Image Credit: TVLandEven if it’s not your birthday, you’re getting a present tonight: Season 2 of TV Land’s adorable, retro, and double-SAG nominated comedy Hot in Cleveland launches this evening at 10 p.m. New episodes of the show — which stars Betty White, alongside three shipwrecked-in-Cleveland L.A.-expats in Jane Leeves, Valerie Bertinelli, and Wendie Malick — haven’t been seen since the first 10 half hours wrapped in the shocking August season finale, where viewers were left watching Elka (White) be hauled away to jail after a stash of valuable jewels and goods were discovered in her storm shelter. (Damn that mob-employed husband!)
Looking for scoop on this season? Read on.
TONIGHT’S SEASON PREMIERE: As you might imagine, season 2 launches with Melanie (Bertinelli), Joy (Leeves), and Victoria (Malick) doing their best to break Elka free. But first, of course, there’s a little fun to be had in tonight’s season premiere with White in jail, where she encounters a cellmate played by none other than her old Mary Tyler Moore co-star Mary Tyler Moore. “There will be a couple of winks to their history together, and we also built in a fun way for them to have been related in Cleveland,” reveals executive producer Todd Milliner. “Not related as in family, but connected. They might have known each other. They might have met before. So we are paying homage to what Betty and Mary have done in the past and also having a little fun with how they could have met in Cleveland.”
MAJOR THEMES OF THE SEASON: “Victoria’s gonna be struck with some major financial problems,” Milliner reveals. “Melanie is gonna be stuck with a house in Los Angeles that she can’t sell. Neither of them can bail Betty out. And then Joy is on a constant pursuit to get a green card so she can actually stay in Cleveland. We’re gonna follow each of those stories a little bit in the first episode and throughout the season.”
SUSAN LUCCI (AGAIN): “We’re gonna have a lot of fun with Susan Lucci in a couple of episodes. We’re gonna have a really fun crossover episode where the girls are gonna be in Los Angeles for two episodes. And we’re gonna see Melanie try to sell her house and Victoria do a part on All My Children,” Milliner says. “Susan Lucci might be, uh, sabotaging that. Susan was on the first season and had such a blast. They knew we were going to use her again. And when we got on the phone with the All My Children people, they came to the table with a really specific vision of what they wanted to do. They wanted to have Wendy Malick on their show, and we thought, Wouldn’t it be great if she was credited as Victoria Chase? We’ll keep that character on the show. When you see the credits, you won’t see Wendy Malick’s name. You’ll see her credited as Victoria Chase.”
ROBERT REDFORD: The screen legend is not appearing on the show, per se, but the Hot in Cleveland producers have worked one of White’s years-long jokes into the the season. “If you ask Betty what she hasn’t done in Hollywood, she always replies, ‘Robert Redford.’ She’s well known for it,” Milliner explains. “That’s her bucket-list item. So we’ll have Betty’s character Elka on a search to find Robert Redford when she’s in Los Angeles. She hears that he’s going to be on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, so Elka goes there to find Robert.” Also worth noting: Jimmy Kimmel appears on the episode.
JON LOVITZ: “Jon is a potential partner for Jane’s Joy, and it’s another one of, uh, Joy’s attempts at, uh, finding a relationship that might help her stay in the country. It’s a very unexpected character. It’s not the Jon Lovitz that you would usually see.”
ISAIAH MUSTAFA, A.K.A. “THE OLD SPICE GUY”: “He’s playing a basketball coach, a shooting coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who Valerie’s Melanie wants to go out on a date with. But he’s having a tough time choosing between her and LeBron. So every relationship that he has now is up against that filter of, Will they leave me for a bigger market?”
BONNIE FRANKLIN: “Melanie was dating a cop during the last few episodes of season 1,” Milliner explains. “Since Bonnie played Valerie’s mother on One Day at a Time, we thought, Wouldn’t it be fun if she was a potential mother-in-law and not the nicest mother-in-law? So Melanie’s going to try to win her affection and, at the same time, she brings all of that history. So it’s really, really fun.”
MELANIE GRIFFITH: “Victoria is going to constantly be auditioning this season, and she’s going to run up against Melanie Giffith at an audition,” Milliner reveals. “She’s going to be quite surprised to see Melanie in the same audition. I don’t want to give away the twist because you’re going to die laughing. But it is Melanie playing a version of Melanie.”
WHETHER THEY WILL WORK WITH GOLDEN-VOICED OHIO NATIVE TED WILLIAMS: “It seems like his character arc has gone so far so fast,” Milliner says. “I think maybe we’ll just wait a little while and see what happens with Ted. There are a lot of actors out there we’d love to have on before Ted. But we’d never say never.”
SHERRI SHEPHERD: “Sherri is a judge when Betty’s Elka goes to court. She was so great. Right now, we’re trying to bring her back for another episode,” Milliner reveals of the back 10 episodes that are currently in the works for launch in the summer. So is someone going to be getting in trouble again in the future and need to be in front of a judge? “Maybe, or a potential continuance. I mean, we’re doing 10 episodes, you know!”
ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER?: “I can’t promise there will be a cliffhanger at the end of every season,” Milliner says, “but there will be at the end of this 10.” A little tease, please? “I can just tell you that somebody is going to get a surprise blast from their past. You’re going to love it.”
Tanner on Twitter: @EWTanStransky
More from EW.com:
‘Hot in Cleveland’ scoop: Valerie Bertinelli to reteam with ‘One Day at a Time’ costar Bonnie Franklin. Plus: Tons more guest stars!
‘Hot in Cleveland,’ ‘All My Children’ crossover coming
‘Hot in Cleveland’ season finale: 5 reasons this show rules
‘Hot in Cleveland’: I can feel your interest in this show evaporating
‘Hot in Cleveland’ gets second season. Betty White fever continues!
‘Hot in Cleveland’ attracts record ratings for TV Land
Retro?
these broads would not last on a regular broadcast cuz this show=smells bad.
sherri shepherd is guest staring. when? i want to have my gun ready to shoot the tv.
Who cares if they not on a major network. They still on, aren’t they? Better than this “reality” BS out here.
You don’t know what you’re talking about! These four ladies are class acts all the way , so totally unlike most of the trash you probably watch!
I love this show!
Oh this show is so great! The cast has such fun chemistry and the guest stars are funny too. How could anyone dislike this show? My husband is a big crumudgeon and manages to think it’s hilarious.
Can’t wait for tonight. Loved season 1.
Be so glad when it comes on later. I loved every first season episode.
Despite the obvious budget limitations in production, I find this show to be very funny. But only 10 episodes? What is this, the BBC?
A lot of cable shows are very short. But I think they come back on quicker than Network television.
I would like to buy Skirts Ahoy and Million Dollar Mermaid on DVD as we no longer have a VHS aylper. Do you have these out yet. I would also like to buy Neptune’s Daughter at the same time. Can you help me find these in DVD.Thank you,Jerry
I love this cast and show. It is exactly what a sit com should be and do (like The Middle). The whole cast is excellent, and Wendy Malick is brilliant — she could read a list of poisons and my husband would laugh.
Class acts all the way. And with the season line up of stars mixed in, it will be amazing!
CANT WAIT!
You lost me at melanie griffith…
She’s going to be playing a version of melanie, which version? The younger ditzy who cant act or the older ditzy redhead thats been botoxed/butchered to hell and back and cant act?
Melanie Griffith playing Wendie Malik’s DAUGHTER????? She is only 10 years younger than Wendie and looks OLDER than Wendie.
who played the girl Melanie was trying to sell her house to?
I have notice that airilsmity. I think it’s a good reworking of the Golden Girls formula. Three tight knit women, this time younger, and a feisty old lady. I like the Wendie Malick and Jane Leeves characters the best. Malick plays that not so famous anymore celebrity like she was born to play the type. I think she invented it while on her years on Just Shoot Me’. She’s one of the great comic actresses..