Martin Scorsese’s Great Anomaly: Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

Martin Scoresese’s films have inspired a great many things, but a workplace sitcom and TV catchphrase wouldn’t seem to be on that list. Yet, that’s exactly what happened in 1976 when CBS adapted the director’s anti-A Star is Born drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore into the TV series Alice. It’s about a single mother’s waitressing misadventures at Mel’s Diner on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona, but even though Alice’s story ultimately played out over 9 seasons the show’s still best remembered for consummate scene-stealer Polly Holliday, whose Texas-born waitress Flo gave the world the immortal catchphrase “Kiss my grits!”