I don’t watch Hot in Cleveland by habit. I’ve only seen a couple of episodes, mostly because there was some special draw, like the live episode (which was quite funny and well done for a live show). One episode that I made sure I watched, though, was the one featuring the Mary Tyler Moore reunion.

I’m a sucker for things like that.

Of course, plain old reunion shows are great (you know, like the Gilligan’s Island and Love Boat TV movies), but there’s something really nifty about getting actors from an old show together and having them play new characters. There’s the wink-wink, nudge-nudge they always seem to work into the episode, of course, but mostly there’s this fun of watching people with a history, with a chemistry, with a rhythm working together, but playing something different.

Like the Mary Tyler Moore reunion. They played a bowling team getting together after years apart, fame having undone their friendship. So there’s Mary and Rhoda and Georgette and Sue Ann and Phyllis sitting around a table, except they weren’t those characters. It was the same chemistry but presented in a different way.

Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly did it on Burn Notice. Cagney and Lacey together again only as Madeline and Tina, strangers not partners. So even thought Madeline is befriending Tina for a short-term purpose, that chemistry that made Cagney and Lacey such a great duo is still there.

I find that kind of thing fun to watch. It’s taking people who are comfortable with each other and putting them in a different element.

I look for those kinds of reunions. I don’t catch them all, of course, but I’m always thrilled when they happen. I guess it’s just the warm fuzzies it gives me. Here are the actors that created some iconic characters back together in a different, but yet familiar way.

It sucks me in every time.

You want me to watch current TV more often? This is definitely the way to do it. I’d clear my schedule for the right reunion.

I’m that kind of sucker.