Ugly Betty
Ugly Betty is a Golden Globe and Peabody Award winning American television dramedy series starring America Ferrera, Vanessa Williams, and Eric Mabius. It premiered on September 28, 2006, on ABC in the United States. The series follows the life of Betty Suarez (Ferrera), and her job at popular fashion magazine Mode.
The series is based on the Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea ("I am Betty, the ugly"),[1] also simply known as "Betty la fea" (literally "Betty the Ugly") written by Fernando Gaitán (also author of Café, con aroma de mujer). It is adapted into a New York City setting by creator/developer Silvio Horta and co-producers Salma Hayek and Ben Silverman, whose production companies Silent H, Ventanarosa and Reveille respectively partnered with ABC Television Studio (formerly Touchstone Television) to create the hour-long program for American audiences. Hayek appears on the show as Sofia Reyes, in addition to playing a cameo role as an actress on a fictional telenovela watched by the main character's family in early episodes.
Of all the adaptations of Betty La Fea, the original Colombian telenovela, Ugly Betty is probably the most different, but it remains true to the original in spirit. It is similar to another ABC dramedy series, Desperate Housewives, in that it combines elements of drama, comedy, mystery, farce, camp, soap opera, and satire, though in a lighter way. The show is filmed like a traditional network drama (with motion picture film), rather than the videotape production of the original series.
Recurring
Notes
- - Listed as "Guest Starring" in opening credits, but became a full time regular after episode "Sofia's Choice"
- - Became recurring after their second appearance.
- - Gorham and Light became recurring in the first season; Both will become fulltime regulars in the second season.
- - Alexis Meade was initially played by Elizabeth Penn Payne (when she was listed in the credits as "The Masked Lady"). Rebecca Romijn took over the role in In or Out.
- - Newton also plays another character, Ruthie.[2]
- - Listed as "Guest Starring" in opening credits, but became a full time regular after episode "Sofia's Choice"; Still listed in credits as a regular but has not been seen since "Brothers"
Production timeline
- NBC was planning to adapt Betty in 2001 as a half-hour comedy,[3] but it never made past the planning stages until ABC and Hayek's company came on board in 2004 and retooled it as an hour-long dramedy.[4]
- On May 16 2006, ABC announced that Ugly Betty would be part of the 2006–2007 North American season lineup as a weekly hour-long series; the initial order was for thirteen episodes.
- ABC had announced the title of the series would be Betty the Ugly, a change from its developmental title, but changed it back to Ugly Betty on July 14,[5], although the Ugly Betty title was already being used in promotions prior to this date on Citytv.
- There were speculation that the show would be a daily serial that would have debuted as a summer 2006 or midseason 2007 entry, but given the buzz and growing interest in the show, the network decided to make it a weekly series instead.
- On August 8 2006, ABC decided at the last minute, a schedule change to move "Ugly Betty" from its previously announced Friday 8 p.m. (ET) time period to Thursday at 8 p.m. replacing sitcoms Notes from the Underbelly and Big Day as a lead-in to top-rated program Grey's Anatomy, due to the growing interest in the show.
- The program's pilot was tested on several cable providers to gauge interest and feedback from viewers, most notably the Hispanic community, including those who are fans of the original Betty, who hoped that ABC will maintain the integrity of the original. ABC has also allowed its affiliates to show free off-air screenings to the public at various events ahead of the show's debut.
- In addition the network screened the debut episode on the web and made the episodes available for download on iTunes after their initial airings on January 5 2007.
- The encore episodes have also run on ABC Family and SoapNet, both of which have been airing marathons of the show.
- On October 13 2006, ABC ordered a full season pick-up for the series, beyond the original 13 ordered at the May Upfronts[6] due to its premiere ratings.
- Ugly Betty won two Golden Globe Awards on January 15, 2007, for "Best Leading Actress in a Comedy Series" (America Ferrera) and Best Comedy Series. Ferrera also won a SAG Award on January 28, 2007 for "Best Actress in a Comedy Series".
- ABC originally announced 22 episodes for the season 1, but increased the number of episodes to 23 by one. The season finale is the episode called "East Side Story."
- On March 21 2007 ABC renewed the series for a second season.[7]
- On June 4 2007 the series will be honored with a Peabody Award for its storylines, which explores clashing concepts of beauty, class, race and footwear with intelligence, warmth and wit.[8]
Competition with other "Betty" offshoots
Although Buena Vista Television has sold the series to foreign territories, the English-language version is expected to compete with the in-house versions in several of the locations.[9]
As noted by the international broadcast table posted above, several of these broadcasters have not only acquired this version, but the counterparts as well, including those that were produced by the broadcasters themselves. So far the series has been sold to TV networks and broadcasters in over 130 countries, making this version the most successful of the "Betty La Fea" franchise [10]
In the U.S., Univision currently airs the Mexican counterpart La fea más bella, which airs weeknights at 8PM (E/P), including Thursdays during the same time Ugly Betty airs. The star of the Mexican version, Angelica Vale, was supposed to make a cameo in the 22nd episode, playing Betty's "counterpart" from the series, Leticia 'Lety' Padilla Solís [11], but the story turned out to be false. Vale appeared in the season finale playing Angelica, an orthodontist's assistant who looks exactly like Lety (pre-makeover).
Ratings
In the following summary, "Rating" is the estimated percentage of all televisions tuned to the show, and "Share" is the percentage of all televisions in use that are tuned in.
"Viewers" is the estimated number of actual people watching, in millions, while "ranking" is the approximate ranking of the show against all prime-time TV shows for the week (Sunday to Saturday).
Seasonal
USA TV Ratings
Based on average total viewers per episode of Ugly Betty on ABC:
In popular culture
- On December 6 2006, the United Kingdom's Channel 4 began to advertise the show. The ad shows seemingly attractive models gathered around a pool, but as the camera angle changes a model comes out of the pool wearing Betty's glasses, then as the models smile, they are all wearing Betty's braces. Another ad parodies Marks and Spencer's successful fashion advertising campaign, as well as Dove and Gap campaigns. A voice over then says, "Fashion has a new face. 'Ugly Betty' Coming Soon To 4." After a week of these teasers, clips from the actual programme were included in the trailers.
- In mid-January, in the UK, Celebrity Big Brother's, Davina McCall dressed up as Betty live on Channel 4 before the titles of the second eviction show of the evening.
- The show's impact on issues and culture has also attracted the attention of the United States Congress, where on January 17, 2007 California congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-32nd, El Monte) saluted Ferrera on both her Golden Globe win and for bringing a positive profile to the Latin and Hispanic communities.[13]
- In "Up All Night", the February 8, 2007 installment of the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) says "this would've worked on Ugly Betty" when she fails to crawl out a door without being seen. The scene was patterned after the Ugly Betty episode "Swag" in which Betty crawled through a fashion show.
- During the lead up week to the huge Sunday Premiere of Ugly Betty, February 12 to February 17 2007, Australia's Channel Seven devoted a week of Deal or No Deal to the show by having the models dress like Betty, complete with the Guadalajara poncho.
- After the first episode of Ugly Betty was shown on Channel 4, Big Brother host Davina McCall dressed up as Betty, as she announced the show was back on air in 4 minutes. Interestingly on February 16 2007, Ashley Jensen also dressed up as Betty during an airing of Channel 4's Friday Night Project, where she was the guest host.
- The success of Ugly Betty and how it deals with body imaging among women in general would inspire a series of reports on Entertainment Tonight, in which reporter Vanessa Minillo went undercover in a fat suit to see if women were discriminated on the basis of how they look.
- On May 8 2007, star America Ferrera was honored by Time Magazine on their annual list of the 100 most influential people. The event took place at New York's Lincoln Center and the actress was recognized for defying stereotypes with the show [11].
Reviews
See also
External links
Citations