A greasy-spoon diner in Phoenix, Arizona is the setting for this long-running series. The title character, Alice Hyatt (Linda Lavin), is an aspiring singer who arrives in Phoenix with her teenaged son, Tommy, after the death of her truck-driver husband. Alice is hired at a diner owned by Mel Sharples (Vic Tayback), a gravel-voiced, male-chauvinist fry cook. She works at Mel's Diner as a waitress while awaiting her big break at fame. Alice's fellow waitresses are the raucous, red-headed Flo (Polly Holliday) and the naive, temperamental, less attractive Vera (Beth Howland). Flo is later replaced by Belle (Diane Ladd), a Southern blonde, who is herself soon replaced by the spunky, curly-haired Jolene (Celia Weston). Alice and her friends experience several interesting years together at Mel's Diner, which is frequented by quirky truck drivers, repairmen, and other blue collar types and by several Hollywood celebrities, who appear as themselves. Loosely based on the 1974 cinematic movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, which featured Ellen Burstyn in the title role, the TV series featured an entirely different cast save for Tayback, who reprised his movie role (Diane Ladd appeared later in the series playing a role different from the one she had played in the film).