Sitcom television in the 1970s featured a disproportionate number of liberated women, divorced or widowed, with or without children, making it on their own. CBS' blue (and pink) collar Alice was no exception, but for the fact of its tremendous success. Alice was one of the top 10 shows in most of its nine years on the air.

Alice was based on the 1975 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, which starred Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn in the title role. The next year, CBS aired Alice, starring Linda Lavin as Alice Hyatt, the recent widow and aspiring singer from New Jersey who moves to Phoenix with her precocious 12-year-old son Tommy (Philip McKeon) to start a new life. While looking for singing work, Alice takes a "temporary" job (which lasted from 1976 to 1985) as a waitress at Mel's Diner, the local truck stop owned and operated by Mel Sharples (Vic...