By Dean Robbins
‘Hot in Cleveland’ revives the classic approach
Every year, the broadcast networks try to produce new sitcoms in the classical mode: laugh tracks, three-camera setups, punchlines, etc. You begin the think the art form is dead until a series comes along and makes it look easy. “Hot in Cleveland” (Wednesday, 9 p.m., TV Land) is one of those series, nestled in the upper reaches of extended basic cable.
Start with a cast of veteran sitcom goddesses: Valerie Bertinelli, Betty White, Wendie Malick and Jane Leeves. Establish a serviceable premise: aging L.A. sophisticates move to unglamorous Cleveland so they can look more glamorous by comparison.
Last month on “Saturday Night Live,” 88-year-old White proved that she hasn’t lost an ounce of her comic mojo. She proves it again here, playing a blunt local caretaker who punctures the L.A. ladies’ pretensions. When Malick refers to Cleveland as “the Paris of Ohio,” White deadpans, “No, that’s Toledo.”
Cleveland, Toledo, whatever. I’ll take these four amazing actresses anywhere.
‘The Gates’
Sunday, 9 p.m. (ABC)
It’s nervy to try to wedge another vampire drama into a summer that’s already crowded with “True Blood” and a “Twilight” movie. But “The Gates” is a worthy entry, staking out territory of its own: a gated community where vampires go to get away from it all.
A new police chief is suspicious, but his family counsels him to back off. Life inside the gated community is so appealing that they don’t want him to rock the boat.
It’s appealing to me, too, with good acting, droll dialogue and well-sustained spookiness. I plan to spend the summer in “The Gates;” if I’m not back by the start of the fall TV season, send someone in after me. With a wooden stake. CV
