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California’s legislature recently passed a tax incentives package to keep movie and television production from leaving the state. The bill, appropriately named “the Ugly Betty Bill”, was sponsored by California Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he’ll sign it.
It’s called the Ugly Betty Bill, of course, because the show’s move to New York (along with hundreds of jobs), was a wake up call for both Hollywood and the state of California. Of course, ugly Betty was just the latest in a stream of Films, TV shows, and commercials that either moved or were produced outside of California. For instance, the upcoming Hannah Montana, The Movie was filmed in and around my hometown of Nashville, TN. There are also many TV shows that film in Canada.
The bill will provides $500 million in incentives over five years in the hopes that films and TV shows will be going back to the state (including Ugly Betty, but I don’t think they can put that genie back into the bottle).
As an aside, I’ve noticed that the term “Ugly Betty” has fully entered the pop culture lexicon. I’ve seen the term used in politics, religion, and especially sports. It’s pretty much an official term in ice hockey now: and Ugly Betty defense is one where the defense hunkers down and tries to rough up the other team, with no thought of turning the puck and getting their own scoring chance. I don’t know, I just find that interesting.
Anyway, I hope this new law will help California get its act together, although I still think there’s no way Ugly Betty is ever leaving NYC.
Imager: Bauer-Griffin
556 days ago
From Tom: “Anyway, I hope this new law will help California get its act together, although I still think there’s no way Ugly Betty is ever leaving NYC.”
Well…that’s iffy. I’ve read various articles on this since last week, and while I personally think that it’s tedioius for UB to keep going back and forth between cities, here’s the deal: The show was only able to go back to NYC because it was more affordable to do so. But now that the tax incentives have run out for TV productions, UB may not be able to remain there for the long haul b/c it would be too expensive to do so – even more so with current economic conditions. So, unless the NY tax incentive program is renewed for the future, the show may be forced to relocate eventually to keep costs down – especially considering the ratings are not that high. Of course, the show might not have to relocate for Season 4, but if we look towards the future – towards Season 5 and beyond (*knocks on wood*) and the possibility of no tax incentive renewal – then the stark reality here is that the show may have to move again just to stay affordable.
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549 days ago
Interesting stuff.
Hey, has anyone watched the new show “Being Erica”? It’s a show filmed in Canada.
It rocks!!
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