Tag: Linda Lavin

CBS Sunday Nights 1978

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This short CBS promo was advertising a surprisingly historic Sunday night on March 19, 1978. All in the Family said goodbye to Mike and Gloria as regular characters, Alice welcomed country star Jerry Reed as himself, and The Carol Burnett Show featured Steve Lawrence and Bernadette Peters in a musical salute to Cole Porter

The three programs represented an incredible stretch of television history. All in the Family aired from 1971 to 1979, Alice from 1976 to 1985 and The Carol Burnett Show from 1967 to 1978. Carol’s series was nearing its emotional finale, while CBS was still using Archie Bunker and Alice Hyatt to build one of Sunday television’s strongest comedy blocks

Even the music carried impressive credentials. Broadway composers Charles Strouse and Lee Adams created “Those Were the Days,” Linda Lavin sang an Alice theme written by David Shire and the Bergmans, and Carol’s familiar closing song was written by her husband and producer, Joe Hamilton

Flo: A Sitcom Spinoff Disaster

The popular CBS sitcom Alice, which ran from 1976 to 1985, was loosely based on the successful 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The plot had recently widowed Alice Hyatt (played by Linda Lavin) taking a waitress job in Mel’s Diner, a Phoenix eatery, to make ends meet. One of her waitress colleagues was feisty Florence (Flo) Castleberry played by Polly Holliday. The character became so popular that CBS launched a sitcom focusing on Flo. The premise of the spinoff was that Flo had moved back home to Cowtown, Texas to assume the management of a rundown roadhouse which she re-christened Flo’s Yellow Rose. As a mid-season replacement, Flo aired on Monday nights in March and April 1980 and got as high as number seven in the Neilsen ratings. However, when Flo returned in the fall of 1980 its time slot was moved several times. Ratings tanked and it was gone after a total of 29 episodes. The Flo character never returned to Alice (with the exception of old clips in the series finale). Here is the opening montage of Flo.

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