So Betty (America Ferrera) doesn’t look like a Cubist painting or a coke spoon. She more resembles a friendly sausage. Is that any reason why a brainy Latina from Queens shouldn’t land a job at Mode, the magazine for people so empty they fill up holes in their heads with fashion? That this ugly duckling has ideas instead of attitude does not endear her to Botoxed dragon lady Vanessa Williams. But everybody else will love Betty as much as her widowed father does. And don’t miss executive producer Salma Hayek’s hilarious guest appearance in the pilot, as a sexy maid in a Spanish-language telenovela.

ABC, Premieres Thursday, September 28, 8 p.m.

Related:

• Archive: “Television”
• Articles by John Leonard
• Table of Contents: October 2, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!