Alice Hyatt - From New Jersey To Phoenix

From New Jersey To Phoenix

Alice (maiden name, Graham in the movie; Spivak in the television series) 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.

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. Whilst 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 Vera Louise Gorman-Novak.

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.

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.

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 a haircut or some other errand), sometimes, Alice would take up the beanie and the spatula and do some of the cooking; and she often did a decent job, enough to bring 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 Gray 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, Alice became the head waitress (as she had become knowledgeable in being a waitress); 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). 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 her close friend, Vera.

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 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. 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.