Ugly Betty was so costly to lose that California changed its tax law
When Ugly Betty packed up its Los Angeles sets and moved back to New York for a state tax credit, local crew lost their jobs. A California assemblyman answered with the so-called Ugly Betty Bill, and Governor Schwarzenegger signed it in February 2009 to keep film and TV production at home.
The show, developed by Silvio Horta, ran on ABC from September 2006 to April 2010. Its source was Yo soy Betty, la fea, a Colombian telenovela by Fernando Gaitán. America Ferrera played Betty Suarez, a kind, clever Mexican American woman from Queens with adult braces and no fashion sense, who lands a job at the glossy Manhattan magazine Mode. Publisher Bradford Meade hires her precisely because she seems unlikely to tempt his philandering son Daniel, the new editor-in-chief. The two become allies against scheming creative director Wilhelmina Slater, played by Vanessa Williams.
Getting it made took years. NBC first planned a half-hour comedy version in 2001 that never left the planning stage; ABC and Salma Hayek's company Ventanarosa revived it in 2004 as an hour-long comedy drama. ABC briefly retitled it Betty the Ugly before restoring the original name in July 2006. Strong premiere ratings turned an initial order of 13 episodes into a full first season of 23.
Critics praised its handling of identity, body image and representation, and it collected two Golden Globes, three Emmys and a 2007 Peabody. It is credited with widening Latino and LGBTQ+ visibility on American television: Rebecca Romijn played Alexis Meade, Daniel's transgender sister, and Betty's nephew Justin's coming out became a major storyline.
Behind the scenes things were turbulent. The cast joined the 2007 Writers Guild strike picket lines, and that season shrank to 18 episodes. Executive producers Marco Pennette and James Hayman were dropped in 2008 amid a run of writer departures. Production, which had shot its pilot at Silvercup Studios in Queens before relocating west, returned there for the final two seasons. ABC also pulled the show from its Thursday slot in early 2009 as ratings slid, yet granted a fourth season before the finale in 2010.
Source: Ugly Betty
