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  • Alas, Poor Scrappy:
    • Bradford wasn't a liked character, despite the attempts to explain his behaviour to his own family. He received a lot more sympathy from fans following his sudden death.
    • Molly wasn't well liked for getting in the way of Daniel/Betty, but her cancer diagnosis and death was extremely sad.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • From "Million Dollar Smile". Since it takes place in Betty's head, her subconscious apparently believes there can only be one pretty sister, which, in the alternate universe of the dream, is Betty. She realizes, to her horror, that being pretty made her into a self-centered bitch. So what exactly does this say about how Betty may see Hilda, since she's the pretty one in the real world...
      • Given that Betty is much smarter and far more ambitious than Hilda, being also attractive would've inflated her ego to astronomical levels. Beauty, alongside her brilliance and ambition, would have exposed the world to the horrors of an unbelievably bitchy Betty, who's closer to a Wihelmina 2.0, as opposed to Hilda.
      • Considering how much grief Betty gets from Hilda and Ignacio for putting her career ahead of taking care of her family (culminating in the ultra-anvilicious "Sisters on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown", where after quadruple-bypass surgery, Ignacio suddenly also becomes senile because the plot demands it; Hilda blames Betty not only for having a demanding full-time job that prevents her from babysitting her father, but also for her somehow preventing Hilda from working when a lucrative gig comes up — with no explanation as to why), Betty may have a point.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: About half of the episode "Million Dollar Smile". Understandable given that it's Betty imagining an Alternate Universe via a Dream Sequence.
  • Die for Our Ship:
    • Arguably the reason why Charlie turns so evil as she furthers along in her pregnancy.
    • The sweet and good natured Molly was detested by Daniel/Betty fans. She passed away from cancer, shortly after marrying Daniel.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse: Marc and Amanda, whose double-acts always steal the show.
  • Fair for Its Day: Alexis being transgender qualifies in hindsight, particularly in season one. On the one hand, there are a number of jokes about the process and comments from otherwise likable characters that would absolutely not be acceptable now and Alexis is played by a cis actress, which would also go over very poorly. On the other, she is a well-rounded and three-dimensional character, her gender and pronouns are eventually respected by all her friends and family, and her trans identity and struggles with it prior to her “death” are treated very sympathetically. Having a lead character in a show be transgender, even with the aforementioned issues, was significantly more progressive than other comedy shows from the time, where trans characters were treated as nothing more than a punchline or something to be horrified by.
  • Growing the Beard: The show had a somewhat lackluster second and third season, only for it to come back stronger than ever in season 4.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: In-show example. Sophia derides an article Mode published titled 'Ten Ways to Lose Thighs and Get Guys'. Presumably her justification of planning to write an article telling women how to manipulate men into marriage is that she wouldn't provide weight loss tips.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
    • Rita Moreno and Justina Machado guesting as members of the extended family in "A Tree Grows in Guadalajara". Ten years later, they lead their own family-centric sitcom as mother and daughter on One Day at a Time (2017), where Tony Plana also has a recurring role as the family's deceased patriarch .
    • Tony Plana and Justina Machado also played a married couple in Desperate Housewives.
    • Tony Plana, Justina Machado and Rita Moreno all starred in Jane the Virgin as well.
    • Tony Plana plays the father of America Ferrera's character Amy in Superstore, where Ana Ortiz later appears as a corporate slave trying to close down the Cloud 9.
  • Hollywood Homely:
    • Yes, this, is the woman who plays "Ugly" Betty. Apparently all it takes to be ugly is braces and limp hair.
    • Cliff, Marc's boyfriend, lampshades this in regard to himself, at least - he points out that he's not a supermodel but still good-looking by normal standards and has a good personality, too.
    • Molly is described in less than flattering terms by some of the staff at Meade Publications, Wilhelmina in particular, but she's actually quite pretty.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Both the Meade siblings.
  • Les Yay:
    • Betty and Amanda, especially from Amanda's direction, specially during their awkward love triangle with Matt and Amanda's increasing guilt fantasies.
    • Claire and Yoga full-stop in Season 2, with lampshading.
  • Memetic Mutation: In-Universe: I'm Wilhelmina Slater and I don't get wet!
  • Moral Event Horizon: When Wilhelmina tampers with her sister's medication, so that she'll go on another psychotic episode and be readmitted to a mental institute. What had her sister done to deserve this? She was dating Daniel Meade. However, as it was never mentioned again, she went back to being a sympathetic villain while the viewers and writers simply forgot about it.
  • Nightmare Fuel: In "The Fall Issue", where during the scene of Matt and Betty eating lunch, cue Penny Meadows landing on the hood of a car, having fallen 28 floors whilst trying to shoo away pigeons. Rather jarring, even if the audience saw it coming a mile off.
  • Special Effect Failure:
    • One episode has a scene in a mall...only it's not a mall. It's an atrocious green screen background.
    • Also in the Season 4 episode "The Bahamas Triangle"... the episode was shot on location in the Bahamas, but they clearly filmed guest star Shakira's lines separately in front of a 'beach' studio backdrop. The contrast as it cuts back and forth between her and the other characters is laughably obvious.
    • The first season also featured the "fakest graveyard ever" which a TWOP reviewer described as making "The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland look like stark realism."
  • The Woobie: Daniel. For a guy who has absolutely no desire to cause problems, he often gets the short end of the stick.

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