Alice (TV series)

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Alice

Alice title card
Genre Sitcom
Creator(s) Robert Getchell
Starring Linda Lavin
Philip McKeon
Vic Tayback
Polly Holliday (1976-1980)
Beth Howland
Diane Ladd (1980-1981)
Celia Weston (1981-1985)
Charles Levin (1984-1985)
Marvin Kaplan (1978-1985)
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
No. of episodes 202
Production
Running time approx. 0:30 (per episode)
Broadcast
Original channel CBS
Original run August 31, 1976 – July 2, 1985
Links
IMDb profile

Alice was an American television sitcom series which ran from August 31, 1976 to July 2, 1985 on CBS. Reruns of the show also ran from June, 1980 to September, 1982 in daytime on CBS; in syndication on local stations, in the late 1980s on the cable TV network TBS; from the mid-90s until early 1998 on E! Entertainment Television, and on the defunct TNN from late June of 1999 to January of 2001. The show returned to television on April 2, 2007, airing on ION Television network weekdays at 7:30pm ET/PT.[1]

The series was loosely based on the 1974 feature film drama, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

Finding herself an unemployed widow after her husband, Donald, was killed in a truck accident, Alice Hyatt and her young son, Tommy, moved out of their home in New Jersey and began traveling to Los Angeles in hopes that she would find a singing career. Her car broke down in Phoenix, Arizona and she took a job as a waitress at Mel's Diner where she worked alongside Mel Sharples (the grouchy, stingy owner/cook) and fellow waitresses (and friends) sassy, man-hungry Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry and neurotic, scatterbrained Vera Gorman.

Principal character Alice Hyatt, played by Linda Lavin.
Principal character Alice Hyatt, played by Linda Lavin.

In the middle of the 1979-1980 season, Flo left (to go to her own spin-off series Flo) - in the storyline of Alice, she left to take a hostess job in Houston but then decided to run her own restaurant - and Diane Ladd (who had played Flo in the film version) joined the cast as Belle, a hard-edged but kind-hearted woman who had a past with Mel and had a failed catchphrase in "my little voice." In spite of Ladd's talents and an Emmy award nomination for her portrayal of Belle, the character never gelled with most of the fans. (It has also been said that Ladd clashed with her co-stars, which also led to her exodus from the show.) In early 1981, Ladd left the series and was replaced by theater actress Celia Weston, who played the good-natured, boisterous truck driver Jolene Hunnicutt. In the storyline of the show, Belle left to take a job as a backup singer in Nashville.

Jolene's character arrives as she and her male truck-driving partner are in the midst of a disagreement over her partner's unwelcome advances while on the job. Before the episode ended, Mel agreed to hire Jolene "temporarily" to pay for damages she had created, and the character lasted until the end of the series more than four years later.

As the series progressed, it began to focus more on character development, such as the courtship and marriage of Vera and loveable cop Elliot. By the 1984-1985 season, many of the more plausible situations imaginable had been exhausted and Lavin seemed disinterested in continuing the character of Alice (Alice was absent several times in the last year due to Lavin directing a number of episodes or playing another role as Mrs. Walden, Vera's wizened landlady). The series concluded on July 2, 1985. In the last episode of the series, Mel sold the diner and (surprisingly) gave each of his waitresses a $5,000 farewell bonus; Jolene opened a beauty parlor; Vera had become pregnant and planned to be a full-time mother and Alice finally got a recording contract (after nine years of trying to get it) and moved to Nashville.

Mel's mother was played by Martha Raye: she was featured in many episodes, as was Mel's girlfriend Marie. A number of other characters appeared on a semi-regular basis, including Alice's meddlesome mother Mona Spivak (played by Doris Roberts of Everybody Loves Raymond fame). Several guest stars appeared as well including George Burns, Desi Arnaz, Jerry Reed, Dinah Shore, Art Carney, Eve Arden, and a young Jay Leno who played a motorcycle rider.

The diner also had its share of customers, the most frequent was Henry, who was the telephone man and who always talked about his wife Chloe, played by Ruth Buzzi in one episode.

As an ongoing gag, the front of Mel's diner was often destroyed, notably by Flo crashing a truck through it, and the girls landing a hot air balloon in the diner, among other gimmicks. Mel was always horrified to see his diner destroyed. Upon crashing through the roof at Mel's in a hot air balloon, Jolene cries, "We went to the bad place and it looks just like Mel's!"

Flo's catch phrase, "Kiss my grits" was popular at the time her character appeared on the show. According to Polly Holliday, the line was originally written as "Kiss my honeydew", but didn't get any laughs. Another catch phrase of Flo's was "When donkeys fly". Mel took on a catch phrase of his own, often directed towards his waitstaff at times of insolence, when he would say "You stow it".

Contents

[edit] Cast

The door to Mel's Diner. The waitress void was filled by the introduction of Alice Hyatt in the first episode.
The door to Mel's Diner. The waitress void was filled by the introduction of Alice Hyatt in the first episode.

[edit] Theme Song

"There's A New Girl In Town": music by David Shire, lyrics by Alan & Marilyn Bergman, and sung by Linda Lavin.

[edit] DVD

Cover of the 6 Episode Alice DVD
Cover of the 6 Episode Alice DVD

On June 27, 2006, 6 episodes of Alice were released on DVD as part of the Warner Brothers' Television Favorites Compilation. The episodes were hand picked by fans at SitcomsOnline.com and are as follows:

  • Alice Gets a Pass, 09/29/76 - First non-pilot episode.
  • The Odd Couple, 02/26/77 - When Flo's trailer is stolen, Alice allows Flo to move in with her. Alice finds Flo's habits difficult to deal with.
  • Close Encounters of the Worst Kind, 01/22/78 - Alice's use of psychology causes tension among her coworkers.
  • Block Those Kicks, 10/22/78 - The waitresses decide to give up their bad habits in order to encourage Mel to give up his gambling habit.
  • Cabin Fever, 12/02/79 - The waitresses, Mel and his girlfriend unknowingly book the same cabin during the same weekend.
  • Flo's Farewell, 02/24/80 - Flo leaves Mel's diner for a hosting job at a restaurant in Texas.

[edit] Trivia

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.
  • A popular computer game, Diner Dash, features a character named Flo who tries to build a restaurant empire, working as waitress and busboy as well as owner. However, this Flo comes from a background in finance/accounting (per the opening of the game), with no known prior restaurant experience.
  • The waitress that works for Dex at the diner in the movie Star Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones, is named F.L.O. and even has a "southern" robotic accent. This may have been inspired by the Alice episode "The Robot Wore Pink", where Mel uses an automated waitress to replace Alice.
  • In the movie Chasing Amy, Jay called the waitress 'Flo' and ask her to tell 'Mel' to "whip me up a toasted bagel and cream cheese", ask if Silent Bob wants one and finish the sentence by saying "kiss my grits. Noonch.".
  • Though the character Flo had red hair, Polly Holliday was actually a brunette and wore a strawberry auburn beehive wig as Flo.
  • There are no real places in Phoenix, Arizona, that correspond to the various settings of the sitcom (such as Mel's Diner or Alice's apartment) with the exception of Arizona State University, which Tommy eventually wound up attending. This statement is not true. Mels Diner,complete with coffee cup sign existis on Grand Ave (also mentioned in the series). It has been there for decades.
  • Though the sitcom was based in Phoenix, in the film version (though Alice and Tommy do travel through Phoenix) it is in Tucson, Arizona that they settle, and where Mel's Diner is located.
  • In the movie, Alice was from New Mexico; but the producers moved Alice to New Jersey to accommodate Lavin's accent.
  • Flo, Vera, and Alice were supposed to be a number of years apart from one another, but the three actresses were all rather close in age. Flo was supposed to be several years older than Alice, presumably in her mid-to-late 40s. However, Polly Holliday was 39 when the series began in 1976. Alice was supposed to be 35, but Linda Lavin was just 3 months younger than Holliday. Vera was referred to as a "kid" and was presumably in her 20s, but Beth Howland was 35 in 1976, just 4 years younger than Holliday.
  • Currently airs for free on the internet on AOL's In2TV service.[2]
  • The ION Television network struck a deal with Warner Bros for several of their older series to air on the network beginning in August 2006. Alice was among the series listed in the press release. UPDATE: The show will air weekdays at 7:30PM starting April 2, 2007. [3]

[edit] The Alice sets

The Mel's Diner set made changes over the years; in the pilot the diner contained a blue refrigerator, but in the series the refrigerator was a dirty stainless steel, then later was changed to clean and shiny stainless steel (which continued until the end of the series in 1985). However, the rest of the sets remained the same.

[edit] External links

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