CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Less than Perfect

television series

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ1583172
Source-derived summary

Less than Perfect is an American television sitcom created by Terri Minsky and starring Sara Rue and Sherri Shepherd which originally aired on ABC from October 1, 2002, to June 6, 2006. It follows Claude (Rue), who works at a television network named GNB, as well as her friends and colleagues.

Overview and premise

The show centers on Claude Casey (Sara Rue), a young woman who works at GNB, a television network. Though at first a temp who fills in on other assignments, Claude is hired in the pilot by anchor Will Butler (Eric Roberts) to be his assistant. Claude's fellow co-assistants Lydia Weston (Andrea Parker) and Kipp Steadman (Zachary Levi) are unhappy at Claude's arrival, and do everything they can to make her miserable. Luckily, Claude is able to navigate the workplace with the help of her best friends Ramona Platt (Sherri Shepherd) and Owen Kronsky (Andy Dick), who also work at the network in other departments. In season two, two new characters joined the series: Will Sasso as Claude's neighbor and GNB cafeteria head Carl Monari; and Patrick Warburton as Jeb Denton, ladder-climbing news anchor and Lydia's love interest. Sasso, who had recurred throughout the last half of the first season, was upgraded at the beginning of the season; Warburton began as a recurring character in the first half of the season, before being upgraded at midseason.

Much was made at the time of the show's premiere about the central character of the show being a "full figured" woman, and that the title correlated to Claude being "Less Than Perfect." Over the course of the series, Rue lost 30 pounds (14 kg; 2.1 st). She has since become a spokesperson for Jenny Craig and lost a total of 50 pounds (23 kg; 3.6 st).

Editorial summary

“Less than Perfect” enters the record as television series. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Less, than and Perfect can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2002, 2006—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Less, than and Perfect.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Less than Perfect” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Less, than and Perfect provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1583172. The first chronological checks are 2002 and 2006.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Less than Perfect”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Less than Perfect primary sources, Less than Perfect archive and Less research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Less than Perfect”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Less than Perfect” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.