Dedicated to expanding its network and channel brands across multiple platforms and connecting viewers with their favorite shows anytime and anywhere, Disney-ABC Television Group announced today a new “Ugly Betty” webisode series, “Mode After Hours,” premiering today, September 24 on ABC.com.
Mode After Hours, a web series spun off from the popular ABC series Ugly Betty, consists of five-minute wacky adventures with Marc (Michael Urie) and Amanda (Becki Newton), two assistants at the fashion magazine around which the soap opera/comedy hybrid revolves. The first episode, Big Package, reveals what Amanda does with many of the packages that come across her desk; in the second, April Fools (released, oddly, a solid week before April 1), the two plot nasty pranks to pull on Betty. The “after hours” gimmick boils down to setting the two actors loose on the show’s pre-existing sets for five minutes of bantering. It’s a low-budget enterprise, well-produced and cleverly written.
I executive produced three seasons of Ugly Betty Presents: Mode After Hours.
Based on “Yo Soy Betty La Fea,” the groundbreaking Colombian telenovela that became an international phenomenon, “Ugly Betty” is from ABC Studios. The series has been awarded Golden Globe, Peabody, NAACP, ALMA and Imagen awards and earned 11 Emmy nominations, the most for any comedy series on any network. Executive producers are Silvio Horta, Academy Award-nominee and Emmy Award winner Salma Hayek, Jose Tamez, Joel Fields and Richard Heus. Co-executive producers are Sheila Lawrence, Victor Nelli Jr., Henry Alonso Myers, Bill Wrubel and Chris Black.
Mode After Hours Credits:
- Writer – Brian Tanen Ugly Betty
- Writer – David Grubstick Ugly Betty
- Starring as “Marc” Michael Urie
- Starring as “Amanda” Becki Newton
- Executive Producer David Beebe
- Executive Producer Alexis Rapo
- Producer Chris Powers
- Editor Mario Del Bello
- Producer Jim Weis Ugly Betty
- Director Richard Heus Ugly Betty