Alice: Season 06 (1981)

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Season Six of Alice finds most of the series' original cast still intact: Linda Lavin as waitress and wannabe singer Alice, Philip McKeon as her now 17-year-old son Tommy, Vic Tayback as her bombastic boss Mel, and Beth Howland as airheaded fellow waitress Vera. Missing from the scene is Diane Ladd as waitress Belle Dupree, who'd been brought in during season four to replace departing regular Polly Holliday. Filling the gap left by Ladd is Celia Weston as the newest waitress at Mel's Diner, brassy Jolene Hunnicutt. Additionally, Mel's celebrated chili has attracted several new regular customers, among them Jerry (Jerry Potter) and Mitch (Phillip R. Allen). Heading the guest-star manifest this season is Donald O'Connor, appearing as himself in an episode wherein Vera attempts to enter the Guinness Book of World Record's with history's longest sustained tap-dance. Later episodes feature Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond) as Alice's meddling mom Mona Spivak, who shows up just in time to ruin her daughter's 40th birthday celebration; former Welcome Back Kotter regular Ron Pallilo) and future Tonight Show host Jay Leno as a brace of skuzzy bikers named Muther and Bones; George Wendt, still two years removed from Cheers, as Alice's would-be suitor, who threatens to commit suicide when she spurns him; and, for the fourth successive season, Martha Raye as Mel's mom Carrie Sharples, who once again succeed in making her son's life miserable by planning to publish his top-secret chili recipe in her new cookbook. Two of the episodes seen during Season Six, "Mel's Cousin" and "Vera's Bouncing Check", were actually filmed for the 4th season, but held back from view due to a Hollywood writer's strike. And finally, we have "Mel's Christmas Carol", which honors the unwritten law that every sitcom must offer at least one takeoff of the Dickens Yuletide classic (For the record, the "Marley" counterpart is herein played by Jack Gilford). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi