Taxi ran for five seasons on television and sadly came to an end when too many of its cast members decided to strike out on their own and most had really successful careers. Can you imagine a show where Danny DeVito, Tony Danza, Andy Kaufman, and Christopher Lloyd all appeared and many times in the same episodes? Getting them at their full market big screen value would cause any studio to go chapter 11.
All of these people got their first big break on Taxi a comedy with only one set for most of the episodes. DeVito was cab dispatcher Louis DiPalma, a bully and a tyrant who reveled in his rule over the lives of his drivers. DeVito had few redeeming qualities other than he was a realist. Part of his realism was stepping on the dreams of others.
People like Tony Danza who drove a cab to pay the rent, but was really a boxer looking for the career path upwards and more than likely missed it drove for DeVito. Jeff Conaway was an actor who drove between gigs as most of the actors I know do something else for a living and dream of becoming stars. John Randall Carver was a young law student who left after a season. Marilu Henner was a divorcée and constantly avoiding the innuendos of DeVito of which there were plenty. She was sexually harassed, maybe the most sexually harassed woman ever to be a television character.
Funniest of all was Christopher Lloyd who was a drugged out refugee of the 60s. He replaced Carver and DeVito's barbs never bothered him because he dealt with them through ignorance. A lot like the way Chico Marx dealt with Groucho in their films.
The only one who could really deal with DeVito was Judd Hirsch who was as much New York as Jerry Orbach on Law And Order. He was a 40 something man who had no attachments and no pretensions, he drove a cab to earn a living and liked his job. He was friend and counselor to all and was one of the favorite characters I liked in all the decades of watching the tube.
Lastly there was Andy Kaufman who sadly did not live long after Taxi finished its run. He was unique to say the least in his comedy. The garage mechanic from some unnamed Eastern European country which allowed Kaufman to develop his own accent for his own country. He drove DeVito and the rest nuts with his nonsequiters in a foreign accent.
Taxi had one of the great ensemble casts in the history of television and incubated many a career still going to this day.
