An Appreciation: “Ugly Betty” will be missed

How does a show go from the hottest thing on the air to canceled in less than four years – Especially a show as good as Ugly Betty?

Well, it’s happened. ABC has announced that it is canceling Betty but has given producers enough notice so they can send the show about the world of an unattractive but cheerful secretary at a fashion magazine out with a bang.

“We’ve mutually come to the difficult decision to make this Ugly Betty’s final season, and are announcing now as we want to allow the show ample time to write a satisfying conclusion,” ABC chief Steve McPherson said in a statement. “We are extremely proud of this groundbreaking series, and felt it was important to give the fans a proper farewell.”

The network’s commitment to the show seemed to be wavering when it was moved from its familiar Thursday night perch to a Friday night timeslot last fall where, predictably, ratings fell.  ABC moved the show to Wednesday nights recently but when ratings did not improve, the writing seemed to be on the wall.

This season, “Betty” has averaged 5.3 million viewers, a big drop from the third season’s 8.1 million viewers. Wonder what would have happened if it had stayed on Thursdays in the first place.

That’s showbiz I guess but it still stinks!

On the bright side, the show is still in production with four episodes left to complete (ABC trimmed its order from 22 episodes to 20) and as far as I know, the Liza Minnelli appearance is still a go. The show has always had terrific guest stars including Patti LuPone, Betty White, Bernadette Peters and Salma Hayak who is one of the show’s producers.

But Betty didn’t need big-name guest stars to make it shine. America Ferrera won an Emmy for best actress in a comedy in season one while Vanessa Williams has been deservedly Emmy-nominated every single season for her delicious portrayal of Willhelmina Slater.

The entire cast has been first-rate including the adorable Eric Mabius as Betty’s boss Daniel Meade and the fabulous Judith Light as his mother Claire. Then there is Michael Urie who plays the scheming and oh-so-funny Marc St. James, a gay man on the show played by an actor who recently publicly acknowledged that he is also gay. Becki Newton has been a hoot as the shallow Amanda and other standouts who have come and gone include the hilarious Ashley Jensen, the much-missed Christopher Gorham who played Betty’s best boyfriend Henry, and Rebecca Romijm who played the transgender woman Alexis Meade.

And who could forget the delicious Alec Mapa who appeared in 26 episodes as a TV fashion reporter with the awesome name of Suzuki St. Pierre.

But the heart of the show has been Betty’s family and I will miss them most of all. Tony Plana as her father Ignacio could not be improved upon nor could Ana Ortiz as Betty’s sister and the mother of a remarkable kid named Justin (Mark Indelicato) who seemed to be gay and that was just fine with his mom and the rest of him close-knit family.

Whenever things got just a little too silly over at the magazine, you could almost always count on the Suarez family to provide the episode with some heart.

I have the DVD sets of the shows first two seasons and cherish them.