ALICE (TV SERIES)

'''Alice''' was an American television sitcom series which ran from August 31, 1976 to July 2, 1985 on CBS. The series was based on the 1974 film, ''Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore''.

Contents

Plot

Ratings

Cast

Theme Song

Rerun Info

DVD

Trivia

The ''Alice'' sets

External links

Plot

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 cross country 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, Vera Gorman.

In the middle of the 1979-1980 season, Polly Holliday left the show to star in her own spin-off series, ''Flo''. In the storyline of '''Alice''', Flo left to take a hostess job in Houston, but then decided to run her own restaurant. Diane Ladd, who received an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Flo in the film version (she lost to Ingrid Bergman), joined the cast as Belle, a hard-edged but kind-hearted woman who had a past with Mel. In spite of Ladd's Golden Globe- performance as Belle, the character never gelled with most fans. It has also been said that Ladd clashed with her co-stars. In early 1981, Ladd exited the series. In the storyline of the show, Belle left to take a job as a backup singer in Nashville. Theater actress Celia Weston then joined the cast as good-natured, boisterous truck driver Jolene Hunnicutt.
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. Jolene often mentioned that she was a distant relative of Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg, which was Sorrell Booke's role on ''The Dukes of Hazzard''.
As the series progressed, it began to focus more on character development, such as the courtship and marriage of Vera and lovable cop Elliot. By the 1984-1985 season, many of the more plausible situations imaginable had been exhausted and Lavin seemed uninterested 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!"
Mel was also a stickler for tardiness. In one episode, Mel installs a time clock and the waitresses outsmarted the time clock with time sheets showing them working long hours and with huge checks to boot, Mel threw the time clock into the trash and didn't fuss about their tardiness again. Another stickler for Mel was the waitresses taking on other jobs, leading to one, or in some cases, all 3 getting fired, but Mel always rehired the waitresses before the end of each episode.
Another early running feature in the show was the popularity of "Mel's World Famous Chili". In a 1st season episode, a food critic from the newspaper came to visit the diner, but when he ate the chili, he dropped dead. The waitresses and Mel thought at first it was the chili, but actually it was Peking Duck that he ate at a Chinese restaurant. Later on, guest star Art Carney tried to get Mel to give him the recipe but to no avail. The popularity of Mel's Chili ultimately led to an appearance on the Dinah Shore show where Dinah was doing her show from Phoenix, but it led to some bickering among Alice, Flo, and Vera because Mel had to take only one person to help him out with the preparations of the chili, but Mel decided to take everyone along much to everyone's delight.
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". Whenever Vera would make one of her dumb remarks, someone was bound to say, "Good Vera." Belle had a catchphrase in "my little voice."

Ratings

''Alice'' was a hit during its 9-year run: here's a list of the show's ratings:

★ 1976-1977: #30

★ 1977-1978: #8

★ 1978-1979: #13

★ 1979-1980: #4

★ 1980-1981: #7

★ 1981-1982: #5

★ 1982-1983: #44

★ 1983-1984: #27

★ 1984-1985: #30
The 1982-1983 season did not break the top 30.

Cast

★ Linda Lavin - Alice Hyatt

★ Philip McKeon - Tommy Hyatt (Alfred Lutter briefly reprised his role from the movie but was replaced after the pilot episode)

★ Vic Tayback - Mel Sharples (Tayback reprised his role from the movie)

★ Beth Howland - Vera Louise Gorman

★ Polly Holliday - Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry (1976-1980)

★ Diane Ladd - Isabelle "Belle" Dupree (1980-1981) (Ladd played the role of Flo in the movie)

★ Celia Weston - Jolene Hunnicutt (1981-1985)

★ Martha Raye - Carrie Sharples (Mel's mother) (1978-1985)

★ Charles Levin - Elliot Novak (1983-1985)

★ Marvin Kaplan - Henry Beesmeyer (1977-1985)

★ Victoria Carroll - Marie Massey (1978-1984)

Theme Song

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

Rerun Info

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 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 until June 22, 2007.

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.

Trivia

★ 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 Dumb and Dumber, Lloyd and Harry refer to the waitress in Davenport, Iowa as 'Flo'.

★ 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 is a real Mel's Diner in Phoenix, Arizona. Complete with a coffee cup sign, it is located on Grand Ave (US 60) just north of Interstate 10. This is the same diner depicted in the opening credits of the show.

★ Though the sitcom was set 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.

★ On one episode, Mel's Diner was paid a visit from ''Dukes of Hazzard'' characters Deputy Enos Strate (Sonny Shroyer) and Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg (Sorrell Booke).

★ 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.

★ In the opening credits, Alice's car is a 1969 Ford Country Squire.

★ Mel is said to be cheap but in one episode it is said he has a gambling problem.

★ Currently airs for free on the internet on AOL's In2TV service.[1]

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 in 1979-81 and much later an even shinier stainless steel refrigerator and better appliances. However, the rest of the sets remained the same.
The men's and ladies' restrooms were confined to one room in 1976-1977. From 1977-1985, there were separate restrooms with "Ladies" and "Men" written on them.
The storeroom was inside the diner where the Men's restroom would later be and said "Private" on it during the 1976-1977 season.
The storeroom from 1977 to 1985 was confined to the back of the diner. Here, the waitresses took their breaks, had their lockers, and stored their uniforms. Mel also conducted his business from this space.
In the 1st season the diner was decorated in an Aztec and Cowboy motif to accommodate the feel of Arizona. The diner had a makeover from 1977-85.
The pilot episode was taped at CBS Television City in Hollywood. After that the series was taped in Burbank.

External links

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★ Full Episodes of ''Alice'' free at AOL Video