“Ugly Betty” moves to world of re-runs

It was a fad when it came into the television world four years ago. “Ugly Betty” was the program inspiring by Latin American television that actually managed to become a hit in this country.

To me, that was always the most interesting part of this program – which I watched regularly early on but ultimately managed to find other ways of spending my Thursday evenings than being perched in front of the television to watch America Ferrera.

I REMEMBER THE early speculation was that this program would be a massive flop because the idea of an unattractive woman being the focus of a soap opera-like show (which traditionally focus exclusively on “beautiful” people) would never play in the United States. Some claimed that the fact that the show “Betty la Fea” was a hit in Colombia was evidence that Latin America was just radically different in mentality from the United States.

But it wound up becoming a surprise hit, and has managed to last for four seasons (most of which already have been produced on DVD and are for sale at your neighborhood Best Buy or wherever you happen to purchase videos).

The idea of a young woman raised in a Mexican immigrant family being able to have the same aspirations as any other ambitious young person was intriguing to many Latinos who watched the show (I know my mother still gets a kick out of watching it, even as it has bopped around the broadcast schedule this season).

While some of the humor came from the idea that her Latino ways were different from those of her Anglo colleagues at the fashion magazine where she worked, keep in mind that many Latinos were getting their laughs at how ridiculously absurd all those white people in the fashion industry were.

ULTIMATELY, THE PROGRAM became bogged down in its storylines that bordered over the top, to the point where the Los Angeles Times reported that ABC executives felt that the focus on America’s “Betty Suarez” character had become lost.

That usually is the point where a television program should go away – unless it wants to become bogged down in so much confusion that it becomes unwatchable.

That is now the fate of “Ugly Betty,” which some of us will think of as the U.S. equivalent of the “ugly girl” phenomenon that is prevalent in Latin American television – an unattractive woman (they usually uglify her by making the actress wear dorky eyeglass frames) in the work world who manages to prevail despite the people around her who would be shallow enough to dump on her.

Reading around the Internet, I have stumbled across some commentaries written by people who are upset to see the show go. Some claim that ABC itself is responsible for the fact that it only has about half the number of viewers now than it did when it first went on the air.

SOMETHING ABOUT BOPPING the show about from Friday night to Wednesday night made it difficult for some people to keep track of when it actually aired.

But I tend to view television programs as being the entertainment equivalent of baseball managers – they’re hired to be fired. Every show eventually gets cancelled.

The miracle shouldn’t be that “Ugly Betty” will no longer produce new episodes following four year on the air, but that “The Simpsons” has managed to survive the changing whims of our society to last for 20 years (and counting).

But the show isn’t going to die off. I’m pretty sure it managed to produce enough episodes to provide a healthy rotation for re-runs. Plus, the program’s episodes are all out there on the Internet for those people who can enjoy watching television on tiny screens.

THAT ALSO GOES along with the DVDs, of which I know those first three seasons are already for sale. Once the final four episodes are created, I’m sure there will be a rush to get the final season on DVD – and we likely also will be offered a chance to buy some fancy boxed set offering the entire show for $199 or some other equally high price.

I don’t know that I feel the need to spend that kind of money for any television program – no matter how interesting. But I must admit that a part of me is thinking about purchasing that first season on DVD, back when the show was fresh and somehow different.

At the very least, it will allow me to once again see the scenes when Betty’s father would be sitting in his home watching Spanish-language telenovelas on television. You remember, that “show within the show” always had Salma Hayek (who was the show's producer) playing the part of a maid who (at the moment we saw the TV screen) was always in the process of taking off her clothes.

Who else could take the thought of Hayek undressing so routinely that the scenes became more humorous than sensual?

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