Alice 

The misadventures and trials of an aspiring singer and her co-workers at a greasy-spoon diner.

Creator:

Robert Getchell

Stars:

Linda Lavin, Beth Howland, Vic Tayback

Won 8 Golden Globes. Another 2 wins & 22 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Linda Lavin	...	Alice Hyatt / ... 202 episodes, 1976-1985
Beth Howland	...	Vera Louise Gorman 202 episodes, 1976-1985
Vic Tayback	...	Mel Sharples 201 episodes, 1976-1985
Philip McKeon	...	Tommy Hyatt 109 episodes, 1976-1985
Polly Holliday	...	Flo Castleberry 90 episodes, 1976-1980
Celia Weston	...	Jolene Hunnicutt 90 episodes, 1981-1985
Marvin Kaplan	...	Henry 82 episodes, 1978-1985

Storyline

A greasy-spoon diner in Phoenix, Arizona is the setting for this long-running series. The title character, Alice Hyatt, is an aspiring singer who arrives in Phoenix with her teen-age son Tommy, after the death of her truck-driver husband. Alice is hired at a diner owned by Mel Sharples, a gravel-voiced, male-chauvinist fry cook. She waitresses at Mel's Diner while awaiting her big break. Her fellow waitresses are raucous redhead Flo and naïve Vera. Flo is later replaced by Southern blonde Belle, who is soon replaced by spunky curly-haired Jolene. Alice and her friends experience several interesting years together at Mel's Diner, which is frequented by quirky truckers, repairmen, and other blue-collar types, and by several Hollywood celebrities who appear as themselves.

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Plot Keywords:

pay phone | phoenix | arizona desert | desert | f rated | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 August 1976 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alice

Filming Locations:

Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros. Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min (202 episodes) 30 min (113 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

Along with other famous television male characters like Ralph Kramden from The Honeymooners (1955) and Archie Bunker from All in the Family (1971), Mel Sharples has an anger problem and is overweight.

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Goofs

The diner works using three waitresses all of whom start at the exact same time of day. If Mel's is open early for breakfast and stays open to serve dinner that means that all three waitresses work 10-12 hour days, at least SIX days out of the week. Even for a 1970s restaurant those types of hours would be excessive. Yet none of the waitresses complain about it in more than a comedic fashion.

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Quotes

Alice Hyatt: Tommy longs for male companionship.
Florence Jean Castleberry: Don't we all?

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Connections

Spoofed in Kiss My Grits (1990)

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Soundtracks

There's a New Girl in Town
Music by David Shire
Lyrics by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman
Performed by Linda Lavin

User Reviews

Likeable little show

I used to watch this show when I was a kid. Since then, I've rarely seen it in re-runs, even though my cable system has over a hundred channels. Anyway, "Alice" was a nice, enjoyable little show that lost a lot of steam after Polly Holiday (Flo) left to pursue her own sitcom. I really think Flo was the most interesting character. The producers of "Alice" replaced her with similar characters, but none were as good.