All good things come to an end. Ugly Betty's Season 1 officially wrapped this past Friday (well, Saturday morning). I’d tell you all about the eloquent speeches and heartfelt goodbyes, but I wasn’t there. I finished on Thursday, in the middle of a long day of work, with an enthusiastic applause as everyone moved on to the next scene. Oh, and there were crepes. Free crepes. I ate two, grabbed a cup of coffee to go and walked off the lot for the last time. Well, until July anyway.It’s a funny thing, the ending of a season. I expected a little more out of it, to be honest. But the reality is that we’re coming back. And not only are we coming back, we’re coming back in two months. And during those two months, the cast is going to be together at least three times for promotional events. So, really, it’s more of a little breather than a full-fledged hiatus, nothing to get all blubbery about. And, looking back at the season, I feel grateful, not sad. I am grat...
read more
Anel and I went to the Ugly Betty wrap party Saturday night and had a great time. It was held at The Bungalow Club in Los Angeles. Everyone made it, and I think I mean literally everyone because that place was packed. You can see pictures at wireimage.com, but please believe me when I tell you that I was absolutely not trying to get my hair to look like an emergency road cone. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Anel looks great. Look at her instead.Aside from the open bar, the only reason everyone goes to the wrap party is to see the gag reel. This is the ultimate teaser, actually, because you won’t be able to see it. Well, maybe they’ll put a cleaned-up version on the DVD. They’ve been working on it for months, getting interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, the works. I’ve never seen anything like it. Anyway, the gag reel was very well done. Usually, they’re just a mishmash of line flubs and cursing, but this thing had themes! I can’t tell yo...
read more
So, I've noticed that the kind folks at TVGuide.com have moved me to the "Featured Blogs" section of their website. I wonder if this is because a lot of people are reading these entries, or because they're not. And then I figure, well, it's probably because I write such an amazing blog week after week. But then I remember last week's short, sad exercise and decide that I probably have little to do with the honor. Anyway, I've noticed, and I think it's nice.Now, there is (finally) a real, honest-to-goodness, brand spanking new episode of Ugly Betty this week. I'd tell you all about it — well, a little bit about it — but I'm not in it so I haven't seen the script. Sure, they would have given me one if I'd asked, but I kind of like not knowing. It reminds me of the beginning of the season when I was as much a fan of the show as I was a part of it.In fact, in this case, I'm glad I'm not in it. As a fan, I really feel like Betty needs a little time away from Henry. And since He...
read more
The good news is that the seemingly endless parade of reruns is over! The bad news is that Season 1 of Ugly Betty is rapidly drawing to a close. This week's "clip show" will catch everyone up on what has happened up till now and introduce you to some of our wonderful writers along the way. And next week begins a five-week sprint to the finish. Oh, and we won the Peabody. Which is a pretty big deal. Amazing. Really. I want to use a bunch of exclamation points here, but the feeling of our show winning all of the awards we’ve won has gone past excitement and surprise to a kind of wonder. I can't speak for everyone, obviously, but for me it's become a bit of an out-of-body experience. Amazing.Which reminds me: you just can't get a good suit of armor these days. The first suit I tried on didn't fit. Not even close. It was like trying to wear a Red Bull. The second one worked, but how people ever fought in those things is beyond me. They’re loud, slow, awkward and, who am I kid...
read more
I know, I know, enough with the reruns, already! Sorry. I wish there was something I could do. That said, "Fake Plastic Snow" is my favorite episode to date and I can’t wait to see it again. This episode has everything that’s great about Ugly Betty, and fake snow. We used real snow in “Derailed,” but this episode is all fake plastic goodness. I read this script for the first time at home with my wife, Anel. I’d felt pretty good about Henry’s long-term prospects after "The Lyin’, the Watch and the Wardrobe," but then we read this:Betty: Actually, it’s just holl—But before she gets the word out, he kisses her. A perfect, romantic-movie kiss. They break apart. She’s speechless.Henry: Wow. You know what, Betty? You’re just the girl I’m looking for.And then this:The bag explodes! Fake plastic snow flies everywhere. The air clears, revealing Henry. (What an entrance!)Followed by this:As he departs, Betty looks at her hands. Snow ...
read more
This is my first blog. I know that I should probably be embarrassed, only blogging for the first time at the age of 32, but I'm not. I'm an old-fashioned type of guy and I believe in waiting to blog until you're ready. So what have I been waiting for? Betty. Like Henry, the quirky accountant I portray on Ugly Betty, I guess I just needed the right heartbreakingly sweet, smart, funny, four-eyed, metal-mouthed beauty to bring me out of my shell. That said, if I'm not very good at it, please be patient. It is my first time.I wasn't supposed to be on this show. I wasn't available to audition for the pilot episode because I was starring in another show at the time. But I'd known about the project from the beginning. Before he'd written a page, I remember Silvio (Horta) describing the project to me, over lunch on the Paramount lot. We'd worked together before and had kept in touch. The conversation went something like this…Chris: "What are you working on?"Silvio: "Blah blah blah blah...
read more
Christopher Gorham, Ugly Betty
It's something fans of ABC's Ugly Betty (Thursdays at 8 pm/ET) just know: Betty must end up with Henry. Why? "They're like-minded," says Christopher Gorham, who plays "Mode" magazine's sweet-as-pie accountant. "They're both comfortable with being smart, and they're not overly concerned with appearances in themselves or other people."
Since Betty finally broke up with Walter — and Gorham recently signed on as a regular for next season — fans may get their wish. And if that means waiting for Henry's girlfriend, Charlie, to hit the road, Gorham won't mind. He's enjoying every minute on set. "We joke around a lot," he says. "We were doing Borat impersonations for a while. We tell each other how horrible we were in the last scene all the time."
Off set, Gorham possesses the three things most val
read more
America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
This was the year that America fell in love with America. Thanks to 22-year-old Ferrera's winning performance as a homely girl with a heart of gold, ABC's Ugly Betty (Thursdays at 8 pm/ET) became one of the fall's few breakout hits. On a recent day off, the lovely and low-key Ferrera took a break from house-hunting to fill us in on her Bettylicious year.
TV Guide: You look so different in person. Do you get that a lot? Ferrera: It takes me an hour to become Betty. But I love that she's so different from me. I can [keep] a bit of myself private.
TV Guide: What's the most difficult part of the Betty transformation? Ferrera: Betty wears a lot of clothes — tights, parkas, all these shirts buttoned up to her neck. That drives me insane. I don't like to feel restricted.
TV Guide
read more
Question: Out of all the fall-finale cliff-hangers out there, the one that left me with more baited breath and heated anticipation than any other was not the heavily hyped Heroes, Prison Break or Jericho, but Ugly Betty. Now this is how you build suspense! Not only was the episode's drama countered with some of the funniest moments on TV this season (thank you, Becki Newton's Amanda, for a whole season's worth of hilarity, especially when you gag at the sight of Betty's unattractive shoes), but all of a sudden we were witness to one of the sweetest love stories on all of television. Betty and Henry from Accounting are perfect for each other and they make the cutest couple, but naturally something has to get in their way before they can be happy together. I hope the holdup isn't too long, especially if it means not ever having to see the annoying Walter again!
Answer: Thanks for the shout-out to another of my top-10 finalists and to America Ferrera, the cover girl for our "My Big Year" ...
read more
If you took all the terrific shows that air on Thursday night and spread them out during the week … well, we can dream, can’t we? The crowded list of can’t-miss Thursday shows just grew this week with the addition of Scrubs to NBC’s top-notch two-hour comedy block (30 Rock made its Thursday debut earlier this month), joining My Name Is Earl and The Office (which hits another home-run this week with an episode penned by the original British series’ creators, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant). ABC has also potentially strengthened its hand with the addition of the Friday charmer Men in Trees to its lineup, a tasty nightcap to a first-rate lineup including the adorable Ugly Betty and the once-again-riveting Grey’s Anatomy (even those fickle fans who’d been carping recently have to admit the Thanksgiving night episode was a knockout).CBS is still a powerhouse with Survivor (which kicked into high gear Thanksgiving night as well, with its merger episo...
read more
