Quote: David H @ August 29 2008, 9:52 AM BSTThat rings a bell. And though I can't quite remember how it went I remember laughing it.
If you want, you can jump ahead to about the four-minute mark in this clip...
Taxi Page 2
Quote: JerryG @ August 30 2008, 7:23 PM BSTIf you want, you can jump ahead to about the four-minute mark in this clip...
What a coincidence. It was on the episode I just watched! He had some other good lines in that episode too. The thing I find about Taxi though is that they don't know seem to know how to use others in the scene. Tony Danza was just milling around for most of that episode and the conflict that drives episodes doesn't always appear to be there.
Yeah, you certainly get a lot of characters just sat about in Taxi with nothing to do. They deliver the odd one liner, but nothing essential. Louis is almost always sat up in his cage just messing about. It's realistic I suppose, but doesn't make great television.
I remember the show being on when I was a child, if I remember correctly it was shown on BBC1. I remember watching an episode that guest starred Ted Danson and my parents recognised him from Cheers. I think Taxi's last season was on the same time as Cheers's first
Were they written or produced by the same team ?
Cheers was the successor to Taxi as the best sitcom of the time and managed to surpass it in both quality & longevity.
Quote: Dave @ August 3 2007, 2:15 PM BSTTo me, he was a bit of an overated nobody.
Pure genius, you mean.
Quote: Dave @ August 3 2007, 2:15 PM BSTWasn't really impressed with Man on the Moon. To me, he was a bit of an overated nobody.
Sacrilege! Anyone who reads The Great Gatsby in its entirety to an audience demanding a trademark silly voice is pretty awesome. Screw convention.
They're repeating these on Comedy Central at the mo.
I've taped a few.
It is a bit dated but still oozes class.
Taxi was great, although there was a huge contrast between the outstanding characters like Lloyd, Kaufman and DeVito and all the rest of them, who were little more than straight-men. Even Hirsch, who presumably was supposed to be funny, wasn't.
Quote: Kenneth @ May 9 2009, 2:10 AM GMTSacrilege! Anyone who reads The Great Gatsby in its entirety to an audience demanding a trademark silly voice is pretty awesome. Screw convention.
Sounds funny in theory and a great anecdote but it'd have been boring as feck to be in the audience.
I always find it amusing that someone who "challenges" audiences and doesn't really even try to be funny can be heralded as a "comedy genius" and yet someone who tells jokes which never fail to make audiences laugh would be seen as something lesser.
He never read the whole book. He'd just read for a while, people would laugh, then get restless, then laugh again, then he would stop and say he was going to play a record instead, relief in the audience, he puts the needle down and . . . it's a recording of him reading the book, right from where he just stopped; cue more laughter. It's a funny bit, and the reason people like him are highlighted is because they're trying other things, new things, as opposed to just telling gags. Not there's anything wrong with just telling gags if they're good gags.
Quote: Matthew Stott @ January 7 2011, 2:47 PM GMTtrying other things, new things
Yes, I believe it was cocaine.
Speaking of which that's a classic episode of Taxi, the one where Latka makes the cookies everyone loves and it turns out the secret ingredient is cocaine.
Was always a favourite of mine, I think it was the first US sitcom that really made me laugh and realise that they can do funny sitcom as it should be done, purely sitcom. (Well, first modern one, I'd seen the excellent Bilko (PS show) but then all I'd managed to see of US sitcoms were star vehicles when I'd be wondering what all the loud whoopy laughter was about.) Taxi put them back on the map for me, then saw some really good ones before Friends put me off again.
The Taxi theme tune is called 'Angela'. No wonder I love it so much.
I like it because it's the Sunshine Cab Company