Best TAXI Character

did latka's smooth personality have a different name?
Tempted to vote for simka

Love this show...the theme song still gets to me.

xpost wasn't it Vic Ferrari?

It's either Jim or Latka. Voted Jim

jim just barely over louie

shit, i didnt know jeff conaway died. rip

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ycODUii5L._SL500_SS500_.jpg

I miss clips of his awkward talk show being featured on the Soup.

haha yes -- "sad news"

considered an ironic danza vote but i gotta go with louie

Always surprised at how endearing I find Danza in these old eps.

Will probably vote Jim, but Louie had moments of surprising depth, like this one upon getting dumped (~10 min in):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RjU0Ut4kU0

"You know something? Someday you're gonna come back to me, crawling on your knees, begging me to take you back. And when you do, do you know what I'll say? I'll say, 'Thank god.'"

I have to go with Louie. I just have to. What a mean, hateful little softie.

I think my boss is basically Louie.

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i came here to post this, but i see it's happened already. i vote louie de palma.

i love this show so much.

I have a very uneven relationship with Danny DeVito and his acting career. I generally find his acting to be terribly one-note and unimaginative, and continually wonder at his long enduring stardom. But because this was a sitcom, where one-note characters are unusually acceptable, and because he was embedded in a talented ensemble working with talented writers, I still think of this as the best thing he ever did.

i had never seen this show so mr veg introduced me - we’re up to season 4 episode 13

this might be my new favorite show
also goddamn it’s truly the most perfect, well-written sitcom i’ve ever seen

EVERY ending is absolutely chef’s kiss
they never, ever put a bow on it

hardpressed to know which character i’d vote for … tossup between jim & louie

also jeff conaway breaks my heart
(we just watched his last episode)
he was so charming & charismatic in this! like i love him in Grease but fuck, i wish for a time machine where it could have gone better for him starting here, staying with the show, not getting strung out
man, if he could have seen what we saw
:( woulda coulda shoulda

still haven't seen or committed to a full episode yet but have looked up clips, is there a better than the others early episode to start on or should I start with the first?

did finally track down a contemporaneous (to the record) live performance of "Welcome Back", apparently this was on SNL in 1976, groundbreaking green screen technology to create a backdrop of capricious Kotter clips, Belushi shows up to hold the harmonica for the harmonica solo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1CWeJkNYfE

couple of cute false starts while the sound person is sweating bullets to fix the feedback asap

it is a Saturday night, and it is live

sorry I thought we were talking about Welcome Back Kotter for some reason also I may be in my cups

the Taxi theme is really good too though, and same deal have somehow never watched a full episode of Taxi, would love to know where to start

Irritating how this is never repeated (in the UK) whereas Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Cheers and King of Queens run endlessly on a loop on Channel 4 every morning. It was on BBC originally though iirc which might have something to do with it - yet they find room to show 10 episodes in a row of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps on whatever BBC channel that's on.

If you want to watch Taxi I recommend starting at the beginning. It was pretty raw at first and became more polished in later seasons. There’s also a story arc that isn’t totally continuous in every episode but good to have some sense of what later callbacks refer to.

And yeah the theme song is my ducking jam.

kinda sad how randall carter didnt really have much of a career after this
he wasn't super peripheral like chuck cunningham so him just disappearing after season 1 was weird but i know "drop the guy who doesn't really fit" after initial season is a tale as old as time - would be a decent poll if anyone was nerdy enough to compile it
kinda the david palmer/steely dan equivalent in acting

got the full dvd set recently, still not ventured into it though. I think I only ever watched the first half of the whole series of Taxi back in the day.

encourage anyone who is able to watch taxi via physical media or streaming to do so with abandon

just start from the start & go through it at your leisure

dunno if it’s a binge tho. i think it’s better savored slowly.

early episodes are genuinely enjoyable but i think adding jim as a series regular adds an additional layer of surreal joy that wasn’t necessarily noticeably missing or lacking but just makes everything else SO much better

s2 ep12 “Elaine’s Secret Admirer” is one of my favorite Jim eps in particular for the ending. it ends in a way that any other sitcom would whiff because so many shows then (& even now) are afraid to leave things unexplained or unresolved. somehow Taxi just trusts their audience, and it’s wonderful (and SO rare)

oh and: imo my favorite thing is that Taxi laughs are ~genuine~ belly laughs, this show is like therapy for the soul

i may be coming around to voting Louie DePalma

s5 episode 11 where Zena gets married & she tells Louie in the restaurant: she leaves & he starts a fight with the guy at the next table yelling GET UP
COME OVER HERE
and the guy walks over ready to go & devito pulls him in & just starts sobbing into his shirt

fucking amazing

OTM

Best character is a tossup between Jim, Louie, Alex and Simka.

Alex maybe not the best "character" but is Taxi personified, is the mood that establishes and colors the realm.

It's probably Alex.

Still not started my dvds yet, think it's going to be saved for the post christmas boredom. I will try not to binge as Vegemite advises, one a night maybe at bedtime.

:)

Alex, Jim & Simka all great as well

oh and Louise Lasser as Alex’s ex wife Phyllis is fantastic. Her S5 Christmas ep slayed me

Yeah def don't binge. One episode a night at bedtime is PERFECT. Season 1 is the weakest and the later seasons are imo the strongest, i personally would start with season 2 because you are no longer looking over their shoulder while they tweak the ensemble in season 2

Those 4 characters are each the best in their own way. DeVito's performance is far and away the best with Carol Kane a distant second

Alex's philosophy = there is nothing reasonable or sensible you could do that would result in failure, only crazy ambition leads to failure. big dreams are very dangerous because they have the potential to devastate you when they don't materialize. he claims he is resigned to his position, that he's the only one who is. he thinks he's too much of a realist to get swept off his feet but he is actually the most susceptible and his struggles and failures to keep his optimsm in check are at the core of the show. he is the heart of the series because he contains this duality and wrestles with it constantly. he is the one they all turn to for counsel in times of despair but he depends on the others for permission not to suppress his nature. "you guys go ahead, you have fun, i'm not getting my hopes up this time". and then given a little prodding he will be the one to e.g. fall head over heels in love with a blind date. if they let him be, he might set aside the dream of fulfilling his humanity in the interest of avoiding pain. Iggy the holy fool is the real sage of the group, and he knows it.

I love the enthusiasm for this show, but more importantly, how are you watching it? This show is the white whale for us TV streamers (in Canada, at least)

I think those of us who are watching it have the series on DVD.
I was introduced via Nick at Nite in the '90s

I’ve seen two dozen episodes and aside from the frustrating Kaufman usage it is pretty much the best, wish I could hoover the whole series properly

Yeah, I would def get the DVD set, it's the best. Kaufman in Taxi is a complicated topic, i have posted about it in another thread. I think there's a real confluence between the medium and the message in his performance, otoh it's pretty offensive.

John Sebastian - "Welcome Back"

Taxi is on FreeVee (Amazon's awkward ad-supported streamer) in America, not sure about Canada.

watching on Paramount+

omg please don’t skip Season 1
there’s really no lag in quality the series simply builds to some great comedic/dramatic episodes that are worth the wait and a few lulls will not kill you imo

watch the whole thing start to finish as god and nature intended

whole thing goes up on youtube from time to time but was recently taken down (probably because it’s now on paramount+)

love the whole cast (including kaufman, sorry) but it’s gotta be judd hirsch for me. love him so much

definitely the best pre-seinfeld sitcom i’ve watched. i disagree with deflatormouse, season 1 is great

Ohhhh I don't have Paramount+ but will do so. Really want to ~actually~ watch this show!

oh i certainly wouldn't skip s1 altogether (weakest season of Taxi = still amazing, obv). i just wouldn't suggest someone who is unfamiliar with the series should start there, but if you're committed to watching the entire series it's nbd.

xp!!

I do think Kaufman is great in it, ultimately. tbc

and Taxi >>>>>>>>> Seinfeld or whatever else
Taxi >>>>>>>>

the thing with s1 is they do hammer you over the head with the concept a little, and they subordinate the ensemble dynamic to that at times, but this is really picking nits.

actually think s1e3 (the one with Angela) would be a great one to start on

(scans ep list) yeahhh s1 is insanely beautiful lol

one of the things I love about Alex is his inherent melancholy, like a mostly unseen seam of sadness/acceptance that permeates in a really beautiful way in the way Hirsch plays him but is never leaned on too heavily or fully explained

he’s such a wonderful actor

Yeah when i think of Taxi the first thing i think of is the ambient mood that Judd Hirsch's Alex casts. I prob would have voted Alex.

haven't seen Judd Hirsch in much else.

he’s great in pretty much anything

i used to be a big fan of the show Numb3rs when it aired, he played krumholz’s dad and was terrific

also he had an outstanding cameo in Spielberg’s The Fabelmans if you want to see if Hirsch still has the juice

Hirsch is among the many underrated elements of Ordinary People; I love how much he had a moment in the early ‘80s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYagOiBYAWs

ugh yes he’s so great in Ordinary People <3

one of the things I love about Alex is his inherent melancholy, like a mostly unseen seam of sadness/acceptance that permeates in a really beautiful way in the way Hirsch plays him but is never leaned on too heavily or fully explained

The very early episode where he goes on a disastrous blind date with Angela (the "Angela" of the show's theme song) is a perfect encapsulation of all these elements of his character, and it's worth not skipping straight to S2 to see it

he's also pretty sexy imo

SO sexy omg

i was also thinking about Kaufman/Latka

the portrayal of the immigrant is without question wrongheaded and insensitive at best

but within the world of the show it’s remarkable how it works. the malaise of the cab stand, everyone is so dissatisfied or at best marking time that someone like Latka maybe irl should be rejected but his perpetual optimism is like a tide that lifts all the boats ie the other characters

i think of the scene where they all play Latka’s cardgame together and naturally use his own language without any difficulty or selfconsciousness, or when they go to his wedding & actively are called on to participate in the ceremony & do so happily because its Latka, rather than oh its weird & alien no thanks

like it models a really beautiful integration of his culture that isn’t really much of the norm .. yknow beyond just tolerance or acceltance, but genuine kindness, community and fellowship. its just that Kaufman’s schtick obviously leans so hard (or solely) on being the outsider for laughs that it is hard to really grow that character from a writing standpoint but they did an admirable job imo

irl they would mostly be immigrants, of course. i guess it was different in the 70's. it's been a while since i read Night Shifting for the Hip Fleet but i don't remember there being a lot of foreigners among the art students and phd candidates at the Dover garage.

I love Uncle Andy's Funhouse and those kinds of shows that he did. The Foreign Man character is supposed to be painfully awkward to watch- because he's unfunny, not just because it's mean spirited. But of course it's meant to build tension so that you get this amazing joyful release when he does his wonderful Elvis impression, or takes everyone in the audience out for ice cream. But it feels more menacing, like the setup for a con.

Latka tho is endearing and "cute" and actually very funny. I mean in the earliest episode, a lot of the big laughs come from Latka. He's the classic jester, he does that kind of physical comedy very well. But I'm thinking a bunch of the jokes are based on his presumed innocence. Because he's seen as unmasculine and nonsexual. As an immigrant, he's kind of invisible in that sense. So when he makes passes at Elaine, it doesn't register at all. and then the punchline is he's "one of the guys", he turns out to be a real horndog. And it's funny!

But i think the way that he's able to retain a bit of the mischief of his nightclub act as this cuddlier version of his character, is that he makes the cast into his marks, instead of the audience. When he does things like- maybe not so much the wedding, but when it's kind of the Andy show and it's a matter of how far out can he pull this from the fabricated reality of Taxi, and kind of force everyone else to play along without breaking character.

Like how difficult can he make it for the others.

I've seen the Fabelmans! I was having my apartment exterminated and had to kill a bunch of hours. Forgot Judd Hirsch was in it. He was great in it tho, agreed.

Enjoying my one episode before sleep at the moment, still on S1 and looking forward to Jim coming back (he was teased in a random episode in season 1).