‘Ugly Betty’ Stars Are Proud the Show Holds Up 20 Years Later
Back when Ugly Betty started airing its first episodes, network TV was a different world. At the same time, TV writers were pushing for change in new series, and some great titles came of it. In Ugly Betty‘s case, the comedy-drama series was a trailblazer in many ways, especially when it came to representation. In a new interview with Collider’s Michael Zimmerman, stars Michael Urie (Shrinking) and Becki Newton (The Lincoln Lawyer) recently spoke about how well the series aged.
Newton and Urie are hosting an Ugly Betty rewatch podcast called Still Ugly, which is why they are revisiting all the episodes almost 20 years after they first aired. The duo spoke to Zimmerman about their perception of the story and emphasized that, even though the series is very much a product of its time, there are still many things that hold up when you look back on it. Urie stated:
“We still hear from people that love the show and grew up on the show, or that grew up watching the show and now they’re showing their children the show. And the show is like, basically, it’s not cringey to look back on. There’s so many shows that you look back on and it’s like, ‘ooh, why did we do that? Why did they do that? Why do they say those things?’ And our show definitely has moments that you’re like, ‘well, we wouldn’t have done that today,’ but it’s still so progressive and so relevant. And it was so ahead of the curve that we’re really proud of the show and to go back and look at it again.”
‘Ugly Betty’ Was a Trailblazer — But Not All The Time
Ugly Betty put a Hispanic protagonist (America Ferrera) on prime-time television at a time when no one was willing to do it. The series also featured a Black woman (Vanessa Williams) in a position of power and with very few redeeming qualities — the type of role that actresses have had to fight for years to make happen. Additionally, Betty is a truly kindhearted and sometimes even gullible lead, a far cry from other protagonists at the time who were frequently snarky, cynical, or downright mean.
On the other hand, the show had its problems, and one of the biggest of them was selecting a cis woman (Rebecca Romijn) to play a transgender woman, as well as treating the character’s transition as a plot twist. It’s pretty safe to say that this wouldn’t have been done today, but it’s the kind of element that showcases that even though many TV shows were progressive two decades ago, they still had a long way to go when it came to representation.
You can stream all episodes of Ugly Betty on Hulu. Stay tuned at Collider for more from our conversation with Urie and Newton!
Some of Ugly Betty’s boldest moves was to have two gay characters among the main cast, Marc (Urie) and Betty’s nephew Justin (Mark Indelicato), who came out at different points in the series; the show also
