Valerie Harper to Reunite with Mary Tyler Moore Cast on TV Land's HOT IN CLEVELAND

TV Land announced today that the ladies of "Hot in Cleveland" will soon be getting some special visitors in town as Mary Tyler Moore, Valerie Harper and Cloris Leachman reunite with their co-star of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," Betty White. The casting news comes just weeks after Harper's diagnosis in January of leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare and incurable form of brain cancer.

The 73-year-old is best known to millions of fans as quirky New Yorker 'Rhoda Morgenstern' on TV's "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and its spinoff, "Rhoda."

The four-time Emmy Award winner and Tony Award nominee has appeared on Broadway in productions of King Lear, Something Different, Metamorphosis, and the Tony award winning Story Theatre. She was nominated for a Tony award for her recent role in Looped.

She began her TV career on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," for which she received two Golden Globe nominations and won three Emmy Awards as Rhoda Morgenstern. She was again nominated for three Golden Globe awards and won an Emmy Award for her show lead role on "Rhoda." Her feature films include "Chapter Two," "Freebie and the Bean," and "The Last Married Couple in America."

Harper recently guest starred on "Desperate Housewives" and "Drop Dead Diva." She has also guest starred on "'Til Death," "Committed," "That '70s Show," "Sex and the City," "Touched by an Angel" and "Melrose Place."

In the upcoming episode of Hot in Cleveland, Elka (Betty White) and Mamie Sue (Georgia Engel) decide to get their bowling team back together, aptly named GLOB: the Gorgeous Ladies of Bowling. The team, which includes Elka, Mamie Sue, Diane (Moore), Peg (Leachman) and Angie (Harper), had a falling out decades ago after their championship season went to their heads. This is the first time in over 30 years that the five former castmates will be reunited on the sitcom stage. Mary Tyler Moore previously appeared on "Hot in Cleveland" as Elka's cellmate in a season two episode.

Shows like 'Hot in Cleveland,' which stars four women, would not be here today without 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' and its incredible female-led cast," said Larry W. Jones, President, TV Land. "Mary, Valerie, Cloris, Georgia and of course our Betty were all pioneers for women in television."

TV Land's hit sitcom "Hot in Cleveland" returns for its summer season with a LIVE episode on Wednesday, June 19 at 10pm ET. The west coast will receive the live-to-tape version three hours later at 10pm PT. The series, which was just picked up for a fifth season, stars television favorites Valerie Bertinelli ("One Day at a Time,"), Jane Leeves ("Frasier"), Wendie Malick ("Just Shoot Me!") and Betty White ("The Golden Girls").

"The Mary Tyler Moore Show" centered around Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore), an ambitious, young and single assistant producer, and her career at the fictional WJM-TV News. With her best friend Rhoda Morgenstern (Valerie Harper) and resident busy-body Phyllis Lindstrom (Cloris Leachman), Mary tackled the stereotypes of being an independent working woman in what was typically a "man's world." The show also starred Ed Asner as Mary's tough-love boss, station producer Lou Grant, Gavin MacLeod as cynical head news writer Murray Slaughter, and Ted Knight as the dim-witted anchorman Ted Baxter. Moore's company, MTM Enterprises, produced the series for CBS.