Remembering the “risky” gay storyline from a mid-1970s episode of ‘Alice’
Alice. It was a spinoff adaptation of the 1974 Martin Scorsese movie, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, starring Ellyn Burstyn.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.Alice was groundbreaking as it centered upon a working-class, single mom.
What many may not remember is that it featured a gay character in its very second episode way back in 1976.That episode was recalled by TV writer Jim Halterman in his weekly Substack newsletter: “Coffee, TV and Me”.Halterman interviewed Lavin 12 years ago when she played Sean Hayes’ mom in the short-lived sitcom, Sean Saves The World.Halterman asked Lavin how she thought Alice would have reacted if her son, Tommy, came out to her in the mid-1970s.Lavin said the episode of Alice filmed after the pilot in 1976 included a gay character.
It also explored Alice’s reaction to him.“There was a football player friend of Mel’s (Vic Tayback) who came to town,” said Lavin. “He was big, and tall, and handsome and blonde (and played by Denny Miller), and he invited me out to dinner, and I went to dinner with him.
And then he came back to the apartment, we’re sitting on the sofa, and Alice is very fond of this guy and wondering why he is not more attentive or affectionate.
