Surprising Stories from the Set of the Sitcom Alice

When Polly Holliday left in 1980 to star in Flo, CBS brought in Celia Weston as Jolene Hunnicutt, a sweet but quietly sharp waitress from the South. Replacing a breakout character with a national catchphrase is never easy — and Weston walked straight into that pressure.

Jolene wasn’t written as a Flo clone, which was smart, but it meant winning over viewers in a different way. Weston stayed with the series for several seasons, yet comparisons were inevitable. Following “Kiss my grits!” with anything at all was always going to be a tough shift.