Full Description
Premiering in 2006,Ugly Betty, the award-winning US hit show about unglamorous but kind-hearted Betty Suarez (America Ferrera),is the latest incarnation of a worldwide phenomenon that started life as a Colombian telenovela,Yo soy Betty,la fea, back in 1999. The tale of the ugly duckling has since taken an extraordinary global journey and become the most successful telenovela to date. This groundbreaking book asks what the Yo soy Betty,la fea/Ugly Betty phenomenon can tell us about the international circulation of locally produced TV fictions as the Latin American telenovela is sold to,and/or re-made-officially and unofficially-for different national contexts. The contributors explore what Betty has to say about the tensions between the commercial demands of multimedia conglomerates and the regulatory forces of national broadcasters as well as the international ambitions of national TV industries and their struggle in competitive markets. They also investigate what this international trade tells us about cultural storytelling and audience experience,as well as ideologies of feminine beauty and myths of female desire and aspiration.
TV's Betty Goes Global features original interviews with buyers and schedulers,writers,story editors and directors,including the creator of Yo soy Betty, la fea, Fernando Gaitan
Contents
Acknowledgements
Contributors
Introduction: 'Oh Betty, You're So Beautiful'
Janet McCabe
The Whole World's Unlikely Heroine: Ugly Betty as Transnational Phenomenon
Michele Hilmes
Our Betty: The Legacy of Yo soy Betty, la fea's Success in Colombia
Yeidy M. Rivero
Interview with Jeff Ford on the purchase of Ugly Betty for Channel 4
Jean Chalaby
Interviews with TV Executives involved in the German Adaptation, Verliebt in Berlin
Andrea Esser
Betty and Lisa: Alternating Between Sameness and Uniqueness
Bianca Lippert
Ugly Betty, Flemish Sara: Telenovela Adaptation and Generic Expectations
Alexander Dhoest and Manon Mertens
Re-Creating Betty's World in SpainStefania Carini
Towards a Cultural Economy of Chou Nu (Nv) Wu Di: The Ugly Betty franchise in the People's Republic of China
Coco Xiaolu Ma and Albert Moran
How Ugly Can Betty Be in India?
Divya D. McMillin
Ugly Betty on Turkish Television: Updating Popular Cinema
Laurence Raw
Esti Ha'mechoeret: The Israeli Ugly Betty
Amit Lavie-Dinur and Yuval Karniel
The Greek Maria The Ugly: The Never-Ending Journey of a Myth
Betty Kaklamanidou
Czech Ugly Katka: Global Homogenization and Local Invention
Irena Carpentier Reifová and Zden?k Sloboda
Glamorously (Post) Soviet: Reading Yo soy Betty, la fea in Russia
Elena Prokhorova
Traveling Narratives and Transitional Life Strategies: Yo soy Bea and Ugly Betty
Paul Julian Smith
Our Betties, Ourselves
Dana Heller
