HOT IN CLEVELAND
JUNE 16, 2010-PRESENT
TV Land will shine with its first venture into sitcom land that is not a rerun. Hot In Cleveland is Golden Girls that ingested Three's Company with a revival of the live studio audience that has been lost in the recent productions of sitcoms on network television. Just because it was good for Arrested Development does not mean it is viable for all shows. Sean Hayes's production company, Hazy Mills Productions, being involved with the show helps with the tweaking necessary to bring real humor back to television.
The scripts often have four storylines abuzz for most of the 21 minutes of dialogue, leaving the final few minutes to wind it all up. The concept may not be fresh, but the banter is a reminder of the days when sitcoms were really funny. Elka Ostrovsky (Betty White) has been the caretaker of a house and grounds for many years. Three women from California will soon take over the property and find out that the gray-haired caretaker is more than a handful. She is the heir to several pieces of stolen Nazi artifacts left in her possession by her mob connected late husband.
Melanie Hope Moretti (Valerie Bertinelli) begins a getaway trip on a plane bound for Paris, accompanied by her friends Victoria Chase (Wendie Malick) and Rejoyla "Joy" Scroogs (Jane Leeves). The trip is quickly put on hold with an emergency landing in Cleveland, Ohio, and the group soon finds themselves enjoying the city and the people. The three have been a part of the fast-paced lives of Hollywood’s elite as a writer, actress and behind the scenes beautician but now find themselves ensconced in the community. In Hollywood they would be one of many looking for attention and often becoming lost in the mix of those along the same lines. In Cleveland, however, they find it easy to get what they want from the local establishments they patron because the competition has limited skills in comparison.
Betty White is a keeper after her character was initially only written for the pilot episode. Come on people, its Betty White! She has unlimited talent and everybody knows her worth is bigger than one episode. This became fact, as it soon was evident that she is bigger than life and would be a regular part of the sitcom. Betty, Betty, Betty. There is no one like her and never will be another one. She has been proving her high caliber abilities since the early days of live television beginning in 1939, singing songs on The Merry Widow. She found regular work in 1949, appearing on Hollywood On Television with Al Jarvis and soon took over the hosting duties with the Jarvis’s departure. These early days of live television were schooling like no one can attend these days. They have given White a foundation that has seen her through many shows that run the gambit of not-series-worthy to top-of-the-class. No matter what the script, Betty White can make it better with just her presence along with great delivery.
Valerie Bertinelli was born in Wilmington, Delaware, while the family moved several times until finally settling down in Los Feliz, California. She bopped on the small screen on December 19, 1975 with the premier of a new sitcom based on a single mother raising two daughters, Julie (Mackenzie Phillips) and Barbara (Valerie Bertinelli) while finding a balance between family and the necessity to build a career to support the children. Valerie had a front row seat in the hands-on adventure training of a lifetime. Hired at the age of 15 and playing a character who was of the same age gave her room to grow. She quickly became a fan favorite as I know and she changed my life forever. Her skills as an actress soon developed and the writers allowed Barbara to mature gradually. Bertinelli filmed her first 'movie of the week' feature in 1979 called Young Love, First Love, which commenced a long-standing collaboration with television movies.
Wendie Malick was born and raised in Buffalo, New York and graduated from Williamsville South High School. After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan University located in Delaware, Ohio, she began a career in fashion modeling for Wilhelmina Modeling Agency. Malick's first starring role began in 1990 on the HBO series Dream On. From this point on, she made regular appearances on several shows each year. Nina Van Horn on Just Shoot Me! was so well played by Wendie that she was the only character to upstage David Spade. Spade found an ally in the banter business of television sitcoms. They could spar for whole scenes, allowing the characters’ dislike for one another to spark with sarcasm.
Jane Leeves was born in Illford, Essex, England, later moving to east Grinstead. She trained as a ballet dancer and modeled, then was hired to appear in Monty Python's Meaning Of Life. Leeves became a regular on The Benny Hill Show after a knee injury ended her career in ballet. She appeared in David Lee Roth's music video "California Girls" in 1985. She grabbed work wherever possible until she claimed a recurring role on Murphy Brown, playing Audrey Cohen, the awkward girlfriend of Miles Silverberg. Once cast as Daphne Moon in 1993, she quickly won the hearts of viewers all over.
Together the four ladies are an ensemble cast to be reckoned with. The writers have so much talent to work with that all they need to do is put dialogue on paper that is slap-stick comedy with words and they have a winner. They achieve even higher than that as they put the ladies in extremely funny situations. Suzanne Martin has created a sitcom that is in a category all its own. The networks have based their style on screwball comedy with no live studio audience and that is why even the good ones struggle. Even at the top, there is nowhere for this show to go but up.
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RUSTY
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