Where would Just Shoot Me!'s boozing floozie supermodel-turned-fashion editor Nina Van Horn be today? Well, after intensive rehab, it looks like she's landed in Cleveland. Her portrayer, the always-delicious Wendie Malick, is calling on Nina's self-absorbed soul as inspiration for the actress's new character, fallen soap diva Victoria Chase, in TV Land's buzzworthy original sitcom Hot in Cleveland.

Malick's new, less vacuous character finds herself at home in the cable network's ensemble comedy about three L.A. transplants (Malick, Valerie Bertinelli and Jane Leeves) rediscovering their sexual prowess and youthful verve in Ohio's bustling blue-collar metropolis. Rounding out the cast as caretaker of the ladies' new house: Saucy sitcom stalwart and SNL hottie Betty White.

Hot premiered to record ratings for TV Land--about 5 million people watched the June 16 premiere--while garnering inevitable comparisons to Sex and the City and White's 1985-92 TV classic The Golden Girls. But those parallels are fine by Malick. The still-sexy actress, 59, has enjoyed lengthy success in a host of ensemble sitcoms, including HBO's Dream On and NBC's Frasier. Here, the actress-turned-animal activist and environmentalist recalls her road to Cleveland while analyzing TV's multidimensional impact.

What's it like to be back on a sitcom set?
It was kind of like going home again. What was the most unusual about this one—having done many pilots, some of which went to series and many of which did not—was how synchronistic it felt doing the pilot. Jane and Valerie and I looked at each other a couple of scenes into it and said, “It’s so strange, but I feel like we’ve been doing this for years together.” We have all been in this world for so much of our careers, and it’s a very familiar one for us, that we kind of just hit it off. People often say that, but (we did) in a very nice way.

Neither woman did I know very well prior to this show. I had worked with Jane on Frasier, so I knew her a bit, but Valerie I’d never met before. They just are very balanced, cool women who have a life beyond this (business), which tends to make you a lot saner.

How hot was Cleveland in the days after Betty White’s Saturday Night?
She’s a wonder. That’s like jumping off a cliff doing that show. They had her in virtually every skit; I mean, I can’t believe how much they put her in the show. (Laughs.) She’s so game and she just did it willingly. What an awesome thing for someone at 88 to take on a challenge like that. She is such a tonic. And she’s such a great role model for all of us who are following her example.

TV Land’s president has said Cleveland is targeting a 40ish audience, but I think the show will have a multigenerational appeal—especially with the not-so-coveted 50-plus crowd.
I think so, too. This is a realm and a demographic that hasn’t been very well represented in popular culture. And there are so many of us. I’m sort of astonished that they haven’t gotten hip to the fact that there are a lot of really viable women with disposable income out there who are in their late forties, late fifties—late eighties—whose kids are grown and they own their own homes and they’ve put away a nice little chunk of change. And I think they’re really missing a bet by not writing stories that reflect them.

For two decades people have waited for the next, new, slightly younger, hipper Golden Girls. Are you okay with the inevitable comparisons?
Well, you know, it’s a pretty class act that we’re following. Certainly we’re somewhere between Sex and the City and Golden Girls. We were laughingly calling ourselves The Silver Girls. Or The Nickel Girls. We’ll see. This is actually kind of uncharted territory: We now have men coming to play with us who happen to be supporting characters. So now it’s all about the women instead of us being the ones who are someone’s wife or mother or teacher or doctor.

Nina Van Horn would be proud.
(Just Shoot Me!) had a very wide appeal. I think many shows have a real good bet by loading it all up with people of the same generation. But one of the appeals of our show was having everyone from David Spade to George Segal, and we kind of covered about 30 years in there and various sort of personality types. So there was a lot for everyone to relate to; there was usually someone they could say, “Gosh, they’re so familiar to me. I know somebody like that.”

Nina was so damn funny. My favorite misnomer of hers: When she was caught spilling the beans on a secret, she said, "I know, I know. Mea culpa and labia minora."
(Laughs.) She never quite got it. My husband always referred to her an idiot savant.

Will we see a bit of Nina in your character on Hot in Cleveland?
(Admittedly) Yes, yes, you will. We were sort of trying to establish some new ground here ... I think the difference here is Victoria is more self-aware and a decade older than Nina was. She's dealing with, "Now what do I do with this part of my life?" I think she's not quite as clueless as Nina was but she's definitely vain and self-centered and trying to do better but not succeeding much.

Where would Nina be today?
She'd be close to 60 and I think she may well be in the Betty Ford Clinic. There may have been an intervention. Her friend Binny died, so she'd have to count on the people at work. The good thing about Victoria is she has two really good friends who intervene when she gets depressed.

What's your favorite sitcom ensemble you've been a part of?
They all sort of become your family, so it's hard to say. Obviously, Just Shoot Me!, we were together for the longest time, and we still see each other for lunch. We get together a few times a year when we can all find time in our schedules. I still have great love for those people. I loved working on Dream On, which was my first (series). It was such a gift to me because they discovered that I was funny. Before that I'd always played murderesses. I killed a lot of husbands. It was such a treat for me to join the cast of Frasier that last year because it was such a sweet time for all of them. Now laughingly Jane Leeves says (in Leeves’ voice), “You know, Wendie and I were both Cranes. Do you realize she was my mother-in-law?”

Why do you think retro series and stars are so hot? There’s an awakening lately as to how much people love TV classics.
I think it’s a very normal response to a very dangerous and fearful time. So many people are living in a state of fear and anxiety. There are so many things you can dwell on that can make you feel uncomfortable. There is something about going back to at least the illusion of a simpler time with many old TV shows, old movies, old music. They’re something culturally that’s a touchstone that helps us reconnect to a place where we felt okay and felt safer and kind of knew what to expect. I think in popular culture old comedies provide that for people.

You kind of know what you’re gonna get. And you can count on it to not tax you too much but maybe laugh at the folly of fellow human beings or you yourself.

On the flip side, as someone passionately involved in environmental, humanitarian and animal rights causes, you connect with people by facing head on some of the sad realities that today’s not-so-escapist TV exposes.
Yeah. The world becomes ever smaller, and you meet people who want to show you their little part of it that they love. We are all one. I was just thinking of that as I was watching about this oil spill in the Gulf. I had worked down there so many times and I was just down there last fall. I was so encouraged that New Orleans was coming back finally. Then there was this wonderful (HBO) show Treme, and it was just time for them to get a break. And for this to happen there—my heart so goes out to them. They have been challenged so many times, it’s just so unbelievable.

Do you ever wonder what the lesson is in that?
I think in the end it’s that Mother Nature is really pissed off.