WOO logo

Wizard Recommends

Alice Trivia

This week we pay tribute to Polly Holiday, who died on September 9 at the age of 88. She is best known for playing the role of sassy waitress Flo on the television series Alice. Polly was sadly the last remaining major cast member on the show to leave us. Yes, even Philip McKeon, who played Tommy, died in 2019 at the age of 55.

The series ran from 1976 to 1978, making me 11 to 13 at the time. It was one of my favorite shows and I watched it in reruns often. Several years ago, on a visit to Phoenix, I paid a visit to the real Mel’s Diner, on which the show was based. Unfortunately, it was closed at the late hour I was there.

To honor Polly Holiday, I present an Alice trivia challenge, with questions I hand picked myself. However, before we get to that, I present our weekly logic puzzle and a mention wizardofodds.com got on Jeopardy!

Jeopardy

The 9/11/2025 episode of Jeopardy featured the following clue.

Jeopardy

The answer is of course “split.” As a big fan of Jeopardy, I’m very proud of the mention of the web site I founded. It’s been a dream of mine to actually play on the show, but alas, I will settle for the mention in a clue.

Logic Puzzle

Find the one 10-digit "autobiographic number." Such a number describes itself with the number in each position, starting with 0, equaling the count of that digit in the whole number.

For example, 1210 is one because:

There is a 1 one in the 0 position and there is 1 numeral 0 in the entire number.

There is a 2 in the 1 position and there are 2 numeral 1's in the entire number.

There is a 1 in the 2 position and there is 1 numeral 2 in the entire number.

There is 0 in in the 3 position and there are 0 numeral 3's in the entire number.

Alice Trivia Questions

alice
Image source: People.com
  1. Name the original three waitresses.
  2. What was the name of the diner featured in the show?
  3. Who is the only actor to play the same role in both the movie and television show?
  4. Name Alice’s son.
  5. Name the only spinoff from Alice.
  6. In what city did the show take place?
  7. What profession did Alice really want to do?
  8. Who replaced Flo when she left?
  9. Who replaced the answer to question 6 when she left?
  10. What was Flo’s catchphrase?
  11. Alice was tied for the top show in 1977, 1980 and 1983 with what other popular show?
  12. As explained in both the movie and tv show, what brought Alice to the answer to question 5?
  13. Where did Alice move from?
  14. What food in the diner did customers actually like?
  15. What nickname did Mel give Vera?
  16. What was the show’s theme song?
  17. What was the profession of Henry?
  18. The television show was inspired by what movie?
  19. What was the name of the apartment complex where Alice lived?
  20. Who was Vera’s boyfriend through the latter seasons?
  21. What sport did Alice’s son (from question 3) play?
  22. Who was Mel’s on and off girlfriend?
  23. What was the name of Mel’s competing restaurant?
  24. Mel had an addiction to what?
  25. Tommy was played by actor Philip McKeon’s. His sister was Nancy McKeon, who was famous for what role in another television series?
 
tv series
Image source: Wikipedia

Alice Trivia Answers

  1. Alice Hyatt, Ver Louise Gorman, Flo Castleberry
  2. Mel’s Diner
  3. Vic Tayback, who played Mel. Some other actors appeared in both, but in different roles.
  4. Tommy Hyatt
  5. Flo
  6. Phoenix
  7. Singer
  8. Belle
  9. Jolene Hunnicutt
  10. “Kiss my grits!”
  11. M*A*S*H
  12. Alice’s car broke down on the way to Los Angeles.
  13. New Jersey
  14. Mel’s Chili
  15. Dingy
  16. There’s a New Girl in Town
  17. Telephone company repairman
  18. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
  19. Desert Sun
  20. Elliott
  21. Basketball
  22. Marie Massey
  23. Vinnie’s House of Veal
  24. Gambling
  25. She played the role of Jo on ‘The Facts of Life. ‘
 

Source of most questions: Howstuffworks

Logic Puzzle Answer

6210001000

Logic Puzzle Solution

Consider the first digit first, starting with a 9.

If a 9 were the first digit, it would imply 9 zeroes. There are only 9 positions left, so it would have to be 9000000000. However, the last position needs to be at least 1 for the 9. So, a 9 in the first position is out.

If an 8 were the first digit, it would imply 8 zeroes. We will need at least a 1 for the second to last position for that 8. That puts us at 8000000010. However, we need a 1 in the second position for the 1 in the 9th position. So, an 8 in the first position is out.

If a 7 were the first digit, it would imply 7 zeroes. We will need at least one 1 for the third to last position for that 7. That puts us at 7000000100. We need to have at least a 1 in the second position for that 1 in the 8th position. That puts us at 7100000100, which has two 1’s. Let’s increase the second position to a 2: 7200000100. Now we need a 1 in the third position to that 2 in the second position. However, we have no more 0’s to get rid of as we need 7 of them. Adding a 1 in the third position would also cause a problem with the 1’s. For those reasons, a 7 in the first position is out.

If a 6 were the first digit, it would imply 6 zeroes. We will need at least a 1 in the 7th position for that 6. That puts us at 6000001000. We need least a 1 in the second position for that 1 in the 7th position. That puts us at 6100001000. Now there are two 1’s, so we need to increase the second position to a 2 and find another 1 to put somewhere. For now, we’re at 6200001000. We can put a 1 in the third position to both give us that extra 1 and to identify the 2 in the second position. That put’s us at 6210001000. That works!

I could go onto prove there are no other solutions, but I’ll leave that as an exercise for the reader (I always hate it when math books say that).