Episode 1
Has Anyone Here Seen Telly?
1979-09-23 • 30 min
Telly Savalas gives star-struck Vera a thrill when he stops by the diner while she's working there alone. When no one believes her story, she quits in a huff.
TV season
1979-09-23
Episode 1
1979-09-23 • 30 min
Telly Savalas gives star-struck Vera a thrill when he stops by the diner while she's working there alone. When no one believes her story, she quits in a huff.
Episode 2
1979-09-30 • 30 min
Alice's sour reaction to Tommy's matchmaking efforts threatens Mel's new promotional gimmick which is free meals to customers if his waitresses don't smile.
Episode 3
1979-10-07 • 30 min
Mel gives a big engagement ring to his girlfriend Marie, but the sparkle quickly fades when he insists that she sign a premarital agreement.
Episode 4
1979-10-21 • 30 min
Just one dance lesson and Tommy falls head over heels for his instructor, Vera.
Episode 5
1979-10-28 • 30 min
Mel is convinced that his chief competitor is romancing Flo just to get the recipe for Mel's Texas-style chili, rated by a food critic as being ""the best in the West.""
Episode 6
1979-11-04 • 30 min
Vera's boyfriend objects to her sketching nude males in art class.
Episode 7
1979-11-11 • 30 min
The return of Mel's domineering mother does nothing for his ego because after his back goes out, the customers flock in, for his mother's cooking.
Episode 8
1979-11-18 • 30 min
Things get hotter than Mel's chili when Dinah Shore invites Mel to prepare his recipe on her show and bring along one, but only one waitress.
Episode 9
1979-12-02 • 30 min
Mel, his girlfriend and the waitresses spend the weekend packed like sardines in a fishing cabin.
Episode 10
1979-12-09 • 30 min
Vera asks Art Carney, a sixth cousin on her father's side, to endorse Mel's chili, so it can be marketed frozen as Chili con Carney.
Episode 11
1979-12-23 • 30 min
A yule tale (with a touch of O. Henry's ""The Gift of the Magi"") finds the girls pooling their meager resources to celebrate Christmas at the diner.
Episode 12
1980-01-06 • 30 min
Flo takes the wheel herself when she learns that her trucker beau has a female partner.
Episode 13
1980-01-13 • 30 min
Tommy stirs up trouble by candidly discussing his elders on a TV talk show.
Episode 14
1980-01-27 • 30 min
Mel installs a time clock which prompts the waitresses to demand overtime for the Sunday cleanup they used to do for nothing.
Episode 15
1980-02-03 • 30 min
Mel is delighted that his mother is planning to remarry until he meets his prospective stepfather.
Episode 16
1980-02-10 • 30 min
Tommy has his heart set on taking his girl to a formal Valentine's dance and he needs a tuxedo.
Episode 17
1980-02-17 • 30 min
Mel plays host to a buddy whose wife has just left him.
Episode 18
1980-02-24 • 30 min
A wealthy Houston restaurateur offers Flo a job she finds hard to refuse.
Episode 19
1980-03-02 • 30 min
Mel hires Belle, a Mississippi belle who rings Mel's chimes as ""one of the best waitresses I've ever had."" However, Belle is now aiming for lusher pastures as a country-music writer.
Episode 20
1980-03-09 • 30 min
The new waitress Belle is making big points with her old boss Mel, but she's scoring zero with Alice and Vera.
Episode 21
1980-03-16 • 30 min
Heartbroken over her boy friend's sudden lack of attention, Vera begs Belle to transform her into a sex goddess.
Episode 22
1980-03-23 • 30 min
Mel signs a profit-sharing agreement with the girls just before learning he'll get a tidy sum for letting the city condemn his property.
Episode 23
1980-03-30 • 30 min
Mel is receptive to an infatuated tour guide, as long as she keeps steering tourists into his diner.
Episode 24
1980-04-06 • 30 min
Alice allows Tommy to stay with Mel, prompting a wager between Alice and Mel, she bets that he will kick Tommy out and Mel bets that Alice will snoop on her son.