Midseason Television Preview: TV Land courts stars of a certain age

Whoever said women over 40 are invisible hasn’t been watching much TV Land lately. The cable network, best known as the home of classic TV icons such as Sheriff Andy Taylor, Archie Bunker and Fred Sanford, launched its first scripted sitcom last summer starring three women of a certain age, plus octogenarian and current Hollywood “It Girl” Betty White.

The show, “Hot in Cleveland,” became the top-rated cable sitcom of the year with an average 4.3-million viewers, helping propel a double-digit jump in TV Land’s prime-time ratings. Its June premiere pulled in an audience of nearly 6 million — roughly twice the audience for last year’s season opener of “Mad Men” — triggering a quick renewal for a second season with twice the number of episodes.

“Hot in Cleveland,” which ended on a cliffhanger when White’s cantankerous character was tossed into jail, returns Jan. 19 with costars and sitcom veterans Valerie Bertinelli, Wendie Malick and Jane Leeves. It’s paired with the network’s second original comedy, “Retired at 35,” which marks George Segal’s and Jessica Walter’s return to series TV.

Both shows and three more in the pipeline are part of TV Land’s strategy to cater to 25- to 54-year-old viewers who don’t get much love on TV, especially when it comes to new comedies that reflect their own lives. Executives at the cable channel, hoping to break out of the vintage-series mold, are trying to become known for baby boomer-appeal sitcoms with a traditional look but a contemporary feel. The shows will be built around “mature” stars, some making a comeback, mixed with new faces.

“We want to tell stories about characters in their 40s and up who are reexamining their lives and starting new chapters,” said Keith Cox, TV Land’s executive vice president of development and original programming. “And we’re casting comedic icons that we know our viewers already love.”

The network, which is owned by Viacom Inc., has tried its hand at original reality shows aimed at adult viewers, with mixed results. “She’s Got the Look,” a modeling competition for women over 40, has aired for three seasons, and “Harry Loves Lisa,” a six-part series that followed married actors Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna, scored big numbers last fall. “The Cougar,” where twentysomething men vied “Bachlorette” style for a 40-year-old real estate executive, flopped after a single season. Coming this summer is another unscripted show called “Forever Young” that puts participants in their 20s and 70s together to explore the generational divide.

Broadcast networks routinely chase the advertiser-coveted 18- to 49-year-old age group, creating a void in programming for older fans, Cox said. Other cable channels such as TNT have recognized that midlife can be a fertile ground for scripted storytelling, as evidenced by its second-season dramedy “Men of a Certain Age,” which made a number of critics’ top 10 lists.

More are almost certainly on the way, like the one from “The Nanny’s” Fran Drescher, who is writing, producing and potentially starring in a TV Land sitcom in development called “Happily Divorced” that mirrors her real-life relationship with her ex-husband, Peter Marc Jacobsen.

And since networks have scaled back their sitcoms in recent years, there’s a wealth of over-40 writers and producers ready to create shows from their unique perspective, Cox said.

Suzanne Martin, executive producer of “Hot in Cleveland,” said she wanted to write a modern-day “Golden Girls,” showcasing a group of friends whose “lives weren’t over” because they’d passed 40. She didn’t bother pitching it to networks.

“It seems like they’re all still chasing the next ‘Friends,’ with characters in their 20s and 30s,” she said. “If a network had even been interested, they might’ve asked me to make the characters 10 years younger.”

The fish-out-of-water tale centers on an unscheduled stop in Cleveland on the way to Paris, where dyed-in-the-wool Los Angelenos played by Bertinelli, Leeves and Malick decide to stay because, well, they’re considered “hot” (as in “attractive”) there. They rent a house that comes with White as its quip-ready caretaker.

The characters set about reinventing themselves, much the same as TV Land is doing by diving into the scripted comedy business. Its pilots in development, with a green light contingent on casting, are “Ex Men,” about three divorced men living together in a building with an attractive female landlord, and “Rip City,” a workplace comedy that pits older employees against a newly installed female boss. (She’s young and hot, of course.)

“Retired at 35,” also kicking off Jan. 19, centers on a young man who moves into his parents’ retirement village in Florida after his corporate dream job becomes a nightmare. Chris Case, the show’s creator who has clocked significant time at his grandmother’s Sarasota digs, describes the setting as “like college, in slow motion.”

The veteran of sitcoms such as “Reba” and “Spin City” said he’d been percolating the idea for some time until he heard TV Land wanted four-camera comedies with a current twist. Many of today’s hit comedies — “Modern Family,” “ 30 Rock,” for example — are shot with a single camera that gives the program a documentary feel.

Multi-camera “is still a viable format, and it’s refreshing to see TV Land become a player — it’s a gutsy move,” he said. “I hope we can create some new nostalgia.”

David Scardino, entertainment specialist at ad agency RPA, said there’s always a risk when a niche cable network tries to expand beyond its well-defined brand. The channel might be able to grow its audience, but there’s a chance it will alienate the loyalists. TV Land, though, may be on the right track with old-school-yet-modern sitcoms starring familiar faces.

“If they can fine-tune their identity and the original shows aren’t too different from what the audience is used to,” he said, “then they have a shot.”

From an advertiser perspective, Scardino points to research from the past several years showing that boomers have tremendous buying power. That can be attractive for big-spending marketers like auto manufacturers, pharmaceuticals, financial institutions and packaged goods.

At the same time, so many cable channels are trying to bust out of their niches that they’re beginning to look more alike, making it difficult for viewers to distinguish them, said Tim Brooks, TV historian. There’s also stiff competition, with everyone from FX to CMT now doing original comedy.

“Comedy is a tough market to get into, and it’s costly,” Brooks said. “You better have characters and actors that audiences get invested in and want to come back every week for. Otherwise, it’s just not going to work.”

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