Predating THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA by almost seven years, this Colombian soap opera exploded unto people's living rooms with its story of an ugly duckling who finds herself working for a high-powered fashion agency called Eco-Moda.
Such an "ugly" girl is Betty Pinzon-Solano, who due to her knowledge of the administrative department has landed an important position at Eco-Moda. The one problem is that she doesn't fit the mold of the other female employees who work there: she dresses horribly and looks like a caricature of a geek on steroids. Ignored by the women, she is about to become the victim of a vicious joke closer to the heart of Neil LaBute: two of the men who work there -- one of them Armando Mendoza, engaged to the company heiress Marcela Valencia -- are planning to make her fall in love with him to ensure she doesn't sell out information to competing agencies. (Hey, it's a repulsive task, but someone has to do it.) What neither of them plan is that Armando will also fall for her, but not before a major scandal erupts that has Betty leave the company in disgrace.
During its two-year run, BETTY LA FEA brought the entire Latin-American community to a standstill with its innovative plot. Minus some lesser detours, as an episode in which children played the roles of the adults, and its quickly wrapped up ending which left some open plot threads and dubious character development, it's a well done story, one that had strong leads in Ana Maria Orozco, Jorge Enrique Abello, and Natalia Ramirez; innovative camera techniques as when Betty gets a much needed makeover and returns to Eco-Moda -- all we get are the shocked reactions of the people who meet her, leading to a neat sense of suspense as to how she looks. BETTY LA FEA spawned a sequel, ECOMODA, but it did not really tie in into the series and continued to leave some plot threads open. Five years later it's become a global phenomenon with virtually every country channeling "Betty" through their own renditions of the character, and Salma Hayek is producing a sitcom that will air in the fall of 2006 called "Ugly Betty."
Such an "ugly" girl is Betty Pinzon-Solano, who due to her knowledge of the administrative department has landed an important position at Eco-Moda. The one problem is that she doesn't fit the mold of the other female employees who work there: she dresses horribly and looks like a caricature of a geek on steroids. Ignored by the women, she is about to become the victim of a vicious joke closer to the heart of Neil LaBute: two of the men who work there -- one of them Armando Mendoza, engaged to the company heiress Marcela Valencia -- are planning to make her fall in love with him to ensure she doesn't sell out information to competing agencies. (Hey, it's a repulsive task, but someone has to do it.) What neither of them plan is that Armando will also fall for her, but not before a major scandal erupts that has Betty leave the company in disgrace.
During its two-year run, BETTY LA FEA brought the entire Latin-American community to a standstill with its innovative plot. Minus some lesser detours, as an episode in which children played the roles of the adults, and its quickly wrapped up ending which left some open plot threads and dubious character development, it's a well done story, one that had strong leads in Ana Maria Orozco, Jorge Enrique Abello, and Natalia Ramirez; innovative camera techniques as when Betty gets a much needed makeover and returns to Eco-Moda -- all we get are the shocked reactions of the people who meet her, leading to a neat sense of suspense as to how she looks. BETTY LA FEA spawned a sequel, ECOMODA, but it did not really tie in into the series and continued to leave some plot threads open. Five years later it's become a global phenomenon with virtually every country channeling "Betty" through their own renditions of the character, and Salma Hayek is producing a sitcom that will air in the fall of 2006 called "Ugly Betty."