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