First Clip of Betty White’s Hot in Cleveland: ‘If You Can Escape From the Nazis, You Can Handle Anything’

Audiences may not have known what to expect when TV Land announced its first original sitcom, Hot in Cleveland — after all, this is the network that built its brand on vintage Alka-Selter commercials aired during stale episodes of Designing Women. But after seeing the first clip from Cleveland, Movieline is ready to make a bold prediction about the fate of the show and its Golden star.

It fits that TV Land’s inaugural original sitcom seems like it will play just as well as an episode of Home Improvement or another decades-old series that you vaguely remember seeing stars Wendy Malick, Jane Leeves and Valerie Bertinelli in. The clip introduces the big-city trio just as they sign the lease on a suburban home — the same scenario that ABC’s ill-fated sitcom Hank opened with, and then a few episodes later, died with. The opening jokes aren’t much funnier but the clip is saved by Betty White.

Playing the sassy, older groundskeeper who will surely get the lion’s share of laughs, Betty White shines as she always does next to stars duller than hers. If the writers keep throwing their best lines her way, then the actress, who just last week was upgraded from a “guest” to “regular,” could save this series from a hasty cancellation before its lease is up.

VERDICT: Betty White completists, charge your Tivos.