RIP Linda Lavin

Best known for "Alice," but her IMDB file is longer than any of our arms. Fine actress.

 

Didn't realize the guy who played her kid, Nancy McKeon's brother, died five years ago. CBS was ahead of its time in the 70s. I'd always thought of it as a stodgy network, but three top shows with strong, independent female leads (MTM, One Day at a Time, Alice) sitcoms no less. Later with Murphy Brown and Designing Women. I've always thought of ABC as the "women's network," but CBS was there before they devolved into CSINCISJAGFBI

 

Not to mention Good Times, especially early on. Imagine trying to pitch “It’s about a black family in the projects,” at any point after the March on Washington and not only getting it through but having it become a cultural touchstone. And then you have The Jeffersons with the neighbors in an interracial marriage and tackling no end of serious issues.

 

Part of my childhood.

 

Does this make Polly Holliday the last surviving cast member?

RIP to a woman I watched every Monday night and countless times in reruns.

 

I could watch an Alice marathon at any time and love every minute of it.

Last time I saw it somewhere, I caught the series finale. Really struck me how they got shit done without a lot of bells and whistles back in the day. They used a regular 30-minute episode to wrap up the entire series and tie up every character's life outside of the diner moving forward.

 

It's on Antenna TV in the middle of the night now. If I'm still awake and still working on something Alice comes on, I know I done fucked up because it's 2 a.m. on the east coast.

 

Strong women and old school man getting put into his place regularly. Norman Lear was a catalyst ... produced Maude, One Day at a Time, All in the Family, The Jeffersons and Good Times

 

When Alice did that bit where she acted like a male mobster, it freaked me out as a kid.

 

And it all started with "All In The Family," which was groundbreaking at the time.

 

I always loved the episodes when Jolene drove the truck through the front door of the diner and when they went to Vegas.

 

I never quite got the premise as laid out in this intro. So the car dies on the way to LA and there is presumably no money to fix it or continue the trip. But they land an apartment before she ever walks into the diner to take the job advertised in the window?