01E01 - Pilot

An unattractive young woman named Betty Suarez receives a job at Mode magazine after the owner of Meade Publications, Bradford Meade, catches his son, Daniel, in flagrante delicto with an assistant. Following the tragic death of the former editor Faye Summers, Daniel has assumed the role of editor-in-chief at Mode. At home, Betty has been dumped by Walter, who says he loves Gina Gambarro-- but Betty has a strong family unit with her father, sister Hilda, and nephew Justin to support her. In her professional life, Betty is a misfit at Mode. Treated with contempt because she is unfashionable, not thin and not considered to be attractive, Betty, however, does produce good ideas for the up coming photo shoot but Daniel ignores them. In an attempt to make her quit, Daniel torments Betty by asking her to stand-in as a model at the shoot. When Betty actually arrives on set wearing the ill-fitting clothes, poses for photos, and is mocked by all present, she leaves the set. Daniel follows Betty, who tells him, "god forbid, you had to work with the ugly girl your Dad forced you to hire." Betty returns to Queens and discovers Gina only dated Walter for his employee discount and has already dumped him. As Betty slams the door on the way out, Gina's plasma TV hits the ground and breaks. At Mode, the photos from the shoot prove to be unacceptable--all due to a plot by Wilhelmina , Daniel's rival and Mode's assistant editor-in-chief. At Betty's house, Walter weakly tries to apologize for his behavior but is cutoff by Daniel's arrival. Daniel re-hires Betty, who saves the spread for the magazine by using photos of her mother and herself.