HIC Season 'Finale' Was Really The Halfway Point

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'Hot in Cleveland' season 'finale' was really the halfway point
Published: Saturday, March 26, 2011, 6:00 AM
By Mark Dawidziak


TV Land Elka (Betty White, standing) was not expecting that guilty verdict. Neither were Melanie (Valerie Bertinelli, left) or Joy (Jane Leeves).
Wednesday night's cliffhanger episode of "Hot in Cleveland" was billed as a season finale. It concluded with Betty White's character, acerbic Elka, going on the run after being found guilty of possessing stolen property.

Well, TV Land's on-air promotions were guilty of employing a standard cable channel trick. This wasn't an actual season finale. It was the midway point for the sitcom's second season.

This 20-episode second season is being split into two runs. The first half started in January with Elka sitting in a Cleveland jail cell. Ten episodes later, Judge Lesser (guest star Sherri Shepherd) banged her gavel and read the guilty verdict.

The remaining 10 episodes begin airing on June 15, one year after TV Land's first original scripted series premiered with an episode introducing viewers to best friends Melanie (Valerie Bertinelli), Joy (Jane Leeves) and Victoria (Wendie Malick). Many a cable channel has pulled this promotional trick, dividing one season and calling it two.

It's a cable-crafty maneuver. You get two season premieres for the price of one. You get two season finales -- double the attention, double the hype.

Now, you can't blame TV Land for wanting to squeeze every ounce of ballyhoo out of "Hot in Cleveland." The series has made the rerun-heavy cable channel a legitimate player in the original-series game. It has reignited interest in the traditional four-camera sitcom filmed before a live audience. And it has scored record ratings for TV Land, averaging 3.2 million viewers.

Before "Hot in Cleveland" stranded three friends from Los Angeles in Ohio, CBS seemed the only place still in the four-camera sitcom business. Each of the four "Hot in Cleveland" stars is a veteran of at least one long-running, live-audience sitcom: Bertinelli ("One Day at a Time"), Leeves ("Frasier"), Malick ("Just Shoot Me") and White ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Golden Girls"). Joining forces, they've shown that the durable form is alive and kicking.

"Hot in Cleveland" has had sizzling ratings since its January return. The second season has demonstrated that the surprise success of last year's 10-episode first season was no fluke.

Following Melanie, Joy and Victoria's example, viewers decided to take up residence in "Cleveland." Elka's fate has hung in the balance for more than two months, but the evidence in favor of "Hot in Cleveland" was so overwhelming, TV Land executives announced on Feb. 28 that the hit series had been picked up for a 22-episode third season (filming begins this summer).

Building on the strength of the first season, these 10 new episodes have boosted the already-impressive guest-star factor and established a bit more Cleveland credibility. The increased Northeast Ohio sensibility may be due to the addition of two writer-producers from the area: Steve Skrovan, a 1975 graduate of Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills, and Rachel Sweet, who is from Akron.

The first season ended with a cliffhanger: Elka's arrest. The second season has followed her trial, Joy's attempt to get a green card and stay in the country, Melanie's ill-fated romances and Victoria's financial problems.

Melanie made up with policeman Pete (David Starzyk), then broke up with him. Victoria did a guest spot on "All My Children" and took a job with a local TV station. Joy pursued several schemes to avoid deportation. And Elka, confident of acquittal after a brazen attempt at jury tampering, was stunned by the guilty verdict.

As long as we're truth-squading Wednesday's episode, Elka didn't exactly go on the run. It was more of a trot. She was in the back of a horse-drawn wagon, lighting out for Amish country.

Guest stars returning from last year included John Schneider, Wayne Knight (as a Plain Dealer columnist), Susan Lucci (as herself) and Carl Reiner (as Elka's beau, Max). A conga line of new guests included Shepherd, Mary Tyler Moore, Bonnie Franklin, Melanie Griffith, Jon Lovitz, Peri Gilpin, Isaiah Mustafa (as the LeBron-burned Cleveland Cavaliers shooting coach), Gregory Harrison and, sensational as the governor's fame-obsessed wife, Amy Sedaris.

Wednesday's episode began with Malick's "Law & Order"-style opening, explaining that in the sitcom world, episodes are divided into two sides: the A story, which is about the main characters, and the B story, which is the same thing, just shorter.

Malick also could have explained that, in the cable world, seasons get divided into two sides.

[80sTrivia]

Great article! Love how successful Hot in Cleveland has become!