CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Things get plenty animated on the set of the TV Land sitcom "Hot in Cleveland." You can draw your own conclusions about the show's latest effort to get even more animated.

That's right. TV Land announced that an animated episode will be part of the series' fifth season, which will begin at 10 p.m. Wednesday, March 26. Animation Studio Titmouise, Inc., will create the art for the cartoon versions of the characters played by Valerie Bertinelli, Wendie Malick, Jane Leeves and Betty White.

"Viewers love that we take their favorite sitcom stars and put them in our original sitcoms, so we're sure they are going to love seeing these characters in an entirely new, animated universe," Larry W. Jones, TV Land's president said in a statement released by the channel.

The animated episode, cleverly titled "The Animated Episode," will follow Melanie (Bertinelli), Joy (Leeves), Victoria (Malick) and Elka (White) as cartoon characters embarking on an around-the-world adventure. The journey starts at Elka's apartment, which, before this episode, has been a mystery to Melanie, Joy and Victoria.

And they soon find out why. From there, the women go on a psychedelic romp through pop-culture favorites, including scene reminiscent of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," "The Walking Dead" and "Frankenstein."

TV Land also announced that the fifth season would launch with the show's second live episode. It will be a crossover with the "Hot in Cleveland" spin-off show, Cedric the Entertainer's "The Soul Man," which begins its new season at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 26. The "Soul Man" season opener also will be a live episode.

"We shoot in front of a live studio audience every week, but nothing is more exciting than working without a net," Jones said. "The thrill of knowing that viewers at home are seeing exactly what's happening live on stage really amps up the pressure and makes the energy on set electrifying."

"Hot in Cleveland" aired its first live episode last June. Guest stars included Brian Baumgartner ("The Office"), Danny Pudi ("Community"), Shirley Jones ("The Partridge Family") and Capt. Kirk himself, William Shatner ("Star Trek").

Guest stars for the fifth "Hot in Cleveland" season will include: Jason Priestley as Corey Chambers, a movie star that Melanie had a crush on in high school; Tim Daly as Mitch Turner, the new owner of the detective agency where Joy works; Thomas Lennon as a by-the-book FBI agent who investigates the disappearance of Victoria's husband; Chris Elliott as Luke, Elka's new boyfriend; Sarah Hyland as Ivy, an actress who threatens Victoria's chances of an Oscar nomination; Max Greenfield as a con man who poses as a pet-adoption consultant; and Angela Kinsey as a pre-school admissions counselor.

Returning guest stars will include Susan Lucci, John Mahoney, Georgia Engel, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Dave Foley, Craig Ferguson, Michael McMillian and Jay Harrington. The fifth season also will include the show's 100th episode.

Filmed in front of a live audience on stage 19 of CBS Studio Center in Studio City, Calif., the TV Land comedy stars sitcom veterans Bertinelli ("One Day at a Time"), Malick ("Just Shoot Me") and Leeves ("Frasier") as three best friends who move from Los Angeles to Cleveland. White, who starred on such sitcoms as "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Golden Girls,'' plays the cantankerous caretaker who goes with their Cleveland home.