Customer Reviews

Taxi: The Final Season

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

TAXI is one of the classic ensemble comedies ever to surface on the small screen. The writing, directing and acting were always superb! The great cast introduced us to Danny DeVito, Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd, Marilu Henner, Andy Kaufman, Carol Kane and brought us another great series with Judd Hirsch. Season five has always been special to me because of its poignancy. Who can forget episodes like: "Louie and the Blind Girl", "Alex's Old Buddy"' and "Jim's Inheritance"? The only reason that I am not giving this five stars is because it is slightly edited. Seems CBS/Paramount does not like to pay for music rights. We really saw this in season 4 where "Vienna Waits" had a completely different score. Season 5 is not as bad: I only noticed one cut: The Piano bar scene in episode "JIM'S MARIO'S". Believe it or not, all of the other original music (including "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" from JIM'S INHERITANCE and "Cheek to Cheek" from ELAINE AND THE MONK) is still intact. All in all, Season Five is a triumph! It took a four-year wait for the remaining seasons, but we finally got the entire series of TAXI: A True Celebraition!

Taxi is a great show with both humor and heart, and the fifth season may be the best example of this. One of the best sitcoms ever. Kudos to CBS/Paramount for releasing all 5 seasons and not leaving Taxi fans hanging.

Although this is an aborted season due to the two retrospective episodes, this season - the final season, and the one which aired on NBC after it was cancelled after four seasons on ABC, pairs a whole lot of funny moments with many poignant ones as well. The episode in which Alex tries to give his dog a great send off before his imminent demise will put a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes. The episode where Louie's blind girlfriend is about to regain her sight looks into the soul of the scoundrel Louie as he ponders his deepest insecurities about his appearance. This may be one of Danny DeVito's finest moments. Plenty of brilliant moments abound making season 5 a real winner, and definitely worth the wait.

This final season has some great episodes, but it nearly ends with a major atrocity for us "Taxi" fans. Remember the episode where Iggy buys Mario's and all the cabbies help him bring in customers, and he and Alex sits at the piano and everyone sings and has a great time? Well, the entire piano playing and singing was edited out. Absolutely no music or singing was viewed or heard. I was looking forward to seeing this complete episode again and they ruined it by that catastrophic editing.

That's just one disappointment. Another is the two part episode of "A Taxi Celebration". The picture quality and sound quality is very bad compared to the rest of the episodes. Luckily, they look fine on the original episodes but what a disappointment, nonetheless.

And, another strange thing that happened while I was watching all three of the DVD's, after the sixth episode, the DVD seems to want to play the second episode over again. Maybe this only happens because I stopped the DVD, and later went back to just hit "play" again, but it happened to me on all three DVD's. Peculiar, huh?

To me, the least appealing episodes were "Travel's with my Dad" Which is about Tony and his dad, "Sugar Ray Nardo" with Elaine's son wanting to try boxing and Elaine being way too overprotective. And "Love Un-American Style" was about Latka and Simka arranging for all the cabbies to meet someone who may be a good match for them. "Arnie Meets the Kids" is rather pathetic because Arnie is pathetic because Elaine is much too beautiful to be with such a balding doofus like him. It's kinda funny, but Arnie and Elaine? No way.

Now, the best episodes which is really like opening a great can of worms because all the other episodes are fabulous classic episodes. But, if I still have to pick some absolute favorites for this final season, it is definately "Sceneskies From a Marriage" where Latka has sex with another cabbie to stay warm and Simka knows just by looking at him that he "did it with another woman" so their minister tells Simka that she is suppose to be unfaithful to Latka to save their marriage. What an excellent interpretation of an extremely warped religion. Man, then there's "Crime and Punishment", "Alex Gets Burned by an Old Flame", "Louie and the Blind Girl", "A Grand Gesture", and well, all the others.

Any "Taxi" fan knows what I'm talking about. This was a fabulous season for "Taxi". It ended as a strong show. I can't believe that it got canceled when it did. But, it's great to finally have all five seasons. But again, why did they do that blasphemous scene cut from "Jim's Mario's". That's so sad.

I applaud Shout! Factory for making it possible for us to have the complete series of Taxi- and I own the entire series....but, I now see why such a once-great show was cancelled. This final season is not like the first four seasons. In this final season, the laughs are fewer and further between; Each episode seems to focus on just one character, and their private life- so the great cast interaction that made the first four seasons so great is less in evidence in this season, as the show takes on more of the feeling of a drama or soap opera, rather than a brilliant sit-com. Many of the episodes are just plain boring: Tony goes to sea with his Merchant Marine father- yawn! (we are deprived of the rest of the Taxi cast for 80% of the episode); Alex deals with his elderly dog (If you love dogs, as do I, this is a real tear-jerker- which is NOT what I watch comedy for!); Jim's father croaks (oh, what a laugh-riot, watching someone deal with the death of a parent alone in their apartment- NOT!); Elaine dates a short, bald insecure dweeb (uh...it could happen...) and the series culminates in an episode about Simka's menstrual problems!(Nothing remotely funny about that).

I don't understand why they chose to tamper with such a once-great show, thus ruining it and sealing it's demise- but they did. If you're a die-hard Taxi fan, you'll want this season anyway; If you're just looking to buy a season or two, or have never seen this show and want to try it, buy season 2, 3, or 4....but not this 5th and final season.

Having said that, there a few eps here which are real gems, and which no Taxi fan would be without- such as A Grand Gesture(It would be worth purchasing this season just for Scatman Crothers's performance in that ep!- and it is also one of the only eps to feature Jeff [J. Alan Thomas] quite prominently in the story (IMO, he was a great character and should have been included in more eps).

Another problem with this season is that Carol Kane, as Latka's wife, Simka, became a regular, and her screeching, grating voice is sheer torture! If nothing else, I'm sure her voice would have caused this show's cancellation- why any producer would inflict such agony on the fans of their show is beyond me, but it was definitely a major factor in the ruination of this show.

Just like the last season of All In The Family, us die-hard fans buy even the seasons which we know are crap (even though I'll likely only atch two eps from this season again)- but for "normal" people, stick with seasons 1-4, which are great. This final season is more like an illustration of how to ruin a great show by isolating the characters who worked great as an ensemble, but who just aren't funny alone, without the contrasts and interactions of the others.

Taxi was one of the best sit-coms to ever air on TV without a doubt. The series ending was bitter sweet as television lost a fantastic show but soon gained another (Cheers.) A lot of the producers and writers from Cheers went on to create classic episodes and won numerous Emmy Awards throughout the 80s, but they cut their teeth on Taxi. Reverend Jim played by Christopher Lloyd has to be one of the funniest, most original and realized characters to ever grace the small screen, while Latka was Andy Kaufman's comedic tour de force. A pity the show did not go longer, but maybe it's just as well, it never wore out its welcome or ran out of gas like others of its Ilk (Happy Days, Different Strokes etc.)

This series is so much fun to watch again. Such good humor and it is clean. Proves you don't need to be in the gutter to be funny. Makes you miss the good old days

The series comes to an end, but I have it on DVD to enjoy whenever I want. Virtually every character that starred in this show went on to further fame in TV and/or movies. Jeff Conaway, RIP.

This is a show that was GENIUS. Granted, it is about cabdrivers. But where the writers took the characters was amazing. Not only did we get inventive humor, we got strong characters with range and depth. Always loved Taxi, ALWAYS!!!!!!!

The product came quickly and in new condition. As with the rest of the Taxi series it's terrific fun and poignant. The only negative is that this is the last season. If only it could have continued!