“Hot in Cleveland” Is On Fire

TVLand announced that it has picked up its original, situation comedy, Hot in Cleveland starring Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick, Valerie Bertinelli, and yes, Betty White, for another 20 episode season.  Not since the Cuyahoga River caught fire or since LeBron James clicked his ruby Nikes for Miami, has the city of Cleveland been any hotter.

Three “over forty” best friends, Leeves, Malick, and Bertinelli, set out for a little life assessing, get-away-from-LA, Parisian vacation, only to crash-land in Cleveland, Ohio.  The California girls soon discover a middle America where Botox is associated only with food poisoning, and plastics are nostalgically used for food storage, not body preservation.  Real women not only eat, they eat chili-cheese fries and drink non-light beer.  Yes, Nirvana.

So, the washed up daytime diva of a canceled soap (Malick), the cynical brow artist formally known as the “one who plucked Oprah” (Leeves), and the uninspired, broken-homemaker/author who wrote, 200 Things to do Before You Die, but has never done any of them (Bertinelli), soon decide to cleave themselves from their old lives and begin new ones together in the not so youth conscious Cleveland.  They rent an old home complete with an old, cantankerous caretaker (White), and the hilarity ensues.

Some have pronounced the series as simply The Golden Girls with Betty White now playing the acerbic “Sophia” role, and I say what the hell is wrong with that?  Once again, it works.  Four contemporary, independent women humorously addressing some of the same social issues and real-life situations of their 80’s counterparts…with the timely substitution of dirty martinis for the late-night, kitchen-confessional cheesecake, and Jane Leeves’ legs for Rue McClanahan’s boobs.

Hot in Cleveland hearkens back to a television time pre laugh track and pre crime scene investigation.  It is filmed before a live, yes, live studio audience which allows the home viewer the added benefit of a performance fed off of genuine, emotional interaction.  As I watch through the translucence of tear stained eyes, I can only imagine the immediate comic reaction to Victoria Chase’s (Malick) post emergency MacGyver’ed bikini wax of table candle and dinner napkin.  Or here, as I just want to be on that set.

Betty White is riding a tsunami of resurgence lately, but it is the true ensemble of this talented cast and writing staff that keeps me tuning in.  I love Betty, but even I can grow weary of endless muffin jokes.  Building on the rich history of such combined comedic genius as The Golden Girls, Frazier, The Mary Tyler Moore, Show, and One Day at a Time, each brings a unique skill set that catalyzes the base equation.

TVLand is not the easiest of networks to find in the system, but a good Tivo search is well worth the time.  Wednesday nights at 10:00 Eastern…tune in.  Betty White’s track suits are not the only thing bedazzled.