You know the kind of show that probably was never supposed to be on TV. It had the non-white families, the gays, the fatter-than-a-size-six-leading lady. Networks thought they were supposed to flop, so they never even gave them the chance to. Ugly Betty was the exception, at least for a while, combining all of these elements for four seasons of madcap and groundbreaking television.
The show was based around Betty Suarez (America Ferrera), a Mexican-American geek, who graduates from college and then starts working for a fashion magazine called MODE. Her eccentric wardrobe—bright, clashing patterns, last season’s pumps and, god forbid, braces—makes her the brunt of the jokes at work. She is also picked on for her weight, mostly by her two high-fashion colleagues, Mark St. James (Michael Urie) and Amanda Tanen (Becki Newton).
Betty soon finds herself enmeshed in the workplace hijinks. The magazine’s Creative Director, Wilhemina Slater (played by Vanessa Williams), is a Vogue-editor Anna Wintour knockoff wearing the latest style and conveying the iciest attitude. She and the magazine’s owners, Bradford and Claire Meade (Alan Dale and Judith Light). Daniel Meade (Eric Mabius) who played the Meades' womanizing playboy son who rarely came into work without a buzz on, was Betty’s boss.
These are the basic cast members who set the scene for breaking not one, but all, of the rules of the kind of show that will never see the glow of a television screen.
-The non-white family: Betty Suarez was, as I said before, of Mexican-American descent. And she was not an orphan, nor did her family live halfway across the country, never to be mentioned aside from the occasional phone call. Betty still lived in the colorful house she grew up in with her father, Ignacio Suarez (Tony Plana), her older sister Hilda (Ana Ortiz) and her nephew Justin (Mark Indelicato). Many of the episodes’ plots revolve around Betty’s relationship with her family, as well as their relationships with each other. In a twist of un-American proportions, American television adapted the series from the Colombian telenova Yo soy Betty, la fea, or I am Betty, the ugly.
-The gays (and transsexuals): Mark, Betty’s co-worker, is a flamboyant gay man with an affinity for ascots and high-flying hair. At the beginning of the series, Mark is cruel to Betty, but as the series progresses, he is given more humanity, even helping Betty’s nephew, Justin, to accept his own homosexuality. Justin is also gay and very, very adorable. Finally, Rebecca Romijn played one of the first (and hottest) male-to-female transsexual characters as Daniel’s risen-from-the-dead brother turned sister, Alexis.
The fatter-than-a-size-six leading lady: America Ferrera was in the movie, Real Women Haves Curves before being cast as Betty in Ugly Betty. She dropped weight from the beginning of her television and movie career, but she never was as thin as most actresses in Hollywood. And Betty had no trouble getting men. From a nerdy accountant at her office to a sub sandwich hocking lover, Betty always had a date. And Ferrera starting making and makes men’s magazine hot lists left and right (a dubious honor, but it shows a little bit of diversity from the thin, blonde girls that usually dominant these lists).
Betty was cancelled in 2010 due to low ratings, but having a show that broke so many rules shows that other television series can break the rules, too.
Sources and further reading:
Printer-friendly version