Episode 27 - The Reluctant Fighter

Weird being way media Ni misters is see that guy with it now? He's an actor that name I D and the only camp driver in his place. Good evening and welcome tonight, mister Walters a taxi podcast. I am HP your co host and with me as always as my co host, father Malone. Father Malone, how are you this evening.

I'm good. I'm glad to be back. It's been a while. I don't have anything joking to say. It has been a while, but it's as always, I'm looking forward to talking taxi with you.

This week, we're getting into season two, episode five, The Reluctant Fighter. This was written by Ken Eston and directed by James Burrows. Interesting little tidbit, are you familiar with ken Eston? Father Belone? I know the name from somewhere.

I think I've seen it in many, many television series. So this was his first episode written for taxi. He was later to become a taxi co producer before going on to become the Emmy winning co creator of the Tracy Ullman show. Ah that Thing. Yes, this was the launching pad for what became a rather storied career.

So that's kind of cool. A reminder we're doing these shows in broadcast order and not in order of filming. First shot we see of this episode is our a wonderful b role. It's sunrise over New York City as the Twin Towers dominate the skyline to the left, and this particular shot I don't know about you, father Belone, but it reminded me of the old days on television before there was cable TV, where TV stations would have special broadcast packages in the morning for it when the start of the broadcast day began, and then at the end of the night they would play the Star Spangled banner and whatever. This looked like, Hey, this is the start of a new day, Welcome to NBC.

This made me feel instantly nostalgic, because that's like a lot of things that's sort of a lost piece of our childhood, if you will. And then we cut to a daytime shot another I mean, this is b Roll after b Roll. He's telling a very good story here because we get a shot of the Manhattan skyline with the sun coming up and the Twin Towers are basically the focal point of that. And then we cut to b Roll on the street a little bit later in the morning, you can tell by the sunlight twin towers pan down to the cabs, and then we cut inside the cab and then we're returning to sunshine cab. So Burrows has taken just what a bunch of be He's like ed wood out of this stock footage.

I noticed that too, that we start at this wide shot of the skyline and then we zoom in and we have a point of reference for the twin towers now and as you said, we have this we cut to this over the show shot from inside the cab is a driving past a Gulf gas station going into the garage. The whole thing, by the way, is scored by Christopher Cross. It was saying it was a very It starts off it's very mellowed. It has like flutes, and it gives you this feeling of the city waking up. And then boy it gets peppy and it's like like the wind.

Yeah yeah yeah on taxi. For some reason, there's a lot I don't know if you'd noticed. As we're gliding into the garage from inside the cab, we catch a quick glimpse of the gas prices. Did you see what the Christopher gallon was? You didn't notice this, is it like thirty cents?

No, it was sixty eight cents per gallon, which is still ridiculous, is it not. Now, well, what I'm saying is compared to today's prices. Now you're you know, in this time, in twenty twenty four a gas prices here in Massachusetts are hovering around three fifty per gallon? What are they in Vegas right now? Fifty?

They're over four here. Yeah, that's great, But back then it was sixty eight cents per gallon. You could make it's crazy forty years ago. And we'll get a little bit into the economics of the situation a little later on in this episode, but for now we will not gas prices, but we'll talk. We'll get to it when we get to it.

We cut inside the garage where an older gent in a newsboy cap strides over to Louis Cage asking for Tony Banta the Boxer, And of course it's a vaudevillian thing. We love vaudeville. Here, Louis retorts, how about Tony Banta the bump Vaudeville and he points out where Tony's hanging out at the card table. Of course, who is this mustachio gentleman father alone. Okay, the character is Vince, who is a guy from the gym, but he's played by Michael Goatso, who I think most people know from Godfather Too Afraid.

He played Frankie Pentangely. Your father didn't trust timond Roth that guy, right, And he was a major character actor. He was on every television series. He was in like tons and tons of movies, but also was a playwright. He wrote Hatful of Rain on Brony.

I didn't know that. Yeah, he was a playwright beforehand. He wrote King Creole, Elvis Presley's best movie. I had no idea King Creole one of the trio of good Elvis Presley movies. Those are King Creole, Fun and Akapolca.

And roused about those are the three because Elvis has three personas charming guy, prick and then a combination of the both. In this film, it's charming Elvis. The piece of trivia that I love about his casting in The Godfather Too, which he was By the way, he was Oscar nominated for playing Frankie Pantangely. But the legend goes that Richard Castellano, who played Clemenzo. Of course from Godfather Won that he was fired for demanding to write his own lines and he wanted a large pay increase.

So originally it was supposed to be Clemenza that goes against the family and testifies against them. But exit Richard Castelano, enter Michael Gatso, who, as I just said, was Oscar nominated for his effort. What a fuck up on Richard Castellano's part, right, I mean, yes, get the pay increase, but don't insist on writing your dialogue. That's what turned Copoa off, That's what got him fired. And then Bruno Kirby turns around and turns he he gives a fucking phenomenal performance as a younger hym in the same film Young Clemenza.

So obvious that that was supposed to be Clemenza and not Frankie Pintangially, however, Michael Gatso is fucking awesome in Godfather Too. He's nominated for Academy Award. A side note, by the way, you already said, the character's name is Vince has. Vince is walking over to Tony at the card table. We see that the Cavies are engaged in a spirited game of chess.

This is a first on taxi. They're excitedly huddled. I think Elaine is basically playing Alex in a game of chess this little portable chess board, and Tony and Bobby are watching. It looks like a commercial for some board game on television. I could only think, maybe Alex had another crisis of his gambling problem, and so they had to stop playing cards for a while.

What did you think? I didn't think that. I just thought, here's what I thought. One day they came in and they all sat down and they took out the cards, and Elaine Nardo said, are we really just going to play poker again? Is there nothing else can we can do?

Do we not have an education? And then the next day suddenly there was a chest set on the thing, anonymously left there, but we all know it was Alex. Let me rewind for a minute, hbbe when Vince walks in. I don't know if you noticed. So Vince walks in.

He's got one of these big old slouch sweaters on, and he's wearing a little scaley cap, right, And as he's walking in, there's a guy walking out who's the same height as him, the same former hair as him, he's dressed in black, but he's also got the same scaley cap on. And I think this is a moment of Vince meeting his younger self. So this is like back to the future. Maybe Iggy is actually Doc Brown and he's gone back in time. Maybe Iggy is Doc Brown.

Iggy is Doc Brown. Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying he is. Reverend Jim has been noticeably absent these past couple of episodes, and that it's clearly because he's been in California and he's got his fright wig on and he's performing the part of Doc Brown simultaneously and also doing experiments with people around around the garage, because Vince has a doppelganger running around, a younger hymn. I try to stay more in touch with the background actors because you always pull something really fun out of it that I clearly missed, and this is another good example of that. So I'll have to watch that again.

Tony eagerly greets Vince and introduces him around as Vince from the gym. Like you said, he's probably a trainer or something, and Vince tells Tony that he has something personal that he wants to discuss and the rest of the Cabby's announced they're going to go to breakfast, which is their way of just clearing the garage so they can have this personal two person scene, and Tony says he'll meet them later, and they sit at the table and Vince tells Tony that Benny Foster wants to come out of retirement. From Tony's incredulous reply, it sounds like Benny is a former champ who's likely washed up, but he's making a comeback. And here's where we get another Vaudeville moment. Tony bemoans the fact that Foster has to fight an unknown and how low will he sink he wants to fight?

Ooh, vaudeville, that's low. Get the hook. Yeah. By the way, side note, we have a Tony weird seating alert. Now we've seen Tony.

He likes to turn the seats, the chairs backwards. He'll hop on the back of the cabs, fender whatever. He goes to get coffee. They continue their discussion and instead of sitting at the bench in front of the coffee machine like a normal person, he straddles the bench with one leg on either side. What did you make?

What did you make of that fathom alone par for the course. In fact, I didn't even notice it. I'm so used to him having to sit irregularly around the cab company. I'm surprised he didn't jump up on top of the candy machine, perch on top of it like a raven y, just like run up the wall and then like drop down onto it. So what's going on, Vince.

There's some additional hacky back and forth between the lunkhead Banta and he equally addled Vince. Vince, I actually think, I don't know if you had this impression. But as the episode wore on, I couldn't help thinking that Vince was kind of a precursor to Coach Pantuso from Cheers. No, he's not ditzy enough. He is, though, because at one point later on he says, Tony h with your brain and Mike bron we're gonna go for our kid.

And then Tony of course has to say I think you had that reverse, Vince, and Vince goes, of course vaudeville. To me, that's a coach moment. Yeah, you're right, but this is ken Neston writing this one. The child's brothers are just there their discussion convinces Tony that this would actually be a great opportunity for him. Shades of the movie Rocky.

Vince asks to be Tony's manager, and they agree with a handshake and his Vince leaves the garage. Tony lets out this joyful scream to a conspicuously empty garage. It's weird and there's nobody in the garage. Maybe all of the day shift cabbys have already gone, but there's nobody there, and Tony declares to himself he needs to tell someone our help bust. But the only person he runs into is Louis, which quells his excitement immediately, and we cut the commercial.

Here's another side note. Louis is walking in from stage right. He's carrying a newspaper. It's implied that he's returning from taking a shit in the bathroom. Is it not pretty much?

Yeah? I don't know. I just find anything to add to that other than, you know, a little bit of a little bit of reality creeping into taxi. Yeah, nothing wrong with that. I just thought it was kind of funny.

We cut to the exterior of a cab parked smack dab in front of a gym and the marquee reads Bobby Gleason's Gymnasium, which proudly advertises group or private boxing lessons. Now this is actually a real gym. Fathom alone. I did a little bit of research and this is a real gym located on the Brooklyn Waterfront. It was originally in Manhattan, but it later moved to Brooklyn.

It was founded by former bantamweight fighter Pete Gagiardi, who changed his name to Bobby Gleeson for reasons known only to himself in Manhattan when they filmed it. That's a good question. I don't know when it moved. I suspect actually could have been. It's been around forever.

I think it's been around for many, many years. Even by this point. I think Hillary Swank there was some connection. You might have trained in this gym for a million dollar baby. It's it's fairly well known.

But I don't know when they moved to Brooklyn. It would track if they were in Manhattan, would it not. I would think so, but maybe not. Maybe it's easier to shoot in Brooklyn. Could be, and they might have made the trek the cabs, the cabbys might have made the trek to Brooklyn.

Who knows, so Burrows zoos again. He's full of tricks with his direction. He zooms in on the window of the gym, and we have a match cut inside the gym, and it's filled with boxers of every shape and size. They're working out, they're getting trained and what have you. And in walks Elaine, Tony, Bobby and Alex, ever supportive for Tony, and Narto is leading the way in a spectacular hot pink top under a lavender sport cope with matching societ.

What did you think of this outfit? I wrote, Yauza. I thought the pants were ill fitting, but I don't care because anytime Elaine Nardo is in a skin tight shirt with suspenders, there's nothing better on God's Green Earth. It was remarkable. And then Tony actually looks great too.

He's they're there for a press conference to announce this fight, and he's in a nice sport Yeah, he's like, he's got like a sport code. He's got an open collar shirt, no tie. He looks very easy, breezy, and Alex, of course, just looks schlubby as usual. He's got a polo shirt and a member's only jacket, which is his stock in trade. But then it's hard to describe what Bobby's wearing.

He's got this jacket that is a sort of orange and it's made of this, yeah, a bizarro semi transparent orange slipcover. I thought it looked like parachute material, very sheer material. Oh yeah, it made no sense at all other than we're creeping into the eighties where for some reason there was a flirtation with plastic sea through clothing for about five minutes. I kind of admire the fearlessness with which they continue to dress Jeff Connoway for this show, because you would think they would just put him in his stock in trade leather jacket and jeans and what have you. But they do have a knack for putting him in odd outfits here and there, and this is no exception.

It makes me think that Bobby Wheeler has looked at himself in the mirror one too many times wearing that jeans and leather jacket combo and went, what colored shirt am I going to wear? No? What, I'm going to try something different? And then he goes down to a thrift store. And this season it's all about Bobby finding his new style.

We all do it from time to time, but we get to see it here with Wheeler this season. Yeah, we're seeing it in real time for sure. Side note, we always give this the art department their flowers for what a great job they do with the set decoration. But I have to say this, Jim felt really, really small, especially compared to the gym that we see Tony sparring back in season one. That was my impression.

I was a little let down by that. What did you think problem alone? I thought it was fine because it's supposed to be some tiny gym in the middle of the city, and whatever trepidation I had with the lack of grandeur that they usually bring to their other sets, I think they spent most of their attention on the fucking auditorium at the end of this episode, and I think I think that's much more successful, and so that's more important. Agreed. I think this was a means to an end because ultimately this scene is just about the press conference that Benny Foster has in announcing this fight.

So it was fine. I just were you were sort of spoiled. Were used to these big, epic sets filled with grandeur, Like you say, this was just a little small but what are you gonna do? So Tony announce that this is where the champ goes to train, which explains why it's a different gym than when we saw Tony train at in season one. And they're there.

As I said for the Champs press conference, Tony admits to the Caves that he's nervous and he asks Bobby if he has any tips on how to get over it, and Bobby then proceeds to do this weird loosening up exercise where he it entails him shaking his whole body from head to toe. Bulses, it's, you know, basic weirdness from Conaway. Conaway at any chance will be glad to do a weirdo freak out with this whole body and face. And notice every time Wheeler tells a joke and knows he's telling a joke, he will like make a crazy face after the punchline. Yeah, is Conaway commenting on the material or is Bobby Wheeler just that weird?

I like to think the latter, But ultimately this is it's just him shaking out the sillies. That's the same if you've ever told the child, hey, shake out the sillies, that's what he does, but at the end of the day, it's really an excuse for Wheeler to shake that thick mane of hair that he has, and he doesn't, of course, in spectacular fashion. But Alex witnesses this and suggests maybe hitting the heavy bag instead, which makes Tony feel more relaxed, but results in a vaudeville moment where Alex speaks in a cartoon horse whisper from the impact. He says, oh, I feel good. How do you feel?

Alex? For better Vaudeville and he takes his seat. Good lord, it's bad. I've got nothing to say about that joke. I've said too much about it already.

Bobby doesn't understand why Tony's so nervous because the former champ is thirty eight years old, and he says, Tony, you can drop him easy, but Tony says he doesn't want to embarrass him. Not only was Benny Foster a great fighter, but he was a great guy. He doesn't want to show him up the fight. He wants to take it seriously, but he doesn't want to embarrass the former champion. HP.

Yeah, we beat up on Banta a lot here. You more than me. Yeah, And the reason we do it is because Banta is kind of an aggressive dummy. However, I think on more than one occasion, Tony Banta has displayed that he is deep down a very decent human being. So and I think we're going to see that play out throughout this entire episode.

Right, He's always trying to do the right thing, and I think his decision when he gets to it is the right thing. But anyway, I just want to give props to Tony Banta because I know you're just probably going to kick the shit out of him for the rest of the episode. Let me be clear about this that all of the shots that I that we that don't just it's not just me we take at Tony. It's got nothing to do with his character or his moral compass or any of that. I think he is a good person, and I think he's shown that, especially in comparison to somebody like Wheeler, who is very self absorbed and can't really he's not empathetic in the least.

Tony is a good person. He's just a man child. He just doesn't know any better. He's naive, which is fine, but that shades into a lunkheaded quality which sometimes rubs me the wrong way. So let me be clear about that.

I don't think he's a bad person. I just think he's an idiot at the character. Oh, I agree with you on that. Yeah, I'm not saying Tony Danz is an idiot, but I am trying to pick a fight with Tony danzas so Tony Dante is an idiot and Tony Banta is not. Hear that Tony gonna get you on the show.

Eventually, buddy Vince comes in and greets Tony, and there's some banter, and like I said, I thought Vince comes off more than a little like Coach Pantuso from Cheers, of course, but either way, Vince asks for someone in the group to work Tony's corner, and Alex accepts with a not before using this Vaudeville exchange where Vince says, any of you guys work a fight? And do you remember what Alex isingh I was married vaudeville? Hello, ladies, that one hurt? Actually that lost the yellow light? Just just spoilers.

The champ comes in and he's flanked by two gorgeous women. Were they I'm not besmirching these actresses or anything, but you just said gorgeous, and all I'm thinking is Elaine Nardo's in the room. So these two were all just automatically dimmed by comparison. Let me correct what I just said. They are your typical fighter arm candy.

That makes no sense, and I think and I think they even allude to the fact that they're supposed to be cheap looking. But according to the Love's book Taxi the Official Fan Guide, which I've referenced on many occasions, Benny Foster is played by life walterweight fighter Armando Moonis, who twice actually coincidentally twice fought fellow Taxi boxer Carlos Palomino, who longtime listeners will remember he played Carlos Navarone, the boxer who played that terrible trick on Tony. In season one, Tony and Benny are introduced and after some pleasantries, Benny introduces Tony to his arm candy, which prompts Tony to basically grab Nardo by the arm and yanker over there and say, this is the name my friend.

And she does this thing where she takes her jacket off of her She basically acts, she acts like a cheap sort of arm candy. Type of woman, right, Bimbo Bimbo's she acts like a bimbo, right, So it's all very cute and it's all bringing that word back bimbo bimba. Remember there was himbo for a while anyway. Oh yeah. The press conference starts in ernest and the champ talks very candidly about why he's coming out of retirement.

No one knows why is he coming out at age thirty eight? Is it for money? Is it for the girls? Is it for the fame? Yes?

Ha ha, good one, Champ. I thought he did a really good job. I mean, the man isn't an or No. I wasn't making fun of his performance. I was making fun of that material as written.

It was like here comes the punchline from twenty thousand leagues under the sea. That shows what a nice, warm individual the Champ is. As Tony said, he's recognized as one of the nicer guys in the fight game. And that's you know, they did a job, and we'll find out that's true. This is not a nice move he pulls.

This is the most bullshit move anyone could ever pull on anyone ever. Tony was sucker punched basically before the fight even begins because the champ, Benny Foster, talks about how he was inspired to come out of retirement by a little kid named Brian Simms, and he asks Brian to come in, and a little boy and the smallest the wheelchair ever wheels into the gym and squeaky it smallest squeakiest wheelchair ever. It's true, and Foster bends down and says that, uh, he had a cup in his hand. Foster says he's the kid's hero, and they became close after the boy wrote him from the hospital and apparently Brian has another big operation coming up, and Foster is coming out of retirement to inspire Brian.

Brian inspired him, so he's going to inspire him right back, and this fight is for Brian. And at this point, all Tony can do at this point is painfully hanging his head while the cabbies frankly look on in horror because they can see what this is all about. And the scene, I thought, the scene ended with a nice touch where Tony awkwardly shakes Brian's hand from the wheelchair while the screen does that thing where it develops into a photograph, a freeze frame photograph which I thought was a nice touch. I said, this was the most bullshit thing of all time. Like, you get to fight the champ, hooray, but you have to lose because the champ is winning for a disabled child or you know kid with him.

He's fine. This kid's gonna end up being fine toilers for like a million years in the future. Everybody, but the kid's gonna be okay, It's gonna be fine. The kid who shares Tony's same hairstyles to no one's surprise, he's at He's Danza's actual son, Mark Anthony Danza. And according to the Love's Book, it all started when actually, before I say that, have you heard this story about how he got the job fa the balone.

I'm sure his angent put him up for Uh no, I'm assuming dance I got him job. Yeah. So, according to The Love's Book, Mark was out with Tony and Mary lou Henter they were dating at the time, and they were out to dinner and apparently Mark did a great impression of Louis while Tony and Mary Leure were just amused as all get out that this kid doing this impression, and then Tony then had him do the impression for the taxi crew and everyone loved it. And then eventually, during a taping, a light circuit. Now this is all according to Tony Danzas, so take it with a grain of salt.

Apparently a light circuit blue during the show, and Mark was drafted to once again do his Louis impression for the audience while they fixed this lighting issue, and eventually ed Weinberger with the period offered to have Mark do an actual show. I'm not gonna be critical. The kid does fine. He's at the time he was like probably like ten years old. He's actually good.

He's as good as any seventies kid. You know, he suffers from the precocious thing. But that precocious thing is because they've written his character way above a child's level. I think it is great. If you didn't tell me he was Dan's kid, I would just assume he was another working actor.

You've just gotten to the heart of what I will eventually be critical of in this episode, which is part of it is the precociousness of the kid. It just drives me nuts because that was such a prevalent type on television, especially during that time. You had shows like Facts of Life, different Strokes whatever. You know, every kid would have had any talk to them. Will Is it just that I didn't like it then and I don't like it now, But that's no criticism against Mark Anthony Dan's I thought he was fine.

The character has written is what drove me nuts. Nevertheless, we get back from commercial, we go back to the garage. Just after this press conference, the cabbies are all gathered around the table consoling Tony. Tony is despondent about having to fight the champ under these circumstances. Louis strolls in letting Tony know that he made the Afternoon Paper, which is frankly kind of quaint because that was a time where the paper was still meaningful, not like now where print is dead.

So it was a big deal for Tony to have made the Afternoon Paper. It's a huge deal, and it's a New York paper. Let's not forget. Boxing back then was a much bigger deal than it is now. You know, this was it was, This was a time.

I remember my my father followed boxing, and this was you knew who the champ was at this time, like it was Sugar, Ray Leonard or Marvin Hagler, Mike Tyson. Marve, let me ask you, do you know who the heavyweight champ is right now? Today? It's not Mike Tyson. No, I don't know who it is, and I doubt many of our listeners will know who it is.

So again, this is another, like I said, quaint reminder of yesterday where these things actually matter. Louis can't help mocking Tony. He's loving this because he knows exactly what the dilemma that Tony is facing with this fight. It beat the champ and break the heart of a sick little kid. And Tony stands up eventually and declares that he's going to donate his kidney to the kid.

But according to Alex, the kid already has a donor. Which it's nice that they clarify what's wrong with the kid because they don't actually say what his operation is all about. But evidently he has to have a he has to have a kid, and he donated. Fine, everybody, He's okay. Spoiler alert, there is going to be another episode that focuses on this kid.

He's fine. He's not even in the wheelchair anymore, eventually, so let's not worry too much about this kid. Ryan then we get into a thing. This might be my favorite part of the whole episode, such as it is where Louis takes a lot of glee and explaining to Tony how happy he is to bet on Tony's fights, because he says it's like a trip to the bank. And as he's talking about this, he's recounting specific items in his house and that he bought with fight winnings.

He's in what they remind him of. He says, I look at my sofa and I see the Rodriguez fight, and I look at this and I think of the the Elliot fight. So everything in his house, he's furnished the house with winnings from Tony basically losing, right, he would be nicer to Panta, considering he's got all this stuff based on him. You know, he'd give him better shifts. He'll continue to encourage his boxing career because apparently he's a he's just printing money.

He's a sure thing. He's so bad. Louis says he's earmarked the Foster Fight for a brand new twenty three inch color TV with remote control. Oh my god, it's living in the future, right three inches. Jesus, where will it go, how wouldn't fit?

Oh my god, be blind? So Louis summons Jeff to deliver five hundred dollars to his bookie to place a bed on Benny Foster. Actually he opposit to a twenty seven inch TV. He gives himn extra hundred bucks. Now here's I alluded to this earlier.

Just what would a TV set with those approximate options cost, both then and in today's money? What do you what do you like? Christ? Yeah? What do you think?

How much would it have cost back then? Twenty let's let's call it twenty five inch? Okay, somewhere in between the two there then twenty five inch television in nineteen seventy nine, nineteen eighty, nineteen eighty. This was filmed at seventy nine and it aired in nineteen seventy nine. Uh, I'll say twenty five hundred dollars in today's money, then then money, twenty five hundred dollars in nineteen seventy nine money.

That's a lot. It's like a car, isn't it. Yeah? Okay, never mind? Uh seven hundred and fifty dollars.

You're actually you're closer than I thought you would get, so okay, well, I want to do the next contestant too, one dollar, and then I'll be the third contestant seven fifty two. But none of them realized that there's another contestant who's now Gorahead. So I found a kmart ad from nineteen eighty and there was an ad for a twenty five inch ge console TV. Now, this is one of those console TVs that's more wood than it is television. You probably remember this too.

We owned a few I believe right color TV with remote control in nineteen eighty. This would have cost you six hundred and sixty eight dollars for this time, Contestant number two, come on down. But in twenty twenty four dollars, it would have cost you approximately twenty five hundred and forty one dollars and eighty seven cents, which comes out to a cumulative rate of inflation of two hundred and eighty point five percent. Now, in a final comparison today, that amount of money, Father Malone, would get you a seventy five inch eight K smart TV with all the bells and whistles. Wow right, that's a big, big ass TV that's like a wall as opposed to this fucking picture tube nonsense, jammed into a credenza.

And not to mention TVs. Those tube TVs back then, fucking heavy man, they were. There was no joke to say. They were probably over one hundred pounds some of these TVs. They were so heavy.

Man. We had one that was the TV and a phonograph combo. So you would slide open the top of this thing and there'd be a record player recessed inside. Then you could I think you could actually pull up to the top and play it up up, but it would play just as easily while lowered into the console itself. So it was one of those ones that's longer.

It's almost like a bench like a system. Yeah. Yeah, well those were when furniture was heavy and huge. Today, televisions, for lack of a better term, they're more disposable, right, I mean, you just they don't. You can go to Walmart and get a nice TV for not much money.

But back then it was like buying a piece of furniture for your house. Right. It was all wood, nicely ornately done up and dark wood. It was great. I never had one like you describe, although I did see it at friends' houses.

But we had a like a Zenith that it didn't even have remote control. You had to get up and flick. I mean it sounds I'm old, clearly, but yeah, you had to get up and change the station. As the Cabby's try to consolet Tony, he bemoans the fact that and then you know, this gets very much like heavy handed, like Rocky, I feel like that's this thread that runs through the whole show. And that's another thing that kind of irked me because I think they're trying to force that comparison.

But he says, his whole life, Tony says, since he was fourteen, no one paid any attention to him. Now he's finally got a fight that he can get noticed, and everyone, including himself, wants him to lose, and then to wrap up the Louis thing. Louis hears this and then he gets very upset. He says, this changes everything because his reasoning is Tony is a loser, and when a loser wants to lose, the only way they can stay a loser is to win. Now he figures that he's going to change his whole plan.

Now he has to bet on Tony to win the fight. I love the reasoning and the fact that this is a bit of comedy that works that is not beholden to vaudeville in any way. It wasn't a setup punchline thing. It was this perfectly reasoned thing that it's like the enemy of my enemy is my friend. He reasons that because he's such a loser, when a loser wants to lose, the only way he can stay a loser is to win.

So Louis, as I said, has to bet on Tony now. So he radios Jeff and tells him to place the bet on Tony to win. At this point, Tony just decides that maybe he should just pull out of the fight and that's that. And then this raises the ire of Alex, who naturally, of course, because Alex makes the point that Tony should fight for all. Again, this is so rocky.

He should fight for all those fighters that never got a shot. He owes it to these fighters who toiled away in obscurity. Yeah, and I actually found it rousing. Jed Hirsh can read the phone book and make it rousing, so it works. But again I don't know.

I was struggling to really get past the rocky parallels in this. You're not the only one founded browsing, because Tony founded rowsing enough to declare that he has renewed passion to win the fight, which causes Louis to reverse himself yet again, and now he has to put money on Banta to lose again. Oops. Right, so now we get what is another in a whole string of remarkable b roll shots. Now we cut to a twilight shot.

This blew my mind, frankly. We cut to a twilight shot of cabs rolling down the street by the Felt Form, which incidentally there's a huge billboard for newport Alive with pleasure the cigarettes, completely covering one whole side of a building. Right. Yeah, but here's where it gets innovative. In another nice directorial choice, the camera as this is happening, the camera cranes to the right to give you the impression that the POV is somebody in a cab and they crane their head.

Now we see as they drive past the Forum, it says there's the marquis, says Felt Form. Tonight Benny Foster versus Tony Banta. It's on the marquee of the Felt Forum. I couldn't believe this not an electronic billboard either, it's actually up there on the building. Nowadays, you might just superimpose, like Matten in this is there.

This is actual letters that have been placed on the Marquee as they're driving by. Even if it were an electronic sign, it would be easier than a bunch of crew members running down there and slapping that on the side of the building so they can get the shot. It feels like in this season two, all of the stuff that takes place, the b roll stuff, it's all so much more well grounded in reality. In the past, we're used to things like never having the same shot of Marios outside Marios twice. It's always some other bar and we've made jokes about it.

But this is actually a real New York landmark that has the imprint of a character from Taxi. I thought it was brilliant. Well, I'm sure that first season they were just like, go get us some b roll and then the hare's your b roll, and so they were just picking and choosing. But this season, I'm sure he was like, Okay, go get more b roll. But we also have these episodes with these specific things, so we need these sorts of shots.

I'm here for it. I love it. I think it's no secret that this show was produced on the West Coast. They're not in New York, but this just makes it feel so much more like they're in New York. I don't know, it just feels so well grounded in the streets of New York now in a way that it wasn't quite there in the first season.

That's why I love it. After we see this great Marquee shot, we cut inside and this is what you were talking about, all of the budget that was taken away from the press conference. Jim went into this scene of them fighting because we cut inside. First thing we do is we cut inside and it's a really a far away It's a wide shot of tw two boxers slugging it out in the ring. But I have to say it's so clearly not actually Tony and Benny Foster, because in this wide shot, one is in red trunks and the other is in black trunks.

But the person in the black trunks is actually African American. It's not Benny Foster, who is Hispanic. But then we cut to a closer shot of Banta and Foster fighting. Banta is in red and Fosters in blue. We cut between boxing shots of them in the ring, to various shots of Brian watching in the audience from his wheelchair, and Alex and Vince are in their corner cheering him on.

But this is the crazy thing about it is I timed this. The footage of them just fighting and reaction shots goes on for a minute and twenty seconds. It's like an eternity. Did you notice that there was a thrilling fight going on? What do you want to just do it in ten seconds?

I mean we would miss all of those softball punches to slowly throwing at each other, or many of the clenches are the shaky cam to convince us that there's something actiony going on on screen. It's creatively shot in that you see a lot of close ups of the boxers going at it. But man, almost a minute and a half. It doesn't sound like much, but as you're watching it, it just takes forever to get to anything. The bell rings finally, then the round and Vincent Alex try to psych up Tony for the next round because he's in the corner, but Tony doesn't even want to talk about it.

He's really feeling terrible because he says he can feel Brian watching him as he's beating his hero Benny Foster right there in the ring and the bell rings and they fight some more, but finally, with the right hook, Tony finally knocks Foster down for the count. Instead of sharing the win, Tony won't even raise his glove up in victory, like the ref tries to get him to raise it and he keeps putting it down. Poor sportsmanship. He's so ashamed of what he had to do to this kid's hero in the ring. So we cut to the dressing room and it's funny because Alex is in there and he's fending off his conspicuously large crowd of reporters.

But then again, we know that the big papers have been reporting on this, so maybe it's not such a stretch that they'd have a lot of reporters there to cover the fight. A man's fighting for a sick child and got his ass kicked in the ring, and it was a former champion. Of course, they're there trying to get an interview with Tony Banta. Tony Bands is going to be famous for at least three days. I think that's probably the news cycle for a boxing story.

Back in seventy nine. Probably Tony is absolutely inconsolable about the win, and Alex offers to bring Brian in to talk to Tony for no other reason, for somebody for Tony to throw himself on the mercy out because Alex correctly probably reasons that Tony just wants somebody to apologize too, because he feels terribly about this. So Tony agrees and Alex he goes off to tell Brian to come in, and Brian comes in to talk to Tony and Tony is trying to play it off to Brian that he just hit him with a lucky punch, but Brian's having none of it. Brian was there, he watched the fight, and he says he knocked him cold, no question, just knocked him out. And Tony explains that Benny, he wouldn't have wanted Tony to fight him halfway.

This is a man with pride and he wouldn't want Tony to just get in there and carry him. He want him to give his best, and that's what Tony did. Tony even says, look, I don't have that, I don't get that many fights. I have to drive a cab, which the precociousness coming out prompts Brian to exclaim, Benny lost to a hack. I mean, this isn't something that a eight year old, nine year old kid would say.

It's awful. Yeah, it's overwritten, and it's driving the precocious cute factor that seemed to possess every sitcom writer of the nineteen seventies and eighties and nineties and thousands and on and on. Yeah. Tony at this point just begs Brian for forgiveness, and Brian seems receptive and he stretches his arms out for a hug. But watch out, Tony.

When he bends down to give the kid a hug, what does he do with this was unexpected? The kid fucking cold cocks him. He did. Not only did he cold cock him, but Tony reacts so horribly and he says, what did you hit me with? The kid took the ball bearings out of his wheelchair and put him in his hand so he could really lay into him.

It's a fucking callback. The thing was so squeaky because the kid keeps the ball bearings out so he can knock people on their ass. He puts them a little pouch on the side of the fucking wheelchair. That's where he keeps them, just in case he needs to lay out some gin music. Yeah, this kid's no good.

Brian gets into it. Tony shouts at him that he knocked out his hero. Brian says, do you know how hard it is to get a fighter to come to the hospital. All we get are singers? And now Brian is chasing Tony around the dressing room in his wheelchair until Tony finally offers to become his fighter, to become Brian's fighter, his hero.

He promises he's going to come visit, let Brian watch Tony train, and he'll even come to the hospital when Brian has to have his operation. And they agree, and then they finally shake on it, and now we have a bumper on the episode. Another bumper? Is this a bumper? Is this like Act four?

It's a bumper, It's dumb. We cut inside the garage where Tony wheels Brian excitedly into the garage. He's they've spent the day together or what have you? And after commiserating with the other Caves, Louis comes over to complain to Tony about losing his Color TV. So apparently he did put money on Tony to lose, and by his reasoning, a loser wants to lose, they're gonna win.

Louie then resolves that he's gonna shake down Tony even harder because he costs the money. He's gonna make him pay more for messages, for phone calls, everything. I mean, Louie is really being a prep If somebody would just bring a tape recorder in sometime, they could end all of this with Louie to Palma, get him dead to rights about the awful things that he's doing. I agree, but I don't know. I guess they're just they're used to it at this point, so they'll just take it like chumps.

So Brian introduces himself to Louis and he ingratiates himself like any precocious kid would. He offers Louis a hug, which Louie accepts gladly, puts a smile on Louie's face, and I think Louis even says that's a good kid. And he walks away, and Tony, did you punch that guy? You punch me? You don't punch the bad guy.

Please tell me, child of mine, what did he do? He didn't punch that is lolli, that's so much beat at taxi. That's the episode. Now, as is our custom, we're gonna talk about yellow lights. What does a yell light mean?

It's a reminder. We score on a scale of one to five yellow lights, one being the worst, five being the best. Father alone, as is also our custom, what do you give the reluctant fighter. I give the reluctant Fighter three yellow lights, but because of the earlier bad joke, I take back one yellow light for Who's god, this cab is really okay? That in itself is that?

That's all? That's kind of surprising. Actually, just the three I was speechless for and I would press you on it, but t is more in line with what I was thinking. Now for myself, I gave the reluctant Fighter one yellow light. Whoa no, no, no, no, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, because didn't it feel like it went on forever?

Yeah? So that in no way equates to more than one yellow light. It's not rewatchable. There's zero, there's next to zero Cabby interaction or input. The plot is boring, Like you said, it seems to go on forever, and Michael Gatso isn't really even all that funny.

I thought he didn't really add much. Excuse me, you cannot put Michael Gatso into the con column of the pro and con with this episode. He doesn't add extra funny, but then he's not given extra funny. Yeah, it's not his fault, but at the same time, the character did nothing for me. There's no Lato, there's no Reverend Jim.

I hated the fact that they made this kid precocious and had an edge to him. I didn't like at the tough attitude. It felt like different strokes or something. Bottom line is this episode is not rewatchable for me at all. So one yellow light, you make a good point, you make it, you make a good case.

I'm sticking with two because I got some extra laughs out of this one. This is an episode that featured Eleine Nardo in Suspenders. That won't allow me to add another yellow light to it, but it'll keep it from it too. I'm going to go out on a lemon and say that she looked the best in this episode, then she has probably all season. She was amazing in this The Suspenders thing was unbelievable.

God, I go crazy for that. I don't know. Apparently that was formative, not necessarily Nardo, but there was a lot of that at the time. You remember in the late seventies early eighties. Oh yeah, women with the shirts and the thing.

I knowing you sound like a pig right now. Nobody needs to hear this, but there you go. Look, she's a beautiful woman. She knows it, and I don't get the sense that she's being exploited. She's owning her sexuality.

Yeah, that's right. I'm a feminist to two yellow lights from father alone. One yellow light for me. That will do it for this episode of night mister Walter's Father Alone. When you're not locked into the garage, where can the folks find you?

Well, you can hear me on weirdingwaymedia dot com. I have a few shows over there, Dark Destinations of radio Drama. I write and produce, and I do two I do a show called Midnight Viewing, which actually has two separate entities now the Horror Anthology podcast, where we're talking about tales from the dark Side right now, and there's Anthologies Attack, which has a different topic every week, all anthology related. I think this coming week we're taking a look at Batman, the animated series Legends of the Dark Knight. It's an anthology about Batman.

Very cool. I would encourage people to check out Dark Destinations. If you love great audio, drama, great storytelling, you cannot go wrong. People, trust me. You can find me on the Weirdingway Network as well.

I've done a little bit of work with Dark Destinations with Father Malone, of course, and I've done a little bit of the music here and there. A little bit of every piece of music you hear on Weirdingway Media Network is from hb Okay. Also, I have a band campsite called hpmusicplace dot bandcamp dot com. Some new material coming there soon, I promise. And so that's again, thank you so much for listening.

Please feel free to subscribe to the podcast, write a review, or rate us. We'd love to hear from you in any way you see fit so for myself and Father Malone, thanks again and we'll see you next time.