This sitcom spun off from the Martin Scorsese movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore deals with the misadventures and trials of aspiring singer Alice Hyatt, her son Tommy, and her co-workers at a greasy-spoon diner in Phoenix, Arizona.
Genre: Comedy
Cast:Linda Lavin , Vic Tayback , Beth Howland , Philip McKeon , Polly Holliday , Celia Weston , Marvin Kaplan , Duane R. Campbell , Dave Madden , Charles Levin , Diane Ladd , Ted Gehring , Douglas Robinson , Martha Raye , Patrick Cronin , Patrick Cranshaw , Victoria Carroll , Michael Alldredge
Alice works at Mel's Diner with Flo and Vera. A talent agent comes to town and Alice is hoping for a big break.
The beneficiary of her late husband's will pays a visit to Alice.
An obscene phone caller has Alice considering getting a gun.
Flo and Alice struggle with Vera and her sleeping pills.
Alice's mother-in-law wants to take up permanent residence in Phoenix.
Alice's mother-in-law wants to take up permanent residence in Phoenix.
Vera's new boyfriend is Jerry, a mortician 20 years her senior. But Alice - already creeped out by Jerry's profession - suspects that he hasn't told naive Vera everything about his personal life.
Flo totals Mel's car after he entrusts it to the girls while he is away.
After a botched robbery, the crook thinks that he is a failure.
Alice's deceased husband may have never paid his taxes.
After a bag of money is found at the diner, Alice is the only one interested in returning it.
Alice gets flashed in the parking lot. Meanwhile Flo's third husband, Langley, arrives announcing that their divorce may not be final. Alice thinks that one of her diners is the flasher.
An Indian claims that Mel's Diner is on sacred Indian ground.
When a new waiter is making more than the waitresses, they quit.
Singing in a nightclub in addition to her day job may be too much for Alice.
One of the customers at the diner may be a famous gangster.
Mel's back has gone bad and he can't be moved from Alice's apartment.
After attending an out-of-town game, Flo and Mel and getting along very well.
The gang is snowbound on their way to an out-of-town Christmas.
George Burns stops by Mel's Diner for a meal. Later Vera who has seen the Oh God! movie goes to his hotel room ready to follow him as his disciple since she really believes that he is God.
There is no way that Flo is getting glasses even though she obviously needs them.
Little grips are causing big problems at Mel's Diner.
A protest against food additives could be fatal at Mel's Diner.
Flo has been dating Ben, an Arab sheik. When he proposes marriage and gives her a diamond, he forgets to tell her that he already has three wives. It's left to Alice to break the news.
Flo's friend Ruth leaves Paco, her Cuban, photographer, skirt-chasing husband. Although Mel warns Alice not to get involved, Alice try's to get Ruth and Paco back together. Alice finds out the hard way that Mel was right.
Someone is stealing food and making long distance phone calls at Mel's Diner.
Flo knows Jerry Reed and everyone wants tickets to his concert.
Mel identifies a crook for the police who is known to rough up witnesses against him.
Vera meets someone at the movies that she doesn't want the others to meet.
Flo loves to party, but its hurting her night classes.
Mel's Diner is robbed with Alice at the register and Mel sleeping in the storeroom.
Mel thinks Alice's dinner invitation is more than just a family meal.
The turkeys Mel bought are hot even before they're put in the oven.
Vera has a series of premonitions that come true. Mel asks Vera for a tip on the horses. Lucky Esmeralda wins at 20 to 1. Mel's happiness is cut short when Vera discloses a complicated dream that ends in Mel's doom.
Alice is dating Tommy's principal much to his annoyance.
Can Flo really be without a date on New Year's Eve?
Alice has extra tickets to a celebrity ball and no end of interested parties.
Flo and Mel's brother think about getting hitched; marriage number four for each.
Mel's mother is spending the winter in Phoenix. OOH BBBOY! It's Martha Raye!
Alice has an offer to sing on the road, but what can she do with Tommy?
Mel wants to take it easy, so he sells out to no-nonsense restaurateur Randolph Briggs. When the girls begin to protest his overbearing ways, he fires each of them, one by one.
When humorless restaurateur Randolph Briggs refuses Mel's offer to buy back the diner, he opens an eatery in Alice's apartment. Alice decides that she needs to help Mel get his diner back.
No one believes Vera when she tells them that Telly Savalas stopped by.
Mel wants his waitresses to smile or else the meal is on the house just when Alice is very unhappy.
Mel gets engaged, but wants his fiancée, Marie, to sign a prenuptial.
Barney owner of Barney's Burger Barn takes Flo out. Mel thinks Barney is trying to get his chili recipe. When Barney & Mel comes to blows at Mel's, Flo gets fired & goes to work at the Burger Barn.
Mel's mother is cooking at the diner and the customers roll in.
Mel is preparing his chili on Dinah Shore's show, but can only bring one waitress.
The gang and Mel's girlfriend are packed into a cabin on a fishing weekend.
Vera is Art Carney's cousin and she gets him to endorse Mel's chili.
It's Christmas and the gang is preparing Christmas dinner at the diner with meager resources.
In the first show broadcast in the 1980's, Flo is dating a big rig trucker named Sy. When she finds out that he's taken on a young, female driving partner,she becomes jealous. She then asks Alice to teach her how to drive a semi-truck. Alice's late husband was a driver as well. Along with Vera, they pile into Sy's rig while he and his partner are in Mel's eating. What follows is a very funny driving lesson, Flo honking and yelling out the window at guys and then the big finish. When returning to Mel's diner, Flo goes to step on the break but instead hits the gas pedal! The semi plows straight through the front of Mel's Diner! The audience loved it, as did I, it's my favorite of the whole series.
Mel puts in a time clock so now the waitresses want overtime.
Mel's mother is getting remarried, but Mel is not happy about the groom.
Mel takes in a friend whose wife just left him.
Flo gets a wonderful job offer in Houston and says goodbye to Mel's Diner.
Mel hires former waitress Belle who wants to be a country song writer.
Belle is just too friendly with Mel and Alice and Vera aren't happy about it.
Mel starts a profit sharing plan until he learns how much he might get for the diner.
Mel is giving a tour guide a lot of attention as long as her buses keep stopping at his place.
Alice bets Mel that if he takes in Tommy, he'll kick him out. Mel is sure that Alice will be snooping just to check up on him.
The gang follows Vera to Las Vegas after she wins a trip.
After Mel loses the diner, the casino owner will let him keep it if he can get Robert Goulet to sing at his club. When Mel can't get him, Alice does her best to do him.
Vera's aunt rides in on her motorcycle on her way to Mexico and Vera wants to leave with her.
Mel is giving Tommy advice on how to deal with a local bully.
Mel doesn't want to go like his friend who had no mourners at his funeral, so he turns into a nice guy.
Mel's mother shows up after her new husband left her.
When Henry's wife starts being nice to him, he thinks she is having an affair. Now he claims he's having one with Alice.
Alice is managing her apartment building and Belle isn't paying her rent.
Vera wants to save the old tree in front of Mel's Diner.
When a fish won't fit in the freezer, the waitresses cut it up unaware that is was left by Jerry Reed to be stuffed.
When Mel won't let his mother cook, she goes to work for a competitor.
Mel is mugged by a little old lady who suddenly becomes four armed crooks.
A trucker stops at Mel's and tells his female partner to hit the road without him.
Alice is singing forties tunes at a big banquet and hopes that this is her big break.
Mel is showing interest in Vera, but its just to make his girlfriend jealous.
Vera makes plans to set the world's record for tap dancing.
Alice has her boyfriend's four kids for treat or treating on Halloween.
On Alice's 40th birthday she gets a visit from her meddlesome mother.
Mel gives his shy cousin pointers on going out with Vera.
Vera cashes a check for an old boyfriend that bounces.
Mel is worried that he has no heirs or line to pass things on to.
On Christmas Eve Mel is haunted by a former partner after he fires the waitresses.
Alice wants Tommy to cut out the basketball when his grades suffer.
Mel gives Tommy romantic advice and then he uses it on his niece.
Vera gets an addiction to soap operas and her work suffers.
Mel's mother plans to publish his secret chili recipe in her cookbook.
The girls are all quarreling with their Valentine's Day dates.
Vera decides to become the world's best waitress and then Mel leaves her in charge of the diner.
An old friend of Alice's visits who has an inferiority complex.
The girls help Jolene's buddy drive his rig unaware that it contains dynamite.
An actress friend from New York wants Tommy to head to Broadway with her.
After a high school reunion, Vera returns with an engagement ring on her finger.
After Alice spurns a suitor, he threatens to jump from the Mel's Diner sign.
In response to a competitor, Mel runs a contest with a $3000 prize.
Mel's mother buys his apartment building. Mel thinks he'll get his rent free and he ends up with an increase.
Mel thinks he is responsible for the best kiss a famous actress ever had as described in her memoirs.
Competition abounds when an old buddy of Mel's shows up.
Mel thinks there's money stashed in his diner by the builder of his building.
Joel Grey offers to be in a local musical, but Mel casts his bookie.
Joel Grey walks out when the theme of the musical changes from New York to Arizona with songs to match.
Alice's Thanksgiving dinner is ruined by her mother.
Vera is asked to play the cello in a local string quartet.
Alice is worried that Tommy is spending too much time on his extra curricular activities while away at college.
Jolene can't let down a guy who thinks that she is his girl.
Mel gives up and retreats to his apartment consuming nothing but beer and pizza.
Vera is angry at her landlady for evicting her pets. She wishes her ill and then she has an apartment fire.
Mel joins a catering firm and the girls buy the diner.
Mel wants to have the waitresses bonded, so Vera runs away after admitting her criminal past.
Mel has his cousin get a job at a competitor's restaurant to get their secret sauce recipe.
Using Mel's new computer, Vera accidentally erases Mel's total existence.
Tommy's business advice increases Mel's business, but heads him into bankruptcy.
A burglar is going around Jolene's neighborhood and she is scared.
Vera's ecstatic. She has a secret admirer sending gifts, love poems and balloons. Like Vera, Alice and Jolene, wonder who it is. Mel "does" know who it is, but is tight lipped. Will the mystery man make his move and be unmasked?
Alice accepts a date from an old friend who is now blind.
A famous singer stops by Mel's Diner and ends up proposing to Mel.
Alice and Carrie don't get local singing jobs because they are considered too old.
Vera finds love with the policeman who ticketed her for jaywalking.
Vera has a whirlwind courtship and wedding with her policeman fiancee.
The girls ask Mel for better working conditions but he refuses and they quit. So he invests in a robot server named Blanche. Will Blanche compute or short circuit,bringing the ladies back home?
It's Vera's 1st Christmas with Eliot, but Eliot's busy as an "undercover" mall Santa. He later spots Vera there, kissing her ex Steve Marsh, which makes him feel his marriage is already in trouble. Will their marriage survive the holiday?
Tommy's home from college feeling down,due to bad grades & a failed romance. Also,Mel gets a visit,his old Navy buddy Frank. Who ends up inspiring Tommy to consider a change,that Alice may not be crazy about.
Vera takes up the cause of an abused miniature horse.
Jolene doesn't want to pitch on Mel's softball team.
Mel's mother finally confesses that his dog was not a war hero.
After one good day at the track, Tommy decides to become a professional gambler.
Vera's landlady wants to prove she's a better cook than Mel.
Vera plans to rescue the bird's nest from Mel's sign before Mel gets rid of it.
Jolene is stuck on Mel though being glued together is more like it.
Vera and Elliot receive a piano and Elliot won't stop playing it.
Mel's prejudice against the handicapped is tested when he is confined to a wheelchair.
Mel stops a bank robbery dressed as a superhero for Halloween.
Jolene has family overload when seven of them take up residence in her one bedroom apartment.
Alice suspects that Tommy is developing a drinking problem.
Mel has gone undercover to stop some beef rustlers and collect the reward.
Mel throws out a bunch of break dancers whom he thinks are nothing but a gang of hoodlums.
Vera and Elliot's romantic first anniversary celebration is a bust.
A television appearance by Jolene doesn't help business at Mel's Diner.
In her second job as a night DJ, Vera is taking Phoenix by storm.
Alice gets an offer to sing with a country music group.
Alice gets an offer to sing with a country music group.
Vera's landlady tries to horn in on her and Elliot's lives.
Jolene has Mel as a trainer to get on a professional basketball team.
A shooting accident has Vera's husband looking for another profession.
On the last show the gang reminisces before closing up Mel's Diner.
