[mstewart]

Originally Posted by Dr. Thong

It's no secret that Linda Lavin and Polly Holliday did not get along and that their egos clashed mightily behind the scenes.

Lavin was none too happy that the supporting character of Flo was more popular and was a scene stealer. However, Lavin should have realized that the supporting characters almost always steal the show and end up more popular.

The lead characters have to be anchors and more down to earth. It's just the way it is.

Look at Marla Gibbs -- she had all those sassy one liners as Florence on The Jeffersons, but when she was later the star of her own show, 227, she was more of a "straight man" character while Jackee Harry was the sexy, sassy character who got all the great one-liners.


If you saw the episode with Eve Arden when Tommy went on the talk show Alice hardly ever looked in Flo's direction during the episode. When Tommy blabbed out on TV about Flo leaving Tommy by himself at her mobile home trailer when she watched him while Alice was out of town. You can see the tension between those two in the interacting when Flo told Alice that she was jealous and you can see Polly actually telling Linda that. Linda's reactions to Polly's Flo was hard and obvious that there was resentment that it was becoming Flo's show. The producers should had dealt with Linda on that instead they gave her own her show and not coming back to Alice after it failed

It's too bad that Holliday couldn't have returned to Alice once her show flopped, but I doubt she would have wanted to.