Alex's Old Buddy

I've noticed thru the years that this episode seems to have a kind of hate-club among "Taxi" fans….a fact that I find sadder than the episode itself. I fell in love with it right from the first night it aired; I knew right there and then, it was one of the classics.

Quite a few "Taxi" fans complain about the increasing number of dramatic episodes the series had. And yet nobody ever complained when, say, "All In The Family" or "M*A*S*H" had plots of a dramatic nature. If I didn't know better, I'd say there is some sort of double standard at work here. "Taxi" had grown artistically during the previous two seasons to where it could now handle more dramatic story lines. Indeed, more poignant endings proliferated in those seasons: in both of the fourth-season episodes "Louie's Fling" and "Nina Loves Alex," if you listen really closely you can hear a female studio audience member bawling her eyes out in the last scene.

Writer Ken Estin said that he had a dying dog himself when he wrote this episode. Estin also wanted to show that Alex would cry, in spite of himself; and indeed, it's crushing to see this character, who'd always played the level-headed father figure of the bunch, in tears. What brings it all off is Judd Hirsch's thoroughly sincere performance: his love for his dog is genuine and real, and it's endearing to see him be an idiot around his pet. The idiocy quickly advances to obsession, as Alex becomes more and more preoccupied with extending his 19-year-old pet's life, breaking rules at the garage right and left, and even allowing him to urinate in his apartment. He also fixes gourmet dog food complete with hand-sliced vegetables.

I always assumed it was for his performance in this episode that Hirsch won his second Emmy that season.

I normally enjoy episodes that blend humor with drama, and there's not many better at it than Taxi, but this dog should've been put out of its' misery before airing in this final season. It almost feels as if the writers were running out of ideas, and threw this mess together just to get something on the air, which was too bad. The best thing was probably Buddy the dog, played by Tucker, as he's left to Alex because he has to be put down soon, and Alex does his best to enjoy the last moments of the dog's life. Judd Hirsch seems to go through the motions, or he's given poor lines of dialog from the writers, and his forced cry after Buddy dies made me cringe, as did his lousy scene with some girl named Shawn, who was played rather poorly and without any emotion by Judith Marie Bergan. Shawn has a problem with Alex spending time with the dying mutt, instead of with her, although I think Buddy was more interesting. None of the characters had anything redeeming to say, and that made for a very disappointing episode.