| Alice Hyatt | |
|---|---|
 Linda Lavin as Alice Hyatt on the CBS-TV series Alice' | |
| Personal Information | |
| Alias/Also known as: | Alice Spivak-Hyatt (on TV series) Alice Graham-Hyatt (in film) |
| Gender: | Female |
| Occupation/ Career: |
Waitress, Mel's Diner |
| Character description: |
winds up settling in Phoenix and landing her waitress job aat Mel's Diner after the death of her trucker husband after she and son Tommy set off for California when her car broke down outside of the Phoenix area |
| Domestic partner(s): | |
| Related to: | Tommy Hyatt (son) Mona Spivak (mother) Donald Hyatt (husband, deceased) Rose Hyatt (ex-mother in-law) Charlie Hyatt (ex-father in-law) |
| Hometown | New Jersey, U.S. (in TV series, Monterrey, CA in movie) |
| Character information | |
| Appeared on: | |
| Episodes appeared in: | all 202 in TV series |
| Character played by: | Ellen Burstyn in 1974 film Linda Lavin on TV series |
Alice Hyatt (nee Spivak) was the titular character on the long running situation comedy series Alice, which was inspired by the 1974 American romantic comedy-drama film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, which starred Ellen Burstyn in the role (whose maiden name in the film was Graham), for which she won the Academy award for Best Actress. On the CBS-TV series Alice she was played by actress-singer Linda Lavin.
About Alice[]
Alice Spivak-Hyatt was born and raised in New Jersey. While still young, she met and married truck driver Donald Hyatt. (She and Donald met at a club she was singing at in Newark, New Jersey.) Out of that union came a son, Tommy Some time later (within a year of the series beginning), Don died in a trucking accident.
Now a widow, with a twelve-year-old son to care for, Alice had to decide what to do. She loved to sing, and she set off for California to make it big, but there was one problem. Her car broke down outside Phoenix, Arizona.
Fortunately, she was resourceful to have enough for security and first month's rent, since she got an apartment at the Phoenix Palms Apartments. She had to find a job, which she did as a waitress at a greasy spoon called Mel's Diner, which was run by one Mel Sharples.
The first episode began with Alice already working in the diner; a lot of the concepts of the car breakdown and Alice seeking work at Mel's were inferred with the opening credits and other remarks made in the first season. In the series pilot, she had been at the diner five weeks.
When she was asked if Don had been insured, she replied, "Never, Don didn't believe in insurance." When Mel asked why, she replied, "It didn't come in a six-pack."
Mel's Diner wasn't the best job in the world for Alice, but it was a job, which she needed. The theme song hinted that "if things work out she's gonna stay" and that she did for nine seasons.
Along the way, Alice made friends, and even Mel became a needed father figure for Tommy, although some of his shenanigans met with some disapproval from Alice. Although she could (and did) put Mel in his place at times, she occasionally referred to him as "Boss" as she really did had a great deal of respect for him. (An example was when he returned, she would say, "Hi, Boss").
She also got on quite well with Mel's mother Carrie Sharples. Carrie often greeted Alice with the line, "You little Dickens you!" which was her sign of affection for Alice. They also bonded as both were from the same area. While Alice was from New Jersey, Carrie was from New York City.
In the first few seasons, her best friend was Florence Jean Castleberry. Alice sometimes called her Floey. She took a motherly role to Alice when she started at the diner, and helped Alice grow into the job. She also became friends with the shy and somewhat clumsy Vera Louise Gorman.
Even Mel tended to respect Alice, and it was she, in her disguise as a hit man–mobster named "Sam Butler" that saved him from disaster as well as her other friends' bacon many a time.
During her time at the diner, she would also go to night school and took classes in psychology, which would sometimes lead to spats between her and the others.
Alice was the character that seemed to always give advice, but also the one that everyone turned to for advice. In more than one episode, Alice was persuaded to break the news of something controversial to another character when it really wasn't her place to be telling it.
Whenever she asked "Why is it always ME who has to tell him/her?" the person or persons who want Alice to tell the bad news would usually come up with some contrived (and sometimes very silly) reasons why it was to be her and not them.
Despite her working at the diner, Alice was able to sing periodically, not necessarily with Mel's support, as he despised moonlighting and frequently verbalized it. Her choice of music was the old standards and sometimes that felt out of place in the Southwest. But she was a trouper and pulled it off. In later episodes, her main venue for singing was at Vinnie's House of Veal, which was run by a friend of Mel's with locations in both Phoenix and Lake Havasu City.
Invariably, whenever Mel was out of the diner for some reason or other (like going to the bank, or getting a haircut or some other errand), it was often Alice who would take up the beanie and the spatula and do the cooking; and she often did a very good job, decent enough to bring some good business to the diner. After years of cooking for Tommy, she was able to do a great enough job of cooking for Mel's customers. This also showed the amount of trust that Mel had for Alice.
Tommy also inherited his mother's love of music and played quite a mean guitar. Several episodes featured Tommy and Alice singing together, and in several occasions, Alice, Vera and Jolene formed a trio, including the highly-rated Joel Grey two-part episode. Even in the first episode, Alice showed her musical talent, when Flo rolled a piano into the diner; and Mel approved of Alice's singing.
Alice was also friendly with one of the diner's main regulars, telephone company worker Henry Beesmeyer. Their friendship was once misunderstood by Henry's usually never-seen wife Chloe.
As Flo left for Houston, Texas for a hostessing job (and her own show, Flo), Alice became the head waitress (as she had become knowledgeable); the motherly figure for the other waitresses and helped both of Flo's replacements Belle Dupree and Jolene Hunnicutt get used to the long hours, little pay and trying to keep one step ahead of Mel.
Alice was the emotional center of the diner and often the voice of reason. Even Mel looked to her for advice, as she was most level-headed, even though he tended to dismiss her as a "broad" just like the other waitresses. Alice often had to help defuse the tension whenever someone (usually Mel) would make a ruckus.
However, she was also passionate enough to get into situations she would later regret. Throughout the series' run, she would confront members of her family. The first season introduced Alice's mother-in-law and father-in-law, Rose and Charlie Hyatt, in a two-part episode (While Alice got along wonderfully with Charlie, whom she called Grandpa, Rose, who was played by actress Eileen Heckart lived up to every stereotype of her role and more).
During her appearance, Rose even tried to have Tommy taken from Alice to move him back to New Jersey, but Alice made it clear that would not happen and seriously confronted Rose on this scheme, which made it revealed that she and Charlie were having marital problems. She helped reunite them, and they both went back to New Jersey and Tommy remained with his mother.
In the fifth and seventh seasons, Doris Roberts played Alice's mom Mona Spivak.
Nine years later, with Tommy grown up and attending Arizona State University, Alice finally realized her singing dream, although in a different fashion than she imagined. She wound up going to Nashville, Tennessee, where incidentally, her friend Belle had gone to, with singer Travis Marsh (played by Linda Lavin's second husband Kip Niven), the twin brother of a former boyfriend of Vera's.
Travis had originally kidnapped Alice, and wanted her to join his band. Alice, however, acceded to his request on the condition that she end her current romantic relationship with a writer; and that she end her job at Mel's. It was fortuitous for her that Mel had sold the diner and was closing for good. Alice, like the rest of her coworkers, received a $5,000 farewell bonus from Mel and one of the little cow creamers as a souvenir. While cleaning her locker, she came across the "Waitress Wanted" sign that she saw in the window, nine years previous, when she arrived in Phoenix and was looking for work.
Those who watched Alice faithfully over the years (from 1976 to 1985) noticed that the character's hairstyle changed once or more during each season, going from long to short and straight to curly (and back again) during its nine seasons. The theme song was re-recorded the first six seasons, so that added to the continually changing and evolving nature of the series.