Taxi (TV series)

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Taxi
Main title caption
Genre	Sitcom
Creator(s)	James L. Brooks Stan Daniels David Davis
Starring	Judd Hirsch Tony Danza Danny De Vito Marilu Henner Christopher Lloyd Andy Kaufman J. Allan Thomas Jeff Conaway Carol Kane Randall Carver
Theme music composer	Bob James
Opening theme	"Angela"
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	114
Production
Running time	30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC (1978-1982) NBC (1982-1983)
Original run	September 12, 1978 – June 15, 1983
Links
IMDb profile

Taxi was an American sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982 on ABC, and from 1982 to 1983 on NBC. The series focused on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers working for the Sunshine Cab Company, as well as their abusive dispatcher. The show was produced by the John Charles Walters Company and funded by Paramount.

A non-fiction article entitled "Hip-Shifting for the Night Fleet" by Mark Jacobson, which appeared in the September 22, 1975 issue of New York magazine, helped suggest the idea for the show to James L. Brooks and David Davis, though nothing from it was actually used.^[1] The article was a profile of several drivers who worked the night shift for a New York cab company. (A persistent urban legend claims that the show was based on the Harry Chapin song, "Taxi".)

1 Premise and themes
2 Characters
3 Ratings
4 Awards and nominations
- 4.1 Awards
- 4.2 Nominations
5 Writers
6 Quotes
7 Opening sequence
8 Cast reunions
9 Trivia
10 DVD releases
11 References
12 External links

[edit] Premise and themes

Much of the show focused on the main characters wanting to achieve something more than driving a taxi. Nearly all the cabbies do not identify themselves as drivers; they have other jobs despite being unable to make a living from them. Elaine is a receptionist at an art gallery, Tony is a boxer with a losing record, and Bobby is a struggling actor. John Burns, who was written out of the show after the first season, is working his way through college. The rest of the drivers get "Reverend Jim" Ignatowski, an aging hippie minister burnt out from drugs, a job as a cabbie out of pity. Many episodes involved one of the characters getting an opportunity to realize his or her dream and move up in the world, only to see it yanked away. Only Alex, older and disillusioned with life, considers himself a cab driver (see Quotes).

Despite the zany humor regularly featured on the show, there was an undercurrent of despair and sadness to Taxi. The show often tackled such dramatic issues as drug addiction, single parenthood, blindness, bisexuality, teenage runaways, failed marriages, sexual harassment, PMS, and the loss of a loved one.

[edit] Characters

The cast: (back row, left to right) Danza, Kaufman, Kane; (front) Lloyd, Henner, Hirsch, DeVito

Alex Reiger (Judd Hirsch) - Alex is the sensible, compassionate core of the show, the one everyone else turns to for advice. At one point, he reveals his frustration with this unwanted burden. He once worked in an office, with a good chance of advancement, but lost his job due to his refusal to follow the company line. He was married to Phyllis Bornstein (Louise Lasser). When his wife divorced him because of his lack of ambition, she sought sole custody of their baby daughter, Cathy; he gave in rather than fight. He is also estranged from his philandering father, Joe (Jack Gilford). Alex is a recovered compulsive gambler, although he relapses in one episode. A pessimist, he has resigned himself to driving a cab for the rest of his life.

Louie De Palma (Danny DeVito) - The dispatcher for the Sunshine Cab Company is the boss from Hell. He not only has no morals to speak of, he positively revels in his misdeeds. Nothing is beneath him, from taking advantage of a drunken friend of his sometime-girlfriend Zena Sherman (played by real-life wife Rhea Perlman) to gambling with a young boy to stealing from the company. He lives with his mother (DeVito's real mother, Julia, in two episodes). Under the amoral exterior beats a heart of pure lead.

Elaine O'Connor-Nardo (Marilu Henner) - Elaine is a beautiful divorced mother of two struggling to cope, while trying to realize her ambitions in the field of fine art. The object of lust of Louie, she is attracted to characters played by actors ranging from Tom Selleck to Wallace Shawn.

Tony Banta (Tony Danza) - The sweet-natured, if somewhat dimwitted boxer has little success in pugilism. In fact, Louie makes a lot of money betting against him. Finally, the boxing commission takes away his license because he has been knocked out one too many times.

Bobby Wheeler (Jeff Conaway) (1978-1982) - Bobby is a shallow, conceited actor whose pretensions are Louie's favorite target. Success eludes Bobby. Once, he is signed up by a famous manager, but it turns out she doesn't want to represent him; she only wants him as a lover. Another time, he is cast in a pilot for a soap opera called Boise. The show goes into production, but his part is recast.

Reverend Jim Ignatowski (né Caldwell) (Christopher Lloyd) - A burned-out relic of the '60s, Jim lives in a world of his own. He was once a hard-working, serious student at Harvard University, with an extremely wealthy father (Victor Buono), but one bite of a drug-laden brownie was enough to get him hooked and send him into a downward spiral. The cabbies take pity on him and help him pass a written exam to become one of them, in a particularly memorable episode (see Quotes). He occasionally exhibits unexpected talents, such as the ability to play the piano masterfully.

Latka Gravas (Andy Kaufman) - Latka is an immigrant from a very strange land, often speaking in his invented foreign tongue ("ibi da", "nik nik"). He works as a mechanic, fixing the taxis. Latka was an adaptation of the "Foreign Man" character Kaufman originated in his stand-up comedy act. He grew tired of the gag, so the writers gave Latka multiple personality disorder, allowing Kaufman to play other types of characters. This usually manifests itself as a repellent, smooth-talking lounge-lizard persona calling himself Vic Ferrari. In one episode however, he becomes Alex, with profound insights into "his" life. Just when he is about to reveal to the real Alex the perfect solution for all his problems, he reverts back to Latka.

Simka Dahblitz-Gravas (Carol Kane) (1980-1983) - She is from the same country as Latka. They belong to different ethnic groups which traditionally detest each other, but they fall in love and eventually get married. She is much more assertive than her husband, often standing up to Louie for him.

John Burns (Randall Carver) (1978-1979) - The naive young man works as a cabbie to pay for college. According to Carver, "...the characters of John Burns and Tony Banta were too similar...Some of the lines were almost interchangeable..."^[2], so he was dropped after the first season without explanation.

[edit] Ratings

The show was acclaimed by critics, but it was never a major ratings success. It performed respectably during its first two seasons, even placing in the Top Ten in its first season behind the ABC powerhouse line-up of Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and Three's Company, but numbers plummeted when it was moved from that secure time-slot into more competitive positions. The show was cancelled in 1982 by ABC. The show was then picked up for its fifth and final season by NBC, being paired at first on Thursday night with Cheers.

The show's seasonal ratings were as follows:

[edit] Awards and nominations

Taxi is one of the most lauded television shows in American history. During its run, the sitcom was nominated for 31 Emmy Awards and won 18, including three for Outstanding Comedy Series. It was also nominated for 25 Golden Globes, with four wins (three for Best TV Series - Musical/Comedy). In 1979, it received the Humanitas Prize in the 30 minute category.

[edit] Awards

Emmy Awards:

Comedy Series (1979-1981)
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series - Judd Hirsch (1981, 1983)
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - Ruth Gordon (1979)
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - Carol Kane (1982)
Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series - Carol Kane (1983)
Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series - Danny DeVito (1981)
Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series - Christopher Lloyd (1982, 1983)
Directing in a Comedy Series - James Burrows (1980, 1981)
Writing in a Comedy Series - Michael Leeson (1981)
Writing in a Comedy Series - Ken Estin (1982)
Film Editing for a Series - M. Pam Blumenthal (1979-81), Jack Michon (1981)

Golden Globe Awards:

Best Television Series-Comedy (1979-1981), tied in 1980 with Alice
Best TV Supporting Actor - Danny DeVito (1980), tied with Vic Tayback in Alice

[edit] Nominations

Emmy Awards:

Comedy Series (1982, 1983)
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series - Judd Hirsch (1979, 1980, 1982)
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - Eileen Brennan (1981)
Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series - Danny DeVito (1979, 1982, 1983)
Directing in a Comedy Series - James Burrows (1982)
Writing in a Comedy Series - Michael Leeson (1979)
Writing in a Comedy Series - Glen Charles and Les Charles (1980, 1981)
Writing in a Comedy Series - David Lloyd (1981)
Writing in a Comedy Series - Barry Kemp and Holly Holmberg Brooks (1982)
Writing in a Comedy Series - Ken Estin (1983)

Golden Globe Awards:

Television Series-Comedy (1982-1984)
Actor in a TV Series-Comedy - Judd Hirsch (1979-1983)
TV Supporting Actress - Marilu Henner (1979-1983)
TV Supporting Actress - Carol Kane (1983)
TV Supporting Actor - Tony Danza (1980)
TV Supporting Actor - Danny DeVito (1979, 1981, 1982)
TV Supporting Actor - Jeff Conaway (1979, 1980)
TV Supporting Actor - Andy Kaufman (1979, 1981)

[edit] Writers

According to The Taxi Book, David Lloyd, a veteran of The Mary Tyler Moore Show (he wrote the award-winning "Chuckles Bites the Dust" script), was responsible for the episodes "Jim Gets a Pet", "Elaine's Strange Triangle", "Louie Bumps into an Old Lady", "Jim Joins the Network", "Nina Loves Alex", "Alex the Gofer" and "Louie Moves Uptown", while Ken Estin wrote "What Price Bobby?", "Alex Jumps Out of an Airplane", "Fledgling", "Vienna Waits", "Tony's Lady", "The Schloogel Show", and "Jim's Inheritance". Other notable writers were Glen Charles, Les Charles, Howard Gewirtz, Katherine Green, Daniel Kallis, Barry Kemp, Michael Leeson, Earl Pomerantz, Ian Praiser and Sam Simon. The writers combined for two Emmy wins (Estin, Leeson) and five nominations.

Deep Space Nine producer Ira Steven Behr tried and failed to sell a script about Louie DePalma's outrage when the sleazy uncle he idolizes has a religious conversion and becomes a nice guy. Behr reworked the story for a Deep Space Nine episode where Quark the Ferengi has a similar experience with the Grand Nagus.

[edit] Quotes

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Taxi

Elaine [on first meeting Alex]: I'm only going to be working here part-time. I'm not really a taxi driver.

Alex: Oh yeah, I know. We're all part-time here. You see that guy over there? Now he's an actor. The guy on the phone, he's a prize fighter. This lady over here, she's a beautician. The man behind her, he's a writer. Me? I'm a cab driver. I'm the only cab driver in this place.

Jim [taking a written driving test]: Pssst. What does a yellow light mean?

Bobby: Slow down.

Jim: Okay. What...does...a...yellow...light...mean?

Bobby: Slow down!

Jim [increasingly befuddled]: Okay. Whaaat...doooeees...aaa...yeeel-looow...liiight...meeeaaan?

Director James Burrows instructed Conaway and Lloyd to continue repeating their lines until he called cut. The gag wound up being performed at least a half-dozen times in the studio until the audience laughter finally died down. Henner (who was also in the scene) can be seen stabbing her hand with a pen in order to avoid laughing.

[edit] Opening sequence

The opening titles show a cab driving across the Queensboro Bridge. The footage was originally intended to be a "bridge" between scenes and is only about fifteen seconds long. Parts of it are subtly repeated a couple of times to accommodate the entire credits. Tony Danza drove the cab in the sequence. He was already in New York in order to shoot a scene that would air in the first season finale. It ended up being the only scene in the whole series actually filmed in New York.

The external shot of the Sunshine Cab Company was an actual garage in New York's West Village. The building has since been demolished. The site now contains an apartment building and a Rite Aid.

"Angela", the show's instrumental theme song, was written and performed by Bob James. It was originally written for a sequence in the second episode, but producers liked it better than the original, more uptempo opening theme.

[edit] Cast reunions

Danny DeVito hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live soon after Taxi was canceled after the fourth season. A filmed bit had him driving around New York looking morose until inspiration strikes and he blows up the ABC building. In addition, the Taxi cast members were given an opportunity for closure, which up to that point had been denied them due to the abrupt cancellation. The actors took their "final" bows during DeVito's opening monologue, only to have NBC pick up the show.

Decades later, most of the cast returned to play their younger selves and briefly re-enact scenes for the Kaufman biopic, Man on the Moon. Judd Hirsch, Marilu Henner, Jeff Conaway, Carol Kane, Randall Carver and Christopher Lloyd all reprised their roles. The only two who didn't were Danny DeVito, who produced and co-starred in the film as Kaufman's manager, George Shapiro, and Tony Danza, who declined to participate.

[edit] Trivia

Kaufman wanted his stage character Tony Clifton to appear on the show. "Clifton" was hired for a guest role, but after throwing a tantrum on stage, had to be escorted off of the Paramount studio lot by security guards. The incident was recreated for Man on the Moon.
It was ranked 48^th in TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time; two characters made it onto TV Guide's List of the 50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time, Louie DePalma 1^st and Jim Ignatowski 32^nd.

[edit] DVD releases

Paramount Home Entertainment is releasing Taxi on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. They have released the first three seasons thus far.

DVD Name	Release Date	Ep #	Additional Information
Season 1	October 12, 2004	22	No Bonus Features
Season 2	February 1, 2005	24	No Bonus Features
Season 3	September 13, 2005	20	No Bonus Features
Season 4	Not announced yet	20	No Bonus Features