Bananas For Betty - Production

Production

The episode is a homage to the two Betties, that of America Ferrera's character getting an ice cream named after her, and guest star Betty White, who parodied the title character in the 2007 TV Land Awards. Ironically, Mark Indelicato, who played Justin Suarez in the series, guest starred on White's TV Land sitcom Hot in Cleveland after Ugly Betty ended its run in 2010.

For the first time in the series, the opening scene began with the starring cast's credits before the Ugly Betty title sequence was shown.

This episode mentioned the 2008 movie 27 Dresses, which Christina had exclusive passes to. The film's distributor, Twentieth Century Fox, got promotional consideration in this episode. Fox was also the distributor of The Devil Wears Prada, whose producer also helmed Dresses. This episode mentioned the Brazilian 2005 movie Se Eu Fosse Você starring Glória Pires and Tony Ramos were cited by Betty, Hilda and Gio.

The scene where Wilhelmina and Marc are walking inside during their conversation in the daytime is Downtown Los Angeles, a couple of Los Angeles County MTA buses are visible in the background.

The Fassbinder German film Henry mentioned in this episode, Die Bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant, is translated in English as The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, and is a story about a lesbian love affair. The film was released in 1972.

Another reference to the movie The Devil Wears Prada is made when Fashion TV host Suzuki St. Pierre says "The Devil DONATES Prada", referring to Wilhelmina and her good deeds.

Candace Kita, who had brief cameo in the episode, also had a cameo in an episode of Pepper Dennis, which starred current Ugly Betty regular Rebecca Romijn in the title role.

Alexis' outfit was loosely inspired by the 1968 film Barbarella, the scene where Alexis starts looking for Daniel when she says "Daniel, come out and play..." was inspired by the 1979 movie The Warriors, and the scene in which she "shoots" Daniel was inspired by a scene from X-Men, where Wolverine holds, then kills Mystique (the character that Romijn played in the film series), who was disguised as Storm after he held her.

The YouTube video featuring Wilhelmina slamming the cab door on Betty White, as mentioned by Marc in this episode, can be seen here.

This was the last episode of the second season to be shown in the United Kingdom because of the U.S. writers' strike. The show restarted in April 2008.