In producing a new TV series, sometimes things go wrong. With “Love Bites,” the NBC comedy that ends its run Thursday, just about everything did. And Becki Newton, the Guilford actress who starred in the comedy, first unveiled as the lynchpin to last year’s fall season on NBC – only to be delayed until after the end of the TV season in the doldrums of summer – emerged intact.Though it all seems now very long ago.

“We filmed the pilot a year and a half ago, and went through as series of setbacks and delays,” Newton, 33, says over the phone from Atlanta, where her husband Chris Diamantopoulos is playing Moe in the Farrelly Brothers new “Three Stooges” movie.

One of the stars, Jordana Spiro, had to go back to her old series, “My Boys.” The show runner, Cindy Chupack, quit for personal reasons. Once unveiled as the lynchpin to NBC’s fall season last year, it was bumped to midseason when Newton also became pregnant with her first child.

“These kinds of delays happen to a show. There’s not a show where these kinds of things don’t happen, when a show doesn’t go through a lot of changes,” Newton says. “But not often does it all happen to one show.”

Newton’s condition meant her character had to be entirely rewritten.

“Originally my character was going to be a virgin,” Newton says. “When I became pregnant, they wrote in that I was a surrogate mother for my sister. But I have to say when we got our heads together, it made the character so much more interesting,” she adds. “If the show had more time to explore the characters, how she related with her sister after the birth would have been the kind of relationship I don’t think has been on TV before.”

As much as we dig NBC’s rom-com anthology Love Bites, it’s time to face the facts: The romance isn’t destined to last beyond summer’s end. There’s been no official announcement, of course, but ratings are anemic, and odds are slim to none that NBC will extend the show’s run past its original nine-episode order. So what’s next on the agenda for Bites‘ charming star Becki Newton? First, she wants to get back in the game and land herself another series. And in the meantime, she has her undying devotion to former Ugly Betty costar Michael Urie to keep her occupied.

“Michael Urie and I harass each other via text all the time,” Newton says with a laugh. Sadly, there aren’t currently any rumblings about revisiting the twosome’s ah-mazing 2010 cabaret act, but the bubbly star does offer this tidbit: “Michael and I need to tackle some sort of performance art in the future. I’m not sure what it is, but we will be reteaming for the rest of our lives on various projects.” Win!

Now, about that other plan…

“I’ve discovered my love of sitcoms,” Newton tells TVLine. “There’s nothing specific lined up right now, but I did a pilot for CBS [titled Home Grown] which unfortunately didn’t get picked up. I had never done a mutli-cam show before, and I absolutely loved it.” Translation: “The next step will be to play a sassy role on a multi-cam show!” Newton says that “the live audience [on Home Grown] was pretty great. It reminded me of my days back in theater. It was so much fun to tackle a scene and if it didn’t work, the writers would fly in with new lines and you’d try that.”

The TV vet also calls her sitcom experience an “incredible challenge,” though one that actually made her long to venture further into the genre. “The hardest [part on a sitcom] is continuing when a line doesn’t work, and not completely falling apart,” she laughs. “On Ugly Betty, we’d run in, do a scene and try different things — and we knew when it was funny. In a sitcom setting, I walked in with a joke that I thought was the funniest thing I’d ever heard — and heard dead silence!”

Regardless of where Newton ends up, though, she says she’s always thinking of her old Betty counterparts. “I miss them all so much,” she says. “We all get together anytime we’re in the same place. They are my family and I really love them.”

For now, you can catch Newton in Love Bites on NBC Thursdays at 10/9c.

Seemingly forever-shelved (and waylaid by backstage drama) for more than 12 months, NBC’s Love Bites – a rom-com anthology series starring Ugly Betty‘s beloved Becki Newton, Heroes‘ charmer Greg Grunberg, and Entourage femme Constance Zimmer — is finally making its debut, this Thursday at 10/9c. After such a lengthy delay, there has to be something wrong with Bites, right? Actually, not really. In fact, I’m pretty smitten with this bit of summer fare — and I’m not alone. Newton is thrilled that the show is finally seeing the light of day, and believes “anything can happen” when it comes to the longevity of this Love.

TVLINE | Given that Love Bites was shelved for so long, was there ever a time that you were worried the show may never make it to air?
You know, I’ve learned through experience that you can’t ever predict what’s going to happen with any show. When I signed on to Ugly Betty, I just prayed that I wouldn’t get fired after the pilot, and four years later, I was still doing it. So, I’m really learning that you can just do your best work, and where the show goes from there is beyond your control.

TVLINE | What were your thoughts on all of the behind-the-scenes drama we kept hearing about? [TNT compelled My Boys star Jordana Spiro to vacate a lead role, original showrunner Cindy Chupack stepped down, the episode order got slashed....]
That’s what was so incredible about this experience — all of these things were going on, but it was actually the most well-run and organized show that I’ve ever worked on. It was really this incredibly pleasant experience. All of [Love Bites'] setbacks tend to happen individually on every show, but we just had a bunch of things happen around the same time. The impression of what was going on made it sound much more chaotic than it actually was. Every step along the way, people just went with the flow.

NBC’s new romance anthology “Love Bites” is adding a guy to its regular cast, but the status of one of its two female regulars is uncertain. NBC Entertainment president Angela Bromstad said Monday (May 17) at the network’s upfront presentation that Greg Grunberg (“Heroes”) is joining Becki Newton in the show’s regular cast (he was billed as a guest star in the pilot). The audience also got to see Grunberg’s character — a tattoo artist who’s married to a character played by Pamela Adlon (“Californication”) — in action in a vignette from the pilot, where he gets a chance at the No. 1 celebrity on his freebie list: Jennifer Love Hewitt.
While Grunberg is in, though, the future of Jordana Spiro on the show is unclear at the moment — thanks to her current job on TBS’ “My Boys.” She’s still listed as a regular in the network’s press materials and is featured in the show’s preview clips, but Bromstad didn’t name-check her on Monday. NBC says Spiro was cast in second position to “My Boys,” whose fourth season on TBS begins July 25. If TBS decides to pick it up for another season, Spiro would stay there and “Love Bites” would replace her. 

GALLERY LINK:
Love Bites (2010) > Season One > Posters

Thanks to The Hollywood Reporter who revealed NBC’s Fall Schedule, Becki’s show Love Bites will air on Thursdays! This is so exciting. Also NBC will hold an upfront presentation tonight so let’s hope Becki will attend! The upfront will show a 15 minutes preview of the show! We’re sure it’s amazing! We really can’t wait for the show to start! Below you can read some executive quotes:

“This new schedule brings NBC back to basics with its commitment to quality scripted programming,” said NBC Universal TV Entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin. “Our new shows are distinctive and feature a combination of the biggest talent, the brightest new stars and the strongest auspices in television. With this new schedule, we’re poised to take the next step toward our long-term goals with a lineup that has stabilized and has been building solid momentum through the second half of the season.”
Added NBC/Universal Media Studios primetime entertainment president Angela Bromstad: “Our team has been working tirelessly to achieve our ambitious goals and we are so pleased to see that these new series demonstrate tremendous upside for NBC. We feel that this development season introduces shows that will become part of the great programming legacy of our network.”

by Press association

Becki Newton has revealed she hated the rubber dress she wore for Ugly Betty.

The 30-year-old actress plays Amanda, Mode magazine’s catty receptionist who will wear anything to look stylish, but confessed the rubber dress was an experience she didn’t enjoy.

Becki said: “It sounds amazing and sexy but it really wasn’t at all – I needed about 10 people to help get me into it and they had to actually purchase whatever strippers use to get their latex costume on and off.”

She added: “It was horrifying. I couldn’t take the dress off for 16 hours straight, so you can imagine how lovely that was at the end of the day!”

But Becki feels playing Amanda has changed her views on fashion.

She said: “I’ve developed an appreciation for more avant garde clothes.

“I prefer to be a little more comfortable in real life, but Amanda doesn’t care if she’s comfortable. She doesn’t understand what the word means, it’s irrelevant.”