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1999 RCTV Colombian Telenovela Yo Soy Betty, La Fea (I am Betty, the Ugly)


Guest Choi Ji Woo

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Guest Choi Ji Woo

Starring: Ana Maria Orozco, Jorge Enrique Abello

Betty2b.jpg

Yo soy Betty, la fea ("I am Betty, the Ugly") was a popular telenovela (soap opera) filmed in Colombia, written by Fernando Gaitan and produced by the Colombian network RCN.

The show's main character, Beatriz Pinzón Solano, is an unattractive but intelligent woman working for a fashion design company called Ecomoda. She constantly faces the scorn of her prettier workmates, but eventually she is promoted to a senior job, becomes involved with her boss, and gets a makeover.

The show was popular and was aired to a wide international audience. Its success spawned a short and unsuccessful sequel called Ecomoda, filmed in Colombia and produced by RCN and Univisión. Some scenes from the first episode were filmed in Buenos Aires, Argentina and some scenes for the opening sequence were filmed in Miami, Florida. It also spawned an animated series called Betty Toons.

Other versions

In 2004 actress Salma Hayek, through her production company and a joint venture with Touchstone Television, acquired the licensing rights to Betty La Fea,with plans to turn it into an English-language comedy-drama series for the United States. The American version has been picked up by ABC under the title Ugly Betty, which just got the green light as a entry for the 2006-2007 TV season, where it will air Friday nights starting in the Fall of 2006. At first there was also talk that this program could debut in the Summer of 2006 as a daily (five days a week) series according to this article in Broadcasting&Cable, but given the buzz and possitive feedback, ABC will make this version a weekly series instead. Originally, the show was to have a dramatic slant, but it is expected to be reworked as a comedy, which is how ABC is billing the program and the fact that it will air in the Friday night 8PM(E/P) slot. America Ferrera has been picked to play the title character, who is a unattractive but efficient secretary working at a fashion magazine. The series will also air in Canada on CHUM Limited's Citytv and A-Channel stations.

Mexican company Televisa is producing its own version named La fea más bella("The most beautiful ugly woman"). This version is currently airing on Univision in the United States, where it made its debut on April 24, 2006.

This Colombian show has been so successful, that besides being dubbed and broadcasted in countries such as Brasil,Malaysia, the Philippines, Hungary, Israel, the Czech Republic, and China, it has also been adapted in some other countries. In 2003, Sony Entertainment Television India bought the script and copyright of the show and adapted it to local contexts to create the immensely popular and ongoing Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahi ("There Is No One Like Jassi").

In early 2004, the German TV network SAT 1 did the same and released it as a new version called Verliebt in Berlin ("Smitten in Berlin"), starring German soap opera star Alexandra Neldel and Swiss actor Mathis Künzler.

There is a Russian version which also draws huge crowds. The Russian version is called Ne Rоdis' Krasivoy (Not to be born beautiful).

In 2006 the Dutch TV network Talpa started airing Lotte (which is the Dutch name for Betty), starring Nyncke Beekhuyzen as the main character and Lars Oostveen (as Vico Maesland, the Dutch "Armando Mendoza Sáenz").

Mega Channel in Greece is preparing its own version of "Betty la fea" for the autumn of 2006, and Telecinco, in Spain, has another adaptation called Yo soy Bea.

Cast and crew

Cast

Ana María Orozco as Beatriz Aurora "Betty" Pinzón Solano

Jorge Enrique Abello as Armando Mendoza Sáenz

Natalia Ramirez as Marcela Valencia

Lorna Paz as Patricia Fernández "La Peliteñida"

Luis Mesa as Daniel Valencia

Julián Arango as Hugo Lombardi

Ricardo Vélez as Mario Calderón

Mario Duarte as Nicolas Mora and as Himself

Kepa Amuchastegui as Roberto Mendoza

Talú Quintero as Margarita Sáenz De Mendoza

Celmira Luzardo as Catalina Ángel

Jorge Herrera as Hermes Pinzón Galarza

Adriana Franco as Julia Solano Galindo de Pinzón

Pilar Uribe as Maria Beatriz Valencia

Júlio César Herrera as Freddy Stewart Contreras

Dora Cadavid as Inés "Inesita" Peña de Gómez

Stefanía Gomez as Aura María Fuentes

Paula Peña as Sofía de Rodríguez

Luces Velásquez as Bertha Muñoz de González

Marcela Posada as Sandra Patiño "La Jirafa"

María Eugenía Arboleda as Mariana Valdéz

Guests

Andrea Serna as herself

Cecilia Bolocco as herself

Laura Flores as herself

Gloria Calzada as herself

Franco De Vita as himself

Ricardo Montaner as himself

Crew

Original Script by Fernando Gaitán

Script Writer - Liliana Hernández

Assistant to Script Writer - Elsa Cortés

General Producer - María Del Pilar

Production Management - Amparo Gutiérrez

Production Assistants - John Sierra and Guillermo Andrés Vega

Director - Mario Ribero

Director Second Unit - Mario A. Galindo

Cinematography - Alirio Farfán

Set Design - Liliana Cortés, Enrique Linero, Juan Fernando Peréz

Wardrobe Design - Rosita Cabal

Makeup Design - Rossio López

Makeup Artist - Clara Inés Cubillos

Music and Musicalization - César Escola, Canaroy Pelay and Diego Fernando Páez

Coordinator - Pablo Emilio Henríquez

Editing - María Vásquez

Singer of Main Theme: "Se Dice de mí" - Yolanda Rayo

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I loved the story of this show, although I never actually got a chance to watch it. It's the ultimate Cinderella story for me, because here the "ugly", nice girl (in place of the poor, nice girl) gets the guy and the company. I would love to get a version of this with subtitles, but I guess that's too much to ask for. I can't wait to watch the American version. So all of you Americans out there, please support this show so it won't get cancelled!

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Guest bebetar

the story is not just funny. it taught a lesson that beauty is only skin deep, that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. the script is very good and i enjoyed watching it.

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Guest theLEGEND

the story is not just funny. it taught a lesson that beauty is only skin deep, that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. the script is very good and i enjoyed watching it.

AGREED~ :P

Choi_Ji_Woo finally you opened this thread too! hahaha.. what makes you to do that? :P

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Guest Choi Ji Woo

Choi_Ji_Woo finally you opened this thread too! hahaha.. what makes you to do that? :P

hello there..i'm also a fan of this drama when I was still in my high school days..the story really inspired me 'coz I'm also not that pretty but not to brag about, I'm quite smart just like Beatrice Pinzon Solano hehe..

i LOVEEE this show...i watched it twice on tv but could never watch till the end....sighh

wish i could get a copy of this series...

I think a Betty La Fea DVD is available online..but I forgot the website..is Yesasia.com selling LA dramas???!!

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Guest mensa

this telenovela had one of the highest ratin in the history of latin television. in my country the last ep. had a 49% ratin, half a country was watchin the ending of this telenovela.

what i like about this telenovela is that it wasnt the typical cinderella story. Beatriz was so ugly and inteligent at the same time. and armando didn't fall in love with her when she changed, she fell in love when she was ugly.

i also liked that there were no psyco villians tryin to kill the leads. i liked marcela's character a lot.

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Guest wadie

oh dear... i was so happy whem i saw this thread... thanks a million Choi_Ji_Woo. i love betty.... it's still the best telenovela i have ever watched. the characters were very well developed and the cast was great... this is one drama that touched many people's heart.

as bebetar said earlier, it taught a lesson that beauty is only skin deep.

for me, true love is loving that imperfect person perfectly. just as armando did. he loved betty unconditionally...

he almost lost his mind over betty esp when Nicolas was concerned... hehe! i remembered cheering for him when he punched Nicolas at the car when he saw betty and Nicolas together.... not that Nicolas deserved it but i simply love watching armando going crazy with jealousy... hoho.

ahhh.... i wish malaysia would air this televovela once again...

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Guest tee.pee

i followed this telenovela when it was aired here in the Philippines. I even skipped classes to watch this. haha

If i remember it right, GMA7 was the one who aired this, then ABS-CBN aired the sequel, the time when Betty and Armando got married.

There was a time that telenovelas ruled the Philippine airwaves, Marimar, Lazos de Amor, Maria del Barrio and etc. Thalia was a superstar back then. But now, Koreanovelas everywhere.

What's next? hmmm

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Guest apple red

i also liked that there were no psyco villians tryin to kill the leads. i liked marcela's character a lot.

Marcella and Patricia should be the most wanted antagonist role. They're not as destructif as stereotype antagonist role. I found Patricia was very funny at times. Marcella was so sweet sometimes too. And she always loves Armando unconditionally.

But Betty is different. She and her gank soooooo funny.

hello there..i'm also a fan of this drama when I was still in my high school days..the story really inspired me 'coz I'm also not that pretty but not to brag about, I'm quite smart just like Beatrice Pinzon Solano hehe..

I think a Betty La Fea DVD is available online..but I forgot the website..is Yesasia.com selling LA dramas???!!

Betty La fea dvd :o ..i want to buy it if anyone know where i can get it... :w00t:

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Guest adikkeluangman

I also loved this drama... When it aired in Malaysia. It looks time stop for some of us. There is one time when I

went to shopping mall and suddenly heard ring tone of the opening song. :)

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Guest lost_kim

big fan of the telenovela... the "cuartel de las feas" cracked me up... I also loved betty's neighbors, those guys were so hilarious... I'm currently watching the mexican version, although is not as good as the original... but here is a pic...

CabRrg1b1-2.jpg

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Guest Choi Ji Woo

big fan of the telenovela... the "cuartel de las feas" cracked me up... I also loved betty's neighbors, those guys were so hilarious... I'm currently watching the mexican version, although is not as good as the original... but here is a pic...

CabRrg1b1-2.jpg

correction mf you don't mind..those women on the pics were not Betty's neighbors but her co-employees ok!!

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Guest lost_kim

correction mf you don't mind..those women on the pics were not Betty's neighbors but her co-employees ok!!

sorry if i didn't mention specifically, but I put a pic of some of the people of the "cuartel de las feas" I know they were not her neighbors... maybe it was my mistake to not specify, but it's not like I specified that this was a pic of the neighbors either... I just said, "but here is a pic," didn't say from who...

i know that's sandra, berta, sofia and mariana ( the one that read betty's fortune) in the pic... and the neighbors were kind of trouble making guys that bothered betty and made fun of her dad and nicolas all the time... :rolleyes:

anyways, the character that I didn't like was daniel valencia... he was so cruel to betty and always made her feel inferior and inadequate... I thought it was mean of him to play around with patricia for some time and she thought she would get some money from him by sleeping together and doing all his spy work (badly though) on armando... and the character that were funny to me besides betty's cuartel friends were nicolas and betty's father... I liked of don hermes was how he would always tell betty, "el diablo es puerco" (the devil is a pig) I felt so bad for nicolas though, when patricia pretended to like him just because she thought he was rich and but he was happy spending time with her, taking her to expensive dinners and trying his best to look great in his suits... I laughed so much when he poured men's perfume all over himself before going to patricia's apartment...

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Guest Choi Ji Woo

sorry if i didn't mention specifically, but I put a pic of some of the people of the "cuartel de las feas" I know they were not her neighbors... maybe it was my mistake to not specify, but it's not like I specified that this was a pic of the neighbors either... I just said, "but here is a pic," didn't say from who...

i know that's sandra, berta, sofia and mariana ( the one that read betty's fortune) in the pic... and the neighbors were kind of trouble making guys that bothered betty and made fun of her dad and nicolas all the time... :rolleyes:

hey, i've got to apologize too, sorry if I was a bit rude..i guess i've read your statement a bit fast that I've misinterpreted it huhuhu..the women from "cuartel de las feas" are her co-employess but the old couple are

her neighbors, respectively..i'll try to read carefully & thoroughly every post in soompi forums next time.. :)

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  • 5 weeks later...
Guest Choi Ji Woo

Betty Toons

betty_toons.jpg

The series of animated drawings "Betty Toons", inspired in the successful Colombian soap opera "I am Betty the ugly one", will be transmitted for the international channel of caricatures Cartoon Network, they reported the producers. Sources of the private channel RCN TV indicated that the series, that was transmitted in fourteen countries, was sold last week to Cartoon Network in the fair L.TO. Screenings, celebrated in Los Angeles (US), but itself not the date of premiere has been set.

"Betty Toons" was created by the business Creative Connection, that was inspired in the soap opera "I am Betty the ugly one", engraving in Colombia between 1999 and 2001 and later emitted in channels of about thirty countries.

The soap opera relates the history of an ugly, but intelligent woman, that works in a fashionable business and finishes of president and of wife of the owner.

The version in animated drawings amuses the epoch of the protagonists in the infancy, when all they attend the same school, among them Beatriz Pinzón or Betty, Arming Mendoza, "The Peliteñida", Mark it Valencia, the acosador chief of personal Gutiérrez and the designer gay Hugo Lombardi.

Here's a pic from Betty Toons.

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Betty and Nicolas

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Armando, Mario Calderon, Patricia and Marcela

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The sources indicated that this is the first time that a Colombian animated series is sold al television channel by subscription, that transmits several childlike series, among them "The small superpoderosas" and "The laboratory of Dexter".

A day arrived al channel a girl dressed as Betty that imitated it to the perfection, and the author, Fernando Gaitán, immediately he knew what had to do: a chapter in it throws in which Beatriz recalled its infancy and a special one of 5 chapters to cover that vacation pothole, starred in by capable children of amuse the better scenes of the novel.

Thus, while itself elegy to the small in a crowded casting, was born the idea to convert the history in dibujitos animated, idea that today is reality and is called "Betty Toons".

Of course, the universe of "Betty Toons" does not elapse in EcoModa, but in the school, since all their protagonists are children. Here the infancy is counted of Betty, to whose around they fly around again Arming, Mark it, Nicolas (the ugly friend of Beatriz), Patrician Fernández (The Peliteñida), the headquarters of the ugly and other personages of it throws, with only some adults: Inesita (the dressmaker of the business in the novel), here responsible for conducting the micro school; the dad and the mom of Betty (Hermes and Julia), and the mister Gutiérrez, that fool Leader of personnel occurred now in a professor grouch. Since the we go, there will be an absent one with notice, and that is swum more and nothing less than the designer of EcoModa, Hugo Lombardi, since its homosexuality was going to result a somewhat complicated theme to treat set against the teleaudiencia childlike.

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Guest Choi Ji Woo

International Version Of Betty La Fea Youtube Links:

Colombian(original):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEkwKkSIKeQ

German Version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqc-N2IrBu4

Russian Version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPNk3t0zFJo

Indian version:

American Version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdfbYttH4_E

Mexican Version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFT7UoiGYoc

Spanish Version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSQmKAzsNFQ

betty20si20sposaad6.jpg

The Ugly Mania

In some countries, Ugly Betty has a mole and buck teeth, in others oversized spectacles or fat thighs. Appearances aside, however, Ugly Betty is always a very popular girl.

Ugly Betty is the first South American soap opera heroine to become a global sensation. She appears in versions of the program from Moscow to Bombay.

Now Salma Hayek, the Oscar-nominated star of the films Frida and Desperado, is producing an English-language Betty to be shown in the US this September.

However, there is a ruse behind the Ugly Betty concept.

In 70 countries she is played by a naturally beautiful actress who finds scary ways to express what her fellow countrymen find uniquely off-putting in a modern woman.

In India, Mona Singh wears oversized shoulder pads, which express a lamentable lack of modesty; in Germany, the svelte actress Alexandra Neldel wears a thigh-thickening fat suit to indicate that she does not exercise.

Advertisement:

The actress's hidden beauty makes it easier to stage the inevitable denouement in which the dowdy duckling metamorphoses into a swan, wins the heart of her attractive boss and saves his fashion empire. How quickly that happens depends on local ratings.

In Colombia, where Betty was born six years ago as the heroine of the nightly soap I Am Betty the Ugly, former beauty queen Ana Maria Orozco portrayed her with flattened hair and a moustache.

Three out of four Colombians watched Betty's antics every evening at the program's peak, causing cinema and bar owners to blame her for a disastrous downturn in business. There have been similar complaints in Russia, where the series is called Born Ugly.

Although her name may change from one country to the next, Betty is the same downtrodden but secretly brilliant secretary who works in a fashion house surrounded by snobbish, airhead models.

When Colombian Betty was offered a bribe, newspapers ran headlines appealing to her to be patriotic and not to surrender to temptation, "as so many real-life officials do".

When she rejected the bribe, she was compared to Joan of Arc. But when she slept with her boss, Armando, church leaders condemned her and called for a boycott -- which viewers ignored.

The program soon attracted the attention of Hayek, 39, who started her acting career in similarly overwrought shows in her native Mexico.

A British version is also in the pipeline, with an insider hinting that the British Betty "may be an old-fashioned librarian crossed with a female vicar, certainly with bad teeth. Teeth is what our Ugly Bettys are known for around the world".

The Sunday Times

Betty La Fea Remakes Everywhere!!!

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GERMANY

Verliebt in Berlin

Lisa Plenske

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HOLLAND

Lotte

Lotte Pronk

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INDIA

Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahum

Jasmeet Wahlia

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MEXICO

La Fea Más Bella

Leticia Padilla

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RUSIA

Nerodis Krasivoi

Katya Pushkareva

uglybettybeatrizsuarezusa6bb.jpg

USA

Ugly Betty

Beatriz Suárez

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Guest neinsager

OMG haha! this was so funny back then. watching her misadventures was really enjoyable. i didn't like the last part though. i mean, betty had to be pretty to be confident and for armando to notice her. i would prefer it if she stayed ugly until the end, so it sends the right message (the one it started with).

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