June 16, 2010: “Hot In Cleveland” Premieres

Left to right: Betty White, Wendie Malick,

Valerie Bertinelli and Jane Leeves

June 16, 2010: Hot In Cleveland premieres on the cable network TV Land, which specializes in reruns of classic sitcoms.

Like CBS, TV Land is owned by Paramount Pictures, and so the show was taped at CBS Television City in the Los Angeles suburb of Burbank, California. Betty White knew the complex well, from The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Match Game. Valerie Bertinelli knew it well, from One Day at a Time and the briefly-airing Sydney. Jane Leeves knew it well, from Murphy Brown. Only Wendie Malick, whose previous sitcom work had been on NBC, didn't know the studio like the back of her hand.

In fact, all 4 had been on NBC sitcoms: White had been on The Golden Girls, Bertinelli had been on the short-lived Café Americain, Leeves was best known for her role on Frasier, and Malick was known for her role on Just Shoot Me! Before that, she was on HBO's Dream On.

The 3 younger actresses had each been the subject of many a young man's fantasy, but now, Malick was 59, Bertinelli was 50, and Leeves was 49. (In contrast, Malick was 39 when Dream On premiered, Leeves was 32 at the start of Frasier, and Bertinelli was just 15 at the start of One Day at a Time.) The idea was that, when their plane, heading for Paris, made an emergency landing in Cleveland, they found that men were more attracted to them there than in their hometown of Los Angeles.

So, unlike basketball star LeBron James, who had just "decided to take my talents to South Beach," Melanie Moretti (Bertinelli), Rejoyla "Joy" Scroggs (Leeves) and Victoria Chase (Malick) decide to stay in Cleveland, and lease a house owned by Elka Ostrovsky (White).

Melanie is a recently-divorced writer with a college-age son an daughter. Joy is a beautician from England, never married, but had a son at age 15, and gave him up for adoption. His return becomes part of the storyline. Victoria is the longtime star of a soap opera, for which she's won Emmy Awards, but it's just been canceled. She and Susan Lucci, who occasionally appears as herself, are arch-rivals within the show's world. She's been married and divorced 5 times, making her sound like a soap opera character, with 3 kids: Emmy, Oscar and Tony. (Oscar is a girl.) And Elka, despite being old, has a fresh mouth, a checkered past, and seems to have more boyfriends than Victoria.

Hot In Cleveland lasted 6 seasons, and was favorably compared to The Golden Girls. Michael Musto of The Village Voice wrote: "Wendie Malick is basically the modern-day Bea Arthur. Sweet-faced Valerie Bertinelli is the new Betty White. Been-around Jane Leeves is the nouveau Rue McClanahan. And witheringly sarcastic Golden Girl Betty White has turned into Estelle Getty."

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June 16, 2010 was a Wednesday. Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup Finals had ended a week earlier, with the Chicago Blackhawks beating the Philadelphia Flyers in 6 games. The NBA Finals were between Games 6 and 7. The next night, the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics for the title.

The World Cup was in progress in South Africa. The host nation lost to Uruguay, 3-0 at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria. Chile beat Honduras, 1-0 at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit. And Switzerland upset Spain, 1-0 at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. But Spain went on to win the tournament.

And these games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-3 at Yankee Stadium II. Jamie Moyer was 47 years old and the winning pitcher, while AJ Burnett was 33 and didn't get out of the 4th inning. Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth hit home runs for the Phils, while Shane Victorino hit a bases-loaded triple. For the Yanks, Jorge Posada and Robinson Canó homered, Derek Jeter went 0-for-4, and Alex Rodriguez went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI.

* The New York Mets beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-4 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Jon Niese, who was born on the day the Mets won their last World Series in 1986, was the winning pitcher. Ángel Pagán went 3-for-5 with 3 RBIs.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 6-2 at Fenway Park in Boston. Jon Lester was the winning pitcher. The Sox got home runs from Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis. David Ortiz went 1-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 6-2 at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium) in Atlanta.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Florida Marlins, 6-3 at Sun Life Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-1 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-2 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Nationals, 8-3 at Comerica Park in Detroit.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Oakland Athletics, 6-2 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Colorado Rockies, 2-1 at the new Target Field in Minneapolis.

* The Seattle Mariners beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 2-1 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Ichiro Suzuki went 2-for-4 with a stolen base. Albert Pujols went 1-for-4.

* The Houston Astros beat the Kansas City Royals, 4-2 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the San Diego Padres, 7-1 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 5-1 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-3 at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco. These teams both wear black and orange, and both had moved from previous cities in the 1950s. Their cities have a lot more in common: They're port cities, with large immigrant and labor union presences, and Nancy Pelosi, at this time Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. was the daughter and brother of Mayors of Baltimore, before moving to San Francisco and moving up through their political system.