Shanghaiist: Hunan TV to make Chinese version of Ugly Betty

Andy Best

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:35:22 +0800

James, yeah, Ugly Betty is one of those shows ... well produced, well acted, looks like a million dollars but ultimately comes down to the same thing each time. And when it does try to throw in an issue or something different it's overbearing style sabotages the effort. No props to Hunan TV for giving us Li Yuchun. Although I loved her/his song 'TMD Wo Ai Ni' which tried to redefine the slang TMD as 'Tianmi de' (sweetly). Yeah right. Instead you get legions of 9 years olds singing 'I f%cking love you' ... or 'f*ck me, I love you!'. Whichever way you'd like to translate it.

James Creegan

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:15:11 +0800

400 episodes? Let me guess the plot line of every single one: Betty finds some difficulty Betty tries to overcome this difficult by being something she is not Betty realises that the way to overcome this difficulty is just to be herself I'd love to meet just one person who thinks that this show is funny.

Micah Sittig

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:59:48 +0800

...which is an American version of the Colombian soap opera Betty La Fea. Props to the Latinos for putting a regular person on the TV. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_8hss8oR-0 (Even if they sorta blew it.) And props to Hunan TV for casting an unknown actress to play Betty. Hunan TV has a tradition of creating new stars for TV through its PK-style shows, like they did for a couple of the current hosts of 快乐中国, for the lead in the 琼瑶's remake of her classic一帘幽梦, and the host of starlets that came out of Super Voice Girl and Happy Voice Boy.