With Hairspray rocking Broadway and Real Women Have Curves coming to movie theaters, female actresses are finally proving that starvation isn’t a prerequisite for success. Now there’s the heroine of ABC’s new office comedy Less Than Perfect, a temp worker named Claude Casey (Sara Rue), who actually looks like most women. “We thought it would be interesting to have an actress who didn’t have that intensely minuscule version of the female body,” says Terri Minsky, the show’s creator. Casey moves from the secretarial pool on the fourth floor of a TV-news organization to the swanky executive offices on the twenty-second floor, where she and some geeky fourth-floor companions (Andy Dick, Sherri Shepherd) battle with her snooty and svelte new officemates (Andrea Parker and Zachary Levi) for the attention of their self-absorbed anchorman boss (Eric Roberts). Think Upstairs Downstairs with an elevator and a cafeteria.
Less Than Perfect
Tuesdays, 9:30 p.m., ABC.