| Florence Jean Castleberry | |
|---|---|
 Polly Holliday as Florence Jean "Flo" Castleberry on the CBS-TV series Alice' | |
| Personal Information | |
| Alias/Also known as: | "Flo" |
| Gender: | Female |
| Hair Color: | Red |
| Occupation/ Career: |
Waitress, Mel's Diner / Owner, Flo's Yellow Rose roadhouse in Texas |
| Character description: |
Sassy type who knows how to put Mel in his place with comments such as "Kiss My grits!" and "When donkeys fly!" |
| Domestic partner(s): | (Seasons 2-7) & Nicholas Stone (Season 9) |
| Related to: | Edsel Jarvis (father) Velma Castleberry (mother) Joe Castleberry (brother) Lonnie Castleberry (brother) Rhett Castleberry (brother) Fran Castleberry (sister) |
| Hometown | Talladega, Alabama, U.S., raised in Cowton, Texas, U.S. |
| Character information | |
| Appeared on: | |
| Episodes appeared in: | 90 in Alice TV series 29 on Flo TV series |
| Character played by: | Diane Ladd in 1974 film Polly Holliday on TV |
Florence Jean Castleberry, better known as Flo, was a character in the movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and on the long-running CBS-TV situation comedy Alice as well as the CBS-TV series spin-off, Flo. She was played on the TV series by actress Polly Holliday.[1] In the movie, Flo was played by actress Diane Ladd (who would later play Flo's replacement, Belle Dupree on the Alice TV series
About Flo[]
Florence Jean Castleberry was born in Talladega, Alabama and raised in the small community of Cowtown, Texas, to Edsel Jarvis (Forrest Tucker) and Velma Castleberry (Sudie Bond). In many ways Velma had been a raucous woman herself; and that was how Flo became who she was. She also had three younger brothers - Jimmie Joe Castleberry (Burton Gilliam), Lonnie Castleberry (G.W. Bailey), Rhett Castleberry (Robert Ayers), and a younger sister named Fran Castleberry(Lucy Lee Flippin).
Jimmie Joe fell madly in love with Alice in the episode of "Alice", "Love Me, Love My Horse". Lonnie and Rhett appeared in an episode of "Flo", "A Castleberry Thanksgiving". Fran and Flo were opposites in every way. Where Flo was outgoing and graceful, Fran was introverted and clumsy. Fran, who worked at the Department of Motor Vehicles, was forever engaged to a feed store worker named Wendell Tubbs. While in Cowtown, Flo had worked as a waitress, and was considered one of the best. Her best friend in Cowtown was a woman named Miriam Willoughby (Joyce Bulifant).
Flo dropped out of school at age 16 to get married. After three extremely unsuccessful marriages, (all three were in front of Justices of the Peace, she said that those three quickies didn't seem to take) Flo became a waitress at Mel's Diner in Phoenix, Arizona, a roadside diner run by one Mel Sharples.
Flo was the old-hand waitress and took on a motherly role when Alice Hyatt came to Phoenix and began to work for Mel. Although she and Vera Louise Gorman got along, she didn't know what to make of her, as she was shy and clumsy, much like her sister Fran would become. She also flirted with many of the male customers, mostly to annoy Mel.
Flo and Mel had an adversarial relationship. They respected one another, but Flo wouldn't stand for Mel's sexism and greed. Whenever she was angry at him, which was often, she would often floor him with her famous catchphrase, "Mel, kiss mah grits!!!" Other expressions she used most often were, "When donkeys fly!!!" and "You bet your sweet patoot!"
Sometimes, Flo would get insanely jealous over male attention being given to other people. She was jealous of her boyfriend, Sy, working with a female trucker named Toni, so she tried to learn to drive a semi herself, with the unwilling help of Alice, whose late husband, Donald, was a semi-driver. All Flo succeeded in doing was driving the semi right through the front of the diner, infuriating Mel who went after her.
Alice and Flo were best friends. She also liked Alice's son, Tommy Hyatt, whom she called "Tiger".
After several years at Mel's Diner, Flo left Phoenix, to take a hostessing job at the Thundering Herd restaurant in Houston, Texas, but stopped back in Cowtown and, on a dare, bought a roadhouse from her girlhood days, renaming it Flo's Yellow Rose. This set the stage for her spin-off series, Flo.
On Flo, her most frequent adversary was the tightwad banker, Farley Waters, who held the mortgage on Flo's Yellow Rose, an old rundown roadhouse that she remembered fondly from her chilhood that she decided to by and renovate. They mutually despised one another, although Flo usually got the better of him, much as she did to Mel.
She got on somewhat well with the bartender, Earl Tucker, who called her señorita, although she could also be annoyed by him, because he didn't much like working for a woman, however he did make a go of it. The only others whom she did easily get on well with, was Les Kincaid, the learned piano player; Miriam, who worked at the Yellow Rose with her friend; and Randy, the mechanic from the garage across the street from the Yellow Rose.
In one of the later episodes of Flo, Mel himself made a visit to Cowtown, to see how Flo was getting on running her own business and to meet her family and friends. Mel was the only character from Alice who had made a visit to Flo.
References[]
External links[]
- Florence Jean Castleberry article at Wikipedia
