Customer Reviews

Taxi - The Complete First Season

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One of the funniest series ever on TV. Danny DeVito, Andy Kaufmann, Judd Hirsch, Tony Danza, Marilu Henner, some of the funniest people ever. It is my pleasure to write a review for this TV series. I visited the web site of Paramount Home Video for more information, since the set has not yet been released. The web site stated that the set consists of 22 episodes in Dolby Digital English mono. There is no description of any extras. Here is a brief summary of the episodes.

1. Like Father, Like Daughter: A new employee at the Sunshine Cab Company meets the crew, all of whom have other jobs in addition to being a cabbie except for Alex. When they discover that the pay phone allows them to call world-wide for free, Alex calls his daughter in Brazil.
2. One-Punch Banta: Tony, a professional boxer when not driving a cab, knocks out a welterweight champion and gets a big break.
3. Blind Date: Alex talks to a woman on Bobby's answering service. He asks her out, and she turns out to be both unattractive and hostile.
4. Bobby's Acting Career: Bobby gave himself 3 years to land a major acting job and midnight tonight is the deadline.
5. Come as You Aren't: Elaine throws a party to impress the art gallery friends. When she invites the cabbies, she asks them not to tell that they drive a cab.
6. The Great Line: Bobby and Tony tell John that a great pick-up line is to ask a woman to get married. John tries it out and it works.
7. High School Reunion: Louie is dreading his high school reunion because of a cruel trick played on him. Bobby offers to take his place at the reunion under the scheme that Louie grew after high school.
8. Paper Marriage: guest star (gs): Christopher Lloyd (not a regular until season 2). Latka gets married to a hooker in order to avoid deportation.
9. Money Troubles: John and his wife are having money troubles. Alex offers a loan.
10. Men are Such Beasts: Tony tries to break up with a new girlfriend who is a fellow cabbie. She refuses to let him go.
11. Memories of Cab 804 (1) After John has an accident in Cab 804, the cabbies reminisce about their experiences in the cab.
12. Memories of Cab 804 (2) gs: Tom Selleck, Mandy Patinkin. The cabbies continue telling stories of their experiences in Cab 804.
13. A Full House for Christmas: Louie's brother, a professional gambler, comes home after a six year absence. However, he plays poker with the cabbies and won't spend time with their mother.
14. Sugar Mama: Alex drives around an older widow who just wants to talk and see the city. This becomes a regular job. She takes him to a senior's dance.
15. Friends: Bobby forgets to feed Tony's goldfish while he is out of town and they all die.
16. Louie Sees the Light: When Louie needs surgery, he makes a promise to God.
17. Elaine and the Lame Duck: When a congressman tells Alex that he has no luck with women, Alex fixes him up with Elaine.
18. Bobby's Big Break: Bobby quits his job as a cabbie and tells off Louie after he is cast in a soap opera. However, his character is soon killed.
19. Mama Gravas: Alex takes Latka's mother around town during a visit when Latka has to work.
20. Alex Tastes Death and Finds a Nice Restaurant: After being robbed and and shot while at work, Alex quits and finds a safer job.
21. Hollywood Calling gs: Martin Mull. The gang gets star-struck when a motion picture production company wants to study them for their next movie about cabbies.
22. Substitute Father: The cabbies take turns taking care of Elaine's son, Jason, while she is out of town. Jason is studying for a spelling bee.

Paramount has finally decided to release the first season of TAXI on DVD. I won't waste space here describing to you the show or it's premise but I will fill you in on what the DVD's are like.

This is definitely what you would call a "bare bones" box set... no extras, no bonus material, no language or audio selection. The three discs come in individual slip-cases covered with cool photo collages made up of both promotional photos and stills from the show itself.

But you wouldn't be buying this set for bonus materials... TAXI is the most heartfelt, hilarious, engaging, memorable, and sometimes strange sitcom ever to have aired. Every episode from the first season is here, looking as good as you've ever seen it. (Paramount has wisely added a "Play All" feature on the menu) The twenty-two episodes in this set are some of the best of the series' run, including the heartbreaking "Blind Date," the hilarious two-part "Memories of Cab 804," and the Emmy-winning "Sugar Mama." James L. Brooks (who would later go on to co-create The Simpsons) is at his best with this show, moving you from stomach-straining laughter to genuine tears with only one line. And of course the show serves as "Cheers'" older brother since James Burrows and Glen and Les Charles would eventually go on to create the other greatest show of all time.

Maybe the biggest bonus here is that the DVD restores all the scenes that were cut from the syndicated episodes, which makes all the difference. If you've only seen TAXI in reruns- as I had- you missed out on a lot.

Maybe there's nothing wrong with a bare-bones set... it makes you appreciate just what you're buying it for in the first place. There are two kinds of people in the world... those who love Taxi and those who have never seen it. This box set is worth every penny, and Paramount has even confirmed Season Two's release for sometime in the first half of 2005. Enjoy...

I am so glad that Paramount decided to release Taxi on DVD. I'm sure there will be many complaints about the bare bones nature of the set - there are no extras whatsoever (unless someone discovers hidden easter eggs somewhere) and no options for audio or subtitle choices. It is just the 22 episodes of the first season presented in the order they were originally aired on tv. However, just to have this all in one place with a nice clean print sure beats all my old VHS tapes with washed out color and sound that are also full of commercials. Taxi is my favorite show of all time because of the excellent writing and the way the relationships were developed between the characters. These are people you can care about and relate to even if you'd never imagine yourself being a cabbie. Plus it's funny! While Danny DeVito as Louie De Palma could be very acerbic at times, there i none of the mean-spirited cruel humor that marks so many of the present-day sitcoms. I just hope that enough copies sell to induce Paramount to release the other seasons.

Critics of the situation comedy generally agree there've been five truly great sitcoms: I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show, All In the Family, M.A.S.H and Seinfeld. Two of those shows were still in first-run during the late 1970s/early '80s. It was a common thing then for people to ask me, "Which do you like best, All In the Family or M.A.S.H.?" My answer was always the same: "I prefer Taxi." Though Taxi lacked the social satire of All In the Family or the grandiose, larger-than-life quality of the best episodes of M.A.S.H., what it had, more than any other sitcom I've ever seen, was a cast of believable, sympathetic, real world characters dealing with real world problems.

Alex Reiger (Judd Hirsh) is the heart and soul of the Sunshine Cab Co. While every other driver considers being a cabbie merely a sidelight to their "real" job, Alex is the only person willing to say, "I'm a cab driver." Alex's compassion and common sense makes him the guy everyone comes to when they have a problem.

Louie De Palma (Danny DeVito) is Sunshine's irascible dispatcher. Snide, abusive, cheap, avaricious, dishonest, lecherous, DeVito's portrayal of this walking emotional toxic waste dump won him numerous Emmies and paved the way for a very successful career as a motion picture actor, director and producer.

Bobby Wheeler (Jeff Conaway) is an aspiring actor with the attention span of a fruit fly.

Tony Banta (Tony Danza) is the world's worst middleweight boxer, and even dumber than Bobby.

John Burns (Randall Carver) - and I hate to say this in case Carver's reading it, I don't want to hurt his feelings - was the weak link in Taxi's first season. John was just boring, he combined the low IQ of Bobby and Tony with none of their charm. After Season 1, the character disappeared.

Elaine Nardo (Marilu Henner) is a hard working divorcee who moonlights at Sunshine to support two kids while pursuing her "real job" at an art galley. I had SUCH a crush on Marilu Henner when I was a teenager. Auburn hair, great face and figure, and, to all appearances, a really nice person to boot. What more could you want?

Latka Gravas (Andy Kaufman) is Sunshine's mechanic, an immigrant from an unnamed Balkan country whose native language sounds like speaking in tongues. As a teenager I couldn't understand why so many people raved about the character of Latka. I didn't like him at all; he was the one jarring note in an otherwise believable real world cast. My girlfriend, while watching the first episode of Taxi on DVD with me (she'd never before seen the show), as soon as Latka appeared on-screen said, "Obviously he's going to be the most popular character." Me: "Why do you say that?" Her: "Because all the other characters are so normal. And here you've got this total weirdo walking around in the middle of all that normalcy. He's something different and exotic." Okay, so after 20-plus years, I understand.

In the very first episode, we see exactly what made Taxi so great: real human emotion. In "Like Father, Like Daughter" Alex meets the daughter he hasn't seen since his divorce 15 years before. They finally meet in an airport departure lounge five minutes before her plane leaves. Their conversation, shown in real time, encompasses that five minutes and contains enough pain, honesty and humor to fill any ten episodes of most other sitcoms. After that first episode - which I saw back on September 12, 1978 - I said to myself, "If they can maintain that level of quality, this show has me as a fan forever."

In the 8th episode, arguably the most memorable character in Taxi history makes his first appearance. In "Paper Marriage" the Reverend Jim (Christopher Lloyd) officiates at Latka's marriage of convenience to avoid deportation. During the service Reverend Jim, a total drug burnout, goes through a long, impassioned speech about the sanctity of marriage, then crows triumphantly, "I bet you all thought I was gonna screw up, didn't ya!" In that moment Lloyd won the hearts of Taxi fans everywhere, ensuring his return in Season 2 as a series regular.

In "Sugar Mama" Ruth Gordon, in an Emmy winning performance, is a rich and lonely widow who pays Alex, repeatedly, to drive her around town and talk to her. Eventually he begins to feel like a kept man.

In "Mama Gravas" Alex meets and winds up in bed with Latka's mother. The role of Greta Gravas required a woman very tall, somewhat rawboned, and sexy as hell. Whoever cast Susan Kellermann should have received a special Emmy.

The first season ends with a two-parter, "Memories of Cab 804" in which each cabbie reminisces about special moments experienced in a recently totaled cab. Of note, in Cab 804 Elaine met the man of her dreams who looked amazing like a young Tom Selleck. Wait a minute....it WAS a young Tom Selleck! Alex delivered a baby in Cab 804 whose father looked amazingly like a young Mandy Patinkin. Wait a minute....okay, you get the idea.

Season 1 of Taxi proved just how much humanity could be shoehorned into a half hour sitcom. And they did it week after week; few indeed were the missteps. It's great to have these episodes on DVD. There are no "extras," not even captioning. But who cares? What's important is the show itself, one of the best sitcoms ever. Period.

I'm old enough to have watched most of these when they first came out. It's great to see the whole thing again with crystal clear digital reproduction and ear-scorchin' mono remastered sound.

Was this the best American comedy ever? I also liked CHEERS, which had a similar style, but I don't think it ever quite measured up to TAXI. CHEERS never had Latka or Reverend Jim or Louie, for one thing. Danny Devito has played his "Louie DePalma" character dozens of times in too many films, but never once came near to his performance in TAXI (my opinion). I wish they had more of Reverend Jim in this first season.

Someone once pointed out to me that the show GREEN ACRES always dealt with the theme of communication or the failure to communicate: Eddie Albert never understood anybody else, everyone is able to understand Arnold the Pig, etc.

I was thinking about this concept of meta-theme when I watched these TAXI episodes. I've noticed that, in this series, virtually every episode deals with frustration, failure, or loss. The first episode demonstrates how Alex left his family years ago and has spent his life missing his daughter; the next one has Tony getting a real chance to make it as a boxer, and failing; a later one deals with Elaine's humiliation at being a cab driver among a circle of art-museum friends; then there's Latka's 10-minute marriage; Bobby despairs at ever becoming an actor; etc. Remember the one where Alex's dog died? The cabbies were perpetually trying to improve their lives, then failing, then dealing with the failure. That gave the show a bittersweet edge, but the stories rarely came off as schmaltzy, and they were always hilarious.

Finally! Taxi is being released on dvd. If you do not already know, Taxi is one of the best shows ever. It has wonderful writing and a superb cast. Judd Hirsch and Marilu Henner have great chemistry together. Add in the comedic talents of Andy (I like to wrestle large women) Kaufman and Tony (I like to play characters named Tony) Danza and it is tv series gold. Last but certainly not least is the talented Danny Devito as the incredible Louie Depalma; one of the most memorable and funniest characters in tv history. It only gets better with season 2 when Christopher Lloyd joins the regular cast as the hilarious Jim Ignatowski. If you don't laugh while watching season one of taxi, I will give you money because you need to buy yourself a sense of humor.

The opening credits show a lone cab going over a bridge. You hear a lonely recorder start a simple tune. Suddenly the drums & bass kick in and a sultry sax joins along, creating Bob James' jazzy theme song to the wonderful television comedy, "Taxi". Whenever, I hear that theme, I'm put into a 1970's, New York state of mind with Pavlovian expectations, that I'm about to be treated to first class entertaiment."Taxi" was a truely great sitcom, that ran from 1978-1983. In it's original run the show never had high audience ratings nor much respect from the two different TV networks it ran on. Today it's considered a TV comedy classic. For anyone, who dosn't know, the show mainly takes place within the confounds of the garage of the 'Sunshine Cab Company'. It is here, that we hang out with the company cabbies & other employees, who are trying to earn a living, while they pursue their dreams. The company's diminutive & extremely nasty Dispatcher, Louie De Palma (Danny DeVito) would term these wannabes as a "bunch of losers". (Of course the company's foreign mechanic, Latka Gravis (Andy Kaufman) would respond "What a Yacabey!") The cabbies include would-be actor, Bobby Wheeler (Jeff Conway), not very bright, fighter Tony Banta (Tony Danza), divorced mom/hopeful art gallery employee, Elaine Nardo (Marilu Henner) and student/future forrest ranger, John Burns (Randall Carver). Alex Reiger (Judd Hirsh) is the only cabbie, who actually admits that he's a cabbie for a living. Alex is the everyman, that everyone else seems to go to for advice to solve their problems and a shoulder to cry on. All these characters have their faults, but they also have a lot of heart. Thats why we both empathize and laugh at the mistakes and situations, they get themselves into. There ar two components that made this show a classic. One, would be the excellent writing by TV writing veterens such as James L. Brooks, Glen Charles, Glenn Gordon Carron, Ed Weinberger Etc. The other reason is the amazing ensemble cast of actors, who just hilariously work together like a well oiled, comedy machine. It can't get much better than these guys! Now, the show is being put out by Paramount in the DVD format, season by season. Season 1 is a three disc set, that includes such classic episodes as "Sugar Mama" (Alex becomes septagenarium, Ruth Gordon's paid escort), "High Scool Reunion" (which includes Bobby's killer, Louie impersonation) and "Paper Marriage (the first introduction of Rev. Jim Ignatowski). The DVD's picture & sound are O.K., but nothing fancy. Unfortunately Paramount gives us absolutely nothing in extras. It's a bare bones release at a luxuary price. It would have been nice to get a short documentry or some commentaries from the show's actors & creators. Though this is a fault, I would still recommend this release simply because the show is TV comedy at it's best! It will simply have you laughing your head off! Highly recommended!

I ran into "Taxi" clearly by accident because I just happened to run into old repeats that ran in syndication, but I also learned about it from hearing my mother speak of it back when it was a popular sitcom on ABC. Once the local network stopped airing these, I was not only saddened, but angry. Just to show ya how great this show really is, after only watching it once, I was completely hooked, thanks to my favorite character, Jim Ignatowski. This show was on and off a few years before I was born, but I still consider it to be one of the greatest comedies ever. When I received this box set on Christmas day, I was overly excited. Not only am I a huge fan of "Taxi," but my mother also feels the same way. Now we can watch the entire first season and laugh together. Even though Christopher Lloyd only appeared in one episode during season one, the show was still as funny as ever. I think that they really didn't need him for the first season because the episodes were just as funny without him, mainly because Latka and Louie really made the show a barrel full of laughs. "Paper Marriage" is probably my favorite out of all 22 episodes (thanks to Christopher Lloyd's first appearance as Reverend Jim and Andy Kaufman's zaniness as Latka), but you can't count out many other episodes, including "High School Reunion," "Men Are Such Beasts," "Alex Tastes Death, and Finds a Nice Restaurant," "One-Punch Banta," and "A Full House for Christmas", which was one of the first episodes I watched, seeing as how it was December 25th. It's too bad that there weren't any special features for this set, but you know how Paramount is when it comes to DVD extras, anyway. Nevertheless, it's still a must own for anyone who enjoyed this show back in the day or is willing to look at something that they may have never had a chance to experience before, extras or no extras. Spend your money on this because it's definitely worth it. Also, be sure to look out for season two when it becomes available on February 1st. Enjoy. "Tank-you-veddy-much."

It was as if Woody Allen returned to writing for TV when TAXI hit the screen in 1978. James Brooks mastered the art of sophisticated adult humor with THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, and he took it to the next level with a consumate ensamble cast, making stars of all. The dialogue was razor sharp, the best exchange coming in Episode 5, when Alex fakes his identity as an Oil Rig Firefighter. When found out, he tells Elaine of the Park Avenue woman he shined on: "She spit on my shoes!" The episodes are in tact, the Bob James theme opening each episode as the yellow Checker sedan crosses the 59th Street Bridge. The best new series of the 1978-79 season.

My goodness Danny DeVito can produce outrageous laughter. His portrayal of taxi-cab dispatcher Louie DePalma is his finest moment. Nothing he ever did in the movies is even 1/5th as funny as his work on the "Taxi" television show.

I was in 8th grade when these episodes originally aired but I would go on to see these episodes in syndication many years later and many more times. But many of these first season episodes I don't remember and boy they are funny.

This is some of the finest television comedy that has ever been done. In addition to DeVito's brilliance there is Andy Kaufman's work as Latka Gravas the mechanic. And of course Judd Hirsch, Marilu Henner are very good as well.

If I could give this 6 stars I would; it's just that good.