Telenovela is a 2016 NBC Work Com which takes place on the Miami set for a Spanish-speaking telenovela called Las Leyes de Pasión.
It premiered on January 2016, and its last episode aired on February 22, 2016. On May 13, 2016 it was cancelled after one season due to low ratings and mediocre critical reception, leaving it a Short-Runner at only eleven episodes.
Los Tropos de Telenovela:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: in "Split Personalities," Mimi's ex-husband is released from minimum-security prison and has changed from a dorky embezzling accountant into a tattooed and ripped hunk, making her wonder if she's a "cholo chaser." Conversely, this episode reveals that Isabell's overwhelmingly Happily Married to a rather dorky man.
- Alliterative Name: Roxie Rios, Gael Garnica, Mimi Moncada.
- Alpha Bitch: Isabella. Ana's a lighter version.
- Amicable Exes: After being at each other's throats in early episodes, Ana and Xavier have settled into a good working relationship, limiting themselves to only the occasional jab.
- Berserk Button: Rodrigo really doesn't like if anyone mentions that he can't grow a mustache and must use stick-ons.
- Big Storm Episode: "The Hurricane," in which the cast is stranded in the studio during a hurricane.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: In "The Hurricane," when Ana Sofia notes to her castmates that the approaching Hurricane Chloe wasn't as harmless as they thought it was, she states that "Chloe's kind of a bitch, kind of like a Chrissy or a Jessica". Chrissy Pietrosh and Jessica Goldstein are two of the creators and executive producers of Telenovela.
- Bland-Name Product: Vivavision, which seems to be a stand-in for Univision.
- Brainless Beauty: Roxie and Gael, with Roxie also being a Dumb Blonde.
- Camp Gay: A mild case with Gael, who also doubles as a walking Shirtless Scene.
- Chivalrous Pervert: Rodrigo according to Mimi after they slept together in "Evil Twin": he's a foot fetishist who says "end scene" after every go-around...but he's not into casual sex and wants his women to feel special.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Roxie, Gustavo, and to a lesser extent Isaac.
- Dumb Blonde: Roxie.
- Easy Amnesia: Invoked when Ana Sofia gets hit on the head by a stage light and everyone else thinks she's gotten amnesia, to which Mimi responds that they've been working on telenovelas too long. Later, Ana fakes having amnesia to spite Mimi.
- Evil Twin: Isabela has a twin sister, Carmen (they were the Olsen Twins of Latin television). When Carmen visits the set, this trope is played straight, subverted, inverted, and generally twisted around until no one can tell who's the "good" twin and who's the "evil" twin.
- Excuse Plot: Los Scientificos Sexy is a rival telenovela featuring a cast that wears little more than underwear and lab coats and plots that involve the two leads having sex for the flimsiest of reasons.
- Fan Disservice: in "Sexual Awakening," hairy, pudgy, balding Gustavo is completely and shamelessly nude for the photo shoot.
- Fanservice: in spades.
- Functional Addict: Isaac writes while drunk out of his mind and is just as surprised by plot twists as everyone else because he has no memory of coming up with them.
- Genre Blind: Despite working on a telenovela, the cast are completely blind to the classic soap opera tropes at play in their everyday lives.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: in "Split Personalities," it's revealed that Roxie and Ana kissed while blackout drunk, and even Gael finds this erotic.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Ana and Mimi.
- Heritage Disconnect: Ana Sofia is a telenovela star that can't actually speak Spanish.
- Informed Flaw: As said below, Ana Sofia doesn't know Spanish at all, yet her pronounciation in the scenes where she is actually playing Pasión is very good.
- Irony as She Is Cast:
- In-Universe, as Ana Sofia is the lead of Las Leyes De Pasión, which is filmed in Spanish for a Spanish audience, yet she is unable to speak it.
- Gael plays Ana Sofia's love interest on Las Leyes but is actually both Camp Gay and the female characters' Gay Best Friend.
- Loony Fan: Kelly, Xavier's ex-girlfriend, is obsessed with Ana and wants to have her life, or at least be her best friend. She only dated Xavier to get to Ana and wants to kill him so she'll have Ana all to herself.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: Rodrigo, the actor who plays the main antagonist on Leyes, is actually very friendly and quite dorky.
- Moustache Twirling Villain: Rodrigo's Show Within a Show villain character. To his shame, however, he can't actually grow a moustache and has to use a variety of stick-ons.
- Mr. Fanservice: Gael is well aware that he's hired for his looks and will rip open his shirt (revealing a well-toned body) whenever he feels as if his job is being threatened.
- Ms. Fanservice: Roxi is Las Leyes De Pasión's primary female eye candy. Her costumes are the most revealing out of the female cast (which is saying something).
- Navel-Deep Neckline: Many of the female actresses' costumes plunge down to their navels.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The first season finale teases the cast's next telenovela, Doctores Vaqueros (Cowboy Doctors).
- Porn Stash: Mimi freaks out when she finds one hidden under her son's mattress. Ana, on the other hand, is flattered that it includes an old bikini shot of her.
- The Reveal: The cast are constantly flummoxed by their show's plot twists. Isaac, the writer is surprised at them as well. He usually says that the twists are the result of his being black-out drunk while writing or because of typos that he never got around to correcting.
- Right-Hand Cat: Rodrigo's character is usually stroking a cat when he isn't twirling his moustache. Hugo, the cat, is usually seen by Rodrigo's side when the cameras aren't rolling as well.
- Rule of Three: Isaac claims that accidents on the set come in threes, and one of them usually happens to him.
- Sexy Whatever Outfit: All the costumes in Las Leyes De Pasión, apparently—when Ana goes to talk to Mimi's son about sex, she tries to find the least-revealing outfit she can in order to do so. Ultimately, the best she can find is a "Naughty Nun" costume—while it's not nearly as revealing as the rest of the stuff that she and the other actresses wear, it does have a rather short skirt, which really shows off her legs.
- Soap Within a Show: Las Leyes De Pasión.
- Stylistic Suck: What little that is seen of Las Leyes De Pasión takes the stereotypical melodrama of real telenovelas and dials it up to eleven, complete with dodgy sets and the gratuitous use of wind machines and soft focus.
- The Talk: One episode has Ana and Mimi try to give it to Mimi's eldest son. They eventually do it in the middle of shooting a scene
- White-Dwarf Starlet: Isabela is an older actress whose days of starring roles are behind her. In fact, she used to be the telenovela's star before Ana came along and the show was retooled around Pasión. Isabela never wastes an opportunity to remind Ana that her time as a headlining actress will be all too brief.
- Working with the Ex: The main source of conflict is between Ana Sofia and her ex-husband Xavi, who has been cast as her new love interest.
- Writers Suck: Isaac, the head writer on Leyes, is the show's Butt-Monkey. One episode has him living in the studio because he's so poor.
