Shark Bytes

Too much stupid slapstick and mindlessness after Flo left - played like a third-rate Laverne & Shirley.

mel was gross, greasy and disgusting - always wearing that grease-stained white cotton t-shirt over his gross hairy chest and that stupid cap on his head not to mention his gravely, sardonic voice - and when it came to women he was a perv - what a frickin disgusting character

They make us watch the Alice Show when the sandwiches come over...Then we gets our temperatures taken in the butt, but the sandwiches is good.

We like the Alice show much for its laughy-times.

Loved this show as a kid in the 70's, but I have to admit that some of the episodes were quite embarrassing, like all of that singing and when Mel's mother came to town. Also Vera's voice was way beyond annoying. But I liked the idea that it was based on the working poor trying to make a living, very down to earth, instead of all these shows today that are based on the rich.

The show jumped at the theme song. "There's a fresh freckled face in the neighborhoodWTF? Lavin didn't sport no freckles! And fresh? Doesn't that mean young? She was an old broad from the get go! Her extremely hideous son got fuglier and more worthless as time went on. I found Vera extremely hard on the eyes and ears. Somebody feed that bony woman! To think she actually found a man to marry her means there's hope for the homeliest of women. Flo with her stupid wig and always always chomping on that gum! Talk about annoying! She wasn't sexy, she was a skinny old hag way past menopause that was man hungry. Kiss my grits! She must have said that 1000 times. What fool writer actually thought it would be funny the second time never mind the 1000th? I feel bad for Mel, the only decent character. And what's with everybody complaining about his food but still going there every single day, eating it, and paying for it? As for Alice herself,pathetic, just pathetic. The no good writers/producers/directors/actors..etc. should be ashamed of themselves for wasting nearly 10 years of their lives delivering such dribble and they should all be damn sorry they wasted our time with this utter and complete crap!

I swear to God the people who made this asinine sitcom either never saw the movie that "inspired" it, or watched it but didn't understand a thing.

In the movie, Alice Hyatt is a recent widow whose insistence on pursuing a "career" as a singer (at around age 40) is obviously self-delusion at its finest. She makes some poor choices that leaves herself and her son more or less stranded in Tucson, AZ (not exactly Opportunity, USA). At the end of the movie, she realizes that the singing was a pipe dream, she'll never be a star, and thus it's pointless to continue on to her original destination of Hollywood. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is poignant, gritty...even depressing.

So what do the TV geniuses do? Turn that premise into a wacky sitcom in front of a life audience, replete with pratfalls and old-school "zinger" humor from the folks behind I Love Lucy, Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh. Alice is a simply FABULOUS singer of show tunes who is destined for success...she's just waitressing in Arizona until she's (inevitably) "discovered."

What the hell. I know showbiz types did tons of drugs in the '70s, but this is ridiculous.

I remember watching it when I was a kid, only because we had three channels, and it was watch that or go to bed. Once Belle showed up ("Mah little voice always calls me Isabelle...") I chose bed. And anyone who wonders why Linda Lavin has been rarely seen since then, and Vera not at all, watch one episode. I was shocked to see it pop up on ION; not so much when it disappeared shortly after.

Alice just seemed to serve to give Linda Lavin a platform to perform her all-sound-the-same-songs. I agree with the previous post about Tommy's hideous puberty transformation. Very disturbing indeed.

It's hard to imagine why this show was a hit. I was a very small child during its production years so don't remember, but was televison THAT bad in the mid '70s - mid '80s? Or was Disco that brain-numbing? Were Americans dazed from the war? Or were people feeling the after effects of chronic LSD use? The "plots" of this show were nightmare-inducing. Flo, Mel, Belle, Henry, and even Vera(in small doses) were excellent characters, but I'm sorry not even those sidekicks justified this catastrophe. This series could've been good- a blue collar Mary Tyler Moore Show while we're on the subject or a feminine Taxi- if it had been a bit more serious, intelligent, and as mentioned titled 'Mel's Diner' or the like and had been an ensemble show, instead revolving around Alice, arguably the most flat, plain, boring title character of all time. I can only imagine how Linda Lavin got this horror to stay on the air for nine entire seasons with all of its stupid plots, bad singing, and off-air cattiness. As soon as she had started complaining about Polly Holliday scene-stealing, CBS should've sent her sub-talented arse to the Yellow Rose. I mean how hard could it be to replace such a forgettable character? Oh yeah, this isn't a shark-jumper, but Tommy's deforming from cute little kid to giant hideous teenager was truly the single most atrocious, disturbing puberty spurt ever captured on film.

Alice was just bad, bad, bad. You know, if you follow the theme songs thru out the years, it gets worse & worse. It started out OK, decent 1st season, but when they put Queen Lavin in charge of changing the opening theme songs every season it went doooowwnhill fast. The last season's theme song was, well, to put nicely, embarrassing. 'Ol Linda wasn't quite the looker either.

Linda Lavin could not sing her way out of a paper bag if she had to! The "jazzy" crap she added to the theme song reminded me of someone saying to her "Yes, you are very, very talented" while crossing their fingers behind there back. I got so I couldn't listen to the theme song cause it sucked.This show jumped when they decided to let her sing more regularly. I heard that it was a contractual agreement - no kidding!

"The Robot That Wore Pink" was TV at its lowest point. This episode purely sucked. The 'actor' that played the robot was nothing more than a street-person wrapped up in tinfoil...OMG what a travesty of a show...I'm not into censorship or anything like that, but can we get this show banned, please?

You know Alice was sooo bad that even ION pulled it after only a month or so. Linda, honey, let's face it...you're not a good singe-and I'm being very, very kind.

Oh...my...God! I can't believe how many of you think this show was great.

I was forced to watch this turd when I was 16 and thought it was inane; I saw it in re-runs two days ago...my opinion remains unchanged.

This show wasn't as good as it was when Flo was on. The other two were good, but did not attain the popularity that Flo had. Another thing. Why was Flo always saying kiss my grits? Because those screw asses at CBS (Colombian Broadcasting Society) did not allow Kiss my ass at that time on TV.