Some 'UGLY BETTY' DVD episodes are in the wrong order. (1 Viewer)

[Inspector Hammer!]

This is strange, episodes 2 and 3 have been swapped around and episode 4 'SWAG' should be episode 11.

I went to IMDB and someone stated that SWAG was delayed when it aired and ended up as ep 11 but should have been ep 4, but I have no idea why episodes 2 and 3 were switched around on the discs.

I knew something was wrong when during the "previously on" for ep 2, or what I thought was ep 2, showed scenes that I hadn't yet seen. As far as I can tell the rest of the eps are in order but some of them are still misnumbered...

Here's the correct order...

1. Pilot
2. The Box And The Bunny
3. Queens For A Day
4. Fey's Sleigh Ride
5. The Lyin' The Watch and The Wardrobe
6. Trust, Lust and Must
7. After Hours
8. Four Thanksgivings and A Funeral
9. Lose The Boss
10. Fake Plastic Snow
11. Swag
12. Sofias Choice
13. In or Out
14. I'm Coming Out
15. Brothers
16. Derailed
17. Icing On The Cake
18. Don't Ask, Don't Tell
19. Punch Out
20. Petra-Gate
21. Secretaries Day
22. A Tree Grows In Guadalajara
23. East Side Story

Here's the order the DVD's have them in...

1. Pilot
2. Queens For A Day
3. The Box And the Bunny
4. Swag
5. Fey's Sleigh Ride
6. The Lyin', the Watch and the Wardrobe
7. Trust, Lust And Must
8. After Hours
9. Four Thanksgivings and a Funeral
10. Lose the Boss
11. Fake Plastic Snow
12. Sofia's Choice
13. In or Out
14. I'm Coming Out
15. Brothers
16. Derailed
17. Icing on the Cake
18. Don't Ask, Don't Tell
19. Punch Out
20. Petra-Gate
21. Secretaries Day
22. A Tree Grows In Guadalajara
23. East Side Story

Just FYI.

 

[pitchman]

Thanks, John!

You know, I thought something was up when I watched episodes 2 and 3, but since I had already seen most of the episodes when they originally aired, I just chalked it up to me remembering things out of context. As far as "Swag" goes, this is one of the few episodes I hadn't seen, so I did not pick up on the out of sequence issue. Interestingly, that episode almost plays as a stand-alone, since it really does not advance the main story arc in any meaningful way.

I wonder if by chance the DVD episodes are sequenced in production order rather than as originally aired. Still, it is an odd (and rather significant) error for a release of this magnitude and I am a bit surprised that none of the (largely favorable) reviews I have read mention this anomaly.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Why on earth do they sometimes put eps on dvd's in the order they were produced?

It's the dumbest thing in the world and worse yet it's confusing to the viewers, I mean who cares about the order they were produced in? That isn't the order they were aired in and that is more important.

 

[TravisR]

I've never seen the show but sometimes production order is the order that the producers always intended. Maybe ABC changed it because they felt that one show was stronger and wanted the best episodes first to build an audience. Once the order was changed, the 'Previously On' was corrected for that change.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

So it's a purist thing then? That's fine but here's the thing, the "previously on" at the opening of what's listed as ep 2 on the first disc (ep 3 in case you've lost track), reflects things that happened in the previous 2 episodes, so in this case it showed things that we hadn't seen yet, that's how I caught the problem.

So if your right and the eps are on the discs in the intended order than they did clearly forget to swap "previously on's" from one ep to another.

 

[TravisR]

If I'm right (and who knows if I am ), the Previously On might just be a problem that no one even really thought about or realized was wrong.

One thing that could prove my intended order theory is if something that happened in Queens For A Day is referenced in The Box And the Bunny. Ugly Betty doesn't seem like a 24 or Lost style serialized show but that would be a tip that they wanted one to proceed the other.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

If I recall correctly there is nothing from 'Queens for a Day' referanced in 'The Box and the Bunny', I might be mistaken because i've only watched those eps once but I didn't pick up on anything that stood out.

 

[Lee Jamilkowski]

A question on Swag. Per the earlier post, it has been moved to it's original position when it should have aired. However, I remember when the episode first aired, it had some obvious "wraparound" scenes filmed later that were used to make the episode a flashback. Are these scenes still there?

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Hmmm, none that I recall, the episode played out in line with the previous three and it seemed to flow smoothly.

 

[Garysb]

You would recognize it because the wrap around referred to what was happening at the time it was shown. Henry was in Swag as part of the flashback but I don't think he had been introduced by the third show. Was he inserted after the show was first filmed in addition to the wrap around?

 

[pitchman]

I watched this last night and there is no wrap around flashback but Henry is in the episode. Here again, this is one of the few episodes I missed when it originally aired, so I just assumed this is how Henry was introduced to the audience. Betty meets Henry when she takes Daniel's $20,000 expense report to accounting.

 

[pitchman]

Here's more proof that the episodes are presented in production order and not as they aired.

I watched DVD episode five, Fey's Sleigh Ride (which is episode four as aired on ABC.) It contains a scene between Betty and Bradford Meade that is almost a carbon copy (in terms of content) of two scenes that occur in Swag.

In Swag (DVD episode four,) Bradford pulls up along side Betty on the street and tells her that he has to see her in his office at 10:30 AM sharp. When they meet in his office Bradford asks Betty if she monitors Daniel's calls and then pumps her about the mysterious phone calls Daniel has been receiving from an unidentified woman. Bradford asks Betty to inform him of any future calls and their contents (for legal reasons, as he puts it) but not to say anything to Daniel. To convince Betty to do so, Bradford reminds her that he is the one signing her paycheck.

In Fey's Sleigh Ride, Betty walks out of a restaurant with some takeout and Bradford pulls up along side her in his limo. He hails Betty over and they proceed to have the same identical conversation as in his office, but it plays out like it is the first time it is ever happening! It is very odd to see this scene hot on the heels of the previous episode and it really comes across as a continuity gaffe.

The only rationale that makes sense to me is that when Swag was shelved for later airing, this new and condensed version of the scene was cut into Fey's Sleigh Ride at the last minute, since it contains information that is necessary to the ongoing plot.

 

[Robert Ringwald]

You're all pretty much right.

ABC wanted to be able to air episodes out of sequence. So the first several were "stand-alone." SWAG was produced to be aired 4th, but they shelved it and ended up advancing with more "serialized" stories. When midseason rolled around they realized they had this old episode they payed for and no way of fitting it into the continuity. Therefore they filmed additional scenes to sort of bookend the story "Well, four months ago _____"

It came off sloppy and really badly done, but I understood why they had to do it.

The original version of the episode is restored on the DVD making it fit in the continuity. For purists it's disappointing that the NETWORK version is not included as an extra. The scenes made for it are not included with the other "deleted scenes" so people remembering the aired episode have no way to see them again.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

That solves the mystery for SWAG, but why were eps 2 and 3 swapped around?

 

[TravisR]

You'll probably never find a definitive answer but episodes can get switched around because either the producers or network feel that one episode is better than another and want the best episodes on first. Or they'll like a particular character or actor that is more heavily featured in an episode and want that episode on before an episode with less of that character.

As always though, it's just a guess.

 

[Lee Jamilkowski]

As I thought (although, I didn't think the wrap around was bad at all). It would have been nice to have had those included as a bonus (they did so with the Farscape season two premiere on the Starburst edition DVDs - had both the "unaired" original version of the episode in place and then the "wrap around" version).

 

[David Rain]

Should this thread be combined with the HTF Review thread ? No need to have 2 separate Ugly Betty threads just for the first season.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I brought the mix-up up in the review thread but not many people seemed to see it and I wanted to make others aware of it before they made a mistake and watched the wrong eps, that's why I started this thread.

 

[Nick Martin]

I'm glad you did. Watching the show each week I wasn't aware of episode titles, so now that I have this set, I can watch them the way I remember them airing.

So thank you

 

[Garysb]

Does anyone know or remember what was cut from 'Swag" when it was aired on ABC to make room for the wrap around segments ?

On TV Guide website in a story about " Dirty Sexy Money" shutting down production for a week to rethink the show, it mentioned that "Ugly Betty"
also shut down for a period during its first season for a similar reason. This could be why "Swag" was pulled so that they could get to the new show direction faster.