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The Mystery of "Alice"

LKellerIII said:
I don't entirely agree. I'm not trying to imply that I'm a cultured person of great taste, or anything - but I thought Alice was crap at the time. It didn't help that it was created from an excellent theatrical film - Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore with Ellen Burstyn and Harvey Keitel. The only thing the two had in common was the diner and the "Mel" character, played by the same actor, who only had a few lines in the film.

There is another thread here about The Golden Girls, and how well it has aged. Somebody replying compared it to All in the Family which seems dated today because it was topical, and those topics are about 1970's politics. But AITF was an excellent show in its time - Alice was always crap.

I've seen Linda Lavin in other vehicles since then - usually in character parts, and she is quite good, so it wasn't her that was the problem...though in my opinion, she could not sing.
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The problem was, she never believed anyone who told her that(and had them fired from the show, if they were involved).
Even when they eventually moved away from Alice-centric episodes being about her looking for a big break in showbiz, there were still too many contrived opportunities for her to sing.
 
onairb2014 said:
The problem was, she never believed anyone who told her that(and had them fired from the show, if they were involved).
Even when they eventually moved away from Alice-centric episodes being about her looking for a big break in showbiz, there were still too many contrived opportunities for her to sing.
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IIRC, she sang the theme song, which was just awful - not the tune or lyrics...her voice.
 
There were also the typically lame episodes where Lavin would be in disguise as another character.

Another weak aspect was the frequently-used plot device of the (washed up) celebrity showing up at the diner...
 
LKellerIII said:
IIRC, she sang the theme song, which was just awful - not the tune or lyrics...her voice.
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And there were different, equally cringeworthy, styles, originally sung in a bluesy--jazzy style(ending with a horrific shot of Tommy pouring water for Alice to soak her feet, and Lavin attempting to scat the final FA-FA-FA-FA-FAAAA....), then the ridiculously upbeat showtune version(ending with an episode clip of Vera throwing a net over Mel).
 
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