Taxi

Taxi was a creative show that will be remembered for years to come. Each episode featured huge laughs that make your sides hurt, due in no small part to Christopher Lloyd. My favorite episode is the one where Jim takes the test to be a driver. The cast had a unique chemistry that you don't see on shows these days. Taxi isn't television, it's TELEVISION.

What more can you say about one of the classic situation comedies of all time. Just like many of the classics, this show was a great ensemble. Judd Hirsch may have been the star, but it was the interplay between the cast members that made this show what it was. Tony, Bobby, Elaine, Jim, Louie and, of course, Latka were all great characters and they helped make this show what it was. But, it not only was the characters. The writing made this one of the more intelligent comedies of its era and you could see a lot of what made "Cheers" great in this show. This show deserves a lot of the praise it has gotten over the years and its too bad that that more shows can't follow the example that "Taxi" showed.

The first season of this classic sitcom started off on the ground running as we're introduced to the down-trodden, brow-beaten denizen taxi drivers of the Sunshine Cab Company, the advice giving Alex Reirger (Judd Hirsh), failed boxer Tony Banta (Tony Danza, failed actor Bobby Wheeler (Jeff Conaway), new immigrant, Latka (superbly played by Andy Kaufman) as well as new cab drivers Elaine and John (Marilu Henner and Randall Carver respectively), and cranky, hateful boss Louie De Palma (Dsnny DeVito, in the role of his career). These people are life losers, but the writing is such that they are NEVER treated as such. All of the characters were highly relatable and one couldn't help but feel empathetic to each of them. We're laughing with these guys, not at them. And it's a very funny, poignant show. Guest stars this season included Former Welterweight Champion of the World Carlos Palomino, Tom Selleck, Jeffrey Tambor, Martin Mull, and Suzanne Kent in a very memorable part as Alex's blind date, the overweight self-pitying Angela who would return next season in a surprising way. The first Season of Taxi was a few outstanding shows, a few funny ones, but not a clunker in the bunch. And you have no choice but to love that theme song.

My Season 1 grade: A

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+

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.