TV Land is debuting Hot in Cleveland this week, its first original sitcom. Geared towards the 40-and-up crowd, it has the feel of television comedies from a generation ago. You know the kind. The ones that live on in endless reruns on TV Land. This is intentional. The network wants viewers who couldn’t care less about Glee and Gossip Girl.
Hot in Cleveland is likeable enough, reminiscent of shows like One Day at a Time, The Golden Girls, Frasier and Just Shoot Me. How much so? It stars Valerie Bertinelli, Betty White, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick -- who, as you may remember, starred in the above.
The pilot centers around Bertinelli’s character Melanie, a Los Angeles-based writer looking to find herself after being dumped by her husband. Her first step is to fulfill a lifelong wish to vacation in Paris. Along for the ride are her two best friends. Victoria (Malick) is a soap opera diva trying to hold on to B-list celebrity status. Joy’s (Leeves) claim to fame is as an eyebrow waxer to the stars.
Plane trouble causes the trio to get waylaid in Cleveland. After the initial shock, the girls make an interesting discovery. Though thought of as over-the-hill in shallow, image-conscience Los Angeles, they are the center of attention to all the men in this midwestern hub. That’s right, these women are “hot” in Cleveland. It seems they can eat what they want, act like themselves, and still be the belles of the Cleveland ball.
After a night of beer drinking with an attractive man (John Schneider), Melanie decides she’s moving to Cleveland. Before Joy and Victoria can get her back on track to Paris, Melanie has signed a lease for a house. (Cleveland real estate prices are also irresistible to someone used to LA sticker shock.) In true sitcom fashion, the house comes with a housekeeper (who else? Betty White) who seems to serve no other function than to whip out comic zingers at the appropriate time.
Sure the premise is silly, but that never stopped I Dream of Jeannie, Mr. Ed or the majority of the sitcoms that have aired since television came into existence. And, as it equally stereotypes all its subjects -- Cleveland, Los Angeles, middle-aged men, aging woman, really old oversexed women -- no harm, no foul. The four actresses are extremely appealing, given the material all they’ve got. And though it’s starting to sound cliched, White is a delight. She makes anything that comes out of her mouth sound so much better than it probably looked on the page.
And I think the sitcom is funny.
I say “think” because it was hard for me to tell. The thing that stuck out the most while watching Hot in Cleveland was its very loud, extremely annoying laugh track. It’s a constant distraction from the show. The more this painfully artificial soundtrack played, the more I was thinking about it and not what was happening. I began wondering what the powers-that-be of this production were thinking. Hot in Cleveland has some of the best sitcom actresses of all time. Why don’t they trust them to do their job?
And while we’re at it, why doesn’t TV Land trust us? We’ve been watching shows like these all our lives. We know when to laugh. It’s obvious that TV Land wants to tap into our nostalgia for sitcoms of days gone by. But trust me, no one is pining for the return of the laugh track. We howl at comedy hits such as a Modern Family and The Middle because they’re funny, not because there’s an irritating, manufactured device prompting us.
So, Hot in Cleveland, lose the laugh track. I believe your show could be just as funny as the classic sitcoms it aspires to be. And I’d appreciate the opportunity to find out... on my own... just like a grown-up.
Hot in Cleveland debuts Wednesday, June 16 at 10/9C on TV Land.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
