Taxi

Taxi was, and still is, the greatest sit-com I've ever seen. The Louie DePalma, Iggy and Rieger characters were simply magnificent creations. I would laugh until I cried while watching this show. It's still funny today in re-runs. Louie's "affair" with Emily (which was revived in a later episode) is particularly hilarious. Iggy playing piano at a black-tie

gala (as Elaine's "date" for the evening) is both amusing and heart-warming. The scripts were excellent as they blended wry, sarcastic humor with some degree of pathos in each episode. This show succeeded at a time when there was no "political correctness" to erode its rough edges. It's very doubtful one of the three major networks would create and air a show like this in today's more conservative climate.

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.

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

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.