Alice Hyatt

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Alice Hyatt is a fictional character in the movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and in the subsequent television remake Alice. In the movie, she was played by Ellen Burstyn, who won an Academy Award for the role. In the television series, Alice was played by actress and singer Linda Lavin.

[edit] From New Jersey to Phoenix

Alice Spivak was born and raised in New Jersey. While still young, she met and married truck driver, Donald Hyatt. Out of that union, came a son, Tommy Hyatt. Some time later (within a year of the series beginning), Don died in a trucking accident. Now a widow, with a twelve year old son to care for, Alice had to decide what to do. She loved to sing, and she set off for California to make it big, but there was one problem. Her car broke down outside of Phoenix, Arizona.

Fortunately, she was resourceful to have enough for security and first month's rent, since she got an apartment at the Phoenix Palms Apartments. Now, she had to find a job, which she did at a place called Mel's Diner, which was run by one Mel Sharples. The first episode began with Alice already working in the diner; a lot of the concepts of the car breakdown and Alice seeking work at Mel's were inferred with the opening credits and other remarks made in the first season.

Mel's Diner wasn't the best job in the world for Alice, but it was a job, which she needed. The theme song hinted that "if things work out she's gonna stay" and that she did for nine seasons.

Along the way, Alice Hyatt made friends, and even Mel became a needed father figure for Tommy, although some of his shenanigans met with some disapproval from Alice. She also got along well with Mel's crusty mother, Carrie Sharples. Carrie often greeted Alice with the line, "You little Dickens you!" which was her sign of affection for Alice.

In the first few seasons, her best friend was Florence Jean Castleberry best known to all as Flo. Alice sometimes called her Floey. She took a motherly role to Alice when she started at the diner, and helped Alice grow into the job. Even Mel respected Alice, and it was Alice, in her disguise as a mobster "Sam Butler" that saved his bacon many a time. Alice was the character that seemed to always give advice, but also the one that everyone turned to for advice. In more than one episode, Alice was persuaded to break the news of something controversial to another character when it really wasn't her place to be telling it.

Despite her working at the diner, Alice was able to sing periodically, not necessarily with Mel's support, as he despised moonlighting and frequently verbalized it. Her choice of music was the old standards and sometimes that felt out of place in the Southwest. But she was a trouper and pulled it off. In the latter episodes, her main venue for singing was Vinnie's House of Veal, which was run by a friend of Mel's with locations in both Phoenix and Lake Havasu City.

Tommy also inherited his mother's love of music and played quite a mean guitar. Several episodes featured Tommy and Alice singing together, and in several occasions, Alice, Vera and Jolene formed a trio, including the highly-rated Joel Gray 2-part episode.

Alice was also friendly with one of the diner's main regulars, telephone company worker, Henry Beesmeyer. Their friendship was once misunderstood by Henry's usually never-seen wife, Chloe.

As Flo left for Houston, Texas, Alice became the motherly figure for the waitresses and helped both of Flo's replacements, Belle Dupree and Jolene Hunnicutt get used to the long hours, little pay and trying to keep one step ahead of Mel.

Alice was the emotional center of the diner, and often the voice of reason. She was also passionate enough to get into situations she would later regret. Throughout the series' run, the first season introduced Alice's mother-in-law and father-in-law in a 2-part episode (the mother-in-law lived up to every stereotype of her role and more). In the fifth and seventh seasons, Doris Roberts played Alice's mom, Mona Spivak.

Nine years later, with Tommy grown up and attending Arizona State University, Alice finally realized her singing dream, although in a different fashion. She wound up going to Nashville, Tennessee, where incidentally, Belle had gone to, with singer Travis Marsh, the brother of an old boyfriend of her friend, Vera Louise Gorman-Novak.

Those who watched Alice faithfully over the years (from 1976 to 1985) noticed that the character's hairstyle changed once or more during each season, going from long to short and straight to curly (and back again) during it's nine seasons. The theme song was re-recorded the first six seasons (plus the pilot theme is different too), so that added to the continually changing and evolving nature of the series.