UGLY BETTY

Ugly Betty is an Americanized version of the Columbian telenovella - 'Yo soy Betty, a fea'. One of the producers of the show is the actress, Salma Hayek, who also starred in a few episodes of the first season. The influence of this show reaches far and wide and just to prove that point - Time magazine, named America Ferrera as one of the 100 Most Influencial People of 2007.




The series revolves around Betty Suarez, an aspiring writer from Queens, New York who decides to take a assistant position at Mode Magazine - as the assistant to the womanizing Daniel Meade, the Editor-In-Chief. Her family life and business life come together as romances from the office stem to home and vice versa. Her sister Hilda, the pretty one in the family, her father Ignacio and Hilda's gay son Justin all support her and advise her during her four years at Mead. Betty goes from ugly duckling assistant to swan features editor in the four years she worked for Mode. Contrary to their opinions Amanda (super gorgeous) and Mark became two of her closest friends and together they fight and work at Mode - while also dealing with the power hungry and always scheming Wilhemina Slater.

The first season features more on Betty and Daniel's budding friendship and Betty's hard time at work -struggling against the beautifull people. Betty goes from dating Walter to Henry with quite a few consequences. While Wilhemina schemes with Daniel's brother turned sister Alexis to take over Mode Magazine. Hilda and Justin's dad reconcile only with him being killed off at the end of the season. Overall a relatively good season.
The second season features a bit more on Claire Meade and her trial, escape from jail and recarceration. Betty gets a new love interest - the sandwich maker Gio and his comparison to Henry. Bradford Meade dies and Daniel and Alexis fight over the company with Hilda starting a new relationship and Ignacio becoming a U.S citizen. Wilhemina uses some of Bradfords sperm to conceive and get her hands on part of the Meade fortune as well.
The third installment features mostly on Betty and Mark competing for the top spot at YETI - in order to become editiors in their respected fields. Also Betty gets a new boyfriend - Matt Hartley - a rich snob - very far from her comfort zone. Daniel falls in love with Rebecca - Connor's girlfriend, steals her from him and marries her. Unfortunatly she dies of cancer at the end of the season.
The final season - Betty has to deal with being a features editor. Hilda gets married and Justin comes out to his family as being gay. Amanda finds her father - eventually and Mark gets the promotion to creative editor as he has always dreamed of.

The show has won various awards and were nomitated along with that, quite a few times:
Golden Globe - Best Comedy Series in 2007
Golden Globe - America Ferrera for "Best Lead Actress in Comedy Series" in 2007
S.A.G Award in 2007 for America Ferrera as "Best Lead Actress"
The series won a Peabody Award for its storylines in 2007
Judith Light - Claire Meade won PRISM Awards 2007
Won award from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamition in 2007
Got 11 nominations in 2007 at the Emmy Awards and won three of those nominations
Got a further 6 nomination at the 2008 Emmy Awards - winning none
Vanessa Williams won the NAACP Award in 2007 and 2008 respectively
That is just to name a few - overall the show has received 162 nominations



The overall consensus for this program has been that it is awesome! The show has gone into syndication after only producing four seasons which just reinforces that fact. The only problem I have is with the finale to the show - everything was just too clean, I mean come on - Wilhemina stopping with all her schemes? I think just a twinge of dramatic twist was needed - leaving the viewer with a sense of wanting for more - and because there are rumours of a movie - what could have been better?!