Alice
Alice is 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. The show stars Linda Lavin in the title role, a widow who moves with her young son to start her life over again, and finds a job working at a roadside diner on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona. Most of the episodes revolve around the goings on at Mel’s Diner.
Plot
Alice Hyatt (Linda Lavin) is an unemployed widow after her husband, Donald, is killed in a trucking accident, and with her young son Tommy (Philip McKeon) heads from their New Jersey home to Los Angeles so that she can pursue a singing career. Her car breaks down on the way in Phoenix, Arizona (from a presumed engine fire, as seen in later opening credits), and we meet her soon after she has taken a job as a waitress at Mel’s Diner, on the outskirts of Phoenix. (The later seasons’ exterior shots were of a real diner, named Mel’s, still in operation in Phoenix.) Alice works alongside Mel Sharples (Vic Tayback), the grouchy, stingy owner and cook of the greasy spoon, and fellow waitresses and friends, sassy, man-hungry Florence Jean “Flo” Castleberry (Polly Holliday), and neurotic, scatterbrained Vera Louise Gorman (Beth Howland).
Each episode invariably started inside the diner, and most if not all subsequent scenes took place there as well. A frequent set for non-diner scenes was Alice’s one-bedroom apartment in the Phoenix Palms apartments. (Tommy used the bedroom and Alice slept on the couch.) Vera and Mel’s studio apartments, and Flo’s trailer were occasionally seen.
The diner had its share of regular customers through the years, such as Tommy’s basketball coach, Earl Hicks (Dave Madden), and Henry Beesmeyer (Marvin Kaplan), a telephone repairman who always made jokes about Mel’s cooking. Henry’s oft-mentioned but unseen wife Chloe was played by Ruth Buzzi in one episode. Celebrities playing either themselves or other characters were a hallmark of the show.
Polly Holliday left the show to star in her own spin-off series, Flo. In the episode airing February 24, 1980, Flo leaves to take a hostess job in Houston, Texas. (The spinoff show however took place in the character’s hometown of Fort Worth, which she refers to as “Cowtown,” as do many real-life locals. When visiting her family on the way to Houston, Flo decides to buy and run a failing road house bar, which she renames “Flo’s Yellow Rose”.) Polly Holliday was never to make a guest appearance on Alice after beginning Flo, although flashbacks including Flo were shown in the final episode of Alice. Vic Tayback made one guest appearance on Flo.
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 Isabelle “Belle” Dupree, a hard-edged but kind-hearted woman. She had been a waitress of Mel’s in the past, and they had also had a romantic relationship of some kind. In spite of Ladd’s Golden Globe-winning performance as Belle, the character never gelled with most fans. It has been said that Ladd clashed with her co-stars, and no flashbacks including Belle were shown during the final episode. In early 1981, Ladd exited the series, making one last appearance in which she telephones the diner to tell all that she took a job as a backup singer in Nashville.
Theatre actress Celia Weston then joined the cast as good-natured, boisterous truck driver Jolene Hunnicutt. Jolene arrives as she and her male driving partner are in the midst of an argument over his unwelcome advances, during which she throws and breaks many of Mel’s dishes. Mel agrees to hire her “temporarily” to pay for the dishes, but she stays until the series ends 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, and he guest starred in one episode. Jolene also frequently mentioned her grandmother, “Granny Gums,” who only had three or four teeth in her mouth.
As the series progressed, it focused more on character development, such as the hasty courtship and marriage of Vera and lovable cop Elliot (Charles Levin). Tommy eventually goes to college and is seen less frequently. In the final season, the character of Alice was absent several times due to Lavin’s directing a number of episodes and playing the character of Mrs. Walden. The storyline began its end in the early summer of 1985, when country singer Travis Marsh (played by Lavin’s real-life husband Kip Niven), discovering that he’s falling for Alice, “kidnaps” her to take her to Nashville, telling her it’s time to follow her dream there. Bewildered at the thought of her dreams finally coming true, Alice agrees, but not without extracting a promise from Travis to drive her back to Phoenix so she can get her affairs in order, including ending her current relationship with a writer.
In the last episode, airing July 2, 1985, typical of sitcoms of the era, news of several life-changing events is revealed within a matter of minutes. Alice finally got a recording contract (after nine years of trying) and was moving to Nashville. Vera had become pregnant and decided to be a full-time mother, after Elliott had been promoted from officer to detective. Jolene’s “Granny Gums” finally passed away and left her enough money to open her own beauty parlor in her hometown. But what would become of Mel’s Diner with all three waitresses suddenly leaving simultaneously? By an amazing coincidence, Mel had just sold the diner for a large amount of money to a real estate developer and must close within days. He surprisingly gives each of his waitresses a $5,000 farewell bonus. Much of the remainder of the episode shows flashbacks to humorous and major events, and many of the big stars who had appeared on the show, including Polly Holliday. Finally, when cleaning out her things, Alice finds the “Waitress Wanted” sign that drew her to the diner nine years earlier. The series’ regular customers, such as Henry, say their emotional farewells, followed by Elliot, and finally the principal characters Tommy, Jolene, Vera, and Alice giving theirs. The last thing we see is Mel putting up the “Closed” sign and locking up.
Ongoing Gags and Catch Phrases
Flo’s catch phrase, “Kiss my grits!” was enormously popular at the time her character appeared on Alice. According to Polly Holliday, the line was originally written as “Kiss my honeydew!”, but did not get any laughs. (In the original film, Flo, as played by Diane Ladd, tells Mel in one scene to “kiss me where the sun don’t shine.”) Another of Flo’s catch phrases was “When donkeys fly!” Since her portrayal of Flo, Polly Holliday has refused to repeat her famous “grits” line. [1]
Mel would snipe, “Stow it!” at anyone he had qualms with, especially his waitstaff. “Stow it!” was usually followed by either “Alice”, “Vera”, “Flo”, or “Blondie” (in reference to Jolene). He would also bark, “Bag it, Blondie!” to Jolene. Whenever Vera would make one of her dumb remarks, someone was bound to say sarcastically, “Good, Vera.” Belle had a catchphrase in “My little voice,” which called her “Isabelle,” which she usually used when starting to tell others what she thinks is best.
In a handful of episodes, Alice put on a double-breasted suit and a hat and assumed a husky voice in order to assume the fictional character of mobster “Sam Butler,” a ruse that always managed to fool her intended target. The last season, Linda Lavin also played the role of Mrs. Walden, Vera’s wizened and abrasive landlady of arbitrary foreign origin, once even playing both Alice and Mrs. Walden in a split-screen dual role.
The front of Mel’s diner was often destroyed, to his horror, notably by Flo crashing a truck through it, Mel chopping down a tree which then landed in it, Mel accidentally having his diner targeted for demolition instead of the nursery school next door (which he had done for greedy reasons), and the girls landing a hot air balloon in the diner. Upon the girls crashing through the roof at Mel’s in the hot air balloon, Jolene cries, “We went to the bad place and it looks just like Mel’s!”
Mel was a stickler for tardiness. In the fourth season, Mel installs a time clock which ends up working to the waitresses’ advantage due to significant overtime, and he finally throws it into the trash. Mel also had a strict rule against moonlighting, often leading to one, or in some cases, all three waitresses getting fired. But of course Mel always rehired them before the end of each episode.
Mel’s food and cooking were constantly criticized by his waitresses and customers alike, especially Henry, who always blamed it for his indigestion. However, Mel’s chili was popular and the point of several episodes. During the first season, a newspaper food critic (played by Victor Buono) dropped dead while eating Mel’s chili, but it turned out that Peking Duck from a Chinese restaurant was to blame. Guest star Art Carney in one episode was to be the spokesperson for retail distribution of Mel’s Chili (”Chili con Carney”) but backed out when he discovered Vera was a distant relative with part ownership in the venture. The popularity of Mel’s Chili also led to an appearance on Dinah Shore’s talk show, which led to some bickering among the waitresses because Mel could take only one person along, but of course all ended up going. Mel refused to reveal his “secret ingredient” to Dinah and her TV audience during the cooking demonstration.
Flo was supposed to be in her mid-to-late 40s when the show premiered, but Polly Holliday was only 39. Alice was supposed to be 35, but Linda Lavin is just three months younger than Holliday. Vera was referred to as a “kid,” presumably in her 20s, but Beth Howland was 35.
The shot of Vera with the “exploding straws” was the only one used during the opening credits for the entire run of the series, with the exception of the pilot episode, which had no scenes from Mel’s Diner in the opening.
Cast
Linda Lavin as Alice Hyatt
Vic Tayback as Mel Sharples
Philip McKeon as Tommy Hyatt
Polly Holliday as Florence Jean “Flo” Castleberry (1976-1980)
Beth Howland as Vera Louise Gorman
Diane Ladd as Isabelle “Belle” Dupree (1980-1981)
Celia Weston as Jolene Hunnicutt (1981-1985)
Charles Levin as Elliot Novak (1983-1985)