Aired: 9/23/1979
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.
Aired: 9/30/1979
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.
Aired: 10/7/1979
Mel gives a big engagement ring to his girlfriend Marie, but the sparkle quickly fades when he insists that she sign a premarital agreement.
Aired: 10/21/1979
Just one dance lesson and Tommy falls head over heels for his instructor, Vera.
Aired: 10/28/1979
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.""
Aired: 11/4/1979
Vera's boyfriend objects to her sketching nude males in art class.
Aired: 11/11/1979
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.
Aired: 11/18/1979
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.
Aired: 12/2/1979
Mel, his girlfriend and the waitresses spend the weekend packed like sardines in a fishing cabin.
Aired: 12/9/1979
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.
Aired: 12/23/1979
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.
Aired: 1/6/1980
Flo takes the wheel herself when she learns that her trucker beau has a female partner.
Aired: 1/13/1980
Tommy stirs up trouble by candidly discussing his elders on a TV talk show.
Aired: 1/27/1980
Mel installs a time clock which prompts the waitresses to demand overtime for the Sunday cleanup they used to do for nothing.
Aired: 2/3/1980
Mel is delighted that his mother is planning to remarry until he meets his prospective stepfather.
Aired: 2/10/1980
Tommy has his heart set on taking his girl to a formal Valentine's dance and he needs a tuxedo.
Aired: 2/17/1980
Mel plays host to a buddy whose wife has just left him.
Aired: 2/24/1980
A wealthy Houston restaurateur offers Flo a job she finds hard to refuse.
Aired: 3/2/1980
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.
Aired: 3/9/1980
The new waitress Belle is making big points with her old boss Mel, but she's scoring zero with Alice and Vera.
Aired: 3/16/1980
Heartbroken over her boy friend's sudden lack of attention, Vera begs Belle to transform her into a sex goddess.
Aired: 3/23/1980
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.
Aired: 3/30/1980
Mel is receptive to an infatuated tour guide, as long as she keeps steering tourists into his diner.
Aired: 4/6/1980
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.