"We're all part-time here. I'm part-time. I only work 60 hours a week. You see that guy over there? Now, he's an actor. The guy on the phone, he's a prizefighter. 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." - Judd Hirsch as Alex Rieger in "Like Father, Like Daughter"
Taxi: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
"Angela." Just in case you're not up-to-date on your arcane TV trivia, that is the name of the Bob James tune that serves as the theme song of Taxi. "Angela" is probably the most pensive, melancholy sitcom theme music of all time. Most of the time, sitcoms have perky themes that instantly bring smiles to viewers' faces. Think about the Green Acres theme and try to be depressed - it's nearly impossible. No, the haunting instrumental that greets viewers of Taxi is not your typical theme song. Then again, Taxi is not your typical sitcom.
Taxi is the creation of James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels, David Davis, and Ed. Weinberger. While working for MTM Enterprises in the early 1970s, the four helped to create some of the most beloved and influential sitcoms on TV, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Phyllis, and The Bob Newhart Show. When The Mary Tyler Moore Show went off of the air in March of 1977, they decided to strike out on their own. They formed John Charles Walters Productions (there is no such person - they made the name up) secure in the knowledge that they would now have complete creative control and would earn a greater share of potential profits from the shows they would produce. The only problem, of course, was coming up with a show.
Then Jim Brooks remembered a New York magazine article he had read back in his MTM days. The article detailed life at a small NYC cab company. The drivers didn't really think of themselves as cab drivers. Instead, they defined themselves by their hopes and dreams. They were struggling actors, writers, and dancers who had to drive cabs in order to make a living. Brooks pitched the idea, the network loved it, and Taxi joined ABC's Tuesday night lineup on September 12, 1978.
Taxi focuses on the lives of the drivers at the Sunshine Cab Company. Bobby Wheeler (Grease's Jeff Conaway) is an aspiring actor who drives part-time while waiting for his big break. Tony Banta (Tony Danza) is a sweet but lunkheaded amateur boxer who has never won a fight. Elaine Nardo (Marilu Henner) is passionate about art - she works as a receptionist at a gallery - but has to drive a cab to make ends meet. John Burns (Randall Carver) is a somewhat naïve bumpkin who hacks in order to support his new wife (whom he married while on a bender). While these four drivers consider their employment at Sunshine as a means to an end, to Alex Rieger (Judd Hirsch), being a cabbie is his profession. He likes his job, and he's good at it. Crude, obnoxious Louie DePalma (Danny DeVito) is the company's dispatcher, and English-impaired immigrant Latka Gravas (Andy Kaufman) serves as chief mechanic.
Taxi is similar to MTM in that jokes and one-liners are often secondary to character-based humor. The characters aren't always happy, and they don't necessarily make wisecracks. Instead, the characters just are, and the show's humor springs from their individual personalities and foibles. This is evident from the show's first episode, "Like Father, Like Daughter." In it, Alex tries to reconnect with his teenage daughter, who he hasn't seen since he divorced her mother fifteen years earlier. Although she is now living in South America with her mother and her mother's new husband, Alex learns that his daughter will be in the Miami airport on a short layover while heading off to college. He and the gang immediately hop into a cab and head to Florida so that Alex can have a brief, awkward reunion with his child.
The show gets great mileage out of the aspirations of its characters. In "Bobby's Acting Career," the actor wannabe reveals to his fellow cabbies the deadline he made for himself when he arrived in the city three years earlier - if he didn't get an acting job within three years, he would have to quit acting and get a real job. With less than twenty-four hours left, he tears through the city from audition to audition as he attempts to beat his self-imposed target. Elaine throws a party for her gallery connections in the hopes of getting noticed, but is terrified that they will discover that she has stooped to being a déclassé cabbie ("Come as You Aren't"). Tony struggles to be taken seriously as a boxer ("One-Punch Banta"). Even Louie tries to better himself when his approaching twentieth high school reunion means having to face the classmates who tortured him years earlier ("High School Reunion").
All of the characters are well drawn, even in these early episodes. Little details help to create characters that are real and likeable. One episode, "Substitute Father," is a standout. When Elaine is called out of town to attend to a sick aunt, she asks Alex to watch her 10 year-old son who cannot leave Manhattan because he is about to participate in a city-wide spelling bee. Alex reluctantly agrees. He is so uncomfortable about the situation, however, that he enlists the aid of the other guys. They slowly warm to the kid. As Bobby, Tony, and Alex take him to the movies and other fun activities, their paternal instincts begin to stir. Tony and Bobby, for example, teach him how to remain confident while performing in front of a large group of people. Even Louie gets in on the act, telling the kid about the finer points of smoking and drinking. Although none of the men know a spelling bee from the kind that buzzes and makes honey, they all attend the competition, cheering as if they are attending a rock concert.
Only one character, Carver's John, is somewhat hazy. The writers don't seem to know exactly what to do with his character. In many episodes, Carver seems to have been directed to stand behind the others, causing him to essentially disappear from view. Appropriately enough, his character disappears altogether after the first season.
Apart from Carver (who, given nothing to do, barely makes an impression), the cast is winning. Hirsch believably portrays Alex's complex ordinariness. Alex may not aspire to be anything more than a taxi driver, but the world-weary schlub is the brightest driver in the company. Conaway, Danza, and Henner appealingly portray Bobby's cocky self-assurance, Tony's sexy obtuseness, and Elaine's determined effervescence. And for someone of such small stature, DeVito manages to be a commanding presence. This is a cast that seems to have been working together for years even in the first episode.
At the risk of committing heresy, Kaufman's Latka is.well.a little annoying. Kaufman is a gifted performer, but the writers have essentially taken a character we already know from his standup career and multiple appearances on Saturday Night Live and simply plopped that character into a sitcom. The effect is jarring, as if Minnie Pearl was cast as the maid on The Jeffersons.
Taxi's characters are loveable, and it is fun to watch them pursue their hopes and dreams while struggling to make a living. One wishes that the show would be a bit funnier, though. MTM rarely had belly laughs, but scene for scene was more amusing. Taxi producers Glen Charles and Les Charles would go on to create Cheers, a show that would more successfully combine realistic characters and situations with excruciatingly funny bits. In that way, Taxi seems like a bridge between MTM and Cheers. It's not quite perfect, but it's still damn entertaining.
Several familiar faces show up during the first season, including Dolph Sweet (Gimme a Break), Tom Selleck (Magnum, P.I.), Mandy Patinkin (Chicago Hope), Scoey Mitchell (Rhoda), Ruth Gordon (who won an Emmy for her role in "Sugar Mama"), Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development), and Martin Mull (Fernwood 2-Night). MTM fans should be on the lookout for Emmy-winning writer Treva Silverman who makes a cameo in "Come as You Aren't." Christopher Lloyd makes an appearance as Reverend Jim Ignatowski in only one episode, "Paper Marriage." He does not appear again until becoming a regular in the second season.
The twenty-two episodes that make up season one are divided onto three discs. The discs are housed in slim, clear keepcases. The front covers each feature publicity photos of a pair of the show's stars - DeVito and Henner on disc one, Hirsh and Kaufman on disc two, and Danza and Conaway on disc three - backed by episode stills. The back covers include smaller production stills and synopses of the episodes found on the DVD. Because the cases are clear, the double-sided coversheets show through to the inside of the case. The interiors include episode titles and publicity stills. The color scheme on the inside and outside of the cases features a yellow checkered cab theme. The DVDs are also yellow with a checkered stripe through the middle, and when removed, they reveal pictures of the cast. The three keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve which continues the yellow checkered cab look.
The DVD menus are a simple, no frills affair. The yellow checkered cab and cast photo theme is continued here. Viewers can choose an individual episode, or play all of the disc's episodes. The episodes are divided into chapters (including one immediately after the show's opening credits), but there are no scene selection menus.
