While Mel is sleeping in the storeroom, Alice is robbed at gunpoint at the counter.

Flo finds herself without a date on New Year's Eve.

Alice is angry when Tommy conducts his first romance on her telephone.

Mel tells the girls to ""stow it"" for the last time, then sells the diner to a humorless martinet.

A wealthy Houston restaurateur offers Flo a job she finds hard to refuse.

On Halloween, Alice's latest heartthrob asks her to shepherd his four kids for the evening.

It's Alice's 40th birthday, and for the milestone she gets a millstone, a visit from her meddling mother.

Mel becomes despondent when he realizes he has no heirs.

Alice blows the whistle on Tommy's basketball playing when his grades start to slip.

Valentine's Day promises anything but hearts and flowers for the diner staff, who all quarrel with their dates.

Mel considers getting a nose job while undergoing surgery for a deviated septum.

Carrie is slow to come out of a depression after a quickie divorce.

Mel is stripping his gears over his jazzy new Porsche he purchased for a measly $20.

Vera wishes her landlady the worst for evicting her pets then feels responsible when the old crank's apartment catches on fire.

Afraid that he's lost the ""right stuff,"" Tommy quits the basketball team.

After Mel decides to have the waitresses bonded, Vera owns up to a criminal past and takes it on the lam.

After a whirlwind courtship, Vera walks down the aisle with her intended.

Trophy winner Jolene throws Mel a curve when she won't pitch on his softball team.

After a winning first day at the track, Tommy bets he'll score in the betting business.

Vera takes a tumble trying to rescue a nest of baby blue jays from the diner sign before Mel gets to them with a broom.

Vera yearns for a romantic first wedding anniversary, but it gets off to anything but a romantic start and goes rapidly downhill from there.

Jolene's appearance on the ""Working Women"" talk show does nothing to boost business at Mel's Diner.

Vera's secretly moonlighting as a sultry deejay called Nightbird and she's turning on all the males in Phoenix in the process.

On the final day at the diner, Mel closes the blinds and gives away the cow creamers as the gang reminisces about the last nine years.