Ugly Betty soars to the top

For almost a decade Thursday-evening television viewing was labeled with the buzzwords “must-see TV� as NBC’s blockbuster lineup of sitcoms that included Seinfeld and Frasier were the audiences’ choice.

As viewing habits changed, the rival network CBS took over Thursdays with a taste of reality in Survivor, coupled with special effects crime investigation in CSI. Television is a competitive business and network programmers try to predict our tastes, all with the hope of creating the next new hit. Nobody could have predicted that a quirky new series on ABC entitled Ugly Betty would strike such a strong positive cord with viewers. A series that centers on a young lady with thick glasses, braces and frumpy clothes does not adhere to the so-called formula for television success. Ugly Betty has surprised everybody by becoming the most successful new prime series of the season. Few expected this, including all the major Canadian networks, none of which carry the program.

The simple premise of the series might explain its success and why it has connected so strongly with viewers. It is a blend of comedy and drama, focusing on the life of Betty Suarez who does not fit in with her co-workers. Hired by a fashion magazine publisher to be his son’s assistant, Betty is sweet, hardworking and brimming with ideas.

These qualities do not lead to success in the fashion world, where she is seen as plain and unstylish. In a world where the stylishly super-thin are applauded, how could an ordinary girl such as Betty survive? Herein lies the secret of this show’s success. Not only is the series Ugly Betty a brilliant blend of comic and dramatic moments, but also the series delivers a very basic message that audiences can embrace, and that is that real beauty comes from within.

Betty, as portrayed by America Ferrera, is the heroine who is the underdog who we root for each week. While Betty is indeed the butt of jokes in some scenes, she is portrayed as having sensitivity, intelligence and wit, qualities that her more successful coworkers lack. The series follows Betty into two different worlds. Her humble Queens, New York home finds her supporting her ailing widowed father. In sharp contrast are the swanky Manhattan offices of the high fashion magazine Mode, her new workplace. Through her actions, based in part on her humble background, she reminds people how to be human again. While each episode is part satire, and part comedy, the show works well because its premise is straightforward — a young girl’s weekly struggle with her family and her employers. It is well written, and strikes the viewer as believable, a quality that seems to be rare in prime time television.

It is not surprising that the first fall show that was cancelled this season was Runaway, which dealt with the adventures of a family on the run as fugitives seeking to prove the innocence of their father. Not very real, I would say.

Then the ax fell on the heist drama Smith, starring Ray Liotta, Vanished, about a U.S. senator’s wife who goes missing, Kidnapped, similarly about a teenage boy’s abduction, and Justice, which followed a diverse group of lawyers at a prestigious Los Angeles law firm. Ugly Betty seems to tower over the competition. If you have not discovered her, she can be found on ABC Thursdays at 8 p.m.

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