Taxi

1970s tv sitcom

The lives of few New York cabbies and their scheaming dispatcher - for them every night could be dangerous, but also chance to earn some good money. We see them waiting in the garage for their cabs, following their dreams, helping each other.

There are two kinds of taxi cab drivers - those, who do it as full-time job and those, who think this is just temporary solution to their financial problems. So, you will find here an aspiring actor, an amateur boxer, a part-time art gallery receptionist, a student... All of them think that once their dream job kicks-in they will leave the Sunshine Cab company and will never return. Among them only Alex, the main character, is a full-time cabbie, he has no other ambitions in life, he just gets through life without pressure of thinking that there is something better waiting for him outside. Louie DePalma, dispatcher in Sunshine Cab, used to be a cabbie, so he knows how tough the life of cab driver can be, so he uses every chance possible to extort some money from them for giving them better cars or just passing the messages.

According to Danny DeVito, who played Louie DePalma, Taxi was the greatest comedy series in history and he was very disappointed when the show was cancelled. Well, that’s his opinion. I have to agree that this was one of the best series of it’s time in United States, but even in best moments it was far from perfection.

First season was very good, with interesting plots and strong characters, but during season 2 and especially season 3 it was going downhill, and it was going fast. The whole story was based around 4-5 characters and since they didn’t have much time to build up their private lives it was obvious that Taxi can’t last long without lowering the level. During third season the plots were beginning to go round in circles with Tony’s lacking boxing career, Bobby’s lacking acting career, Alex’s lack of private life which forced him to get involved with other people’s problems and Elaine complaining about her challenges of being a single mother. Characters of Latka, Louie and Jim simply weren’t enough to keep the show running and the atmosphere was going stale.

For fourth season Bobby was written off the series, while Jim Ignatowski (played by Christopher Lloyd) was given more prominent role. Unfortunately the scripts for fourth season were rather mediocre and completely inconsistent, f.e. Elaine, a strapped for money single, devoted mother, gets some cash from her ex-husband, so did she spent it on her kids or improving her house? Nope, she goes to Europe with Alex. Another example: Jim turns out to be psychic and gets involved in TV programming. Latka produced a multiple personality disorder, so Andy Kaufman can play different characters, which (just like most of Kaufman comedy style) aimed to be more fun for him than the audience. All of them were symptoms of sinking sitcom: plots developed for a single episode and never to be mentioned again, the work place became just excuse to tell a private story. And I guess ABC reached the same conclusion, because Taxi was cancelled after that season.

NBC picked up series for season 5, with few more changes made - Jim Ignatowski and Louie DePalma became the main characters, 90% of the themes were surrounding their private lives, with Bobby gone, Alex, Elaine and Tony became more of a recurring cast than main cast members. The episodes were rather poor, repetitive, or again completely detached from what would be typical for the characters (Alex becomes gambling addict for a single episode, Alex becomes involved in Broadway production for a single episode, Louie is engaged to a blind woman for a single episode). To no surprise NBC also cancelled Taxi, which finally ended the show.

Throughout its run Taxi was nominated for 31 Emmy Awards and won 13, although to be fair some of them were quite questionable, f.e. in 1979 Ruth Gordon won Lead Actress in a Comedy Series Emmy for... her appearance in a single episode of Taxi (which undermines the word "lead" in the title), Ken Estin won a Writing in a Comedy Series Emmy for episode "Elegant Iggy", which can hardly be called memorable. Nevertheless it was one of the best series of its era, produced few memorable characters (Louie DePalma, Jim Ignatowski, Latka), if only they could keep the level that was presented in season one for a bit longer it might have been a great show.

Rating	6.0
Funny	6 / 10
Entertaining	3 / 5
Characters	4 / 5
Nonrepetitive	2 / 5