Episode 2 - One-Punch Banta

Weirding Way media. Hik mister Walders, he's an actor. I only hello everyone, and welcome once again to night mister Walters a taxi podcast. I m HP with me as always as my co host, Father alone, Father alone, say Hi, Hey, the bags are singing the national anthem. You get excited?

That's right. We'll talk about that and more in this episode. The episode will be covering is episode two. It's called One Punch Banta. It's written by Earl Pomerance and directed by the one and only James Burrows.

This is the first of what I like to call, in taxi terms, the brass Spring stories. This is a story that focuses on one Cabby's vain attempt to get out of the garage, only to come sadly short. In this particular episode, just to kind of summarize it quickly, Tony gets a call from the gym that the champ, Carlos Navarone needs a sparring partner in advance of his big fight. And this is sort of shades of Rocky and says Tony says, he you can actually look up his record, so it's a big deal to Tony and all the other cabbies In a show of support, they buy him a robe and they come down to the sparring session. Everybody's very excited about this, and during the sparring session, Tony he throws a left to the champ's body and the champ goes down unbelievably to everyone, including Tony.

To their surprise, he goes out, and this opens up even more doors for Tony because once the word gets out, he actually gets offered a fight with a major contender. The fighter's name is Frankie Wallace. He's the eighth in the world and this is Frankie Frankie Wallace indeed, so this is a big deal. So he's going to have a fight. I think he's actually fighting at Madison Square Garden and this could be the launching point for his real boxing career.

So he goes. The night of the fight comes up, he's training, Alex is actually managing him, and he's training and Carlos the Champ comes in with his manager. We'll talk about him in a moment, but they come in and basically they sort of they rain on Tony's parade. They let the cat out of the bag and basically say to him that Carlos's fight was in selling very well, so they needed something to drum up interest in the fight. They concocted this scheme to take a dive during the sparring session so that he would sell more tickets, so he wouldn't be as the champ wouldn't seem as unbeatable.

Tony of course says, you're wrong, I hit you with a good left hook or whatever, so he takes a pot shot at the champ. The champ doesn't budge, so clearly this is all is set up, and Tony really didn't earn his shot, and he's hurt. The words are exchanged between him and the champ and things get heated, and the champ ends up punching him in the face and he goes down and he's dazed. He's actually helped up by another fighter, and he confides in The fighter says, you know, I think if I dance around for the first couple rounds, I'll be okay. By the way, what's your name?

The other fighter says, your opponent, So Tony, he's not going to win the fight. In a related story with George Plimpton searching a book, Luca is in favor for Tony Banta that day and he got out of the garage and he was never heard from again. It's one of the it's one of the winning episodes of Taxi. There were few and far between. Bett oh Man, the promise that of the Tony Banter character.

I love the George Plimpton reference. And in a related story, Louie has got to Alex into betting on the fight. And so not only does Tony lose and lose poorly or lose badly, but Alex has to pay up and it's it's a humiliation for everybody. But again, you know, Tony's never going to stop fighting reaching for the brass ring and scene. So that's the episode in a nutshell.

So now let's let's let's dig into some of the uh, the finer points of this episode. First of all, there's a little more. There's there's a b story that never really goes anywhere that I haven't really mentioned where. At the beginning, Louie kind of confides to Alex that John, our favorite John the Rube, who again we won't see him past this season, he's not making his bookings and he's going to have to fire John. And Alex says, no, no, no, no, no, don't, don't do it, and it never goes anywhere from there.

That's all you hear of it. You'd think that there'd be some sort of a resolution to that, but there's really not. Here's my first note I wrote for the for the episode. Already Louis Louie is saying what the audience is thinking, getting rid of John the Rube. You know, when we've talked about the we talked in the pilot about mister Carver.

Here that is Anna Randall Carver, Randall Carver. I think we were very kind to him, and now in episode two it's it's no longer time to be kind of Randall Carver. That character is bad, and he's bad in it. It's all, oh gosh, oh golly, oh gee. It's like it's like Jim Neighbors has stumbled into the garage.

Well, I think you had said it that he really is designed to be the audience proxy. But we don't need an audience proxy. With characters as colorful and interesting as Alex as Elaine, as Louie as Bobby, he John couldn't help but be the odd man out. And I think it's telling, well maybe not telling, but I think it's interesting that you have a character like Latka, who is who seems from the get go to be a purely ancillary character, somebody that Andy Californ can kind of come in, do a little bit of stick, make the audience laugh, and it goes no further than that. But it's interesting that one of the main characters, John is, even as as of episode two, seems to be you know, getting phased out in a way.

And Laca, even though there's really not much for him to do, he is so compelling and it's really the interplay because he and Louie have a little bit of banter back and forth, and it's just sort of the comedy is really really good. And it's so clear that that's where the writers are choosing to focus because it's more interesting, it's funnier, and it's it's it's fresher, and it's more interesting. And clearly Any Kaufman is a star on the rise. How could you not want to focus on him? And even from from episode one, Louie, I should say, Danny DeVito is Louie de Palma, and you know, he's as good an episode one, two, three as he is in those final episodes.

It's so like, you know, it's so obvious to everybody, and sadly, you know, sadly for Randall Carver, things don't really I mean, there are episodes that there are episodes I shouldn't say that, there are episodes that we will get into that actually focus on John and his sort of foibles and his misadventures. But I got to say, those are not the highlights of this season or any season for that matter. But yeah, he's he's not good at all, not good. You know, you said that we don't need an audience proxy, and I don't think we ever do. But you can do it well.

You just can't think that this character like how about somebody who is at least a little bit slick instead of like, uh, bargain basement Woody Harrelson. I know this is a presage. We've talked about this. This is eventually we'll pay off as the Woody character on chairs. But that's done right because he's not the audience proxy.

He's just another idiot amongst idiots. And this character has nothing to bring to the table. It's not funny. It's just like I said, it's he's like wandered in from another series. It seems he does, and it seems a little bit like like like you said, like a Jim Neighbor's like a throwback to an earlier type of sitcom archetype.

And the thing it is, when you think about all of the different actors and the roles they play, they they've pretty much got the spectrum covered. The Tony is a good rube. He's the punch drunk but lovable boxer. You have Bobby, who is the slick New Yorker would be actor who is great with ladies and maybe a little too full of himself, but a good guy. You've got Elaine who's beautiful but single mother, has real ambition and motivation to better herself.

You've got Louis who's just the worst in terms of being a scummy individual. And you've got Alex who kind of ties it all together, who is the voice of reason and the Cabby that everybody looks up to and you know, really the sort of father figure and the proxy for the audience. And that's what Rieger is, because he's the one who will you know, he's comfortable looking around and saying, isn't this ridiculous? Like what's going on? I don't think you need to have the rube there.

The person who kind of look around and go, oh, it isn't this crazy, this is New York, go this, We don't need that now. And you're right. If you're going to have a rube, you're having in there because he's an idiot. But everyone in this cab company is basically an idiot. We've just got a couple of ones that we can hang on to sort of as intelligent characters.

And you know, Bobby is kind of a dummy, and Tony is definitely a dummy, and so's Lattca, and so's Jim, and so's so's Louie. Like they're all idiots. We don't need the guy from Alabama or wherever the goddamn fuck John is from. Send him back there immediately. I'm with Louie.

I was with Louie a few times in this episode as a matter of thing, and I'm with you in that. That's a B plot that goes nowhere at all, Like there's this sort of looming threat of John being fired and now they have to teach him the way he is of taxi driving, and then it never comes back at all. There's also a C plot going on is there not of Lattca versus versus Louie about the car repair, like doesn't have enough to do around the thing, and then the and there's a d plot or where it's Louie versus everybody. All the plots hang around Louie. Louie is the proxy for the audience, right, And you're right there was that sort of he's getting on his case because he believes that he doesn't have enough to do around the garage.

But that, to me is just an excuse to have Louie and Loca kind of get into it. And even though Kaufman's portrayal isn't isn't quite where it where it ended up, he's a little more sort of bound to his original like foreign Guy Nightclub act because like at one point, I think he's going through a dictionary trying to find the right English phrase or word to say. But if the writers don't have faith in the John character to actually write a complete arc for the b story in this show, then why could an audience member be called upon to care about him? I mean, it's it really feels like they're in the writer's room and they go like, well, how do we how do we resolve this thing with him and not making bookies.

Who cares, Let's just continue with Tony's story. Who cares? Or you know, maybe they filmed it, like maybe there was one more scene and then they were like, we gotta cut in for time. Well, we're not gonna We're not going to keep the Randall Carver stuff in right, Like, no, Yeah, that didn't work at all. That went over, like the proverbial lead balloon.

Let's just that's probably I mean, I in my research, I mean, I never came across anything like that, but I would not be a bit surprised because it does seem thinking about it now, it does seem a little odd that they set up this conflict with John and the threat to lose his job and then and nothing ever really becomes of it. It's just it's really forgotten for the rest of the episode. No, and they involve other characters. They bring it over to jed Hurst and then Mary Lou Henner gets involved, and like, oh, we got to save John's job. And then now there's a boxing match.

Let's just go to the We'll go to the fights for the rest of the episode. Everybody, Yeah, because it's far more interesting and far. You know, it's a lot funnier. It's actually kind of incredible that they they choose to focus episode to it. And just as a reminder, we're going over these shows was in broadcast order and not in order of the filming, so for all intents and purposes, this is episode two.

I think it takes a lot of a great deal of faith on the writer's part and and everybody involved to focus an episode so early on the actor who who ostensibly has the least amount of experience of anyone, including Randall Carver, because Tony Danza was the classic I mean, he was a boxer who went into acting later in life. But you know what, he's really good in this, you know, right, yeah, I mean he's well, you know, he's he's not but he's not a seasoned actor. Sure, But my point is he's somebody who had had a career such as it was as a boxer and was sort of discovered later in his life and made into an actor. But he's really good at human jenkins, you know, from animal Olympics. That's Tony Danzz.

They just plucked him, plucked him out of the STEWA a lot of obscurity there here's the thing. Whoever made the decision to put this episode before the angela episode featuring Tony Dance, a complete novice to the entire field of acting and comedic acting, that it was, they deserve a medal because he's effortlessly charming. He plays a perfect idiot. Uh and uh, here's a good looking fella. He's so good.

It's impossible to imagine anybody else playing Tony because he's so effortlessly you know, he's like you said, he's a dummy. He plays dummy really well, but you never it's he's not somebody you look down. He's a Peter Pork dummy, except if Peter Tork could kick the shit out of you. I remember I had a I had a chuckle. I went to um the Empire State Building with the family and when you get to the end, there's like a wall of celebrities that are kind of taken from the observation deck and everybody's looking at all.

You know, there's Tom Cruise, there's this that I'm like, there's Tony Danza Danza on top of the Empire State Building. I was very happy about that. So we've talked about Tony Danza. I want to talk a little bit about those some of the supporting actors that are featured in this So let's start with the champ, Carlos Navarone. He was the real life WBC Walter.

Wait, his name was Carlos Palomino. It sounds like more of a made up name than Carlos Navarone. But he retired in seventy nine, but he did make a short lived comeback in ninety seven at the ripe old age of forty eight. And aside from boxing in this episode of Taxi, he's probably most recognized from an ad campaign for Miller Lite. Do you remember that ad, the less Taste Great?

Oh? I definitely remember that. We'll play a little bit of it right now. You know, one of the best things about coming to America was that I got to try American beers, and I tried them all. I want to like Bess like beer from Miller.

It's got a third less colors in a regular beer, It's less filling, and it really tastes great. That's why I tell my friends from Ahi Gold, you've come to America, drink light beer, but don't drink the water Lake beer from Miller. Everything you always wanted in a beer unless synchronized. Chanting and alcohol they go hand in hand, don't they, Buddy, They don't make them like they used to. So let's want to be drunk and chanting with others right now.

I know you want to talk about this. Next featured supporting actor who played the manager Jerry Martin. The actor who played him was a veteran character actor Alan arbish Us Seeing Everything. What do I know him from? Please tell me?

H. He's probably best known as Major Sidney Friedman from the TV version of Mash, the sort of psychiatrist that appears periodically and usually treats um Hawkeye, usually Hawkeyes having some kind of breakdown or another soldier. Does it turn out that he was never there? He was all in Hawkeye's mind. It was a fight club situation.

Ah, that's too bad. Follow up question? Yes? Did he have the same permanent on Mash said in the fifties in the Korean War? Did he have the same hair?

He did? He had the Robert Reid Brady bunch perm That is, he committed to that look through in all of his character. He said, I'm the one portraying all the characters with this hairstyle. I feel like, we keep coming back to this idea, but this has come up in some of our other podcasts, Father Malone, this idea of the seventies sensitive ideal man, the your your Alan Alda's your Elliot Gould's the man who would have this hairstyle, this perm. Yeah, that guy.

I'm slightly obsessed with the perm. I can't look away, but I want to. So he in a long line of very sensitive men dating back. Like I said to Alan Alda, who else who else do we have that are um sensitive? Oh?

Richard Benjole, Richard Benjamin. He's delicious, He's he's he should be affectible in any decade. Do you know? I watched In the fourteenth again, um, just the other day, and uh I could watch it because of him, And it's a terrible movie anyway. Continue.

So yeah, So he's like I said, he's He's best known for mash but he was in he was working as far back as sixty one. He's been. He worked for over fifty years before he died at age ninety five in twenty thirteen. He even and just to bring it full circle to our Alan Alda obsession, he was even He even appeared in the short lived TV version of The Four Seasons, which has become one of our favorite movies? Has it not?

Oh, become it's always been so it's been What what a slice of heaven? That flick? How did you put it in? It's it's It was one in a long line of seventies movies about adults getting their ship together, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's hippies like figuring this shit out, like oh no, baby boomers basically like wait now I have to be responsible and oh how do I cope? And what is this new religion my crazy wife is talking about?

And she wants to work that kind of movie. Yeah, well he was in that, so not only and I think he appeared with Alan Aldo, which is the sensitive man equivalent of crossing the streams from Ghostbusters. So yeah, so he but he's but he's great in this. He's shaking hands with Tony and he says, uh, hey, Son, good to meet you. Hey do you want me to call you Tony?

And he says, oh, no, you call me Son. He's so warm and and you know, just appealing and very fatherly that it. You never would ever imagine that he would actually set up this awful scheme to deceive Tony and make him believe that he actually knocked the champ down. But in reality, it's this, you know, it's nothing more than a scheme to sell more tickets to the Champ's next fight. But Alan Arbis being Alan Arbis.

He's fantastic. You never doubt for a minute that he's a nice, sensitive individual. He's so nice it makes you think, like it makes you think they just like forgot to tell Tony, you know, like he's such a lovely man. There's no reason to be mad at him that he's done this right. It's like, oh, Tony, I'm so sorry.

I thought I told you about this, buddy. But I want to talk about some of the other things that I found interesting and cool about this show. And one of the things I wanted to highlight and I wanted to kind of get your perspective on it is you know, it's a sitcom. It's filmed on a sound stage, and we already talked in the last episode about how good the garage set looks, and how I think you brought up that there's a big concrete pole in the middle and it actually looks like it's made of concrete and like there's a vending machine that they get coffee from, and everything looks very, very real. But I feel like in this episode they took things to another level because at one point, the cabbies go to the gym to watch Tony spar and it starts at the beginning where they're coming through the entrance.

And usually, when you think about this, this kind of set would just be a ring and maybe some seats kind of around it. But like, I feel like they blew the budget for this episode on this gym because it starts and it's this tracking shot that takes you from the entrance all the way down the side. You're seeing boxers hitting the heavy bag, they're skipping rope, they're doing the speedbag, and it is it just keeps going and going and going, and it just seems like such a big set like that, the ring looks like it's an actual sized ring. Again, we've already lauded the set designers and the decorators in the last episode, but I thought like this was for a TV sitcom. This seemed to be above and beyond.

I thought it looked really cool. What did you think We've got like a locker room set as well? That a lot of the Iron takes place in and that also looks lived in and real world, at least real for the world of taxi. There is there's a look that the show kind of has the sort of scruffy, smudged up, kind of dirty look, especially when you have the garage and these these environments like the garage and like the gym where it's supposed to be kind of, you know, scuzzy and maybe not especially clean. But again, like this was this this set where there's this huge boxing ring.

There's even like bleachers, there's full on bleachers that people sit at. It's not just like a couple of seats that the cabbies kind of like park themselves out or whatever. It's actually fairly impressive, and we've already talked a little bit about we don't really see it in this episode, but some of the work they put into the poor man's process when the cabbies are driving. We'll see more of that as the series goes on. But along with that, I know we don't see a lot of some of the supporting cabbies.

You see a little bit of obviously Louie and we'll talk about him in a minute, but I want to talk a little bit about Bobby and about perhaps our favorite Cabby, which is Eline. Now, Elane isn't especially featured in this episode, as much as she gets to be. The writers are still kind of writing her as a as a sex spot because she has a few one liners you have to do with, um, are you guys talking about sex? She'll teach everyone about sex. That's what the writers are come along with for Fernardo in this episode, she's letting it know she's really good enough.

No, I mean, at one point there there's a there's a little bit of banter where they're watching Tony Box or a spar Bobby says, you know, I when I'm when I'm acting against somebody who's a pro, I get better, and Alex says, yeah, we know, when I play tennis against a pro, I get better. And Nardo says something like yeah, it's like sex. And one of them turns to her and says, what do you get better? And she says, no, they get better, which again, I've got no problem. I mean, she's beautiful, she confide.

Ever, she wants to need your prudish attitude, HB. I'm not being prudish. I think it's it does her a disservice to be portrayed as just kind of a one note thing where you know she eventually, I think you're a prude, and I think you should let Nardo Binardo. She can be a charming, sensitive art gallery not owner but manager, and she can also teach everyone a thing or two in the sack. Oh sure, no, I look, I've got nothing against her.

I think she's great. Let me tell you where the writers have actually gone wrong with the characters in this episode. It's with Bobby Wheeler because when they come to the gym to witness Bobby's unbeknownst to him, fake fighting about, they bring him a robe, which he's never had before. The boxers like to have robes. They look good in it.

It's a piece of costume, you know, where you feel powerful. And Bobby's like, this is such a big gift. We shouldn't be buying this for him. What's he needed for that? Actor should know how important that costume is for a performance.

That's a very good point. It's poor writing and it does it demeans the Bobby Wheeler character, and that I understand where you're coming from. But I also think the thing about Bobby, especially in this first season or two, is that yes, he's Tony's best friend, but he's also capable of insensitivity and just being kind of a jerk. I think that's very on brand for Bobby. I get what you're saying.

He's an actor, and a costume should help you act the part, in this case, the part of a boxer. He seemed to be more complaining, not about the fact that he had to pony up any dough and the fact that why why does he need this anyway? Like if he if it had been explicit, like I can't believe we all chat to chip in for this nonsense, then that would be one thing. But he's like it seemed like he didn't understand the gesture at all, and that, to me is the demeaning part of that characterization. Maybe I'm wrong, Maybe the writers are spot on these characters they created and her shepherding here.

Maybe they might know a little bit more about him than I do. I just think as much as he is Tony's friend, he's a jerk. He's got a big ego, so I wasn't really phased by him kind of saying, why do we want to do this? It's not a big deal. It's he's just sparring.

That to me felt authentic to the character. But I also see your point because an actor knows about costuming and should appreciate that. And the bottom line is he should be happier. Maybe he should be happier for his friend. I don't know, maybe that's part of it.

Yeah, Bobby Wheeler Dick, someone else's not really featured in this in this episode, but he makes an impact. Danny DeVito Louie again, not a lot to do. But I think while at one point he browbeats, basically browbeats Alex into betting on the fight, even though it's clear that Alex has no faith that Tony's actually gonna win the fight. But what I liked about this is at one point, I think Alex tells him like, oh, you know, all of the other Cavies are going to be at this fight on a Friday night, so you know the garage is going to be empty, and Louie says, what are you talking about. This is their biggest earning night of the week.

This garage is going to be full of Cavies, And then there's a jump cut to an empty garage Louie's there in his cage, and I think he calls for a few people and there's no answer, and he kind of gets this look on his face, so he hops out of the cage. He pulls that cool microphone or whatever that he has in the cage, and he proceeds to sing a cole Porter song. It's from this moment on and again it's really get nothing to do with anything in the episode, But I don't know, it's funny. It's this little bit of you know, you started talking about this. You said Louie hasn't really given much to do in this episode.

Louis is the river which all tributaries flow in this episode, including this in like to me, this is the climax of the episode where Louie gets a break from all these other idiots and gets to enjoy himself by singing a song and pretending he's a rock star for like twenty minutes. I don't care about Tony and is never getting out of the garage. I want to stay in the garage with Louis. I love that they give Louie these little things. You know, we've talked about this a little bit already, but Louis is despicable.

We mentioned this in the first episode discussion. He really is not a nice person. Through the course of the series, we see him doing a lot of bad stuff, but there's always like the way, and it's just this is Danny DeVito. Like it's not necessarily the way the characters written, but it's how it's played. And de Vito has this rare ability to let you see the human underneath the monster, you know, the sort of like charm underneath the beast that's capable of all of these awful things that he does.

And this is just a good example of that. Like I said, it's made just for a minute, he's relieved of the burden of having to deal with all of these, you know, in his estimation, these cockroaches that he calls cavies. And what does he do at that time. He takes his microphone and he sings a show tune or whatever, and I think it's it's great, right. Yeah.

Once again, this is a very smart move in shuffling the order of the episodes here, giving us this right after the pilot instead of Angela right after the pilot. This is a pretty joyous episode. For all it's down downer and dourness, but then the whole series is downer and dour ultimately, So these little moments of triumph are we well won? Absolutely? Absolutely so, Okay, so I think we've we've.

Is there anything else he wanted to bring up about the episode or discuss before we talk about how we're going to rate the episode? Fought them alone? Yes, it was a phantom punch. I wanted to say that the punch in the ring looked fake. Obviously, the punch to Danz's face is real.

Yes, backup, potatoes, It's great. I'm glad you brought that up, because that's that's one of those little um it's a surprise, little moment that was unintended. This actually refers to, once again to how good mister Arbace is as an actor, because here's what supposed to happen. The champ is supposed to mind punch Danza. Danza is supposed to go down, and then they walk off and he continues the scene and he continues as the manager talking to the characters.

Instead, the champ actually clocks Danza, dancer goes down and then turns in an Arbist just doesn't break character continues takes the champ who's giggling. You can kind of tell he's turned his back quickly to the camera and as he's ushering him out, like finishes the scene. That's a pro man. I would say it's a credit to both Alan Arbis and to Tony Danza that they continued because he got hit in the I'm not sure what I would have done had I been in the same situation, got hit in the jaw, and I've got to continue with this scene. I mean, to be fair, you probably would have done what Danza did.

You would have laying on the floor in pain. Sure, I mean, but for me, this enters the sort of unintentional pantheon along with like, for example, Buck Henry and Saturday Night Live getting sliced in the forehead by the Samurai delicatessen. And I mean he didn't there wasn't much left to the sketch. But he got sliced in the head with the sword by John Belushi and he continues and actually I love that you Later in the episode, you see he has a bandage very clearly placed on his forehead. I'm glad, like I said, I'm glad you brought that up.

So what else? What else I know you have a lot of notes there. What else did you want to discuss that I don't have. I don't have many other notes. It's just that all the VI's advice is rock solid throughout the entire episode.

And to me, he's just the hero, So you know, that's all. I don't have anything else to bring to the to this particular episode other than this is a solid entry and all the comedies are real good. It is it is, so let's let's try to break it down here. We're going to get to the rating, but let's talk about just as an overall impression of the piece, like the good and the bad. As far as the good, we already talked this through.

But I, like I said, I think the writing and the acting are great. It shows a lot of faith that they're focusing on the most inexperienced actor of the bunch and tone, and he does a great job. Is his timing is very very good. And there are some funny bits. We haven't really delved into it, but Lacca and Louie, the sort of arguing back and forth about what Laca kind of being lazy on the job or what have you.

It's very very funny, and it only gets better from there. Like I said, as Calfman gets more and more into the character of Laca, you have more opportunities for him to play up. And it seems to be like it's very typical for Loca to be playing off of Louie very much, Louie being the antagonist for Laca, so we're kind of already seeing that happen even at this early stage. I'd like to point out something about that scene or that sort of plot throughout this it occurred to me for the first time. Loca has always come off as sort of sweet and a bit clueless, and this performance in this particular episode made me wonder, is he an agent of provid provocation?

Like he seemed to maybe be doing these things just to mess with with Louie. It's just a little bit. Yeah, it could very well be. We'll see. I actually there's a little more of that in this next episode.

We'll talk about next next podcast. But I think, like these early goings, I think there's a little more of an impishness to Laca that maybe we they leaned more on the s they do. I think the any sharp edges are eventually sanded off, and that's fine, but I think, I mean, because we we know Andy Kaufman, you know, wasn't the sweetest person in real life. He was a provocateur, and I think there's an element of that in these early performances that we maybe don't see as much in the later seasons. So that's a good call up we talked about.

Louie is fantastic. I love that they give him that little singing bit. Even if it isn't the most original piece, it's still amused and it's still funny. The bad is there an what else would you call out if anything else that you want to spotlight is being good in this episode? Fall him alone.

I like the robe gag that they that he puts on the robe and then they put on the gloves and then nobody thought to get him an actual boxing robe. Get the gloves off, Like that's a good bit, it is. There's a yeah that that sort of bit is funny because he puts on the robe and he starts asking them like I can't get and then like his opponent like Navarone keeps coming over to him and he's like not yet, and you know, he keeps struggling with it, and he comes back not yet and I think ultimately it's Alan Arbus's character hast to come over and go all right, I can handle this, and he rips it and it's just completely humiliating. I think he even says that it's humiliating to Tony. And let me say, like, if they're gonna do an episode where they're gonna spotlight Tony, this was again the smartest thing that could have done because Tony Denzel was, and at the time, I guess still was, a boxer, and so anytime you get to see him in action doing what he has been training his whole life to do, like it's a thing of beauty.

So it makes us like that character all the more. All the stuff with Tony is really good in the episode. In this episode, absolutely, I think it's great. I wouldn't say that this is your quintessential taxi episode. I think we'll talk a little bit about that in the next review, but I think this is it's funny.

I think there is the theme of the cabbies trying to get out of the garage. I think it's very This is kind of the introduction to that plot through line. I mean, we'll see that time and time and time again, but this is the first time we are we talking things we didn't like about the episode because that I didn't like about the episode. I hate that thread through the entire first season. I get where they're coming from, and I know it's part of the derivation of the whole series, but the sort of aspirational can't wait to get out of this life like it always bothered me the first season.

Okay, so let's let's have it out, so we'll talk about the bad now. You actually don't like the fact that we're getting the archetype of the Cabby who wants to get out and is sort of like I don't mind them doing it. I just don't want to hear them saying it. You know, that's lazy to me that you know it's like, oh, one day I'll get out of this garage, Like I, hey, you can did it. You're gonna get out of the k You're gonna get out of being a Cabby, Like they say it a bunch of times where it's like we should just know that these characters want a better life, and like, you know, I don't know.

It just seems to me, I think you're right, and I think they I do think they get better and better at writing for that type of plot, But you can't get away from it because the whole you know this, as much as it's fun for us as audience members to spend time with the cabbies in the garage, we should never really get that. For them, being in the garage is not fun. You know, they have dreams and aspirations that they that the garage doesn't figure in. Yeah, but here's the thing. Here's the thing.

The dream isn't I can't wait to get out of this cab company. The dream is I'm a boxer and I want to I want a shot at the champ Like. It isn't like it isn't a punishment that they has to go back to the to be in a cabby. It's it's it's that he didn't achieve his ultimate goal. I don't know, they make it too much about trying to escape the pit of being a cabby when it's where where they are also inviting the audience to hang out with these people forever.

That's but that's exactly my point is. And maybe this is a bit of a catch twenty two. You know, because the writers want you to to feel good spending time with these characters and and appreciating their their various you know, schemes and activities in and outside of the garage. But at the same time they don't maybe they don't go far enough and to making the garage and by extension, Louis as as an unpalatable situation for them to keep getting falling into. There's a lot of describing about what they hate about the garage, but there's not a lot of showing.

But do I really want as an audience member, do I really want to see that kind of depressing boot to the face of get back down here with the rest of the grunts. I don't want to see that. So I'm not sure how you get the best of both worlds there. You don't, and you move on to the second season when it becomes a show about cabbies doing cabby stuff and not necessarily like the who is attempting to get out of the ghetto one more time like which which I'm not saying like the entirety of the first season is that the next episode doesn't like that at all, but it is the theme running through this season. The darkest of all was Gillian's Island, because they want on and off that island.

Every episode they tried, every episode they fail. It's like a Satra no exit by the lagoon. It was. I would also say, so we're talking about the bad here. We've talked about the fact that none of the other cabbies really don't have much to do here, and I guess that's fine because this is really Tony's story.

But it's I have to mention the fact that, you know, Bobby, Elaine and John and to a degree Alex really have nothing to do here. But as we've already talked about, John is already looking like the proverbial you know, fifth wheel here. I mean, he's twenty seventh wheel. Get him off, Get him off this cab get him off this show. Immediately he's he's not long for this show.

And it's okay. I mean, I look, I'm sure Randall Carver is a perfectly nice person, charisma, trying to be charitable. We were charitable in the pilot. I'm no longer going to be charitable. I'm now it's now an affront.

But we have to. We have to watch Randall Carver take time away from these beloved characters. If we're not going to have Reverend Jim in the first season. Then the least they can do is something. Is there a fan at it or they be non Randall Carver version of Taxi.

I encourage somebody to make that and then distribute it, And I'd like to also recommend people watch that instead of this least Randall Carver's the Jar Jar binks of Taxi. That's terrible. That is awful, everybody, We're going to go into our caves, all right, Well, so so other things that I would put forward as not being that great or the bad that we've we've talked about the b plots that go nowhere. There's nothing. There's no follow up to the threat of John losing his job, and even though there's some fun banter back and forth between Louis and Laca that we've discussed, there's nothing really becomes, nothing really comes out of that.

So I would say there's a bit of aimlessness to some of the plot points. But at the end of the day, I didn't really mind because the rest of the episode is pretty solid. Would you agree, Oh yeah, I enjoyed it. We're gonna give this show a final score again to remind you this is We're going to score it on the number of yellow lights? What does a yellow light mean?

Thank you, mister Jimmy Ignatowski. So this is a scale from one yellow light to five yellow lights, where one is the worst and five is the best. What would you give this particular episode? What would you give one? Punch?

Fatherom alone? I give it three yellow lights? Three yellow lights? And what's your final and what's your final wrap up of why you'd give it three? I think it's head and shoulders above most sitcoms as far as writing and delivery and acting, but I don't think it attains in any way the dizzying heights that this show can ache.

So it's just middle of the road for taxi. It's still better than most sitcoms, but middle of the road for taxi. Okay. Personally, I would give this show two yellow lights. And because although I think Tony Danza quits himself very well in this episode, as does hirsh and de Vito, the show, this particular episode for me, is missing that ineffable melancholy quality that I think would mark a lot of the later classic episodes.

And with all the various plot threads and b plots that really go nowhere, coupled with the fact that most of the other actors have nothing to do. I think this cab is stalled leaving the garage. Two yellow lights. Wow, you can't. That was like a sneak attack there.

I thought you were enjoying this episode. No, I guess you left some bread crumbs that you did not like what was transpiring on screen. I didn't think it was that. Suddenly I feel like I'm the apologist for this episode. I thought, no, no, no, So I'm not judging this against other sitcoms, because if I was going to do that, I would give this probably four yellow lights, because even the worst Taxi episodes are still better than your average mediocre sitcom.

That's just that goes without saying. But if I'm going to judge this against other seasons and other episodes of Taxi, I have to say that this is, you know, average, slightly below average. I'm dying to know what gets a one yellow light from you? Sir. Oh, it's coming, it's coming.

I know we've got a lot of episodes to get through, but I'm curious. As a preview for the next episode, we'll be talking about Taxi Episode three, Blind Date. This one is a very special episode because this is the genesis preview of the theme song to Taxi and we'll talk more about that. So melancholy, so we will talk about that in the next episode. But thank you very much for tuning into this podcast.

Once again, I MHP and this has been found and thank you very much. We'll talk to you again next time. Nine