"Ugly Betty" Shows That Brains And Heart Are Better Than Beauty

I finished watching it on August 31, 2020, and I saw that America Ferrera can do the impossible as Betty Suarez in ABC’s “Ugly Betty”. It’s not just Betty’s determination to love in the show, it’s also the drama and development with the other main characters, and the pride shown for people in the LGBTQ+ community. Overall, for a show called “Ugly Betty”, it’s actually fabulous and full of surprises.

Betty Suarez (played by America Ferrera) on her first day at MODE magazine. Photo courtesy of ABC.

Adapted from the Colombian telenovela “Yo soy, Betty la fea” written by Fernando Gaitán, “Ugly Betty” originally started off with a Mexican-American college graduate from Queens named Betty Suarez (played by Ferrera) who lands a job as Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief of MODE magazine, Daniel Meade (played by Eric Mabius), despite her unattractive appearance in comparison to the snobbish-looking and -acting employees of the magazine. Regardless, Betty proves herself to be a determined assistant and works her way up to becoming an Associate Features Editor. Along the way, she has to dodge ridicule from receptionist Amanda Tanen (played by Becki Newton) and creative director Wilhelmina Slater’s (played by Vanessa Williams) assistant, Marc St. James (played by Michael Urie), watch out for Wilhelmina’s schemes to take over Meade Publications, and help out her family.

While many of the employees of MODE beg to differ, Betty has more than proven herself that she belongs in a prestigious fashion magazine. In the pilot, she made a new layout proposal with photos of motherhood for an ad campaign for fashion and cosmetics mogul Fabia (played by Gina Gershon), saving her and Daniel's jobs. In season 1, episode 3, “Queens for a Day”, she proved she was tough by convincing Marc to get out of her way to let her go to a restaurant and give Daniel a layout proposal necessary for a photo shoot with Vincent Bianchi (played by Rhys Coiro), proving she won’t let judgement about her looks, whether she got a makeover or not, get the better of her. When Daniel ran into money trouble and he needed to entertain Japanese designer Oshi with something under $300 in S1E11, “Swag”, Betty convinced him to take him to fast food restaurant White Tassel, and Oshi agreed to do a four-shoot deal with “Mode”.

In S2E9, “Giving Up the Ghost”, Wilhelmina released a virus that made MODE’s computers crash and deletes all the layouts, editorials, and graphics, rendering the magazine ineffectual. Although Wilhelmina made many employees defect to her side for her SLATER magazine, Betty rallied the little crew she, Daniel, and Alexis (played by Rebecca Romijn), Daniel’s transsexual sister, to create a new issue for MODE to upstage Wilhelmina. No matter what tricks were up Wilhelmina’s sleeves, Betty and friends managed to get a cover reshoot, fill 83 pages of content, and get a new deadline to ship their January 2008 issue. Not only did she help save the magazine, but Betty also was an inspiration for Daniel to stop thinking like his father Bradford (played by Alan Dale) and start his own legacy for the magazine.

A third victory came for Betty in the fourth season when she began her job as Associate Features Editor of MODE. She had a rough start at the job given the bad breakup between her and managing editor Matt Hartley (played by Daniel Eric Gold).  Betty’s first major accomplishment for MODE as Associate Features Editor is in S4E4, “The Weiner, the Bun, and the Boob”, writing about the toughest jobs in New York City, and with help from Marc in pitching it, supermodels are included in the uniforms of those jobs, such as riding a pedicab or selling hot dogs, and the pitch is a success.

The Suarez family: Ignacio (played by Tony Plana), Justin (played by Mark Indelicato), Hilda (played by Ana Ortiz) and Betty (played by America Ferrera) at Christmas. Photo courtesy of televisionista.blogspot.com.

I’ve liked seeing the character development not only in Betty, but in her family, Daniel, Amanda, and Marc. Her father, Ignacio (played by Tony Plana) started off struggling with being an illegal immigrant and taking care of two daughters and a grandson as a widower. Eventually, he found love again with his nurse (played by Luna Lauren Velez), and he is a firm but loving parent who does his best to look out for Betty’s, her sister Hilda’s (played by Ana Ortiz), and Hilda's son, Justin’s (played by Mark Indelicato), best interests at heart.

Hilda was a pretty capable single mother. She started off selling the health supplement Herbalux, then had to deal with the death of Justin’s father, Santos (played by Kevin Alejandro). As the show went on, she found love again in the form of politician Archie Rodriguez (played by Ralph Macchio), married her high school boyfriend Bobby Talercio (played by Adam Rodriguez), and opened her own hair salon in the back of the Suarez apartment.

Justin was a fashion and theater enthusiast. In the fourth season, I found that he was gay and wanted to take it slow in telling this to the rest of the family, while also trying to embrace his new boyfriend. As he grappled with his sexuality, I’m glad he found an ally in Marc in how to deal with that and the bullying he received at high school.

During S3E5, “Granny Pants”, Justin became friends with a football jock named Randy over their love of theater. In S3E9, “When Betty Met YETI”, Randy stopped being friends with him due to their different social statuses. Hilda comforted him and reminded him that he was perfect and he doesn’t need to change who he is to be happy.

In S4E1, “The Butterfly Effect” (Part 1), when Justin started high school, bullies spilled a tray of food on his new shirt, and he went to Marc to get a new one and Marc was very understanding of the situation. In S4E6, “Backseat Betty”, Marc advised Justin to get in on the joke that bullies throw at him so they’ll stop making fun of him. He was given the title of Homecoming Queen at his school as a joke, but he struck back by giving the tiara and title to Hilda, who never got to go to Homecoming because she was six months pregnant with Justin at the time.

After Homecoming, Justin said he was not gay to his family. Later, Bobby caught him kissing his secret boyfriend, Austin (played by Ryan McGinnis). The family tried to show their support by throwing him a “Coming Out” party in S4E19, “The Past Presents the Future”, but Marc told them that it’s about Justin being OK with his sexuality, and that he’ll come out when we wants to.

Justin later dances with Austin at Hilda and Bobby’s wedding, content with their relationship, and with his family showing their support of it. Marc assured him that everything would change for the better, and it’s up to him when to officially come out to his family. It’s nice to know Marc and Justin have a trusting friendship when it comes to these kinds of issues.

Not only was he a good friend and mentor of sorts in the fashion world to Justin, but Marc also evolved in being proud of his homosexuality, wanting to find love, and proving that he has talent in becoming the Junior Fashion editor at MODE. He went from his mocking behavior to respecting Betty to the point that they teamed up on MODE and other writing projects from time to time.

In “The Weiner, the Bun, and the Boob”, they were forced to dress as a hot dog and a bun and do a dance while covering their story on the toughest jobs in New York City, one of them being selling hot dogs, in this case. While in costume, Betty lied to an editor from “Vogue” and tells him that Marc is a features editor at MODE. He later saved Betty at a pitch meeting by doing the hot dog dance with her and selling the idea of supermodels wearing different uniforms doing New York City’s toughest jobs.

Marc asked Betty to pretend to be his girlfriend to hide coming out to his mother, Jean Weiner (played by Patti LuPone), in S1E18, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. Marc was afraid of disappointing his mother. He came out as gay to his mother, but she refused to get to know the real Marc.

Marc admitted that he’s fabulous and that it’s his mother’s loss if she doesn’t want to know her son as he truly is. In addition, Marc stood up for the Suarez family, saying they’ve done nothing but be nice to them the whole episode.

When Alexis was Alex, Daniel’s older brother, he knew he wasn’t happy with his gender when he was five years old. Then he supposedly died in a skiing accident two years prior to the show. By the end of MODE’s Fashion Week presentation in S1E14, “I’m Coming Out”, Alexis publicly revealed herself as Bradford Meade’s daughter.

Alexis Meade (played by Rebecca Romijn) before she publicly revealed herself. Photo courtesy of tvfanatic.com.

As her first act of power now that control of Meade Publications fell unto her with Bradford in jail in S1E15, “Brothers”, Alexis made Wilhelmina editor-in-chief of MODE and fired Daniel. Though Daniel got some lawyers to make an injunction on this given that “Alex” is dead, he said he had no interest in understanding Alexis, whether she’s in power or not.

Claire insisted that the Meade family was coming together rather than falling apart like Daniel alleged, and she didn’t care what Alexis came back as after Alex died. Betty convinced them to work together to find a missing Claire, when in reality, Claire set them up to go to Coney Island like the good old days.

Alexis revealed that when she told Bradford about doing sex reassignment surgery, “Alex” would be cut off from the company, money, and family, and that he’d rather he were dead. She didn’t tell Daniel about it because he was like their father and she didn’t want to be rejected twice.

While trying to find how he’s not like his father, Daniel said he would’ve been there for Alexis. At the end of “Brothers”, Daniel and Alexis agreed to work together at MODE.

From Justin, Marc, and Alexis’ perspective, the show teaches the LGBTQ+ community to love themselves and to trust that their families are caring about their happiness.

Like Marc, Amanda made fun of Betty’s unique dressing styles. But between wanting more than one-night stands with Daniel and learning she was former editor-in-chief Fey Sommers’ daughter, she moved beyond that attitude, found a higher calling as a stylist, and became friends (and, temporarily, roommates) with Betty. She finally met her real father (played by Bryan Batt) in the series finale and became his stylist.

Marc St. James and Amanda Tanen-Sommers (played by Michael Urie and Becki Newton, respectively) from "Ugly Betty". Photo courtesy of digitalspy.com.

Daniel started off as getting over his womanizing antics. Since Betty came around, he started to realize that he needs more meaningful, romantic relationships rather than one-night stands. He also proved to be a responsible editor, making sure the right issues were published and apologizing for Betty getting bad publicity in S3E8 “Tornado Girl”, and showing that he’s not just Bradford Meade’s son, but a man willing to do everything to save MODE magazine.

Daniel Meade (played by Eric Mabius), former Co-Editor-in-Chief of MODE magazine. Photo courtesy of alchetron.com. 

After cleaning up Daniel’s outlook on women, Betty also gave him pep talks to write with his heart on things like his letter from the editor. She also encouraged him to get to know Alexis, because even though his brother was gone, he gained a new sister and a second chance to make things right. It was also nice to hear his father say he’s proud of him and see him working on having a peaceful relationship with his mother.

Wilhelmina was a very convincing villain. She went through numerous lengths to get control of Meade Publications, from trying to marry Bradford to stealing his frozen sperm after he died to get a child worthy of shares in the company to swaying Claire Meade’s (played by Judith Light) son from an extra-marital affair with Cal Hartley, (played by David Rasche), Tyler Meade-Hartley (played by Neal Bledsoe), to take his shares from her. Even if she went back to being bad later, I’m glad that she was nicer to Betty or her daughter Nico (played by Jowarah Jones, then Yaya DeCasto) when the occasion called for it.

Wilhelmina Slater (Vanessa Williams), current Editor-in-Chief of MODE magazine. Photo courtesy of tvtropes.org.

There were some episodes where Betty had emulated Wilhelmina’s manipulative behavior, but she realized the change and went back to her normal, caring self later on. There are also a great number of celebrity guest stars on "Ugly Betty", such as Adele and Shakira.

All in all, “Ugly Betty” proved that one doesn’t have to stoop to the level of arrogant, glamorous models to be successful in the fashion media world. Betty was able to do it all with her family, few friends, such as Scottish designer Christina McKinney (played by Ashley Jensen) or accountant love interest Henry Grubstick (played by Christopher Gorham), and ambition. She did it all while balancing her love life, digging for her other talents in the writing world, and proving that she doesn’t need good looks when she’s got the brains and heart.

If you want a show that has heart and suspense underneath different designer outfits, watch ‘Ugly Betty”,