Cafe Americain – Nostalgia Central

1 9 9 3 – 1 9 9 4 (USA)
18 x 30 minute episodes

This single-season NBC sitcom starred Valerie Bertinelli as Holly Aldridge, a young American divorcee who moves from her native Minneapolis to France, looking to “smoke cigarettes, drink absinthe and date artists”.

Although Holly doesn’t speak French very well (which often causes her trouble), she finds a job as a waitress at a small Parisian cafe – the Cafe Americain – where she meets a strange assortment of characters from around the world, gradually becomes friends with them, and starts to find her place in her new home.

Margaret Hunt (Lila Kaye) is the cafe manager; former dictator’s wife Madame Ybarra (Jodi Long) is a thinly veiled spoof of Imelda Marcos; and tempestuous Italian model Fabiana Borelli (Sofia Milos)  spars and reconciles regualrly with her perpetually jealous Italian lover Carlo (Luigi Amodeo) who declares of any rival – real or imagined – “I kill him! I kill him bad! I kill him two times!”

Holly has an on-and-off relationship with Marcel (Maurice Godin), which is interrupted by several guest star suitors.

Holly Aldridge
Valerie Bertinelli
Marcel Coutard
Maurice Godin
Steve Sullivan
Graham Beckel
Madame Ybarra
Jodi Long
Fabiana Borelli
Sofia Milos
Margaret Hunt
Lila Kaye
Carlo Benini
Luigi Amodeo

Episodes

Pilot | Le Confidence Game | Weekend at Holly’s | The Language of Really Good Friends | Happy Birthday to Moi | Every Picture Tells a Story . . . Don’t It? | Home Alone | There’s No Business Like Show Business | And Giblets for All | Toast of the Town | Mommy Dearest | Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly | The Dating Game | Le Date | All About Kelly | Love the One You’re With | Oh, Brother | The Fashion Show

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