I finally got to see the film Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More from which the Alice series is taken and now I certainly have a better perspective on the series. The film was quite a bit more serious than this TV situation comedy. In fact in only the last third of the film does Melvin Sharples and his diner figure into the plot of the film.
But it's the whole show here. Vic Tayback was the only member of the cast of the film to repeat his role. In the film Alice is fleeing from Phoenix after a bad relationship and she stops in Tucson and takes a job at Mel's Diner to pay the rent and save up before she moves on to California.
Here Linda Lavin has settled in at Mel's Diner and while the show centers around her trying to raise her son Philip McKeon, the other members of Mel's wait staff also have episodes centering around them. Beth Howland plays Vera the somewhat naive one and Flo, the one who's seen it all was the irrepressible Polly Holiday. That catchphrase of her's 'kiss my grits' became legendary. Oddly enough when Holiday quit the women who played Flo in the film, Diane Ladd joined the cast. But the show really lost something after Holiday quit.
Alice the series was a bit more family oriented than the mature drama the film was. Still those servers in Mel's Diner and Mel himself made an indelible impression bridging those Carter-Reagan years in the American psyche.
But it's the whole show here. Vic Tayback was the only member of the cast of the film to repeat his role. In the film Alice is fleeing from Phoenix after a bad relationship and she stops in Tucson and takes a job at Mel's Diner to pay the rent and save up before she moves on to California.
Here Linda Lavin has settled in at Mel's Diner and while the show centers around her trying to raise her son Philip McKeon, the other members of Mel's wait staff also have episodes centering around them. Beth Howland plays Vera the somewhat naive one and Flo, the one who's seen it all was the irrepressible Polly Holiday. That catchphrase of her's 'kiss my grits' became legendary. Oddly enough when Holiday quit the women who played Flo in the film, Diane Ladd joined the cast. But the show really lost something after Holiday quit.
Alice the series was a bit more family oriented than the mature drama the film was. Still those servers in Mel's Diner and Mel himself made an indelible impression bridging those Carter-Reagan years in the American psyche.