Ugly Betty

Ugly Betty premiered on ABC in 2006 and ran for four seasons ending in 2010. It was an American version of the Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty. Ugly Betty premiered strong and became an instant hit (pulling 16.32 million viewers for the Pilot) as well as an awards darling. Ugly Betty won the Golden Globe for Best Television Series Comedy or Musical in 2007 along with a win for America Ferrera for Best Actress. America Ferrera also won the Emmy Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2007. It also had a huge ensemble cast of colorful characters. The show was about a woman named Betty Suarez who lands a job as a personal assistant to Daniel Meade, the playboy son of Bradford Meade who runs Meade Publications and owns Mode Magazine. Daniel is in charge of Mode Magazine and Wilhelmina Slater plots to take over Mode Magazine. Ugly Betty is a soap and enjoys every minute of relishing in the soapiness. It blends comedy and drama and being set in the fashion world, is very colorful. There are HEAVY SPOILERS throughout. If you have not seen the series and don’t want to know about specific plot points, please turn back now.

Ugly Betty lasted four seasons mostly because ABC decided to end the show due to low ratings. It was fizzling out after each season. In its final season it moved to Fridays in the fall which probably did not help improve its ratings. It did eventually move to Wednesdays after the New Year.  Ugly Betty aired its first three seasons on Thursday at 8pm. It kicked off the night which led into Grey’s Anatomy which was a powerhouse at that time. This was back in 2006. Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and Lost were ABC’s crown jewels. All three of those shows were in their third seasons.

I love Ugly Betty. It is one of my favorite shows. In fact, it is the reason I wanted to do a blog. There was an episode where Betty started a blog and every time I watched that episode it inspired me to have my own blog. Of course other things came up and I just ended up not doing it until now. Better late than never, right? As they get older it is common for shows to lose some of its magic for various reasons. Cast changes, showrunner changes, it becomes obvious they are running out of things to do, etc. Ugly Betty seemed to be the show that got better with age. Granted, it only lasted four seasons, but each season seemed to get better and better. It has been a few years since I last watched Ugly Betty. I will probably rewatch the show again at some point. I think one thing that added to Ugly Betty’s improvements was when they moved to New York to film the series. The show is set in New York City but the first two seasons were filmed in California. Right before season 3, filming moved to the city. It seemed to do the show wonders and gave it a fresh makeover. When watching season 3 and season 4, the pallet looks brighter than it was during the first two seasons.

Ugly Betty was able to craft a series finale. It was announced months before the finale that the show would be ending. However, the intention was for it to keep going. Given it ended with 85 episodes, I would have thought it would have made it to a fifth season where it would have celebrated 100 episodes. I don’t know how long the creatives were thinking Ugly Betty could last but it seemed like there was more to tell. I could have seen Ugly Betty at least lasting two additional seasons making it to a season 6, if not longer. To be honest, I could have seen Ugly Betty making it eight seasons. The show did get closure but things were cut short. One thing that the producers wanted to do was to have a musical episode. Presumably if Ugly Betty got a fifth season they could have done a musical episode, then.

Ugly Betty had great fashion, outlandish plots, and a great ensemble. It was a load of fun. The series starred America Ferrera as Betty Suarez, Eric Mabius as Daniel Meade, Vanessa Williams as Wilhelmina Slater, Michael Urie as Wilhelmina’s assistant Marc St. James, Beckie Newton as receptionist Amanda Tanen, Rebecca Romjin as Daniel’s sister Alexis Meade, Ana Ortiz as Betty’s sister Hilda Suarez, Mark Indelicato as Betty’s nephew and Hilda’s son, Justin Suarez, Ashley Jensen as Betty’s friend and seamstress Christina McKinney, Tony Plana as Betty’s father Ignacio Suarez, Alan Dale as Daniel & Alexis’ father, Bradford Meade, and Judith Light as Daniel and & Alexis’ mother, Claire Meade. Christopher Gorham was also on the show as Betty’s boyfriend Henry Grubstick for the first two seasons. He made guest appearances after leaving the show. Kevin Sussman was a series regular during the first season. He played Walter, Betty’s first boyfriend. Once he was added to the credits with the rest of the cast, a few episodes later he exited the show after falling under Guest Starring for the bulk of his run. That part always seemed weird why he got promoted if he left about two or three episodes later. Daniel Eric Gold was a recurring character and got promoted in the final season as a series regular. He played Betty’s boyfriend Matt Hartley. They broke up in the season 3 finale and he became her boss at the start of the final season. He exited the series halfway through the final season.

Ugly Betty was also able to maintain most of the cast for its entire run. Now a days it seems to be getting harder to achieve that. Henry started out as a recurring character and got promoted in season 2. He was a regular for the season. He and Betty had bumps in their relationship when his girlfriend Charlie played by a nasty Jayma Mays wound up being pregnant and there was a good chance Henry was the father. It was revealed that Charlie had cheated on Henry with Betty’s orthodontist Dr. Farkas played by Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson. There was the chance he could have been the father. After taking a paternity test Henry was indeed the father and that threw more wrenches in his relationship with Betty. Other main characters who had left were Bradford Meade who in Alan Dale fashion died of a heart attack in season 2. It actually was his wedding day to villainous Wilhelmina who sunk her claws into him so she could gain control of Meade Publications and Mode Magazine. Alan Dale had a similar death on The O.C. where his character had died of a heart attack in season 2. Alexis Meade joined the show midway through season 1. The first set of episodes had a mystery masked woman who was in contact with Wilhelmina. Once she was unmasked it was revealed that it was Alex Meade who was Daniel’s deceased brother. Alex was transgendered and became Alexis Meade. Alexis left the show the beginning of season 3. She was arrested for pushing a pregnant Christina down the stairs. Christina was the surrogate for Wilhelmina whose unborn baby was fathered by the deceased Bradford Meade. I did mention this was based off a telenovela. Later in that same season Christina left the show as well. She was from England and she moved back to England with her ex-husband and the baby who turned out to be their child and not Wilhelmina’s.

The show gave shining moments to its entire ensemble and also attracted a lot of guest stars. Kristen Chenoweth guest starred as a technician at Betty’s orthodontist’s office. Kathy Najimy played an orthodontist who was the one to finally remove Betty’s adult braces in the final season. Bernadette Peters played a mentor to Betty while Betty and Marc were at a prestigious training program, Young Editors Training Initiative, called Yeti. Shakira, Victoria Beckham, Bow Wow, Gene Simmons, and Betty White showed up as themselves. Adele guest starred as herself before she became a bonafide star. Salma Hayeck who was an executive producer of the show, played Sofia Reyes who was an author. The Karate Kid himself Ralph Macchio played Hilda’s boyfriend who was a public official. Kevin Alejandro known for True Blood and Arrow played Hilda’s ex Santos and was Justin’s father. Hilda and Santos got back together and Santos was killed in the season 1 finale. Adam Rodriguez from CSI: Miami played Hilda’s boyfriend and eventual husband in the final season. Audiences got a pre Schmidt from New Girl when Max Greenfield had a recurring role as Alexis’ assistant. He was also a jerk. The list can go on but I think everyone has a good idea. This show accomplished a lot in four seasons.

There was a lot of character growth over the course of the series. The show gave so many great moments. When the show started Betty was the fish out of water. She enters the fashion magazine world and is not the most fashionable. In fact, the reason she was hired as Daniel’s assistant was because she was not attractive, and Bradford was hoping Daniel would focus on his job instead of getting distracted by a beautiful lady. In time Daniel and Betty became great friends. There were fans who were hoping they would eventually become a couple. They did not by the time the series ended. I also did not want them to be a couple. I liked the idea of them being good friends. It was refreshing that they were not together. Marc and Amanda were best friends and considered the bullies if Mode Magazine was high school. In time Marc and Amanda had nice moments with Betty and they ended up becoming friends/frenemies. Amanda and Betty even lived together at one point. Even Wilhelmina had nice moments with Betty and others once and awhile. She wasn’t always cold as ice.

At the time Ugly Betty was revolutionary. It was one of the first shows to have a transgender main character even though Rebecca Romjin was not transgendered. It also had two gay main characters. Marc was openly gay, and Justin didn’t officially come out until the final season. Back in 2006 it was still not as common for there to be a lot of LGBTQ+ representation especially amongst series regulars. Marc and Justin had a lot of great scenes together.

It’s funny to think that Ugly Betty might have been forward thinking and ahead of its time. If it were on now, it would fit right in. At the end of the day Ugly Betty is a feel good show. That is what I loved most about it and still do. This is one I wish kept going. It was not ready to end. It had more life in it. The cast would love to do a reunion. I know fans would like a reunion. Let’s make that happen.