Customer Reviews

Taxi - Best of Andy Kaufman Vol. 2 [VHS]

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Never written an online review before but when I saw the two best sitcom episodes ever were being released on one tape... It's funny that Andy Kaufman was so dismissive of sitcoms, and along he comes and makes two episodes which turn the conventions on their heads, and have more depth than any I've seen (this of course was as much the writers - but they had such a whizz to write for). Latka the Playboy is as much a shock as it is funny - after several years of cute Latka, suddenly he turns into smooth Vic. He sounds so different, it's almost psychotic an actor could change so at the drop of a hat. Mr. Personalities may be the most brilliantly conceived sitcom episode ever - Latka is now splitting all over the place (I love Jeffrey, the Englishman who prods Louie), and now he becomes Alex. How's that for a sitcom? One character becomes another. And the depth is that through this bizarre event, Alex realises he is unfulfilled in life and gets depressed. The ending is as tragic as it is funny. It's rare, but tv can be art.

The first show on this tape is still to me one of the funniest sitcom episodes ever, ranking right up there with anything on "The Honeymooners" or "Fawlty Towers." Latka/Vic is so hilarious and so uncanny that I never tire of seeing it. ("Come on, walk with me, talk with me.") And the script for the Latka/Alex episode is one of the funniest and most original as well. This is one video I keep handy for repeat viewings, even more than many classic movies I love. I mean, I can only watch "Citizen Kane" so many times, but I can listen to Kaufman say, "Hard to get happy after that one" every day.