I don't comment happenings on one critical space of pop culture, TV, because I don't own a TV set, and in all likelyhood will never own one. However, this James Poniewozik's essay on "Ugly Betty", the runaway sitcom hit on ABC, in this week's issue of the TIME magazine caught my attention for two reasons: 1) I remember seeing an episode of UB as I was cooling off after a run in hotel room few weeks ago, and 2) because the issues Mr. Poniewozik seeks to explain using UB's popularity, as well as his speculations behind UB becoming such a TV phenomenon.

Some of the issues he rises, and seeks to explain include "American" attitudes towards (and related political debates on) immigrants, the immigrant work ethic, and the effects of global cross-cultural currents (UB is based on a telenovela franchise) on American TV programming. While clearly UB would never have gotten a slot on prime-time in the lily-white era of "I Love Lucy"[1], I quibble with Mr. Poniewozik's essay when he makes it sound as if American TV is a welcome parlor on Ellis Island, and which any casual watcher will know, it patently is not. He writes:

"Reality TV may be so hospitable to immigrants because it's a fun house mirror of the immigrant experience. You leave your comfort zone and prove your worth with little more than gumption and (maybe) talent. Wherever you come from, you embrace a new, anything-goes culture that values chutzpah over tradition and propriety."

I beg to differ with this view; American Media (of which TV is a small part) is a conglomerate-owned and controlled business[2], and like any other business, it is driven by viewership (consumer) numbers and not by any fuzzy feelings towards foreigners. While a few of the minor threads in UB revolve around the immigrant experience (Betty's dad is an illegal immigrant from Mexico, and her older sister speaks English with a forced Spanish accent; Betty's accent is, unsuprisingly, all-American), I am sure that ABC would have killed this show without mercy had it not become a sleeper hit, immigrants or no.

How to then explain UB's popularity sans immigration fuzziness? My conjecture is that Betty - with her frizzy hair, Jaws-the-Moonraker-villan-like braces, un-twiggy body, and non-current dress style[3] - has managed to speak that part of the 10 million plus Americans that tune in every week, which is held by the very same media culture to be inadequate, to be imperfect, and to be, yes, very, very ugly because they don't confrom to what they see on their screens. Since Betty comes aross as heartwarming inspite of her many imperfections, I suppose, people watch her for the consolation that inspite of the media-mediated gaps they may see in themselves, they are fundamentally Betty-like good. I only hope ABC doesn't run ads for fashion, cosmetics and diet products before and after the Ugly Betty episodes[4].

[1] Even though Desi Arnaz was Cuban I think; how did the Anglo-Saxon purists allow Lucy get by with that?!