Once upon a time, cable network TV Land was synonymous with the classic television brand. You can still tune in to the network each day for Gunsmoke and The Andy Griffith Show, or more recent sitcom encores such as Roseanne, Everybody Loves Raymond and How I Met Your Mother, among others, if it is nostalgia you seek.

But diginets such as Me-TV, Antenna TV and Cozi TV have inherited the classic TV label. And the TV Land of today, anchored with three-year old sitcom Younger, is now more focused on navigating baby boomers into Gen-Xers and, in a perfect world, into the world of the coveted millennials.

Celebrating 20 years on the air last April, the transition of TV Land from pure nostalgia to original programming began in 2008 with a revival of WB reality series High School Reunion and modeling competition She’s Got the Look. Both series featured participants aged 40 and over, which catered to the older age of the TV Land audience, and both were accompanied by a revised network logo.

“Those non-scripted acquisitions did not necessary match with the shows we currently feature, like The King of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond,” said Keith Cox, president, development and production for TV Land, who is in charge of identifying and developing original series for the network as it continues its brand reinvention. “We wanted to do originals, but we needed to speak to the audience that was currently watching.”

“So if you are going to watch The King of Queens or Raymond, you are going to enjoy Hot in Cleveland, and they did,” he added. “It was a beautiful bridge; multi-camera shows with a live studio audience and actors that you know and love…and Betty White.”

TV Land was targeting the baby-boom generation, with age 40 the sweet spot. The early success of Hot in Cleveland, which launched in June 2010, was the cable network’s first foray into off-network syndication.

“CBS wanted to sell Hot in Cleveland in syndication, so we needed to reach 100-episodes,” noted Cox.

Other stars from yesteryear joined the original TV sitcom fray, including Fran Drescher in Happily Divorced; George Segal and Jessica Walter in Retired at 35; and Kirstie Alley, Rhea Perlman and Michael Richards in Kirstie.

But the next pivot was the TV landscape itself. Cable was exploding, with dramas in particular the hot ticket, while the traditional multi-camera sitcom format, now a staple on TV Land, was losing luster.

“We are a cable channel; we weren’t CBS,” explained Kelly. “Still in the DNA of the channel, our shows are still fun and aspirational, and light in nature, so we did not want to completely deviate from the norm. But we need to make a change after the sixth season of Hot in Cleveland. It was time to really embrace our cable roots and embrace what was happening in the industry in the half-hour form. We needed a show like Sex and the City. And we wanted to embrace the Generation X audience. So, I called Darren Star and that led to Younger.”

Single-camera in nature, like all the current original TV Land sitcoms at present, Younger, which debuted on Feb. 24, 2015, tells the tale of a 40-year old mother (Sutton Foster) who, to support her daughter (Tessa Albertson) decides it is better to pretend she is 26.

“Younger completely speaks to our audience,” said Cox. “The people we want, the people we have, and the people that are aging out.”

Shortly after the debut of Younger came a new imaging campaign complete with another new logo targeted to the Generation X audience and the shift to the edgier single-camera presence.

“I feel like all the Viacom networks are chasing millennials, and we are still more of an adult channel” said Cox. “For us, it is about reaching the GenX crowd, but if we get some of the younger viewers, that’s awesome too.”

In addition to Younger, sitcom Teachers opens its second season on TV Land on Tuesday, Jan. 16, leading into the debut of sketch comedy Throwing Shade, which is based on the podcast series of the same name. Upcoming sitcom, Nobodies, executive produced by Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone, debuts in March and has already been renewed for a second season. TV Land also has just ordered to series American Woman, a story inspired by the childhood of reality star Kyle Richards – produced by John Wells, and starring Alicia Silverstone and Mena Suvari. Additionally, the network has given a 10-episode order to its first hour-long scripted series, Heathers, based on the theatrical of the same name.

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