by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Dinah Shore appears as herself in this episode, which was taped back when Dinah had her own popular syndicated talk show. A daily feature of Ms. Shore's program is a cooking session, and Mel (Vic Tayback) has been invited to prepare his own special chili before the cameras. Problem is, Mel can bring only one of his waitresses to appear on the show with him--and thus does a monumental battle for one-upsmanship rage amongst Alice (Linda Lavin), Flo (Polly Holliday) and Vera (Beth Howland).
