Ep 153 | Taxi: "Reverend Jim: A Space Odyssey"

With the Motion Picture Men safely locked away in their gross movie cellar for another year, the Boob Tube Boys return to talk about the classic '70s sitcom Taxi, a show stuffed with comedy legends playing lovable losers

While Taxi was a staple of Brian's childhood viewing diet, Spencer and Van were unfamiliar until this very week. The trio talk about the show's historic fingerprint, the allure of grimy old New York, and the episode that cemented Christopher Lloyd as a cast member. Hail a cab and tell the driver your destination is Boob Tube Boys! They'll figure out what you mean eventually

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
I don't know about you, guys, but I am pumped up now after
listening to that song. Sounds likehoorn to you a little bit, it
sounds like sadness. My name isBrian Vaughan of The Boobtoo Boys. That's
the podcast we are. Sorry,I'm a little thrown off because we are
the Boobtoo Boys again. Yeah,we've been motion picture men for like six
weeks now. Yeah, that's SpencerHendrick's talking and Van Lee's here too.

(00:31):
Oh oh, sorry, there heis. I'm awake. After the worst
theme song correlating to its show inthe history of I don't think it's perfect.
I will touch on the theme songat the end of these episodes or
whenever we discuss it, but Idon't like it for the show Taxi.
That's all I'm gonna say. Well, we're covering the show Taxi. It's
from the nineteen seventies and early nineteeneighties. It's a James L. Brooks

(00:55):
special. It is considered one ofthe best sitcoms of all time. It's
still sort of holds that position,and it bird the careers of a lot
of very well known character actors andcomedians. Before we talk about the show
proper. I'd like to talk aboutmy personal experience with the show Taxi.
You guys have like none, right, none at all, none at all.

(01:15):
I think what happened when I wasa kid is that theme song started
and I thought, this is nota show I want anythink to do with,
very much like Mash and I dothink this is a bit of a
spoiler that had I sat through thetheme song, I probably would have liked
Taxi at least a little, becauseI did like some of those old shows,
not quite to the degree you do, Brian, which you're about to

(01:36):
get into, but overall not anounce of Taxi. Well, revisiting some
of these shows for Boobtuo Boys hasbeen really enlightening for me in that I
really really took to Taxi for whateverthe reason, when it started airing on
Nick at Night when I was nine. And this is not a show that
really would appeal to a nine yearold child, oh not really and really

(01:56):
anyway, but some of the themesof it really still me my interests in
stories now, like ragtag bunch ofweirdos that hang out and kind of have
to depend on one another, havedreams they can't quite fulfill. There's always
someone up above trying to thwart them. Sometimes it's Danny DeVito up above,
up above. Spoiler for Danny DeVito. He's the best, I think.

(02:19):
And he's also not up above often, No, usually he's down below.
That's why I couldn't resist when youmentioned up above Danny Vito. It's like,
in what way? How did thathappen? Who? He's in that
little area? That's true with thatother guy who doesn't happen Cage with Jeff,
Yeah, it rolls in there.Jeff just kind of is there.
Jeff is Louis hype man basically okay, and he needs that. He also

(02:40):
needs a height man. Oh shit, I do agree. What are we
calling it the power cage? Yeah, that's what I think of it as
because that does really elevate him physically. He's not afraid to come out of
there though. He comes down totalk shit if he needs, but he
will run right back to it ifsomething goes awry. I watched the show
probably most of the series as akid as it aired in syndication on Nick

(03:01):
at Night, and I really grewto love the characters. That's another thing
I guess that has permeated. Mytaste is that I really enjoy character based
media, and in Taxi, aswe'll see a lot of times, entire
episodes will essentially just focus on acharacter and not a lot will happen,
but they'll let the character kind ofbreathe and have something to do. And

(03:22):
it's an approach that I really like, and I don't think shows do it
often now because they'll just be canceledif you try to do anything that's character
centric and not zay any one hundredpercent of the time. And Taxi blended
comedy and drama in a way thatwould become a lot more popular later.
But like the Mary Tyler Moore Show, at the time, it really wasn't
done a ton. Well, youknow they said Airplane. The movie Airplane

(03:44):
came out in the eighties was youknow, laugh a minute. The jokes
were bang bang bang, And agreedit was a funny movie. The jokes
were bang bang bang. But theproblem I have with it is a lot
of then studios thought we need todo that, but then they didn't have
good jokes. That's the difference.And to be able to fill a ninety
minute movie like they did with Airplanewith a bunch of good singers is hard.
That sounds really hard. I don'twant to do that. And I

(04:05):
think at the time it was justcommonplace, like, well, if it
is a joke, just put itin. It doesn't have to be good.
And that's kind of what the sitcomthing happened. Is like they you
said, they don't let them breatheand character studies happen anymore. It's now
just let's make joke joke, joke, joke, joke, joke, joke.
Who cares if they're any good?We just have to do that.
Yeah, And in taxi, forinstance, we'll get some moments we'll talk

(04:27):
about where the actors because they dohave time physically even add to their character
as scenes developed by just doing littlethings. It's just I really enjoyed watching
it. I also really enjoy I'venoticed in my revisiting of seventies movies grimy
New York. It is dirty,it is so gross. They don't try
to make it not gross, andthey don't try to make everybody look hot

(04:49):
all the time. I don't knowwhat it is about that New York sort
of perception, but it's always appealedto me too, and That's part of
why I've always been drawn to NewYork for some reason. And the way
they present it that way just feelsso real in a way that I respect,
even though it does have some seedierelements and probably as dangerous. When

(05:09):
I see it, I just kindof like I want to be there.
Yeah, it makes you feel alive. Well. Taxi, as I mentioned,
ran from the late seventies to earlyeighties, five seasons mostly on ABC,
finished up on NBC. It soundslike a lot of shows of that
time period just getting tossed back andforth from the power networks. Was this
show successful? Yeah, not asmuch as the Mary Tyler Moore Show,

(05:30):
I don't believe, but critically itwas. It was a big powerhouse.
Interesting then that it shifted channels onlyfor the final season two and it could
have been a contractual thing. Sometimesthe networks they feel like they've had that
show at the prime time and theywant to dump it off, you know,
before it goes downhill, And thathappens occasionally now, but I feel
like it doesn't happen as much asit used to. Like I think the

(05:50):
last I can remember is that stupidTim Allen show, Last Man Standing,
it switched studios a couple of times, and you wouldn't think it would happen
with a big powerhouse show ever.Now, like last Man Standard and like
you pointed out just a little bitago, like a lot of times,
rather than switching networks, now it'lljust not do anymore. Yeah, just

(06:10):
make that show. It just can'tget picked up again. The people that
created Taxi were pretty much all involvedwith the Mary Tyler Moore Show, James
L. Brooks, Stan Daniels,David Davis, and of course Ed Weinberger,
whose name I just always remember seeingin seventies credits as a kid,
E B. Weinberger. D Wellthat so a rectitle dysfunction Weinberger or as
when I was a kid, I'mnot kidding. I very first thought,

(06:32):
why is this Ed guy capitalizing bothletters of his first name? But more
importantly than that, I think thedumber name of the names you said is
David Davis. Yeah, because that'sDave Davis. Do you know how fucking
cool you'd have to be to carrythat name? And successfully? Yeah,
there was a claims adjuster at theinsurance company I worked that named Dave Davis.
That's stupid. Did he carry thename. Now, he was super

(06:55):
positive, cheerful old man. Butokay, you can't help it. Root
for Dave Davis. But no,I wouldn't say. It was like,
that's a cool guy. That's adeal where you have to grow into Dave
Davis. He probably had years old. How can you as an adult and
you've gone this nine month journey tohave this baby and your last name is
Davis and you go David, thatwill work. Come on. I don't

(07:16):
think people really put much thought intonames until pretty recently. No, they
were just like, oh, we'llcall him Joe. We have five Joes,
it's just Joe. For instance,I was essentially named when I was
born by my brother because my parentsjust couldn't figure it out, and I
was the first one they had together. He'd sit around and talk that out.
You would think, well, famously, and by famously, I mean

(07:36):
you guys know about this, becausenothing that happens on here is famous.
I was going to be Eam toBarry. Oh that's right, yeah,
one of the alternate names. Someonetalks someone out of that and that's for
the best. Derek was my alternatename, I think, and I could
have been if I was a girl, I was gonna be Miranda. Oh
we could be doing the move too, boys and girl with Miranda, Miranda

(07:59):
and Van and Van. You alreadyhave alternate names. Yeah, yeah,
I don't need the same money.Yeah. When I was born, though,
apparently my mother used to claim thatI was named after the Booze.
The birth name is Evan, ofcourse, so Evan Williams. Oh yeah
yeah. But also there was somethingI recall from your childhood where she was
also trying to claim you were namedafter some guys she knew named Tom.
Yeah, that was a whole thing. I don't remember the details of it,

(08:22):
but supposedly his name was Tom,but someone called him Evan once,
not even as a nickname. Itwas just happened one time, really stuck
with her then and then she's like, that guy's Evan, and I like
that name, and it's a stupidname. I don't like Evan at all,
hence Van, Hence why you don'tgo by it. The cast of
this show, I mentioned it wasfull of good one legends. It is.

(08:43):
I mean, everybody on here reallyshines, and most of them did
make their name on taxi. Theywere doing theater work or smaller roles in
film and television, and this waslike the role that led them to the
limelight. Jud Hirsh kind of takesthe lead role, but he's also the
straight man in the show. Heplays Alex. He is resigned to his

(09:03):
fate as a cab driver. Hekind of understands, like, look,
I'm divorced, I'm in my midthirties. Things suck. He seems a
little bitter. He is bitter,and I think he's one of those guys.
I don't let me know if thissounds familiar to you, Guys who
maybe when they were younger, reallyfelt like even though they'd struggled, there
was a lot of potential in there. And then you get older and you're
like, what happened and you realizethere's nothing that's ever going to change.

(09:24):
Ever, you might as well justbe a cab driver. But I mean,
I technically do drive things occasionally,so you are a cabby for objects.
Do you think you could ever dolike the uber thing though, with
that people in your car. I'vethought about it, and I just I
don't want to deal with people likethat, so I have no interest in
it, and I don't think theymake any more than the stuff that I've

(09:45):
done through Amazon, I think somuch stress for an introvert. Well,
you guys did the what was itcalled. There's a local company called Safe
Rides. I don't know if itstill exists, but the idea is that
you can get the people home safelyand their car backs so they don't have
to deal with the next And youwork in teams and Spencer and I did
this for a little while and itwas very difficult. Did you guys get
paid reasonably on one or two times? Oh? You never really knew,

(10:09):
you know, it was so tipdependent or distance dependent because of mileage.
Was it through an app since itwas a local thing. Yeah, there
was like a credit card app.Just some guy owns it. Good for
him. Yeah, good for thatguy. I don't know if it still
exists or not. I guess wecould look it up. I don't know
either. Who cares? Yeah,well, you know what, we're investigating
all angles of our personal lives aswe talk about taxi. It makes sense
still, it really gets you thinkingabout yourself and the people you know.

(10:33):
But the other thing Alex does thatjud Hirsch gets to do is he's sort
of the moral center of the show. Most of the time, if something
is happening to one of the otheremployees, he will stick up for them
no matter who they are, andwe really see that on display. In
the second episode we'll cover his morality. We do. Danny DeVito is the
show's villain. He is the SunshineCab Company's dispatcher and the main boss.

(10:56):
He has a boss above him,but we don't really see that guy.
I don't think he is. It'sa great character. He's an unrepentant asshole
who just almost never presents his humanity, so when he does, it counts,
and that's something I think that whenwe covered The Office, we talked
about how that David Brent character thatRicky Gervais played, and the British version
is more like that than the MichaelScott version. I think it was pretty

(11:18):
brave to go that route in theseventies, and you would need someone of
this caliber to do the role.So you still like him even though he's
never likable, because he's charming andyou're not threatened by Danny de Vito.
Conte is so little, so thathelps do the role as well. By
now, de Vito wasn't a staror anything, which he would be in
the eighties, like a total starlead in movies and stuff, having babies

(11:41):
with Arnold Schwarzenegger. They have beingtwins with Arnold schwarz So that's what it
was. Now. He did.He did a baby too, he did?
Who would have a baby with theirtwin brother. I assume there's sequels,
but Danny de Vito had already beenin One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
at this point. Oh, okay, as had Christopher Lloyd, who joins
the cast full time in this episode. This is what establishes him. He'd

(12:03):
been in the show one episode priorin season one, and Christopher Lloyd plays
Jim Jim Ignatowski, who's a verygood natured drug adult hippie who shows secret
musical gifts throughout the series. He'sa very good piano player and singer,
which Christopher Lloyd apparently is. Icould see it that dude seems multitalent.

(12:24):
We had a little duet in thisepisode, and I was very surprised how
well everyone did. This was performedlive. Now that sounded great, honestly.
Tony Danza is in the show.He's named Tony, like he always
is in every show. He's inTHLL he knows the answer to He plays
a lunkheaded, terrible boxer, whichI don't know if you guys know this
about Tony Danza. But he's alunkheaded former boxer I assumed. I mean

(12:48):
that just suits him to a t. I didn't know he was a boxer
in real life. Do either ofyou like Tony Danza? Oh? I
don't think anyone did. I don'tunderstand the charm or the appeal. I've
never seen a role where I said, oh, this is good and this
is not one of them. BestI can say about him is sometimes I
look at his face and I thinkabout Masho Man Randy Savage for some reason.
To be fair, you do thatwith eighty percent of the people you

(13:09):
look at. Yeah, I justthink, what if instead of whoever this
is, I was talking to machoman, Oh yeah, from beyond the
Grave, give me mon keys?You would think that would be a pretty
big stretch for most people in general. I don't know anyone who looks like
Randy Savage or acts like him.No, but for some reason, I
do think Tony Danza does a littlebit. Do you think he could pull

(13:33):
off advertising for slim gems like wouldthat be a thing? You know?
Like, yeah, I'll get one. Because say what you want about Randy
Savage as an actor, he wasin Spider Man two. I do think
he has see I do think hehas a little bit more obvious charisma than
Tony Danza. That as a performTony Danza seems so sleepy. There's just
nothing there. That's why I'm justnot Is he supposed to be like the

(13:56):
Eye Candy? Maybe? I thinkso? And he also Jeff Conaway the
Eye Candy. Also, Tony Danzais supposed to be a total idiot in
this show, okay, which andWho's the Box? He's not really as
much allthough he kind of is.Yeah, he's a himba. I like
that term himbo. I'm a fanof that one job of us kids.
I don't think we're you can't seeus. They might think that, sure,
do you guys know that? Inthe Macho Man Randy Savage rap album

(14:20):
that he released, there's a songwhere he's critiquing a whole Cogan for his
acting abilities, and he says somethinglike, oh, Hogan, Hollywood,
Ogan, your show is canceled.I got a prime role on spider Man
two, But then his role inSpider Man two is like three minutes of
screen time. But you're in SpiderMan two versus a reality show. Well,

(14:41):
I think he was talking about Trappedin Paradise, or it could be
Suburban Command or Suburban Commander or anyof the other movies. Was Suburban Commander
the one with the Undertaker's the badguy? Thinks, I don't want to
see that one, whatever it is, I did see that. What about
mister Mom? I think he mightbe in that. Doesn't it sound fun?
Though I haven't old coguan as yourmom. Oh wait, no it
doesn't. No, I'd be alot more racist if it would be the

(15:01):
worst thing ever. You'd have money, brother, But even true, I
would have less good hair genetics,that's true. But you wouldn't. You
wouldn't if you were Jeff Conaway's kid, because he's got a bunch of hair
and it stays to the very end. With Jeff Conaway, his hair was
great through his career. I recognizedhim instantly because he was on Babylon five.
Yep, I was gonna say heplays Zach Allen on Babylon five.

(15:26):
Whoever that is. It's like asecurity guy. He's also in a couple
of matlocks in this show Taxi.He plays Bobby Wheeler, who is a
struggling actor and who Louis hates becausehe's tall and handsome, and that comes
up constantly, like there'll just bea conversation going on. I don't think
we get any of this, buta conversation going on between other people,
and Louie will attack Bobby in theconversation, who is not part of it.

(15:50):
Mary lou Henner plays Elaine Nardo,who is the lone woman of the
main cast at this point in theshow, and she really is supposed to
be the audience for again as muchas anyone. Also, it's like a
sane person struggling with real life issues. She is divorced, she's got kids,
she doesn't know what to do.But she's an artist and she also
works in art museums and is reallyinto that world, but can't get a

(16:12):
foothold because she's poor. What wastheir last name, Nando Nardo Nardo because
they call her that a few takes. Anny DeVito calls her Nardo like only
despite herving all over constantly. ButI didn't know what the last name was.
And I just keep hearing Nardo,and I thought it was some like
kind of nineteen seventies insult, likeyou're nervous. It doesn't sound like that,

(16:33):
a Nardo bro. I didn't eventhink of that, because I,
you know, I knew the show, But that does sound like that.
Another major star who was really anattraction for people to the show was Andy
Kaufman, the comedian and performance artistand real weirdo and possibly probably bad guy
who plays Lote Cagravis, who isan immigrant presumably from the Balkan Islands.

(16:56):
It's somewhere easter, That's what's hintedat in one episode or something, but
they never say so that he canessentially make up his own language and never
have to be accountable for it.Well, let's do this here. What
do you guys think of the Lotkacharacter? Question one? Question two?
What do you think? Ay Kaufman. I wanted to bring this up too,
because I mean, in the seventieshe was a big deal in alt

(17:18):
comedy, like a huge deal tothe point where he wouldn't really play a
normal character. One of the reasonswhy he was given this one is because
they wanted him on the show becauseof his talent. Supposedly the casting director
or something saw him do his bitabout on s fourn Man was the character's
name, and they thought, well, let's just do this. This could
be great. Yeah, because hewas already on SNL. By now doing

(17:41):
that character, and after seeing that, the producers get him on this show.
And eventually they had to give himsome sort of multiple personality disorder as
a character so that he could bedifferent guys as Lotka. Now, while
it is stupid, much like alot of sitcoms like Seinfeld did, the
show got a lot more absurd towardthe end, and it I have worked
occasionally there. I wish I knewthe name because it's a really dumb name.

(18:03):
But one of Locke's characters, hebecomes as an American chauvinist guy and
he just wears sunglasses and like aleather jacket over his coveralls. I picture,
Okay, that's good because I justpictured him still in the coveralls.
And that's a trademark too, andwe'll see it in this one. In
this episode when Locka dresses up,he still has the coveralls usually. So
yeah, that's the cast. It'sa really great cast there. Oh,

(18:26):
let's not answer my question at all. What was your question? What do
you think of the Lotka character?Oh? Sorry, and Andy coff,
Well, this won't surprise you,but I talked so much that I got
past it and forgot me. Personally, I'm pretty lukewarm on on the whole
Andy Kaufman thing. A lot ofit depended on what I think a lot
of this sort of performance art doesoutside of the show, where he would

(18:48):
make people uncomfortable who didn't want tobe, And as far as the show
goes, I just I get whatthey were trying to do, but I'm
just never really a fan of thelike guy that's not from an area trying
to be from an area. AlthoughI will say this, if you're gonna
do it, this is less somuch less bad than anything of the era

(19:08):
than you would think it would bebeing from the seventies because he's not wearing
blackface or anything. It's not offensiveI think would be well, but it's
not for super It's just not somethingabout it. Though there's so many things
about this show I like, andthis is not really one that stands out
of something I like. I'm nota fan the character just I don't know

(19:29):
when he does is hey, sayyour thing in the foreign language, and
he goes, it's complete gibberish.Yes, it's clearly gibberish. And I
guess this is a comedy show itdoesn't need to try or whatever. But
I find that just kind of sad. It's like I would much rather see
someone learn a fake language, orhire someone who's from a different country and
have them do it, or justhave him speak with an accent. Because

(19:51):
the funny lockup parts are when AndyKaufman gets the character right, Because the
character, at least in conception andright here, is a really sweet sure
and that's a good trait to have. When he gets that right, he's
actually kind of, I think,a good actor. Like it's kind of
impressive, but it's we only seeit a little bit. Yeah, I
think the character is perfectly fine becausehe is in the episode we see he's

(20:12):
well intentioned. The comedy parts ofit, though now it's pretty low effort
and it didn't really make me laughat any point. I don't understand Kaufman's
success, to be honest, Idon't get it. The way I think
of it is a lot like Ithink of like the sex pistols. Same
time, for him too. Maybeit's not like actually very good, but
it is very in your face andpeople are very impressed by that and different

(20:36):
and different. Well okay, solittle spoiler alert for next episode of The
Boob Two Boys, when we coverour second taxi episode, I will talk
about some nineteen seventies comedy and standup and nineteen fifties for that matter,
and you'll really get a feel forwhat the normal bit of that would be
and what Kaufman does is different fromthat, if I will give it that

(20:56):
credit. I just think if AndyKaufman were coming up up now, he
would be working in you know,doing jobs like us and desperate to get
his comedy out there because he wouldn'tbe successful at all. I think,
coming at it after the fact,it's tough too, because we're so used
to alternative comedy now. Very true, but I agree with you. I
mean, obviously it didn't strike achord with me in the way that,

(21:18):
for instance, Danny DeVito did.I have always liked him, but I
mean this, seeing him as thischaracter as an adult, I just was
very impressed. And he's spry,so he's younger, and you know,
he's a little older and he's gotwhatever that disorder. In this episode,
Danny Divito is thirty three years old. Wow, that is letting you guys
know, and thirty three inches tall. But yeah, no, like now,
when you watch him do stuff,it's kind of scrambles along and he

(21:41):
just doesn't look like he's getting He'sold, yeah, but including his stuff.
But in this episode. In thenext episode, he spries, bounced
around, he gives a lot oncars. It's great. Well, let's
go ahead and talk about the episode. It's season two, episode three,
Reverend Jim a Space Odyssey. Westart out with that theme song that we
started the podcast with on its own. I don't really like the song,

(22:03):
but what we get here is thisslow, sad elevator jazz from the late
seventies. As we watch a singlecab go down the Queensboro Bridge tonight and
that really is the bridge that itis. Kevin James would be jealous,
And there's something so solitary and lonelyand sad about this intro. It's just
cold. I don't know, Ilike it. It's possibly the worst intro

(22:27):
I think we've seen since Coach andCoach is worse because at least this is
a song. This doesn't make youfeel like you're dying slowly. No,
it makes me sad. But thatdoesn't mean it's good for a comedy show.
Like I'm supposed to laugh, notbe bummed. There's the rub with
Taxi. One minute you're laughing,one minute you're doing your taxes. I

(22:48):
think maybe at the beginning they getyou in that state there so so that
it's easier to cheer you up.You want to be cheered up after that,
so you're like, Oh, I'vebeen sad and now this is just
what I need. I think it'sa good moodsetter. On the other hand,
it does put the pressure on you, though, to start the show
out with a bang, because yourun the risk of the person being like,
did I just accidentally stumble into someone'shome video or Something's why you have
Danny Vito. You just get aclose up on him and all his solved

(23:11):
and let him go to town andyelling in that microphone one. You know
those candies where they have the lifesized versions of him doing something really mean
to a person, and then theyhug him afterwards. It's like the first
they're sour, then they're sweet.Oh, Andy's well that's what this is.
It starts off big, it's kindof sad, it makes you sad,
and then and then it does somethingto make you laugh afterwards. Then

(23:33):
the laughter is all that much betterwhen the sadness came first. Then,
to your point, this intro isabout as stark as like the Waltons or
something like. Watching the intro,what you think is going to happen next
is you're gonna get depressed, muchlike the Mash theme, which did prevent
me from ever watching Mash. Whichis why I'm always talking about Aftermash,
because I don't know what all thatis. Well, what about Walter.

(23:56):
It's w A L T E erwith the asterisks in between each letter like
Mash. And it was a pilotfeaturing what is it Sonar Radar that's somewhere
anyway. He goes, it's actuallythe bat character from Mash. You know
what's weird about Sonar? The batcharacter from Mash. He need to pound
of mosquitos a day and he couldkill a lot of Vietnamese people. Yeah,

(24:21):
wait, bats can do that.That's horrible. We need to get
bats under control. It's just likethe movie Bats. Tagline said, Bats
they're gonna get you Bats, They'regonna suck you dry. I believe it's
the second half that was in thesong too, because there's a song,
isn't there. Maybe this is justmy memory. I might have made that
up. You might have made thatup. If we watched a movie when
we were teenagers. They're at likeforty percent of it we have made up

(24:45):
over time of like legend building.Oh yeah, yeah, and it'll never
live up to the legend. No, that's why it's best never to see
bats again. One of the reasons. Once this episode finally starts. We're
in Marios, which is a barwhere you can eat some food. There's
red checkered tablecloths, and it's theseventies and everybody's a little sweaty and they're
wearing sport coats. And the wholegang from Taxi likes to eightier after or

(25:08):
before they're shift, probably before becausethey usually work overnights. This is,
as Spencer would say, this istheir boy. I thought I would get
their place and saved by the Bellor the Max. The Max, you're
the Max. Let me give youanother example for all of us who worked
at a bowling alley till three amin the morning. It's there Ben's carriage
house. Fair enough. They allwork a shitty job and then they commiserate

(25:30):
at this place and eat some foodand have some beer. Really does help
to you to have a place likethat. I always feel a lot of
union when I see characters do thatin a show. It just gets relatable.
It means something that you really needit to get by in life.
Makes them all believable when they're inthe workplace too, because they do always
hang out together and they genuinely likeeach other when they give each other shit,
which in that East Coast way whereyou you can say about anything and

(25:53):
then if someone takes a fence you'relike, wait, why are you mad?
I like the concept because for meand for probably most people, if
you have that sort of experience atwork, it's when you're younger. Like
it was for us. They're olderand they still get to have that.
That's like the only good thing abouthaving a job, and that's not even
a part of it. As Iget older and I'm jealous they get that.

(26:14):
That's one of the things I likeabout this show so much is it
presents this idea that if you're olderand you did not enter a conventional path,
like a career path. You don'thave to feel alone and isolated like
there are other people in that sameposition. I think in our weird the
age we're in now, where Americais so slick and so careerist, that
feels more rare to me. Youdon't find like minded people in the same

(26:37):
positions as often. I think that'sprobably true. So the taxi group,
they're hanging around Mario's, and they'reall in a good mood because Tony actually
won a fight, which he doesnot ever do. Alex offers to buy
everybody a beer, well, justthe people in their group. After the
whole restaurant tries to take them upon it. Even the manager of this
place, Tommy, not Mario.The restaurant's called Mario's, the Tommy.

(27:00):
This is confusing, guys. Yeah, you know that thing in movies and
TV that we just watched, whichis like, hey, everybody next round
on me. I feel like,if you're in the seventies or before or
after, for a little bit,what maybe fifty bucks, and you could
buy everybody a beer or something.If you do that now, oh god,
it's like fifteen hundred dollars right forthirty people to get drink. That's

(27:22):
one of those things if you utteredit out loud, it's like saying candy
man in front of a mirror.It would be so disastrous if you did
it now. But what's the procedureon things like that? I've always wondered
this. I have to So doeseveryone go up to the bar then and
say, hey, I want myfree that drink that that guy's paying for,
Yeah, put it and go tohim for put it on the Judd
Hirst tata that this case? Ithink so because and dumb and dumber.

(27:44):
Remember there's that mean Sea Bass guyI think his name is h Yeah,
And that's the joke they play onhim, is they tell him they're gonna
buy him a beer, but thenthey go up to the cashier lady and
they say, hey, this one'son that guy over there, and Sea
Bass thinks like, oh, they'repointing at me because they're buying me a
drink, and he volunteers and theyput him down, like yeah, let's
put you on Sea bassts tack.It is a real Sea Bass situation.
I wish we had a bartender wecould talk to about this because, like

(28:07):
I also think it could be good. If you're one of them, you
might be like, oh, I'mgetting a big old tip. I don't
know, because I feel like ifI about everybody drinks, you're in a
real good mood if you're doing that, though, But then you're like,
oh my god, this bill's fifteenhundred dollars. I can't afford a tip.
So then they don't. But it'sshud Hirsh and he's gonna take care
of you. Actually, I didjust hear jud Hirsh's name brought up.
I was listening to an episode Areyou talking to Bob Newhart? Well,
wtf? Mark Maron Show? Washe on there? Which I don't really

(28:30):
listen to it often. No,Paul Sheer was on there, and I
like Paul Fier too, so Ilistened to it and it was whatever,
but a book out, I think, yeah, yeah, and he was
doing the press store for that andit's a bit of a bummer book apparently.
But also I have a lot incommon with Paul Shear never mind yeah,
gap teeth. But at the endof it, Mark, Maren and
him were talking about acting, andMaren said something like, yeah, you

(28:51):
know, when I act, Ijust I just kind of be me.
I'm not really an actor, andthen what am I going to do?
Go for different roles or something orrather than and jokingly because he's as she
said, you know, the castingdirectors are going to come up to me
and go, hey, can youdo it up more? And he goes,
you know, jud Hirsh, I'llplay all his roles from here on
out. Mark Maron is a juddHirsh, just a bummer, but you

(29:11):
kind of like him. Yeah,he's charming. Yeah. Sometimes if they
did a remake in Today a taxthat you could put Mark Marin in,
I would accept that. Man,that sounds fun. Actually, Christopher Lloyd
would just play Christi Lloyd's character.I'm temmy though. This manager guy,
he even says the first pictures onhim, well, but more details come

(29:32):
out that might prevent that. Ohboy, that guy go down. It's
like I hit the camas like asack of cement. You know, I'll
tell you I was worried for aminute. You never want to see anybody
get hurt, you know, youreally gave it to some goodhead. Told
that was a weird thing. Tommy. The guy was climbing into the ring.
He trips, falls down and knockshimself cold. Default. Well,

(29:53):
you mean that's what you celebrate.I actually do like that liner from Tony
Danz that it feels very indignant,like I did have to do the same
thing. And for Tony Danza,that is a thing that's like getting through
the ropes might be difficult for himjust looking at him and figuring out the
geometry of it. Tommy rescinds theFree Picture at this point, and Christopher

(30:15):
Lloyd walks in as Reverend Jim.He's covered in denim head to toe and
he looks already like a total lunatic, very frazzled. His eyes are wild.
He's kind of just stammering about andI mean, I bet from birth
Christopher Lloyd looked like a lunatic,like he's always looked wild and ratshit crazy
and right out at the gate ofMike. Okay, I'm gonna like him

(30:37):
in this role, and I did. Yeah, he's very good in it,
and this is the role that basicallymade him famous. He has that
character actor quality of like you seehim once, you will remember him forever.
Oh, when you were lying aboutthe denim, he's wearing a T
shirt covered by like a long sleevedenim shirt covered by a long sleeve denim
jacket, denim eyebrows, dinhim hair, dinim pants, denim feet, dinnim
butt, denim dog. That's asuperhero. There's probably a seventies band called

(31:02):
that too that plays like sixties typehippie music too late, or just covers
of other seventies rock songs like EdgarWinter's group song Oh that exactly, Yeah,
that sounds like did that? Hecould have called himself denim Dog.
Jim in the first season appeared toperform a marriage between Lotka and a sex
worker so that a Lotka could stayin the country. That was his only

(31:25):
appearance in season one. He doesn'tremember this at all, though, because
Bobby's trying to call him over andhave him hang out with everybody and explain
this to him. The thing isthis character, Reverend Jim, He's not
really gonna remember much of anything.During all of this. Lotka also shows
up wearing a sport coat over hiscoveralls that thing I mentioned before that I
really love, and explains that he'slate because he got lost in Harlem trying

(31:48):
to figure out a way to getto Tony's match. Presumably he wound up
in a bar talking to a bunchof Harlem neighborhood people and learning some new
slang in the process. And Ireally thought the whole look could talk to
cooler people. Plot was going tobe bad. It's not. It's not.
I was shocked. It's stupid,but it's not mean spirited. You
can tell the intent was fine.Yeah, and just the slang they used

(32:12):
is okay, and it's it wasall right. I was really concerned this
was going to be horrible. Yes, it's not a racist joke so much
as that's a Grandma Rappin' joke,you know what I mean, Like it's
a fish out of water, butin an obvious way. I don't know
how obvious it was then, butthis was also a time when saying Harlem
was really popular. Just say itin your show, well, or movie.

(32:32):
We did watch that movie, TheGuy from Harlem. Yeah, but
also it didn't take place in Harlem. He was merely the guy from Harlem.
He was from there, but hewas in Florida. I think he
likes a steak well done, andhe likes really bad Scotch what a movie.
He likes all the worst things.He likes women who wear full bed
sheets as not Cat. I forgotabout that, didn't he show up it
like a friend's house and kick herout so he could bring in the like

(32:57):
African delegates wife that he was watching. That sounds rad movie was wild?
Yeah, I don't, because Ithink we watched that the same night we
watched Rod Revine. We did,and that's why I don't remember it as
well. Sorry, Champagne and Bulletsor get even, yeah, any of
those you can call. I don'tremember which edition we watched off YouTube.
After Locke, he gets all hisstuff in, says his little lines.
Jim comes back up to the table, and this is where they remind him

(33:21):
of performing that wedding, which Jimthought was a dream. And we find
out that Jim did actually have alittle peaceful congregation during the Vietnam War,
but they left him when the warended, and Jim's just alone and aimless.
Now he's done really nothing but performone wedding nude on the beach.
Jim, sadly, or they thinkhe's sad, goes back up to the
bar and Bobby really feels bad andsays, can we just have him sit

(33:44):
with us once Jim sits down,Elaine peppers him with a bunch of really
personal questions that I personally would findinsulting. I didn't like, okay,
both the way Elaine acts and theway Alex acts either. He almost acts
like he's disgusted everything Christopher Lloyd issaying. Now, it may be true
because Lloyd is saying some drug heavyhippie stuff, and of course back then

(34:08):
hippies were loathed, so I don'tknow if that's a true character reaction.
But watching this and not knowing awhole lot about any of the characters,
I immediately thought Alex was like amean guy. I was actually really surprised,
knowing the character, that he cameacross this way to start this episode.
But I think it's also really asign of changing values, sure,

(34:30):
in that, you know, fortyyears later, fifty years later, when
we think of like jobs, wedon't think of them the same way because
they aren't the same thing anymore.But I think they're Elaine and Alex are
essentially like, man, don't youwant to make more of yourself? And
they're thinking of it from the perspectiveof their divorce and have alimony or whatever,
and They're like, how are youscraping by? Don't you want to?
You don't. It doesn't have tobe this bad for you. But

(34:52):
it comes across again. I'd walkout of the place if they said this
stuff to me. Just's like,why are you being such assholes? Let
me do my drugs and peace.Yeah, exactly. This isn't terribly related.
But jud hersh in this scene hason the comfiest looking sweater. It's
so thick and it looks like youcould sleep on it. He probably does.
It's a real seventies sweater, curlsup in his little cab as a

(35:14):
nap. Jim doesn't take any ofthis the way I would. He takes
it all fine and answers honestly becauseJim's a good guy. He's very chill
man, and you would be ifyou're on all of what Jem is.
He even tries to pay for around, but he only has a yarn
in his pants in a lot andjust like a half a spool of it.
Elaine again reminds Jim, like,look, there's something more to life.

(35:35):
You must want more, and Jim, you must do go to bed
unhappy or whatever. They do likethe reverse nine, and Jim says,
no, I'm fine. I'm justtrying to be a living embodiment of the
sixties. No big deal. I'vejust been going with the flow. And
then he asks Elaine a question toturn the tables about his substance use.
Gets some drugs, not nearly somany as you'll probably say, I did.

(36:01):
How many drugs do you think?I did a lot? Right on
the most pretty great. And thelook on his face too, the like
he looked like someone who heard someoneanswer something correctly. Beautiful timing, like
the comedic timing is so good formost of the actors in this. He

(36:22):
then quickly adds that he spent anentire year making a couch mac yeah,
to be specific, and he wasalso at Woodstock, and he makes an
anti disco joke, which is againsuch a staple of the late seventies.
You're gonna mention Harlem and disco,especially in New York. Jim also mentions
protesting the quote unquote crummy war,which Tony takes offense to because he's a

(36:43):
Vietnam Vet. And when Tony says, Luke Man, I mean it possible
for you to stay home and bestoned, Jim just says thank you,
and it diffuses the whole thing,and Tony just says, oh, you're
welcome. Now. I know fora fact James L. Brooks was quite
anti war, so his sentiment wouldnot be decided Tony. But this scene
is pretty great in terms of thislittle exchange because it shows how little this

(37:07):
actually matters when it comes to justthese two guys. It's just passing it
off and like it doesn't really getheated. It's funny. It handled it
quite deathly. I think. Yeah, Jim can in the same breath be
like that war sucks and be like, oh, well thanks though, because
he knows Tony's trying to do whathe thinks he's supposed to do or whatever.
Now, I don't believe for onesecond Tony Danza could go over to

(37:27):
fight in Vietnam and not be immediatelykilled by like an enemy combatant or swallowing
a landmine. I just don't believethat he was, especially because like,
knowing he's a bad boxer, how'she supposed to punch out a kid?
Yeah, I want to see likean actual Tony Danza boxing match. We
should see if we can find itsomehow, just to get an idea of
what he actually looked like. Yeah, I wonder if he was a level

(37:47):
where he was on TV doing itor anything. Jim as look, I
thought I was finding personal nirvana,but I was only actually getting recurring nightmares
of the original Mousekets gears hatching outof sea pods. That is terrifying.
Which this is a joke that seemslike a very nineties joke, like when
jokes started becoming absurd in that wayand involving cultural stuff, I was like,

(38:09):
what, who wrote that? Ordid he just say that? By
now, everybody at the table's weirdedout and just wants to go to home
or work or wherever all these cabbiesare going, except for Bobby and Elaine,
who still really want to find away to help Jim. And it's
a Lane who ultimately suggests getting hima job. Alex doesn't know how they
would get a job for Jim untilthey collectively realize there is a totally skillless

(38:32):
position their own. You us goingto the Sunshine Cab Company the next morning
or night, or it's really hardto tell the time. And I actually
kind of like that about this show, in that you always kind of feel
like you're out of sleep and youdon't know what time it is, like
the cabbies must. I think thatthere is certain skills that you'd have to

(38:53):
have to be a good cab driver, and I don't think I would be
good at it at all. LikeI can't navigate traffic on the fly and
against like what the traditional route wouldbe. If you think traffic's going to
change it well, still being personablebut not getting taken advantage of. Yeah,
you got to be personal. You'vegot to have like a good demeanor
while you're navigating a very driving stressfulfor me. So I just in fact,

(39:14):
recently we were talking about it,like, man, you were saying
your road rage is getting worse asyou age. Ah. Yeah, yeah,
I don't know if you would makea very cab driver either. No.
Also keep in mind, this isthe seventies. Think well, that
is a problem. The seats don'talways go back far enough. This is
the seventies. There are no appsthere, it's maps and memory. I
really know a lot about New York. That'd be tough. So yeah,

(39:36):
I think they're being a little bitharsh about how anyone could be a cab
driver. I think it would seriouslybe really hard. Obviously, though,
much like so much of this show, the joke being they're all very self
deprecating. Yeah, I would makethe exact same joke in that career.
As the group gathers around there alittle. They have this terrible, awful
wooden picnic table that's indoors at thisgarage. That's the cab company. It's
like always falling apart. They playcards on it, they sit around and

(39:59):
talk. This is another thing.I just feel such a nostalgia for watching
this show and thinking of these characterssitting around having their little conversations about their
lives in their mid thirties. Ishould not be doing this because this is
a comedy sitcom. But what arethey doing? Are they on the clock?
Is this before the shift? Thisdoesn't make sense that they would all
be here an here we find outthis is before the shift because Louis is

(40:22):
about to start their shift. Soyou kind of gather and get your assignments
in this room sort of is whatit seems like. And you'll have breaks
in like off hours or something whereyou return to the garage. The cabs
have to be worked on and youswitch them out. Things like that.
What I don't like now is andcertainly would never tolerate if I got a
new job, was you gotta behere fifteen minutes earlier. You're not going
to get paid. Yuh, thenwe're going to give you. It's like,

(40:44):
no, no, if I'm heredoing anything for you, you're paying
me. And I think this isa situation where they're not getting paid while
they're waiting. And again, thisis a comedy sitcom who cares? But
I don't care for that, notone bit. That's an attitude I definitely
have too, to the point ofwhere I've been very annoying to employers because
I just refuse to do anything forfree. This is also our first look

(41:05):
at the Sunshine Cab Company, whichis also really gross. I love the
scene setting. This is stuff thatI don't think sitcoms do as much now,
like really try to make the placelived. In next episode we see
people. I'll get into it then, but we see some clothing choices that
are very intentionally shitty. I justlove how scuffed up the show feels.
You don't think like the Big BangTheory has any rooms like this that make

(41:28):
you feel like that it's real andthat you could actually go there, and
you know we're gonna have to coverit and find out. I just think
it's soulless. Probably I bet right, yeah, because it's they sit down
and they say their joke. Noone would laugh, except then they have
the laugh track. Yes, sothat way, the old person at home
who's retired and watches this in woodworkingshows goes, this said the funny joke

(41:51):
about nerds, and then the audiencelaughs, So I know to laugh.
Lifeless as the perfect word van because, like I, when I've watched,
specifically a couple of these older sitcoms, The Taxi Mary Tayler Moore Show,
and obviously the same people are behindthem, I've been really struck by the
life in them and how the performanceis really Everyone feels committed, and they're
not just rehashing lines and sitting andwaiting for laughter. They play off the

(42:15):
laughter. Bobby and Jim arrive.Jim apparently drove Bobby in so Bobby could
get a look at what kind ofdriver Jim isn't. Apparently he's fine,
he did a good job. Everyoneis curious about one thing, though,
how are we supposed to get Jimhired? Because Louie has to be the
one that hires them, and wehaven't met Louis yet. Louis, of
course, is Danny DeVito. Wedo we meet Louie now. He's up

(42:36):
in his power tower calling everybody aloser and handing out driver envelopes to start
the shift to put their cash in. The cage is raised up several feet
off the ground and it's covered inchain link fence all the way around,
and he's in there with Jeff Jeff, I think, puts envelopes in cubbies
and takes phone calls and kind ofagrees with Louie. That's I guess it.

(43:00):
It doesn't seem like there's anything elsehe does or gets any lines for
anything. And Jeff I will sayhe becomes a much bigger part of the
show, not a big part lateron. A lot of the minor characters
do as people get reconfigured. Ithink that I would like that job because
he just kind of is helping out, doesn't really have to do anything,
no pressure, and then just getsto hang out with Anny DeVito, assistant

(43:22):
to the asshole that position. Youhave to count money when people have cab
driving contests, but that's about it. Think how much better you seem personality
wise, just because you're not thatguy. Yeah, I just buy by
comparison, you can be like,at least I'm not him. Everybody's trying
to figure out this Louis thing thebest strategy to deal with them. Jim
doesn't really take part in that conversationso much as he slips drugs into Louie's

(43:45):
coffee. It's such blatant, justcavaliers, I'm gonna drug him just Waltz
is right up and drops it in. I did not expect this, Yeah,
and everyone is shocked, so immediatelyI was thinking, before anything could
happen, what are they gonna do? They in a sitcom, a lot
of times something like this that serioushappens and everyone just doesn't say anything.

(44:05):
That's not the case here. Alexruns up to Louie to get him not
to drink his coffee, but Louisis a dick, so he's like,
I'm gonna drink this no matter whatyou say, and slurps his coffee down
more aggressively than he would have anyway, thus ingesting something that's about to change
his mood quite severely. There area lot of bosses over the years that
I would love to have given tranquilizersto They would have all been better to

(44:25):
deal with any boss, even thegood ones. The problem is, if
I had tranquilizers, I would takethem myself. I would give them to
me. I would be the onefalling asleep on cabs, even if I
didn't work at a cab place.One time when I worked at Expedia,
which I hated every absolute second ofit. It was minomingly awful and I
was so depressed, even though it'sthe only time in my life I ever

(44:46):
made like really good money. Iwas prescribed at a van, which is
like kind of xanax, except alittle more long term. I took one
at work. It was my break, fifteen minute break, so I went
downstairs. We worked in this oldairport, and I fell asleep for like
two hours, and nobody came toget me. Anyway. I come back
and I clock back on and nevertold anybody. Nobody said anything, So

(45:07):
it was fine. So is awin really? Yeah, Although at the
time I'm sure you were like,oh, I mean most of my money
was made via sales as opposed toactual hours on the phone or whatever something.
It didn't really hurt me, youknow, listeners would think, just
hearing you, you would love todo Yeah, I love sales. Fuck
that, it's so awful. God, I hated it. What a nightmare

(45:27):
that would be. You would needall of the drugs that Jim here has
to get through that. I wasso relieved when they fired me. It
genuinely was a relief. Jobs likethat when you're younger, you don't realize
if that's not your personality, andyou force yourself, you don't realize what
you're doing to your mental health.Ye, that's rude damage it. Seriously.
I'm scarred from my call center jobfrom fifteen years. I am too.
I struggle initially with phone like doingany sort of phone call because of

(45:50):
that. Still it's bizarre. I'vealways had the phone thing, but this
made it worse. And that isa time in my life that I can
genuinely say is a monument moment tochanging me for the worst. Yeah,
in a lot of ways, becauseI did develop some bad habits and I
had the mental just anguish from doingthat job. And it's crazy, crazy
to think about. Nindsight fucked yourbrain up. Yeah, I wish I

(46:14):
would have drove a cab instead.You could be really well mannered and adjusted,
like Louis Louis right as he's drinkingthe coffee. I really like what
he's doing. He's on the phonewith someone and calls them bone brain,
which we know that's not one ofthe five bones. No, brain is
not a bone spencer. It's toosquishy. Then when he hangs up the
phone because he had to answer it, he goes where was Ida Jeff,

(46:35):
and Jeff goes giving him hell Louis, and Louis is so happy when he's
like, oh good, I cankeep doing that. I love that.
So Louie starts handing out the cashenvelopes to all the drivers and then falls
asleep on his big, huge microphonelike Michael Buffer has. Oh yeah,
boxing yeah. Then he rises immediatelyback to action, calmer and looser than
he has ever been before. Pickles, Hey, come on, guys,

(47:02):
this get crazy. Get this Seanrow black, Golly, let's get this
cab out uh. The thing Louisdoes at the end where he does a

(47:27):
trust fall onto the side of thecab and pushes himself back up very happily,
like a little kid might do.I don't know if he improvised that
or someone told him to do that. But that is that was incredible.
You know, this bit, thewhole Louis on Drugs didn't necessarily do it
for me, but they sure didit for the studio audience. I think
that's a product of something you kindof mentioned in the beginning. I haven't

(47:49):
spent twenty eight episodes with these characters. Yes, it totally is. So
this was the first time watching itjust kind of like, Eh, this
is kind of funny or whatever.But boy, the audience loved it.
The other thing I'll add is isI really think this is a because I
agree with you. Actually, Ithink the Louis on Drug segments of our
two episodes kind of the weakest stuff. And what I will say is his
physical acting really outpaces the Linesy's given, which is always surprising to me.

(48:15):
I think there's a lot more todo with this than they did, but
he is given is all to theperformance. It is better than any given
moment in television, movies or whatever. Anytime in history where they try to
present someone on weed. Yes,no one has ever gotten that right.
They always just make it like Michaelangelo, when they could just be like,

(48:38):
what does Brian sound like on thepodcast. Yeah, I'm pretty high right
now, to be honest. AsLouie's talking to Lotca, you can really
sense his true affection coming through forhim, which is also really rare.
I like that. It's a littlesweet. Louis begins singing a song called
Moonlight Bay, originally written in nineteentwelve, which is probably why it made

(48:58):
me want to cry. Is harmonizingwith it. This is what we talked
about earlier, and you can tellChristopher Lloyd has kind of a nice voice,
and he was a theater actor too, so makes sense. The rest
of the cast sings along as Louisfalls asleep on top of a cab after
using a paint bucket to get upthere. But before he falls asleep,
Bobby does manage to get get thequestion in. He asks if Louis will

(49:20):
hire Jim, and Louis says yes, before saying everybody works on moon my
Fae, which is the funniest partof this so good. They used it
as the Kaffir and I've only seentwo episodes of Taxi obviously to this point.
Does Lotcad do anything ever, becausethe only thing we ever see is
him standing there polishing a wrench andhe's supposed to be a mechanic. Do
we ever see him fake being underthe car? Do the hoods ever go

(49:44):
out or does he just stand thereand polish the wrench? That's it.
I think the main lock Co rollis for him to just get little things
in when they can. Little character, little bit next yeah, yeah,
where he goes. He does havesome sort romantic storylines. He gets married
later to Simca, who was playedby Carol Kine. Actually Carol Kine,
who of course was the woman whowe've talked about on the Boot Tooo Boys.

(50:07):
We saw in the Marine Biologist episodeof Seinfeld she was a woman who
was bonked in the head by thePDA that the Russian guy throughout the window.
And funny other Seinfeld thing is inthe next episode we get the guy
from the Chinese Restaurant episode. He'sthe vision majer d get Jos in the
car. It happens a couple oftimes, and I didn't expect Seinfeld references

(50:27):
in this show. Here we arekind of makes sense. I would imagine
there would be influence from some ofthese late seventies sitcoms. On another New
York sitcom ten years later, AndyKaufman also played George. I forgot about
that. I would like to seethat you think of very much. I
am ad So this thing where theydrug Louie to get him to agree to
a thing, it reminds me ofa Simpsons episode. Do you remember the

(50:51):
bowling one where Homer forms a bowlingteam at worker with a pooh yeah and
mister Burns because to get mister Burnsto agree to sponsor the team. It's
right after he hopped his own etherrag. Then he illucinated and saw Homers
popping fresh kept poking him in thebelly, and then he was like,
sure, I'll give you the moneyyou need because I'm high, and he
doesn't really Also, the fact thatit's an ether rag's perfect and he just

(51:15):
pushes it right in his face.There's a little bit of that in the
scene because that Louis is, yeah, for sure, pull other guy just
because he's on drugs. I'm sorry, sir. They seem to think of
you if as an ogre ooh,I should crush them and eat their boons.
The Simpsons is a good show.I've been watching it a couple episodes
recently, so it's fresh on themind. You can always pick it up,

(51:35):
and if it's been like five years, you can just put an episode
on and you're like, oh,this is good. Never ceases to delight.
Saw an episode I'd never seen beforefrom like season five. Wow,
that blew my mind. It wasa clip show episode. See I remember
several, like there were two thatwere hosted by Troy McLure, but then
this one I'd never seen and itwas Marge and Homer telling like romantic stories
to the kids. Do you rememberthose sounds familiar? Yeh, vaguely.

(51:57):
Then they showed the thing where Grandpa'shim and dates Marge's mom, And then
they showed the thing where Holmer almostcheats on Marge with the woman to the
power plant, and the one whereMarge almost cheats on Homer with the bowling
instructor. Oh yeah, Shack.But yes, it was a It was
a clip show and it wasn't good. But I'd never seen it before.
I don't know if I've seen that. I would have seen anything from season

(52:17):
five a lot, because I hadthose DVDs. Yeah, that was the
one with the Homer head, wasn'tit. Yes, Season five with the
one everyone hated, Yeah, theycouldn't stand it, dan't stand Jack.
I was pretty mad about it too. I didn't it just only for shelf
reasons, exactly your collection. Ournext scene takes place at the DMV,
which also looks gross. Jim istrying to get all the necessary I don't

(52:40):
know if they ever say, butthe ID credentials, perhaps license to drive
a cab or a car in general. I took it as like he was
doing like the whole driver's license thing, like he didn't have any of that.
He may have and he needs alot of help. As it turns
out, thankfully, Elaine, Bobby, and Alex are trying to help,
while Tony is there too. Uh. The best part of Tony being there

(53:00):
is that Tony Danza cannot handle thisscene. Every time Christopher Lloyd does something
funny, Tony Danza has to turnaway from the camera because he's laughing.
He keeps breaking and if you watchfor it, it's hilarious because ninety nine
percent of the time you just seethe back of his head and Tony Danzel
like, shake it, and hedoesn't know how to do what the rest
of the cast does, I thinkvery impressively, which is laugh when someone

(53:23):
does something funny. In a naturalway that your character would. Yeah,
make it like a human something peopledon't do in sitcoms now, which I
think they take everything deadpan, Likesomeone says the funniest thing ever and you
just stare at him like a fuckingmonster. Ye're letting the audience do the
laughing for your characters, basically,Yeah, And I think like this also
makes you feel like the cast ismore communal when they're laughing with each other.

(53:45):
But Tony Danza, rather than likeflavor thing straight and just chuckle,
he looks away, drawing attention tothe fact that he's laughing, and then
when he's not doing that, helooks irritated. I remember on King of
the Hill when Bobby has to callConnie and he uses his Tony Danza prepaid
phone cards to do so, andthen every thirty seconds Tony Danza pipes and

(54:07):
it says, Hey, it's TonyDanza. You've got three minutes left on
your card. I remember that Ididn't even see that show, and I
remember that I love how washed upTony Danza jokes were already happening in the
nineties. This is obvious, butI was one of the few people who
didn't watch King the Hill. Thatwas Mike Judge, right, yes,
oh interesting, it's a great show, fun show. Interesting, Mike Judge.
You both were when we were youngeranti King of the Hill. Wasn't

(54:30):
anti you just got into it,yeah, Brian in that regard, but
also anti Futurama, and both arephenomenal shows. And Futurama got bad.
Like I tried to watch some futurAma and it was fine. I just
didn't didn't stick with me. It'sso good for like three or four seasons.
They're like Simpson's their good because thewriters that were on The Simpsons starting
that period of time that it wasso good left to do Futuramas. Yeah,

(54:52):
David Cohen created it. I thinkDavid X Oh yeah, no,
he's still Cohen. But King ofthe Hill I had seen sporadically when I
was younger, and I was inmy early twenties when I really when I
watched it enough to get it.When I was younger, I watched it
and there would be jokes I'd laughat, but some of it I would

(55:13):
like, I would not understand whatthey were doing with the serious storylines sure,
which is also a parody the saccharinmusic, but I would just be
like, what are they trying tocombine these things? Then it was probably
twenty one or twenty two. Ibought again a DVD set like the first
few seasons at Walmart because it wason sale, and I just burned through
them and then I'm like, oh, I totally get I understand it now

(55:36):
the credit to that show, becauseit wasn't obvious to me when I was
younger. Among the things Christopher Lloyd'sJim has to figure out and doesn't know
or his name Eye call her andas he says, it earthweight, well
because of space or you don't havea weight. He says that. I
did actually laugh at the It wasreal quiet and subtle, and it's not

(55:58):
even at the forefront of the scene. But when he's filling out the eyepart
Elaine, the way she scolds himis like, don't put two. I
love how she does that. Itis great because yeah, when it says
eyes, you know, she says, don't put two in that kind of
exhausted way. But normally what youwould have is just the character say to
So it is good to have anothercharacter get the line. And she nails

(56:19):
the tone of it just right,or the low hanging fruit joke that every
show does, which is sex.Yes, please, Oh that's the worst
because they're horny, Brian, theywant a fuck. We almost got to
watch Christopher Lloyd have sex, whichyou know, pretty hot. Yeah,
it'd be weird. I bet theywouldn't be boring. You think he does
those eyes? Oh yeah, yeah, I don't think he's got a choice

(56:39):
in that his oh face. ChristopherLloyd is also licking his pencil a lot,
repeatedly before writing, and at onepoint you can tell it. He
plays it like it hurts, whichI but he keeps going back. What
is that? Why do people dothat? I don't know. I don't
understand because there has to be arascal the thing he used to have to

(57:00):
do, like, oh, itwon't work right until you get started up
with your spittleto you slobber on yourpencil. But I have seen it before
and I've never understood it. Bobbyasked Jim a few more questions after taking
over writing down answers, and theyend up having to lie about a lot
of them. Here's an example,mental illness or narcotic addiction. That's a

(57:21):
tough choice. Another thing, veryaided by Christopher Lloyd's wild ass eyes.
What kind of a question is thaton a questionnaire? Yeah, no one's
gonna write yes, I bet youI am addicted to narcotic Yeah, I
definitely am. Probably an insurance thing. They have to have to put it
on there, no matter what.Yeah, even though no one's gonna answer

(57:43):
when you're finding them later and you'relike you said on this forum you didn't
have a mental illness, and youdo and you are Christopher Lloyd. Also,
he says he's like five to tenwhen they say, hi, Christopher
Lloyd is six to one. Ilooked it up. Wow, he didn't
look five ten to me. WhenI saw that scene, I was like,
huh, he seems to I've alwaysthought him is kind of tall,
but he's also thin and always hasbeen thin, and that makes you look

(58:04):
taller. Elaine is actually optimistic thatJim might pass the test. Alex is
worried no matter what happens, andI think that's fair. Jim's taking this
test while seated in one of thoselittle elementary school one piece desk things where
it kind of curves around a little, so already we have the visual of
wild Christopher Lloyd, who's kind oftall in this little child's desk, and

(58:27):
he is taking the test and getsstuck on the question of what a yellow
light means, and this is asitcom trope. He whispers to Bobby asking
for help, and Bobby says slowdown, and Jim takes it wrong,
meaning that he should ask the questionslower to Bobby normally. I hate this.
This is repeated four times and actuallydid work for me. Yeah,
well, they kept going with itand you have to admire it. And

(58:49):
again this is Christopher Lloyd who findsa way to get even slower and like
doesn't break while doing it. Andthinking about this joke at the time,
I'm like, I bet this hadn'tbeen done a thousand times yet. Either
that's the saving grace for me,because it didn't work for me. I
thought this was too much. Ithought they did it one time too many
or three times too few. Eithergo way beyond to make it funny again,

(59:12):
or do it and I get alaugh. But I thought, well,
for me, the timing did workbecause I was expecting three because everything's
always fucking three. So when hedid the fourth and they cut it,
I also liked that they cut ithow they did. I did like that
they let him actually because I thoughtthey were going to fade the scene entirely.
They don't, though, Yeah,they did let him actually finish it
the fourth time, so it waslike, Okay, I didn't think it

(59:34):
was funny, but I did respectthat they stuck it out like they did.
That's basically what I mean too.I didn't actually laugh at sure.
It reminded me so much and Ihate to do this twice in the same
episode, but it reminded me somuch of the sideshow Bob with Rake's thing
in that one episode where he justkeeps stepping on him over and over again,
and they're the writers are going forthe exact same thing there. It's
like, yes, I know,you don't think this is funny anymore.
We're going to do it again anyway, and you're right. I doubt it

(59:55):
was as done at that point incomedy in the seventies whenever this was made,
but it's something where they saw itthrough and it was like, all
right, I understand what they did, and that was ballsy cool. I'm
enjoying seeing tropes enacted in some ofthese earlier shows with better actors because a
lot of these, you know,you'll see them in ninety shows that we
watched as kids that suck or somethingthat you're just watching, like Save by

(01:00:19):
the Bell or something, so you'relike, oh, I've never actually seen
this done well at all. Whatwould it be like if it was done
well? And I think there's somethingto whatever something morphs into over the years
and how bad it gets, itwould still be interesting if you could find
the origin of that or the originof the trope. I'd still like to
see that, even if I hatewhat it became. Especially doing this podcast
now, I like, I findmyself very interested in like when did that

(01:00:42):
start? When did people start doingthis in TV? How did they ruin
it? That's usually how it endsup. Yeah, that's why you're asking
the question to start with. TheDMV part of the show's over and we're
back at the Sunshine Cab Company.Everyone is shocked because Jim did pass his
driver's test. Jim's proud he didn'thard hit anything, and Alex hands him
the keys to his first cab andhis first envelope and Jim gives a little

(01:01:05):
speech. He's so touched and Alexis touched too. And this is the
kind of thing. Alex says,it's a little cheesy, but he has
such a big heart. He's like, I want to be your first fair
and gets in the cab with Jimand they do a little play acting of
like where to even though he's notreally Jim's first fair, he's not gonna
pay for that. Come on uptown, that's where they funk you up.
I heard there was a girl there, m just one uptown girl. What

(01:01:28):
happens downtown, Spencer? Do youknow, well that's where you go when
you need the lights to be alittle brighter? Yeah, I hear everyone
goes there. What is that linedown? Everything's great when you're so that's
where the lights are at? Isthat the line? Yeah, there's a
bunch where the lights are at.That is a stupid science. That's something

(01:01:49):
like that wrong. Though there's alot of rambling about how it's it'll make
you happy when you're not huh,which I don't think that would work for
Spencer has performed this song live.He's only a bit of it that we
cut it off smartly, I wouldadd, like we didn't do that entirely.
We actually weren't willing to play asa rock band four minutes of downtown
in front of people. Only twowe just did like the first couple verses,

(01:02:10):
So I guess here is where thelights aren't at theah they're gone.
Oh that's why we're not downtown,okay, Jim. He backs directly through
the closed garage door and ruins aside of the cab company, and then
we go to credits. Everyone isreally more amused about that than horrified.
I think I'd be a little morehorrified than the thousands of dollars of damage

(01:02:31):
by your guy who just got licensed, who might do this to a pedestrian,
will do this through a pedestrian.Although I'm assuming that the cab driver
job does stick throughout the series.For Christopher Lloyd, yeah, it's like
Seinfeld, this ended in. Someplot points continue, but a thing like
this will happen, and it's justlike, eh, whatever, Yeah,
it didn't happen. Assume a timegap happened. Well, I thought it

(01:02:52):
was interesting. Christopher Lloyd isn't inour next episode, and it's sequentially in
the same season, but five orso episodes later he was in like ninety
six of one hundred and fourteen.He's is most so most of them,
but we just happened to miss him. He was probably off doing some play
or something where he hangs upside downin screens. The credits for this show

(01:03:13):
are just like the opening credits onits night time. Yeah, it's a
little better. I think, goodjuxtaposition. I could argue you should flip
them because they work night shift.Yeah I can. I can get along
with that. It's a night feelingshow. You start with the night time,
you end with the daytime, andgive it that disorienting feel you would
have getting off your shift. Ilike that. They should have done it.
I like it too. The creditsin with this thing that it says

(01:03:35):
at John Charles Walter's production and awoman tells this old seventies businessman named mister
Walter's good night, and he goes, I've always remembered this, Huh.
I didn't finish the episodes when youwatch him. I stopped when the credits
started, so I missed it.But I'm just saying, it's like this
little production tag, and it reallylike struck a chord of me. It
was like, oh my god,I remember this. You did something though
you just said it ends with andthen just listed a bunch of first names.

(01:04:00):
Yeah, that's all one guy.But that's one guy, Charles John
Michael Johnson. Think of a whiteman's name, shove him together. It's
this guy's name, and of coursehe was successful. If you give a
guy enough white guy names, he'sgoing to succeed. So is it like
the bumper at the is it adultswim or one of those one of the
yes? Is it like that?Like? Okay, that's what I was

(01:04:21):
picturing. I like that. Youknew immediately what I was trying to say
when when I started that. Andthen there's a sit ubu sit I don't
know. That's like paramount. Idon't know that one. There are a
lot of those things. The officehad that one that I for some reason,
Oh yeah when you said it cameback but not all the way.
Or the jj Abrams one with therobot coming off the screen he goes bad,

(01:04:42):
whoa boy? Yeah, a bunchof kids. Man, I'm going
to make one of those for us. We should okay, a boo two
inc like stinger, but we're notbees or hornets. How would we have
stingers? It have to be asheep obviously. What does the sheep sound
like, but what would bootoo soundlike? He doesn't make noise. That's
he's always he was traumatized as ayoung sheep. That is it for this

(01:05:06):
episode of Taxi. We're gonna beback next week to talk about it some
more. Before we leave, though, you should give us a five star
review on Apple Podcasts or wherever youlisten to them. I'll get a tattoo
of Christopher Lloyd's eyeballs that sounds reallymetal. Actually, I'm your eyeballs,
yes, whoa or on your eyelids so when you shut them you look
like you're awake and on drugs.You should also, if you feel so

(01:05:30):
inclined, to check us out onYouTube. We Van's been uploading the back
catalog there also patroon dot com slashbut too inc. We have a lot
of bonus episodes there and they're free, all for free. Yep. You
can pass though if you want todo it, but you don't have to
though, if you don't want todo it. But if you don't want
to do it, you should stillpay us just for the sake of it.
Yeah, give us money, iswhat we're saying. You're rich,

(01:05:51):
Yeah, you out there listening toattract a really well wait question. We
have to stop now our rides hereTaxi taxi Belospeci