Hot In Cleveland - Pilot

In a long anticipation of a new series with Betty White, the wait is finally over! Hot In Cleveland premiered tonight on TV Land and I'd like to announce it was a big hit. With me, anyway.

The sitcom starts on a plane in first class headed to Paris. Three best friends are taking a two week trip there because Melanie (Valerie Bertinelli) is going through a divorce and needs to get away from life in L.A. While on the plane, Melanie sees her soon-to-be ex-husband on the flight as well, only he is with his new, younger finance'.

A heartbroken Melanie is being comforted by her pals when she wishes the plane would crash and kill both her ex and his new chick. Then the turbulence starts and the plane makes and emergency landing, in Cleveland.

The ladies stop into a bar to get drunk while on their layover and they discover that Cleveland is nothing like L.A. The guys are looking at them and hitting on them. They make a few hilarious comparisons of the men. "If a guy waxes his chest, that means he's probably looking at the same sex."

We learn that Joy (Jane Leeves, Daphne in Frasier) is an eyebrow artist and waxes brows for celebrities including Oprah. While looking at a newspaper, she notices Oprah's eyebrows look different and deduces that she got her brows done at a different salon.

Victoria (Wendie Malick, Nina Van Horn in Just Shoot Me) is an aging daytime soap actress. She loves that the guys in the bar in Cleveland know who she is and love her.

While in the bar, three guys ask the ladies to join them. Melanie hits it off with Hank (John Schneider, Bo Duke, The Dukes of Hazard.) She likes him so much that she rents a home in Cleveland. At this house, we are introduced to the caretaker, Elka (Betty White.)

Betty White brings the funny to this sitcom with her references to the three ladies looking like hookers. "Why are you renting to hookers?" "You look like you stepped out of a painting, of hookers." Oh I lol'd at this so much.

When Melanie gets a call from her new guy, she goes to meet him and her friends Google him. They find out he's married. As Elka walks in and says, "Tell me you didn't see that one coming."

The girls rush to Hank's boat, where he and Mel are having dinner, to tell her he's married, just as HE tries to tell her he's married. He smooths things over by apologizing and making the regular "man" excuses: "I'm stuck in a love-less marriage" and "You were the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen."

The girls all go back to the house and instead of going to Paris, Joy and Victoria decide to stay in Cleveland with Melanie for two weeks. Then they decide to go back to the bar where the men think they're hot and Elka says "I'll drive!"

I liked this show because the dialog was realistic and the emotional distress of the three women

was relatable. Sure the scenarios may have been unrealistic and far fetched, but it's a fucking sitcom for crying out loud! Some things are just allowed to be askew, such as the reasoning to move to Cleveland. There is NO reason whatsoever that could get me to move to Cleveland.

All in all I liked this show and have high hopes for it. I give it a 3 of 5 smilies.