As a kid, I used to stay over at my Aunt Lola’s house on weekends and together we’d watch The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Aunt Lola was a career woman and she loved this show, but I didn’t fully understand it.  Tucked next to my aunt on the couch, I’d sip my hot chocolate and wonder about life in Minneapolis.  It seemed to me an alternate universe where everyone was white (except the weatherman), and nobody had families, let alone children.

I thought about Mary Richards as I watched the final episode of Ugly Betty. Like Mary, Betty was an ambitious young woman chasing her dreams in the big city.  Unlike Mary, Betty lived in a world that looked a lot like mine.

When I first heard that an American version of the Columbian novela Yo soy Betty la fea was in the works, I had my doubts.  However, Executive Producers Silvio Horta and Salma Hayek pulled off a minor miracle: they created a hit show starring a plus-sized Latina who was not conventionally beautiful.  During its first season, Ugly Betty averaged 11 million viewers a week.  America Ferrara soon became a household name, and the show garnered honors ranging from Emmys to a prestigious Peabody Award.

Viewers loved Betty because she was the ultimate underdog.  She was always an outsider, due to her ethnicity, her weight, and her working-class background.  Of course, Betty was also fashion-challenged.  Remember when she showed up at Mode Magazine in that hideous red poncho?

Ugly Betty was full of wild plot twists and guest stars like Ralph Macchio, Mo’nique, and Betty White.  But the heart of the show was its realness.  Ugly Betty showed a typical Latino family in a non-stereotypical way.  Although this may seem like a basic concept, it was a milestone for TV.  Betty Suarez lived with her family in Queens.  Her father had health problems.  Her sister was a single parent.  These characters worried about how to pay the bills – a far cry from most TV shows, which tend to depict upper middle class families, doctors, or cops.

Betty was not afraid to tackle touchy issues.  After Betty’s father confessed that he was an illegal immigrant, the Suarez family was victimized by an unscrupulous lawyer who took their money and disappeared.

Betty also presented something heretofore invisible on TV: a gay teenager.  From Day One, Betty’s fashionista nephew Justin was “different.”  But his family always accepted him, sending an important message to viewers.  In the second to last episode, Justin came out to his family in a very understated way, slow dancing with his boyfriend at his mother’s wedding.  It was sweet, touching, and remarkable for network television.

The show occasionally lost its way amid all the melodrama (which led to numerous timeslot changes and declining ratings). Still, Betty was quality TV.  The show took off where George Lopez ended, and paved the way for programs like Modern Family and Glee.

In the original Betty la fea, Betty was madly in love with her boss and in the end triumphed by finally marrying him.  Wisely, the producers of Ugly Betty gave their finale a more contemporary twist.  Betty, free of her braces and red glasses, flies off to London to start her dream job.  Her former boss follows her there, and Betty even jokingly offers him a job as her assistant.  Ms. Suarez is at last a confident, professional woman, ready to face her future.  As I said goodbye to an endearing character, it was nice to know that this chica was going to make it after all.

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RAUL A. REYES has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today.