Sitcoms Online Photo Galleries - Alice: Polly Holliday, Beth Howland and Linda Lavin

" Mel, Kiss my grits."

--Flo

Alice aired from September 1976 until July 1985 on CBS.

For more on Alice go to the mini-page right here at Sitcoms Online.

A Short Article From Time Magazine

Monday October 29, 1979

How much do you tip a waitress who already makes six figures? That was the question for customers at Washington's Capital Hilton Hotel coffee shop last week as Linda Lavin served up hamburgers and cleared away dirty dishes. Lavin, better known as Alice when she waits on prime-time television tables at Mel's Diner, was in town to accept an award: the National Commission on Working Women found her the TV character to whom real-life blue-and pink-collar working women most relate. Does Lavin relate back? "I'm on my feet too all day, every day," she says of her shooting schedule. "We're really into Supp-hose."

The following article appeared in TV Guide ( March 9-15, 1985 Ed.) in the Insider Grapevine section.

Why Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More

Last November CBS announced that Alice would be canceled after nine seasons on the air. A special farewell episode is scheduled to be telecast next Tuesday. March 19, at 8:30 P.M.( ET). Grapevine's Paul Corkey visited Mel's Diner and filed this report:

During the taping of the final scene of the final episode of Alice, the audience was weeping, and so was the cast. Their characters-Alice, Mel, Vera, Jolene and Tommy-were locked in a farewell hug reminiscent of the one in the final Mary Tyler Moore Show, and between takes, the stage manager had to keep handing tissues to the actors.

That was in January. How are the stars adjusting to life after Alice? " I'm nesting these days," said Linda Lavin last week from her Malibu home. " Right now I'm cleaning out closets...its actually stressful to me to be at home-I keep thinking I should be on the set, but I'm learning to unwind." Until September, that is, when Lavin's production company, big Deal Inc., begins developing two tv-movies for CBS.

It is CBS though that Lavin blames for " the beginning of the end" of Alice three seasons ago when the show got bounced from Sunday to Wednesday to Monday and back. " Moving us disturbed the audience's routine," said Lavin. " All of a sudden we were on a different night. We began to fail." ( In response CBS programming chief Harvey Shephard points out that Alice remained a Sunday night show all of last season and the first part of this one, yet still was not performing well in the ratings.)

Celia Weston ( who plays Alice's brassy co-worker Jolene) remembers being on Vacation in Hawaii for Thanksgiving when she got news of the show's demise from Warner Bros. TV president Alan Shayne. " He said, " Celia, do you know why I'm calling?" I said, ' I guess it isn't to find out what kind of wine I'd like for Christmas'. " Now Weston says she'd " like to try other kinds of roles, not just southern waitresses. I'm ready to be a German housewife."

Vic Tayback ( Mel) already had a deal to star in a pilot for Warner Bros. TV the night he was to tape his last Alice episode. In the emotional final, Mel's Diner is sold, Alice embarks on a singing career in Nashville, Jolene opens a beauty salon, and Vera ( Beth Howland) learns she is pregnant. " It gets to you," said Tayback pacing back and forth in his dressing room. " This afternoon, during the ( dress rehearsal) Beth began to cry, and I said , 'You sissy.' She laughed and said, ' You're a sissy too.' She was right. I was crying. But tonight I'll be a rock."

He wasn't of course and neither was anyone else that night, except perhaps the studio accountants. Mel's Diner, you see, really has been sold. Among the buyers is Columbia Pictures TV, which wants to use some of the furnishings for an upcoming movie.

Vic Tayback's Obituary

Vic Tayback dies of heart attack

May 26, 1990

Glendale, Calif-Vic Tayback, known to millions of television viewers as Mel the crusty diner owner on " Alice" died Friday of a heart attack, his agent said. The actor was 60.

Tayback, who had a history of heart trouble, including triple bypass surgery in 1983, died at home in his sleep at 1 a.m., said his agent and friend of 20 years, Fred Amsel.

Paramedics rushed Tayback to Glendale Adventist Hospital but there was no chance of reviving him, he said.

" He just died in his sleep of a heart attack," Amsel said. " He was just fine yesterday. He hadn't had any trouble since the heart surgeries. But he was a smoker. In fact, he just told me he quit smoking, again."

Tayback, who played loud-mouth Mel Sharples for nine years, appeared on several other tv series, including "Star Trek," " Bonanza," "The Rookies," " Emergency," and " Barney Miller."

On "Alice," Tayback took a lot of kidding about his cooking and it became a running gag on the CBS comedy series.

When the "Alice" series ended in 1985, Tayback returned to the stage, starring in such plays as " 12 Angry Men" and " Death of a Salesman."

Tayback is survived by his wife Sheila; son Christopher; mother Helen; sister Emily; and brother Joe. Funeral arrangements were incomplete.

For a great review of the classic tv show Alice which ran on CBS from 1976 until 1985 and produced 202 episodes go to www.televisionheaven.co.uk/alice.htm