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Valerie Bertinelli is reminiscing about her late Hot in Cleveland costar, Betty White
Bertinelli is celebrating the sitcom once again through Still Hot in Cleveland, a new “nostalgia-cast” podcast she co-hosts with the show’s former executive producer, Todd Milliner
In a PEOPLE exclusive interview, the actress shares that she and her costars loved making White laugh
More than a decade after Hot in Cleveland ended its six-season run, Valerie Bertinelli is revisiting the beloved sitcom in a whole new way — and no memory brings a bigger smile than making her late costar Betty White laugh.
“Anytime that we could make Betty giggle and anytime that Betty could just go up and giggle,” Bertinelli, 66, tells PEOPLE in a recent exclusive interview. “I mean, I think it’s a classic by now when you go to YouTube, and you watch ‘Bender Over’ — that was her screen name — and we never got through that scene.”
Bertinelli is referencing a now-classic blooper from the making of the show, in which White’s character creates a screen name — “Bender Over” — to reference the end of a drinking binge. But White and the other actors struggled to get through the scene, laughing as her character delivered the lines.
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Hot in ClevelandCredit: TV Land/courtesy Everett Collection
The TV Land sitcom aired from 2010 to 2015, and followed three best friends — played by Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick — who move from Los Angeles to Cleveland after their plane to Paris makes an emergency landing. They decide to live under the same roof in their new city and befriend the quick-witted caretaker of their home, played by White.
“To make Betty laugh for all of us was the epitome,” she continues. “And I know Jane enjoyed that, as did Wendie and everybody.”
Bertinelli is celebrating the sitcom once again through Still Hot in Cleveland, a new “nostalgia-cast” podcast she co-hosts with the show’s former executive producer, Todd Milliner.
Rather than revisiting each episode one by one, the pair explores the series season by season, welcoming former cast members, writers and others who worked behind the scenes to reflect on the show’s legacy while answering fan questions and sharing stories from set.
The show is recorded in Bertinelli’s wine cave and debuts first for members of Valerie’s Place, her new fan community, before wider release.
For Bertinelli, reconnecting with those who helped make the series has been meaningful. “It’s a way for me to connect with all of the people that I had so much fun with for five years,” she says. “Especially being able to do it with Todd Milliner, who was the executive producer… We’ve tried to sell other shows after Hot in Cleveland, and we’re still working on it, but this is so much fun, to just hang out and gab and laugh with all the people that we both loved.”
And although White died in 2021 at age 99, Bertinelli says her presence continues to be felt, imagining exactly what her friend would have done as a guest on the pod.
“First of all, she would have my dog on her lap and all of my cats surrounding her,” Bertinelli says with a laugh, acknowledging White’s long history as an animal rescue activist. “Nelson, who’s no longer with us, she named Nelson first, and she also named Luna, my dog. So she would definitely enjoy that.”
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Those memories remain vivid even if Bertinelli hasn’t yet rewatched many of the episodes herself. Instead, she’s found herself remembering the comedy that became one of the sitcom’s signatures.
“I always remember all of the physical comedy that these writers entrusted us with,” she says. “They just were pushing it all the time. It was always like, ‘Oh, what do I get to do this week? And what does Jane get to do? And how are they going to dress us up?’ Victoria getting a goiter, Joy is in a back brace, and I’m falling into holy water. There were so many fun, silly things for us to do every single week.”
She continues: “I knew at the time, this will never happen again.”
“Every morning when I would wake up, I’m like, ‘I get to go to work. I get to hang with Betty. I get to hang with Jane and Wendie and Suzanne and Michael Berger and Todd and all the writers and everybody on the crew,’ ” she adds. “We just made lifelong friends.”
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