Taxi

When Jim Brooks, David Davis, Ed. Weinberger and Stan Daniels left MTM to form their own production company, they applied what worked well for them on shows like The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda to create and produce their own show and it would become Taxi.

The show was a true ensemble comedy like The Mary Tyler Moore Show with outstanding writing and a great cast with nobody dominating the story lines like Fonzie on Happy Days and Urkel on Family Matters,

The cast was anchored by Judd Hirsch, who played career cabbie Alex Rieger. He's the father figure of the bunch and supportive to would be boxer Tony Banta, played by Tony Danza, aspiring actor Bobby Wheeler, played by Jeff Conaway and the lone female driver Elaine Nardo, portrayed by Marilu Henner.

Also adding to the hysteria was Andy Kaufman as mechanic Latka, who comes from an unidentified foreign country. He created his mannerisms and language that brought a lot to each episode he was in.

But to me, the best character on the show was Louie DePalma, the nasty dispatcher that turned out to be the role that put Danny DeVito on the map. DeVito's portrayal of Louie turned to be the meanest boss on TV since Mr. Slate on The Flintstones. One the other side of the coin, Taxi was also the show that he worked with the woman who would become his wife, Rhea Perlman.

Another character who to me was very funny was Reverend Jim, the Christopher Lloyd character who became a regular in the second season after Randall Carver was let go. His portrayal of a burned out hippie, especially in the episode where he took his driver's test was outstanding.

One other character who came along later in the run was Simka Dahblitz, played by Carol Kane. She would later marry Latka.

The show would also be the launching pad for brothers Glen and Les Charles, who would later team up with James Burrows to create and produce another classic comedy, Cheers. Though Taxi won 18 Emmys and had a healthy five year run, it was sent to the garage after moving to NBC in the 1982-83 season. I'll close with the tag line that was heard after the closing credits "Thank you Mr. Walters."

One of the very funniest ensemble US sit-coms ever, I loved "Taxi" when it was first transmitted in the late 70's. I was too young to get into "M.A.S.H." from the start, "Soap" started brightly then faded, "Happy Days" and it's spin-offs were too young, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was only shown infrequently in the UK, "The Bob Newhart Show" wasn't picked up at all and "Rhoda" my other favourite of the era, only played on BBC2. "Taxi" was shown on BBC1 in the early evening and I almost never missed an episode.

The main character I suppose was Judd Hirsch as Alex, the go-to guy for anyone with a problem, while Marilu Henner as the sassy Elaine, Jeff Conaway as moonlighting actor Bobby and Tony Banta as Tony the dim-witted boxer were prominent in support, indeed the last two of course can be seen as morphing into the character of Joey in "Friends" 20 years or so later.

The real scene-stealers of course were Danny DeVito as the nasty, lippy depot manager Louie, Christopher Lloyd as the flaky Reverend Jim Ignatowski and Andy Kaufman as the surreal man-child Latka Graves. Without "Taxi" I doubt there would have been a "Cheers" or indeed "Friends" but with very funny scripts by a talented pool of writers including David Lloyd, the Charles brothers, Ken Estin and Earl Pomeranz and produced by James L Brooks, the laugh count in each episode was usually high and the longer you lived with the characters, the more you liked and almost knew them, especially as the action almost never left the front of the depot where the characters congregated.

I've just treated myself by re-watching my favourite episode, where Louie is seduced by the boss's wife, a vamped-up superb guest-shot by Eileen Brennan, in fact I'd go as far to say it's one of the funniest comedic shows ever. They couldn't all hit that standard, of course, but the general consistency kept it going for 114 episodes. It was De Vito and to a lesser degree Lloyd who would go on to break into films and as others have said its perhaps a little surprising that no spin-off shows were ever devised.

Perhaps it's better that way though, leaving the employees of the Sunshine Cab Company in our memory as the collective band of cabbies who regularly drove us into fits of laughter, week after week.

Taxi was, during it's five-year run, the most funny, engaging, memorable, and heartbreaking show on television. The show helped to redefine situation comedies and created a handful of classic characters.

The show revolves around the drivers at the Sunshine Cab company: Alex Rieger (Judd Hirsch) was the good-hearted mensch who finds himself solving everyone else's problems. Bobby Wheeler (Jeff Conaway) is an aspiring actor and ladies man. Tony Banta (Tony Danza) is a struggling boxer who can never seem to win a fight. Elaine Nardo (Marilu Henner) is a single mother of two with dreams of opening her own art gallery. Reverend Jim Ignatowski (Christopher Lloyd) is an absolute space cadet, and Louie DePalma (Danny DeVito) is surely the nastiest, angriest, most miserable boss in history. Thanks to DeVito's charm, he is still somehow lovable.

Besides the great acting in "Taxi," there was the writing- always funny and often bittersweet without ever being maudlin or melodramatic. There are episodes that can make you laugh so hard you cry, and vice versa. Thanks to the genius of director James Burrows Taxi stands as one of television's best shows. And who can forget the haunting theme by Bob James?

If you get a chance to see "Taxi," take it... here's hoping it gets a DVD release in the near future.

Grade: A+

Taxi ran for five seasons on television and sadly came to an end when too many of its cast members decided to strike out on their own and most had really successful careers. Can you imagine a show where Danny DeVito, Tony Danza, Andy Kaufman, and Christopher Lloyd all appeared and many times in the same episodes? Getting them at their full market big screen value would cause any studio to go chapter 11.

All of these people got their first big break on Taxi a comedy with only one set for most of the episodes. DeVito was cab dispatcher Louis DiPalma, a bully and a tyrant who reveled in his rule over the lives of his drivers. DeVito had few redeeming qualities other than he was a realist. Part of his realism was stepping on the dreams of others.

People like Tony Danza who drove a cab to pay the rent, but was really a boxer looking for the career path upwards and more than likely missed it drove for DeVito. Jeff Conaway was an actor who drove between gigs as most of the actors I know do something else for a living and dream of becoming stars. John Randall Carver was a young law student who left after a season. Marilu Henner was a divorcée and constantly avoiding the innuendos of DeVito of which there were plenty. She was sexually harassed, maybe the most sexually harassed woman ever to be a television character.

Funniest of all was Christopher Lloyd who was a drugged out refugee of the 60s. He replaced Carver and DeVito's barbs never bothered him because he dealt with them through ignorance. A lot like the way Chico Marx dealt with Groucho in their films.

The only one who could really deal with DeVito was Judd Hirsch who was as much New York as Jerry Orbach on Law And Order. He was a 40 something man who had no attachments and no pretensions, he drove a cab to earn a living and liked his job. He was friend and counselor to all and was one of the favorite characters I liked in all the decades of watching the tube.

Lastly there was Andy Kaufman who sadly did not live long after Taxi finished its run. He was unique to say the least in his comedy. The garage mechanic from some unnamed Eastern European country which allowed Kaufman to develop his own accent for his own country. He drove DeVito and the rest nuts with his nonsequiters in a foreign accent.

Taxi had one of the great ensemble casts in the history of television and incubated many a career still going to this day.

Funny thing, I never watched 'Taxi' during its initial run during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Something about the title, I never got past that. However, during its re-runs during the 1990s I became an enthusiastic fan. I taped all the episodes so I could watch them at my convenience (I didn't save them, so don't ask). It became like watching a 'family', much as did my other favorite, 'Northern Exposure.' Both series had a common quality, set in an unusual place, with quirky characters and meaningful stories, so that during each episode you actually begin to care for each one. Who could ever forget Alex Rieger, Louie De Palma, Elaine Nardo, Tony Banta, Latka Gravas, Simka, and my all-time favorite character, Christopher Lloyd as Reverend Jim Ignatowski. I like that he took the name 'Ignatokski' because it was 'flower child' spelled backwards! (If you don't get it, then you will never 'get it.')

A few of my favorite moments come to mind ...

Jim burns Louie's apartment. Jim discovers that "I must have had piano lessons..." Jim works all the overtime he can to buy ... a dozen TV sets, achieving his greatest goal in life. The moment in college, when Jim takes one bite of a brownie, and he becomes what we know as the kookie Ignatowski.

I'll think of many more after I post these comments!! A great TV series, maybe it will come out on DVD some day.