive resume. Tired of her unsuccessful search for a job that would match her education and experience, she decides to apply for a job as assistant to the president of a fashion design company called Eco Moda, but this time she sends her resume without a photo, in hopes of securing an interview; however, the job was given to an inexperienced, but very attractive applicant, called Patricia Fernández, who happens to be the president’s fiancé best friend.
Eco Moda’s new president (Armando Mendoza) is the smart, handsome, and well educated son of one the two owners and founders of the company. He is also engaged to Marcela Valencia, who is the daughter of the other founder of the company, and who also holds a high position within Eco Moda.
Armando refuses to hire Patricia because he assumes Marcela wants her to spy on him due to his womanizer reputation, so he urges his staff to hire another candidate with the most desired requirements. He ends up hiring both Betty and Patricia as his assistants, after being pressured by Marcela arguing that the president of the company couldn’t have such an ugly assistant to represent him.
Since they don’t have an available office for Betty, she ends up occupying a storage room in the back of Armando’s office while Patricia gets the prime spot; nevertheless, Betty is in charge of the most important task, proving to Armando how intelligent, versatile, and well educated she is, and gaining day by day more responsibilities, becoming an essential instrument in Armando’s new risky business plan for Eco Moda.
Yo soy Betty, la fea won the TP de Oro for its nominated category, Mejor Telenovela (Best Soap Opera) in 2002. The TP de Oro awards are considered to be the most prestigious Spanish awards for television.[2]
Betty la fea aired on Telemundo in the United States. Its popularity led to the creation of several similar programs in other countries, as well as its rebroadcast in other languages around the world. The success of Yo soy Betty, la fea led to its first sequel in 2002 with Univision's release of Ecomoda.[3]
The show was popular as it was aired to a wide Latin American audience. It was also made popular in the Philippines by GMA network and now, redubbed and currently re-airing on Studio 23. Its success spawned a short and unsuccessful sequel called Eco moda, filmed in Colombia and produced by RCN and Univision. Some scenes from the first episode were filmed in Buenos Aires and some scenes for the opening sequence were filmed in Miami, Florida.[4]
Betty la fea has been so successful that it has been either adapted and/or shown in many different countries. The story seems to be attractive and original because it revolves around an unattractive person in contrast with most soap operas where the stars are always good looking.
Another released spinoff was an animated series called Betty Toons, which features Betty as a child, with her friends. In the U.S., Betty Toons can be seen Saturday mornings on the Telefutura network.
An article in Variety reported that the success of Yo soy Betty, la fea spin-offs has led to the search for other telenovelas being planned for the United States.[5] Other shows developed by Fernando Gaitán are in production for 2007. While some characters remain and new ones have been added, I think that the U.S. version preserves the spirit of the original 'Betty la fea,' Gaitán says.[6]
The long title of the telenovela is brought in on the first episode, when Betty orders a cup of coffee from her new office. She calls the cafeteria extension and asks for coffee for a Beatriz Pinzón. As the newcomer, no one at Ecomoda knows who she is, so she is then forced to clarify: "I am Betty. .. the ugly one", so there was no confusion to whom the coffee was to be brought.
The character of Patricia Fernández was known for her catchphrase Yo estudie seis semestres de finanzas en la San Marino ("I did six semesters of Finance in the San Marino University") For Colombians, this fictional university unmistakably makes reference to the San Martin University, a medium-high level university in Colombia. This strategy of referencing known education institutions with other names was also used in Pobre Pablo, another soap opera produced by RCN, where in order to convince another character about his own social/academic background, the main character was once advised to lie that he had studied at Los Alpes University, referencing top school Los Andes University.
The original Colombian version of the show has been dubbed and broadcast in India, Indonesia, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania,Malaysia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Japan – under the title Betty, Ai to uragiri no hishojitsu ("Betty, Love and Betrayal Secretarial Office", ベティ愛と裏切りの秘書室)[7]–, Turkey, Italy, the Philippines and China. The show was also broadcast in virtually the whole Latin America continents, achieving record rating in every single country, including countries where Colombian soaps do not achieve high ratings like Brazil and Mexico. The show was so popular the cast had to do a tour to meet fans in the whole continent.
(There's No One Like Jassi) (2003, SET, India): Mona Singh as Jasmeet Walia. The popular Indian version is not so much about beauty and ugliness, as about a simple middle class girl with strong family values being catapulted into the amoral world of high fashion upper society. Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin concluded in 2006.
The series was adapted by Israel's SET in 2003, and named אסתי המכוערת Esti Ha'mechoeret ("Ugly Esti"). The series starred Riki Blich as Esti Ben-David, a cop's daughter. The series lasted three seasons.
In February 2005, the German TV network, SAT 1, began airing a version called Verliebt in Berlin (In Love in Berlin or In Love with Berlin. It's a word play), starring local soap opera star Alexandra Neldel as Lisa Plenske and Swiss actor Mathis Künzler as David. Due to its immense popularity (5 million viewers daily), the show was extended beyond its initial 250 episode run in early 2006.
A few weeks later it was announced that the show would be renewed for a second season, but without Neldel and Künzler. The focus will shift onto a male lead character named Bruno Plenske (Lisa's half-brother, played by Tim Sander). Verliebt in Berlin has also been broadcast in dubbed versions in Hungary (as Lisa csak egy van) and France (as Le destin de Lisa). Although Verliebt in Berlin continued with new featured characters and original storylines, it is still credited as "based on Yo Soy Betty La Fea".
(Be Not Born Beautiful, from the Russian phrase, "be not born beautiful, but be born happy")
STS broadcasting in Russia created a hugely popular version of the show called, Ne Rodis' Krasivoy, starring Nelly Uvarova in the title role of Katya. This version is also broadcast throughout the former Soviet Union. This particular adaptation has gone through heavy rewrites in order to tone down its many sister series' campy humour and feminst & gay subtext in order to make the show better suited for the extremely conservative Russian audience.
Turkey's "Sensiz Olmuyor" (Won't Work Without You) told the story of Gönül and Arda on two separate TV networks, with each channel showing thirteen episodes. When the weekly series debuted on Show TV in January of 2005, Özlem Conker played Gönül (which means 'heart' in Turkish), the intelligent swan in ugly duckling clothing, and pop star Emre Altuğ appeared as her boss and love interest, Arda. The show did not go on hiatus when it was moved from Show TV to rival network Kanal D, but there was one big change: Yeliz Şar took over the role of Gönül, but the rest of the original cast remained intact.
(The most beautiful ugly girl) (2006-2007, Televisa, Mexico): Angelica Vale as Leticia Padilla Solis.
The Mexican company, Televisa, produced its own version named La fea más bella ("The most beautiful ugly woman"). The series debuted on January 23, 2006 and came to an end on February 25, 2007. This version is currently airing on Univision in the United States and on ABC 5 network in the Philippines, where it made its debut on April 24, 2006 and ended its run in May 2007. In this version, the main character is named "Lety".
(2006, Talpa, Netherlands): Nyncke Beekhuyzen as Lotte Pronk.
In 2006, the Dutch TV network Talpa began airing Lotte, starring Nyncke Beekhuyzen as the main character and Lars Oostveen as Vico Maesland.
Despite the original Colombian production already being in Spanish, Telecinco launched an adaptation in Spain called Yo soy Bea in July, 2006. The Spanish version title (which translates to "I am Bea") is a pun, with "Bea" sounding like bella, meaning pretty and like fea, meaning ugly. Ruth Núñez played Beatriz Pérez Pinzón and Alejandro Tous was Álvaro Aguilar, the company boss.
The Spanish adaptation screens weekdays at 5:00 pm and pulls in an average of over three million viewers (over 35% share of the audience). The series' record is 3,575,000 viewers (37.6% of share). It has become Spain's top-rated daytime programme. Ruth Núñez, known to Spanish viewers for her portrayal of a Yugoslav student in teen soap, Compañeros, plays the heroine.
In this version, Beatriz Pérez Pinzón (Núñez) is an unattractive 26-year-old economist whose looks aren't important to her. She's intelligent and kind, and one day, after having cared for her widower father for two years, she decides to look for a job. Although she's very well educated, she gets only a secretary job at the magazine "Bulevar 21". She becomes the secretary of Álvaro Aguilar (Alejandro Tous), the company boss. In the company, Bea will be against Cayetana (Mónica Estarreado), Álvaro's fiancée, and her friend Bárbara (Norma Ruiz), who is also Álvaro's secretary. The Spanish Version won a TP de Oro to "La mejor telenovela" this year (2007)
United States version of Betty la Fea. (2006, ABC in the US, Citytv in Canada, Channel 4 in the United Kingdom; 2007, RTÉ Two in Ireland, Seven Network in Australia and TVB Pearl in Hong Kong).
In 2004, actress Salma Hayek, through her production company Ventanarosa and a joint venture with both Reveille Productions and ABC Television Studio (Formerly Touchstone Television), acquired the licensing rights to Betty la fea, turning it into an English-language comedy-drama series. The American version was picked up by ABC under the title, Ugly Betty. Initially, the show was slated for broadcast in the summer of 2006 as a daily series (five shows per week), but given the buzz and positive feedback ABC decided to go with a weekly series instead.[8] The hour-long series airs every Thursday at 8:00 pm (Eastern time) with the first episode airing on September 28, 2006. America Ferrera plays the title character - an unattractive but efficient assistant working at a fashion magazine. The series also airs in Canada on CHUM Limited's Citytv and A-Channel stations and in the UK on Channel 4 (S4C in Wales), and has been sold to television networks in Italy, France, Sweden, and other territories.[9]
The show has been aired against CBS' reality television program Survivor and is holding its own, sometimes winning the Nielsen ratings. Because of this success, ABC ordered a full season of 22 episodes in October 2006, only to extend it to 23 in February 2007. On March 21, 2007 ABC renewed the series for the 2007-2008 season.
In the other countries where it airs, Ugly Betty has become a global success, especially in the UK and Australia, where it has beaten most of its competition in tough timeslots. In addition the series has attracted a loyal following in most of the territories, along with numerous press coverage and positive feedback from critics.
Although ABC bills Ugly Betty as a dramedy, the series also serves as a backdrop for a serial as well, since the main character is also an unexpected pawn in how she got her job in the first place and in a behind-the-scene sinister scheme involving a hostile takeover of the publishing company that Betty works for in the wake of the mysterious death of a much-revered editor (the aptly-named "Fey Sommers," whose first name is an "homage" to Betty la fea), which is being hatched by creative director Wilhelmina Slater and Alexis Meade, a post-operative transsexual, and a storyline involving Betty's father and why he entered the United States as an illegal immigrant.
This series won two Golden Globe Awards for Best Comedy or Musical and America Ferrera for Best Actress in a Television Comedy or Musical, and was honored with a Peabody Award.
In what what would have been described as a "first" for the "Betty la fea" spinoffs, the star of the Mexican version La fea más bella, Angelica Vale, was supposed to appear in "A Tree Grows in Guadalajara", playing Betty's "counterpart" from the series, Leticia 'Lety' Padilla Solís,[10] but she didn't as this story turned out to be false.
Mega Channel in Greece is airing its own version titled Maria, i Asximi (Μαρία, Η Άσχημη - Maria, The Ugly One). Maria exudes intelligence, humor, and kindness, but what she is missing is conventional beauty. She considers her appearance to be an obstacle in her search for employment, despite her collection of degrees, which are displayed proudly by her parents, Kaiti and Irakles. Having no luck in her job search, Maria decides to try for a job for which she is overqualified, secretary to Alexis Mantas, the director of a noted fashion house called Ecomoda. Alexis is the most coveted bachelor in Athens, but he has recently gotten engaged to Markella, who tries to get him to choose her best friend, Lilian, to be his secretary and to keep an eye on him. Lilian doesn't have Maria's natural intelligence or fine education, but she has a beautiful appearance, which makes her a better superficial fit at the fashion house.
This adaptation was originally supposed to start airing on November 1, 2006, but within two weeks of that date the show was removed from Mega Channel's schedule. Finally, it began on January 1, 2007 at 21:00 and although it was scheduled to move at 18:15 two weeks later, due to its high ratings (± 45% according to Agb Hellas and more than 2 million viewers) finally remained in the prime-time slot of the channel.
French, Belgian, and Croatian versions are also planned.
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