Wendie Malick, Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Betty White in "Hot in Cleveland."
Credit: TV Land
"Everybody Loves Raymond" creator Phil Rosenthal liked to say that "I'm doing this show for CBS, but in the back of my mind, it's for Nick at Nite." In other words, while he wanted "Raymond" to be a success in its original run, what he really cared about was creating a comedy that would have an enduring legacy.
Nick at Nite's sister channel, TV Land, currently packs its schedule with "Raymond" repeats, and tomorrow night at 10 introduces its first original sitcom: "Hot in Cleveland," starring Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick as three LA pals who accidentally land in Cleveland and decide to stick around a while, in a home with a wacky caretaker played by the great Betty White.
TV Land is, in effect, trying to cut out the middle man, creating their own classic-style sitcoms rather than buying someone else's repeats. Every cable channel goes down this road sooner or later (cue the laments about how MTV no longer plays music videos), and given how few traditional three-camera sitcoms are produced anymore - and, therefore, how many veteran sitcom actors, writers, directors, etc. are looking for work - it's a bit surprising it took TV Land this long to try.
"Hot in Cleveland" is pleasant enough, but it apes the classics far more in its style than its substance. It looks and sounds like the kind of show from the '80s or '90s that eventually wound up on Nick at Nite, but had it actually aired on, say, NBC in 1992, it's doubtful anyone would have remembered it fondly enough to want it preserved in perpetual cable rerun-hood.
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