Here’s a guide to the cast and characters of TV Land’s sitcom Hot In Cleveland. Hot In Cleveland was TV Land's first original series and proved to be a robust success, running for six seasons between 2010 and 2015. The female-focused sitcom boasted a wealth of comedic talent both in front of and behind the camera – it was created by former Frasier screenwriter Suzanne Martin, co-produced by Sean Hayes of Will & Grace fame and boasted comedy legend Betty White among its stars.
The plot of Hot In Cleveland focused on three forty-something friends and entertainment industry veterans – Melanie, Joy, and Victoria – who are en route to a Paris vacation when their plane makes an emergency landing in Cleveland, Ohio. After discovering Cleveland is a lot less shallow than Hollywood, they decide to stay in town and rent a home that comes with a live-in housekeeper called Elka. The Golden Girls vibe was strong with Hot In Cleveland – not just because of Betty White’s presence – but that’s partly what made it a great show.
Over Hot In Cleveland’s six-season run the show featured numerous recurring roles played by the starry likes of Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jon Lovitz and Joe Jonas alongside cameo appearances from Jimmy Kimmel and William Shatner (Star Trek). The focus, however, was on the three ex-Hollywooders and their housekeeper. Read on for a rundown of those characters and the actresses who played them.
Melanie Moretti – Valerie Bertinelli
Sweet-natured and sometimes naïve, Melanie Moretti (Touched By An Angel’s Valerie Bertinelli) is a somewhat successful writer and mother to two college-aged kids. It was her recent divorce from her husband – who typically traded her in for a younger model – that partly inspired her decision to leave L.A. and stay in Cleveland.
Joy Scroggs – Jane Leeves
Frasier’s Jane Leeves plays Joy Scroggs – a never-married British expat and makeup artist known as the "Eyebrow Queen of Beverly Hills" who left England to escape her overbearing and overly critical mother. Although she’s sharp-tongued and outwardly cynical, Joy is really a romantic at heart despite all her sarcastic wisecracking.
Victoria Chase – Wendie Malick
Victoria Chase (Wendie Malick, Just Shoot Me!) is a five-time divorced, Emmy award-winning soap opera star whose long-running show just got canceled. Lamenting the lack of roles she gets now she’s past her prime - that is, not in her 20s anymore - she decides to stay in Cleveland where she later works as a reporter for a local news show.
Elka Ostrovsky – Betty White
The legendary Betty White plays Elka Ostrovsky on Hot In Cleveland – the 80-something housekeeper of the home Victoria, Joy and Melanie rent in Cleveland. Snarky, sassy but lovable, Elka has lived a colorful life that includes escaping Nazi-occupied Poland and a mobster ex-husband.