Valerie Bertinelli is back on TV with the hit show Hot in Cleveland Wednesdays on TV Land at 10p and who isn’t loving her on it? She plays Melanie a recent divorcee whose pit stop with her 2 BFFs (Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick) in Cleveland on their way Paris, France becomes a permanent one. Melanie falls in love with the city and rents a house with a lovable (to us) housekeeper played by Miss Betty White! With four comedic television legends starring in one show, you knew that TV Land’s first scripted sitcom was going to be hit!
But just because you put 4 very talented women together doesn’t mean that they are going to get along and you can tell with this cast that they do. So I had to ask her when did she know that they chemistry was there for the fab four and she told me, “From the moment we were at the table read. The moment we all sat together and did it, we were like ‘Wow! This is really fun.'” And it is a lot of fun to watch. She told me that some of her favorite moments from the show so far are the bloopers (see below) and when I sat in the audience last week we were laughing just as hard watching the blooper reel as they had making them.
So far on the show she has been linked with some other well known actors like Duke of Hazards’ John Schneider and Wings’ Amy Yasbeck. (BTW watch the interview above to hear what she thought about her kiss with the funny red head actress!) Coming up at the end of the season she will have a new comer to the biz playing her son, and that guy is Joe Jonas. I had to find out what she thought of the middle Jonas Brother playing her little boy and she said, “He is a lovely young man. He came for the table reading. And so polite, and I thought, “Well isn’t this a nice young man.’ So yes we are very excited about it.” And teens around the world are also excited about it.
Someone (one of many many many actors) I was excited to see on the show was John Schneider and I had to find out what other actors she would want to play her boyfriend on the show. What she told me was something I found really interesting, “Oh my goodness. I’m not good at that. I would rather not be the one that dates a lot just because it is the only thing I have been uncomfortable with acting. Although I have had lovely people to act with and be dating on the show. That’s just one of the things that makes me uncomfortable. So I am happy not to be dating (laughs). Although I am dating a lovely man this week, David Starzyk.” I was at the taping of this episode and you would never know she felt about dating him on the show. In fact when you see the episode, you will hope that he can stick around because they have such a great chemistry together.
A man she has a lot of chemistry with off the set is her fiance’ Tom Vitale. I asked her if they set a date and she told me they still haven’t decided to whether they are going to have a wedding or elope. Time will tell what she will do.
One thing we do know about her, is ever since she became a spokesperson for Jenny Craig her career has had such an amazing resurgence (like Betty White’s) and I was curious what have been some of her highlights from the last few years. She was only to happy to share, “Well let’s just talk about this year, alone. I’ve been a New Orleans Saints fan for 30 years and they won the Super Bowl this year. That is how the year started and then I got this. And then Tom (Vitale) and I went to Italy, I always wanted to go to Italy. He asked me to marry him in Italy. It’s just been one thing after another, then we found the perfect co-host for my talk show. I keep pinching myself saying, ‘Thank you! I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but thank you!'” All those years of hard work is why she deserves this and so much more.
Another thing I wanted to know more about is how this hot show came about and her answer is something that really intrigued me, “It has happened the most quickly (in my career), and I have been doing this for a very very very long time…Betty (White) and I have talked about this too. What happened was, at the end of last year I heard about the show. They sent me the script. I met the guys at TV Land. Then I met the guys at Hazy Mills, I had known Sean (Hayes) for a long time, but I had never met Todd or Brad. And then we did the pilot and then a couple of weeks later it was picked up. This all happened within six months. We went from script to meeting to pilot to being picked up to a huge hit in 6 months. I have never seen that before in my entire career.” Sometimes good things comes to those who wait, but I am glad that TV Land didn’t wait because this is a very good thing.
So my last question for her is why does she think this show is has been as well received as it has been. She was quick to reply to me with, “Well, hello we have Betty White! Excellent writing, amazing writing, the scripts, the characters they have written for each one of us are so to the point where you can’t wait to hear what is coming out of their mouths when you see the situation that is put in front of them. So I think between Betty and everything she has been through, Wendie (Malick), Jane (Leeves) and I, and the writing. I think it all came together in the right way.” Yes it did and you can watch it tonight and every Wednesday at 10p on TV Land just to see it all of that come together in a way that will have you laughing until the next episode debuts!
BTW I have been a fan of Valerie Bertinelli’s since I was a kid. I mean, what girl didn’t want to be Barbara Cooper from One Day at a Time when they were growing up? And I just want to tell you, she is as nice in person as she seems on TV. Also can I tell you seeing her up close, she doesn’t look she has aged One Day since that show we got to know her on. She really still looks like she is in her 20’s and not a woman who just turned 50.
Finally you can follow Valerie Bertinelli on Twitter for updates on Hot in Cleveland and such!
Side note: I can watch the above blooper over and over again and still find myself laughing hysterically!!!
