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No so "Hot In Cleveland."

M

Mark Giardina

I don't know about the rest of you but I was disappointed in the debut of Hot in Cleveland.

The show is supposed to be filmed before a live audience, but I could swear that I heard canned laugh tracts.

If the series creators believe that Betty White is going to save the show, then they had better give her more of a presence on the program.
 
Skynet74 said:
I heard that the ratings were very very good. As a matter of fact it set records!

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/06/17/hot-in-cleveland-attracts-record-ratings-for-tv-land/
Click to expand...

Let's see how the ratings fare after a few episodes.

I have to agree with the first poster that "Hot in Cleveland" was not as amusing as I thought it would be. I've seen this type of situation comedy numerous times. And yes laugh tracks were used.

The show's creators apparently believe that having Betty White on the show, especially after her recent appearance on SNL, would attract a large audience. Perhaps it will. However Ms. White can not carry any show if the scripts are mediocre. And the writing on "Hot in Cleveland" didn't impress me one bit.

I will say that Valerie looked damn good! ;D
 
If the ratings fall hard from the debut episode, they'll probably say they were expecting to see Cleveland Brown from "The Cleveland Show" on the series and tuned out...
 
Mark_Giardina said:
I don't know about the rest of you but I was disappointed in the debut of Hot in Cleveland.

The show is supposed to be filmed before a live audience, but I could swear that I heard canned laugh tracts.

If the series creators believe that Betty White is going to save the show, then they had better give her more of a presence on the program.
Click to expand...

Yeah - agreed. They're trying way too hard, the jokes are too rapid fire and forced, and the "audience" is either 'enhanced' with canned laughter, or they're high on drugs.

I do know that live audience or not, sitcoms will sweeten the laughter where the audience doesn't laugh in the right places, or doesn't laugh hard enough. The producers of Hot in Cleveland are taking the attitude that every single joke should be fall-down pee-your-pants funny. I find that irritating.
 
Mark_Giardina said:
I don't know about the rest of you but I was disappointed in the debut of Hot in Cleveland.

The show is supposed to be filmed before a live audience, but I could swear that I heard canned laugh tracts.

If the series creators believe that Betty White is going to save the show, then they had better give her more of a presence on the program.
Click to expand...

I started a thread on this already with a link on the debuts record breaking ratings on TV LAND.
 
Remember no show is completely free of "sweeting" when it comes to a laugh track. And if you think about it, it makes sense.

If an audience is distracted by a technical problem like equipment, if they reshoot the scene it isn't going to be as funny the second time around.

They show will need to put back the original laugh or sweeten it.

I listen to a lot of OTR that went out live and you can hear what a real studio audience sounds like by listening to that.
 
I just watched it. It's OK, typical cable sitcom.

It reminds me of a rework of the Golden Girls

Valarie is 50 about the same age as Rue McClanahan who was 51.

And Betty White is a near clone of Sophia. And though Leeves is a bit young to be the third "psuedo-Golden Girl" it still reminds me of it.

Valarie looks OK but she's suppose to be 40? No way, she's pretty but a pretty 50 year old.

The cast is excellent, so if they had quality writers, this could easily have been prime time network stuff.
 
Lkeller said:
Mark_Giardina said:
I don't know about the rest of you but I was disappointed in the debut of Hot in Cleveland.

The show is supposed to be filmed before a live audience, but I could swear that I heard canned laugh tracts.

If the series creators believe that Betty White is going to save the show, then they had better give her more of a presence on the program.
Click to expand...

Yeah - agreed. They're trying way too hard, the jokes are too rapid fire and forced, and the "audience" is either 'enhanced' with canned laughter, or they're high on drugs.

I do know that live audience or not, sitcoms will sweeten the laughter where the audience doesn't laugh in the right places, or doesn't laugh hard enough. The producers of Hot in Cleveland are taking the attitude that every single joke should be fall-down pee-your-pants funny. I find that irritating.
Click to expand...

I recall an old Johnny Carson joke about how Ted Turner (then) was colorizing old movies. To paraphrase that joke, "Hot In Cleveland" needs a serious case of humorizing. The only way that thing could have gotten good rating was is that Betty White is still riding the wave of her recent successes.

I can't help but feel that that this use of Betty White is going to be eventually as successful as Lucille Ball was on her last show which was dreadful.
 
sdwulfdawg said:
The only way that thing could have gotten good rating was is that Betty White is still riding the wave of her recent successes.
I can't help but feel that that this use of Betty White is going to be eventually as successful as Lucille Ball was on her last show which was dreadful.
Click to expand...

Unless the writing drastically improves over the next few episodes, I predict "Hot in Cleveland" will be a short-lived sit-com.
 
sdwulfdawg said:
I can't help but feel that that this use of Betty White is going to be eventually as successful as Lucille Ball was on her last show which was dreadful.
Click to expand...

You brought up a good point.

Life with Lucy, which aired for just a few weeks on ABC, was just horrible and a personal disappointment for Lucy. It's kind of sad that her last TV show was actually her last TV show since she died a few years later following heart surgery.

However if Hot in Cleveland bombs, I don't think one can put the blame on Betty White. In the pilot episode Ms. White appeared for a total of about five minutes. If that is all the air time she's going to get, then the other three actresses, and the writers, will have to shoulder the blame if the show doesn't make it.
 
The Voice of Reason said:
... if Hot in Cleveland bombs, I don't think one can put the blame on Betty White. In the pilot episode Ms. White appeared for a total of about five minutes. If that is all the air time she's going to get, then the other three actresses, and the writers,will have to shoulder the blame if the show doesn't make it.
Click to expand...

Radio spots for the series featured Betty White - and only Betty White. No doubt the producers are capitalizing on her newfound white-hot (pun intended) popularity to flog the show.
 
in the pilot episode Betty White was only a guest star, once they found her new ratings success from SNL, she was wrote into the show
 
Bengalsfan said:
It's almost worth it to look at Valerie Bertinelli again. Even if she is 50, she's a hot 50!
Click to expand...

You will get no argument from me there. Bertinelli is a very attractive woman. However hot and perky doesn't necessarily mean success for a TV show as I'm sure you are aware.

As for the comment that Betty White was just a guest star in the pilot before her Facebook/SNL fame reignited her career, I am glad that Ms. White is getting the recognition she so justly deserves after being in show business since the birth of TV back in the 1950s with her series "Life with Elizabeth." Yet again I remind everyone that without decent writing, no entertainer can shoulder the responsibility of keeping a program on the air.

As an example the esteemed actor James Stewart tried twice and was unsuccessful when he ventured into television. If Jimmy Stewart can't make it on TV then what chance do other long time veterans have if their shows are either uninteresting or poorly written?
 
I saw the commercials, and all they seemed to do was talk about their bodies and each other's bodies and how they use them. It seemed like a girl's version of Two and a Half Men.
 
Very professional acting. So, so writing. I hope it improves and is successful.
 
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