Hot in Cleveland

TV Land's first original sitcom is the surprise of the summer, a sparkling, breezy comedy, in no small part due to the casting of this year's It Girl, 88-year-old Betty White as a cantankerous caretaker.

The gang delivers a ton of mostly low-brow laughs, but they're laughs nonetheless.

When you're hot, you're hot-which is why having Betty White in the cast has generated an unusual amount of buzz for this TV Land sitcom. But her costars-ace comic actresses Wendie Malick, Jane Leeves, Valerie Bertinelli-are the ones who add sizzle to a not too promising vehicle.

This is not perhaps the most daring or avant-garde comedy on television, but there is nothing shameful about Hot in Cleveland. It's actually kind of fun.

Although the original remains the greatest (at least, based on the single Cleveland episode made available for review), the newer sitcom has charm, wit and actresses who could coax laughs reading the fine print of a credit card agreement.

It's a broad, unsubtle sitcom, one that may be worth watching for White, but otherwise is only moderately amusing at best.

Surely White must have the willpower to decline some offers--especially after the long and appreciative bask she's recently enjoyed--and she could have let this job pass. The same cannot be quite so true for Hot in Cleveland's headliners, sitcom veterans who all give off a strong and desperate whiff of trying way too hard to be even mildly funny.