Que Linda!

Beloved as Alice, Linda Lavin returns to  CBS with the comedy 9JKL

- Brantley Bardin

IF SHE WERE BRITISH, SHE’D be Dame Linda Lavin, and on either side of the pond, she has cred to burn. Winner of two Golden Globes, a Tony, two Obie Awards, and two Drama Desk Awards—and an inductee of the Theater Hall of Fame—the glam 80-year-old remains an omnipresent critics’ darling of New York stages as well as an acclaimed cabaret chanteuse.

She debuted 55 years ago on Broadway, where her director, the legendary Harold Prince, became her lifelong mentor. It was her switch to the small screen in 1976 that made the Portland, Maine-born actress a treasured household name, with her titular role as Alice in its nine-year run. Now, with the new comedy 9JKL, Lavin returns to TV as Judy, the quick-witted wife to Elliott Gould and mother of Mark Feuerstein. Alice’s “new girl in town” is back!

9JKL stands for three side-by-side New York City apartments where Mr. Feuerstein’s out-of-work actor is sandwiched in “K” between his hilariously doting, boundary-free mom as well as his dad, with his brother, sister-in-law, and their new baby on the other side. Having fun?

A great time! What attracted me when I read the pilot script was that I knew I’d have fun. I played Mark Feuerstein’s mother on a show [