Alice (1985)

the seventies were a dark, dark time for television. you had some good shows and a thousand absolutly horrible ones. alice is an example of the latter. the theme song made you want to shoot the tv. the writers had to be smoking crack to come up with some of the episodes, and seemed to remake them over and over and over again.

During its run, I always considered Alice to be "must see TV". The cast of characters ran from the level-headed Alice, to the gruff but loveable Mel, to the zany Vera, to the smart-mouthed Southern belle, "Kiss My Grits" Flo. The acting was wonderful, and the series itself was on that new cusp of acknowledging the struggles of single parenthood as Alice tried her best, and did a wonderful job, of raising her son (played by Phillip McKeon). Despite most of the series taking place inside Mel's Diner, the storylines were continually changing and always very funny. I hope plans are to release this series on DVD in the near future.moreless

i used to wake up every morning so i at 5 am so i could watch 2 episodes of this show before sci fi showed land of the lost re reuns. i like this show very much and it always made me happy. i only have one question. why did they need three waitresses in a diner with 7 tables?

Many people have a tendency to say that this show was very realistic, but I don't know if I'd go that far with that; I mean, Alice worked as a waitress (making $2.35 a hour or slightly more as time passed) and it was said that she attended college for a period of time (how could she pay for that with the money she made at a crappy place like Mel's Diner, let alone pay rent?!). Although I must say that the phrase "Kiss my grits!" did have a tendency to get monotonous, the show itself was absolutely hilarious! All of the characters were funny in their own unique ways and almost everybody in America could identify with them. All of the plots were extremely hysterical (like the time Flo became Alice's roommate after her trailer was stolen or when Flo tried to prove that driving a semi was not just for men and ended up crashing into the front of the diner!) and would keep you at the end of your seat. This show was released to DVD as a TV-favorite collection, but it deserves a hell of a lot better than that! This show is completely underrated (it hasn't been rerun since TNN took it off in January of 2001!) and it MUST be released to DVD in the season formats! To all of you who've never seen this show, buy the DVD set. You won't regret it!moreless

' Alice ' was one of the few shows I enjoyed during the 70's and can recall just about all the episodes that were ever made. Growing up in Southern Arizona, I was kind of put off though that the producers moved Mel's Diner from Tucson to Phoenix but aside from state rivalaries, the show was one of the 70's best sitcoms. I don't think it hurt that I kind of had a thing for Vera. My favorite character though was not one of the major stars but rather ' Henry ' from the Telephone Company.
While I do not miss it enough to purchase it on DVD it is one of the few shows that I would not turn off if I saw reruns on TV today and might even find it's way on to my Tivo..moreless