Ugly Betty

Posted by Maggie Van Ostrand (maggie@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 2, 2007 Share

Originally a hit in the country of origin, Colombia, then a hit in Mexico, the second country to produce it, and now, a hit in the third version developed for the U.S.A.

The American version is now out on DVD, and it’s easy to see why it’s such a success, no matter where it’s produced. It’s the thing that appeals most to women, a fairy tale like Cinderella, only with more cinder than ella.

In the first episode, we meet Betty Suarez (America Ferrara), a homely, clumsy, socially inept young girl from Queens with thick eyebrows, thicker red-framed eyeglasses, bad hair, bad shape and, topping off this female wreck, the worse set of braces on her teeth this side of U.S. Steel.

Amazingly, she scores an important job as assistant to Manhattan’s bachelor-about-town, Daniel Meade (Eric Mabius) the new editor-in-chief of MODE magazine (think Vogue). The reason Betty is chosen over all the heroin-chic other applicants is that Daniel’s father and the magazine’s owner/publisher, Bradford Mead (Alan Dale) wants his son to have an assistant he will be able to resist making love to, a problem Daniel has had most of his rebellious life. Daniel’s highly competitive older brother, the parents’ favorite, was to have been editor-in-chief, but was killed in an accident.

As you’d expect, Betty turns out to be patient, kind, and wise, characteristics which eventually wear down cynical co-workers who make cruel and sarcastic fun of her and try to get her to quit. Receptionist Amanda (Becki Newton) who’s sleeping with Daniel, Marc (Michael Urie), the clever and loyal gay assistant henchperson to MODE’s creative director and ultimate Diva in Prada, Wilhelmina (Vanessa Williams), who has been passed over for the editor-in-chief job.

Of course it’s predictable that Betty’s sage advice to Daniel will help him over his insecurities at being thrust, unprepared, into a major professional spotlight meant for his late, favored brother, but the very predictability has a certain charm about it. Not only does Betty keep Daniel from making humiliating mistakes, but her common sense adds to his newly tapped creativity and the combination results in Daniel’s first edition of MODE being hugely successful, to the chagrin of Wilhelmina who, aided by devious Marc, has done everything to sabotage Daniel.

At work, Betty has one friend, MODE’s seamstress, Christina (Ashley Jensen), who also manages “The Closet,” which contains original fashions, the one of a kinds. This gives Christina some power in deciding who gets what, except for Wilhelmina who gets everything she wants except Daniel’s job.

Betty’s backstory takes place at her house in Queens, and is a colorful one, both literally and figuratively. Betty’s father, Ignacio (Tony Plana) is an illegal alien living in the U.S. on a phony social security card, sister Hilda (Ana Ortiz), the cleavage-bearing, tight-pants-wearing mother of 11-year-old Justin (Mark Indelicato) who breaks out into Broadway show song and dance routines every now and then, and dorky Walter (Kevin Sussman) who has longed and lusted for Betty lo these many years but she dumped him because he was momentarily involved with the neighborhood slut, Gina Gambarro (Ava Gaudet).

Most of the episodes in the first season are about Betty trying to integrate work and home life and trying to handle Walter who regrets his interlude with Gina and takes to stalking Betty, who has become attracted to Henry (Christopher Gorham) a MODE employee in the financial department who is also attracted to her. It takes a suspension of disbelief to accept not one but two guys in love with Ugly Betty but that’s what’s required of the viewer.

Episodes deal with Daniel’s womanizing including a serious fling with fellow editor Sofia Reyes (the series’ producer, Salma Hayek) and attorney Grace Chin (Lucy Liu), a mysterious masked woman with a saline drip who’s in cahoots with Wilhelmina to get her the E-I-C job, Betty’s growing reputation within the fashion industry as an assistant who works miracles with problems, Hilda’s attempts to better herself so she can support Justin without asking for money from the deadbeat who fathered him, Ignacio’s ongoing immigration problems, Daniel’s alcoholic mother, Grace (Judith Light) who constantly fails in rehab, and Daniel’s late brother who resurfaces as a transgendered woman, Alexis (Rebecca Riomijn), who had been the masked woman on a drip. There’s also the recurring role of collagen-lipped Fabia, MODE’s biggest advertiser (Gina Gershon) whose exaggerated portrayal is almost just right.

The casting of all roles is superb, and it’s not easy to select stand-out performances but, if pressed: Marc Indelicato, the singing-dancing nephew, Michael Urie, the gay assistant to the third favorite, Vanessa Williams, who walks the delicate line between comedy and cartoony.

Ugly Betty may be a nighttime soap, but it’s quality and has some good writing by Silvio Horta (who developed the series), Marco Penette (co-exec. Producer), Veronica Becker, Oliver Goldstick, Sarah Kucserka, Sheila R. Lawrence, Cameron Litvack, Dailyn Rodriguez, Jon Kinally, Henry Alonso Myers, JHames D. Parriott, and Tracy Proust.

Get the DVD so you’ll know why they voted for it when the Emmy goes to (fill in anyone’s name from “Ugly Betty”).

Read more articles by Maggie Van Ostrand