Episode 38 - Jim Gets A Pet

Weird way media Ni misters. Is see that guy with it now? He's an actor phone name. I'm a driver and the only camp driver in his place. Good evening and welcome tonight, mister Walter's a Taxi podcast.

I'm HP, your co host, and with me as always is my co host, Father Malone. Father Malone? How are you this evening? I am good HP. You have my permission to deliver Reverend Jim's eulogy at my service.

You don't have to change the words all that much. No, not that much at all. We are talking about the Taxi season two, episode fifteen, Jim gets a pet. This was written by David Lloyd. I think this was actually David Lloyd's first script for Taxi.

Is David Lloyd a big luminary on the show or is it like Christopherlloyd's brother something? Who is David Lloyd? I've always on a scene name, but did not know. He's written for Frasier, He's written for Wings, Oh my god, Wings, He's written for Amen, the Sherman Helmsley vehicle, and I think he's ow He. Do you remember this was?

I forgot about this show until I just looked it up. Do you remember there was a show called Best of the West in the eighties. Yes, it's like a sitcoms in the Old West, right. Right, I'm looking, Oh, Christopher Lloyd was in that. I did not realize that.

I'm looking at the cast list. I don't recognize anybody. Slim Pickens was in it. That's cool, and Andy Griffith. There you go for Why did it fail?

I don't understand. I don't know, but I guess that's a tale for another. The nineteen eighties we were all a titter about Western Still we weren't. Actually Westerns were so fucking over by nineteen eighty. They kind of were.

But I feel like, and this is a bigger topic, but I feel like there were a lot more sitcoms, or at least one and done kind of sitcoms in the eighties. It feels like you don't see that many failed sitcoms these days. Maybe they just don't produce as many as they used to. Right. We already talked about the Associates last time with the Martin short So this was just another one that came out in that wave.

I guess maybe they're just holding on to them better, you know. I guess, Or maybe they're Maybe they were just more willing to take chances. Back then, they had more I guess the sitcom was king in a way that maybe now it's more about police procedurals and things like that courtroom dramas. I don't know, but reminder, we're doing these shows in broadcast order and not in order filming. We open on a nighttime beating.

Roles quick, quickly, sorry, before we begin and dive into this fucking beautiful episode. Do you mind if I give a shout out to at night mister Walter Span Of course, please do Chrissy d on Instagram. It's at taxi and who's the boss, big fan of the show. She always promotes us. I just want to say hi and thank you for listening.

That is fantastic. I'm so happy to hear that. Welcome Chrissy Deep. I'm so happy that you're a devoted listener and keep listening. Thank you so much.

That's fantastic. She's a Banta fan, so she's your enemy. Oh boy, I better watch what I say. In the next couple of episodes, we open up on nighttime b roll of cabs rolling by the garage, and my impression, I don't know if you had the same vibe, Father Blone, but it almost felt like a glimpse into a maximum overdrive type of future in which only cabs roam the city because all you see, I mean, it's the garage, obviously, but there's just cab after cab after cab, and there's even the last car in the line is actually a pickup truck, but it's actually colored and decorated like a taxi cab. For some reason, it must be like a maintenance vehicle of some sort.

I also noticed a lot of the cabs were newer models and not the schlumpy, old checkered cabs that we mostly see in the garage. Did you happen to I know you love the b roll anyway, but did you pick up on this at all? Yeah? I did. It made me think that it made me think that they came back to New York to shoot a whole bunch of new brole because mostly what we've been getting has been recycled from the first season up until now.

We keep seeing all those same sort of the golden hour shots of Sunshine Cab Company, and I think because of that, we're getting these newer models of cars now. So the those older round checker cabs are being phased out, but not at Sunshine Cab because they don't have the money for those new models. That actually makes a lot of sense that as they update their b role, it's coinciding with maybe a shift in the taxi cab population and they're phasing out those those wonderful old beat up cabs and they're going into like Crown Vics and things like that. So we cut inside the garage as Alex, Tony, Bobby in Laka. They all file in.

They're grousing about bets they made at the track, and then here comes a Lane. Lane feigns some concern and asks where they've been out. It has to be said, we're going to get to this, but I didn't really love Elane. I love a lot of things about this episode, but this bit with Elane really bothered me. We'll get into it, but I'm curious to see what your opinion is.

She comes in and she starts to ask them where they've been. She's upset that they've gone to the track, and Alex does his best to divert suspicion from where they're going, but of course, lunkheaded Tony lets the cat out of the bag that they went to the track. Now this sets off a lane. She starts lecturing them, but Louis, in a rare moment of justified interruption, tells Nardo not to lecture. You know, she's got vices like everybody else, you know, leave them alone.

I thought that was kind of nice. Usually Louis pipes in only to give a jab or two. But he's right, why is she getting on their cases? I didn't like that side of her at all. Well, I think we find doubt why in the course of the conversation, eventually with Alex, who's reaction is so spectacular with the newspaper when he's like, Okay, fine, fuck off.

I'm not I'm just saying that I don't want to fight with you. That moment was great. But I do think it is because Nardo's husband was such an inveterate gambler and that has left a bad taste in her mouth. It However, it is out of character for her to be such a lecturing nag, because it's one thing to just sort of say, you guys are idiots, you're just there losing your money, and it's another thing to get up and basically cluck your tongue and wager. I mean all that was missing was a fucking rolling pin in her hand.

Yeah, that was my impression. She comes off like this Herodin whose only purpose in this particular scene is to lecture them and get angry with them because we're going to find out. Obviously. She brings up this thing with her husband, which I think is a little too convenient for them to invent this because we've not heard anything about her ex husband I think throughout the series up to this point. Well, she doesn't bring it up.

Alex brings it up, and that's what gets him in trouble. Well, that's true, that's true. I guess we'll get into that. It's a little more organic than you're saying right now. I know they haven't mentioned anything about the husband, but then they haven't mentioned anything about that husband, and the writers are getting us an easy out so that I am not going to take away a yellow light when we sum this episode up, because this conversation we're having right now is really making me want to take one away.

At this point, Jim walks in from by the coffee machine. He's thanking the guys for taking him with them to the track. I thought it was kind of weird that when the bunch of them walk into the garage, Jim is you don't even see Jim. First time you see Jim as when he approaches from stage right. Effectively, are we supposed to think that he took his own car to the track?

Did he not just go with them? I thought it was odd, he just appears out of nowhere. Right, But I think that's actually totally appropriate and necessary for that character. You know, even if they piled into, like say, they took Tony's cab to the track, right, so they all get back to the garage and they all pile out. Do you think Jim is going to walk in a straight line with these other guys and with purpose?

I guess probably like a pinball, He's probably going in all sorts of different directions. I imagine Jim had some adventures in between the time they got out of that gab I got there that we're not privy to, but we're very very fun. That's another good point. Hearing about Jim going to the track just winds up a lane all over again. And she makes this point, and actually she is truthfully justified where Jim is just now getting his life back together.

Obviously, he's a drug casualty and this job has been his way forward to becoming solvent again. But she's upset, maybe justifiably, that the Caves are getting him involved in gambling, and it's kind of why would they do that to him when he's just now getting his life back together. And the Cabby's start to protest again, and once again she drops it and walks off, which is part of my problem with her. She just dips in and out only to kind of, to your point, wag her finger and get angry with them. What I thought was super interesting about this sort of argument that she starts to build up again with Alex.

I don't know if you noticed this. When she winds up again and is yelling at riger did you notice that Alex, in his moment of defensiveness, says, Nardo, would you please? He actually uses her last name Yeah to back her off, which I don't know that I've really heard him call her anything but Elaine in the past. That's I think that's really good writing. Actually, look, they fucked us with give making Elaine an antagonist here for no good reason and flipping it because louis kind of one of the gang here.

But yeah, you know, HP, I'll call you by your last name if I'm angry at or I'm being plink dating or you know. That's fair. I don't know. It's just odd that they've certainly had their ups and downs, even just in the season and a half that we've been doing this or watching the show. But I can't recall him getting to that point where he's gotten so upset that he refers to her or playful or what have you to say to call her Nardo instead.

I mean, it's always Louis calls her. Actually, Louis might be the only one who really calls her Nardo, right. The other cabbies really don't. They'll call her Lane. This is my friend Elaine.

That's how they introduce her. But it black is white, up is down. We're at Moonlight cam Company. Jim goes on to say that he should have gotten into gambling a long time ago. There's something about the kick of betting that to him is making life much more interesting.

And at that point, I love this one. Let me say that Elaine, for all her nagging, right, for all her care about what they're doing to portray Magnatowski, it's not like she would, I don't know, offer him a couch to sleep on if he was homeless after he dismantled his van, just to make her feel good about herself. Sit down, Eline, Sit down. There's certainly limits to Elaine's charity when at least when it comes to Jim. But to illustrate this point about gambling and how much he's enjoying the thrill of it, he sees Jeff getting something out of the coffee machine.

By the way, Jeff in this scene has the widest bell bottom pants that I've ever seen in my life. I thought these things were done by the eighties. This was like a relic of the seventies. But there he is. It's got these Did you notice.

That it flew him in from Notre Dame hanging in the belt. So he's so, Jeff is ordering something from the coffee machine, and Jim makes this wild bet that what drink he's going to be getting out of the coffee machine, and Bobby being Bobby, takes the bet and Bobby says, I bet you it's coffee. Do you remember what Jim thinks? What Jim Betts is going to be the drink that he gets out. Of the I don't remember my god him, I'm blocked that.

Jim bets that he's going to get a vodka gimblet out of the coffee. The sheade, the Cabby's all hear this, and they all start to argue against the bet, but Jim is holding fast. He's he loves gambling now and he wants to see this through. He loses, of course, and Bobby, and kind of a dick move, has to be said, takes his money regardless. You know, but I guess the BET's a bet.

What are you going to do money back? Well, yeah, but that but that's even better. Like Jim thanks him profusely for giving him such a thrill, and Bobby is expressing some remorse he's for taking Jim's last dollar, to which Jim simply replies, well, give it back, which you know, it's such a simple line, but it's so disarming because you never hear that or see that in a sitcom like this. It's so self evident if if Bobby feels so bad about taking Jim's last dollar, just give him it back, and this disarm This disarms Bobby to the point where he literally gives Jim his money back, Jim and Bobby walk away just in time. Now we have a third time.

Elaine swoops back in starts stating on Alex's case for making Jim into a because she's observing this, and she is now accusing Alex of making Jim into a gambling addict. And Alex, well, yeah, and I think Alex probably just to get her off of his back, he uses this weak reasoning of well, it's his money, it's his life, which is ignoring the fact that Jim is so naive and so drug addled and damaged that he's, you know, maybe someone should look out for him. And also that's overlooking the fact that we know that Alex has gambling issues of his own. Ax. What would figure he would be especially sensitive to this kind of thing.

But no, I guess in this case. No. But and then this is where Alex counters to Elaine, like, the only reason you're getting so upset is because your ex husband was a gambler and so forth. But then, weirdly, at first the Lane says, don't drag my husband into this, you know it's and then when Alex walks away, then she starts it again with did you know my ex husband was a gambler, and it becomes a hole. She just keeps like winding down, winding up, winding down.

That part of it. I didn't really really enjoy. Elaine is not for meds now. Although Elaine has a well documented history of caring for the caves as a mother, would I don't really like this shift to shrieking herod And like I said, but Jim, at that point, Jim just interjacts and says, well, it doesn't matter because he has no more money to bet, even if he wanted to. And at this point Louis conspicuously asks Jim.

He beckons Jim over this great he MutS to have a chat with Jim, and it quickly becomes evident that Louie wants to make Jim a predatory loan so that he can gamble. And I think it's like eighty five percent interest, which it's crazy, But Jim is getting all this up. Yeah, this is so Louie to do this, and a handshake isn't even good enough for Louie in this case. He pulls up this ridiculous contract that Jim has to sign. There's even fine print that says in the event that Jim can't repay the loan.

Louis has the right to sell his body for medical experiments. So happily, Jim is chasing this thrill of gambling, so he signs. And medical experiments whether or not he's alive, yeah, I. Think, because yeah, I think. Doesn't Jim question him and he says, well, do you mean you know, before or after death?

He's like whichever. He just kind of shrugged and says, yeah, it doesn't matter. So we cut to another b roll. This time it's a checker cab pulling into the garage, but just as it pulls in, father alone, Oh my tolls alongside of the camera. It's Alex driving the cab.

Has snuck the b role. He's got that beige jacket that he wears. I think we've truthfully, I think if I'm thinking back to the episode the Bet, when he has that bet with Louis, I think it's the same outfit that he's wearing. My suspicion is probably they just took him out and said we're just going to film you for half a day, just various b roll shots. This must come out of that, because what we end up seeing is when they cut back inside the garage and you see Alex walking in.

He's not wearing that jacket anymore. He's back to wearing his sort of slouch sweaters. So he comes in. Alex goes into the garage with his bookings, and Elaine asks if he's seen Jim, and it turns out no one has seen him for a few days. I think Elaine is telling them that he's been at the track every day this week, and.

How does she know? Is she there? Did she was there? Going there the frying pan and tapping her foot like, who. Is it an Andy Kapp or something?

What was that comic Andy cap where he'd always be at the pub and the wife would hit him with the rolling pin. It's terrible. I don't like the side of Elaine at all. Alex starts in that you know, she's playing cards, and Alex is like, well, how can you be you know, how can you lecture us on gambling when you're playing cards? But in Elaine's counter, which is very odd to me, is that it's just a game with no money involved.

Now this begs the question, father Malone, why the fuck would you play poker for no money? Have you ever played cards like that for no money? It's boring, it sucks. Gee. I don't know how to answer you because you have such a definitive feeling about this topic that doesn't really concern me at all because I very rarely played cards, and I live in Las Vegas, so I don't gamble because you cannot because you would die.

But here's what I'll say. I agree with you. If you're to be playing, I mean, you could be playing fucking Solitaire twenty one or you know what I mean, Like old may play a competitive card game. If you're just gonna be playing, they might as well they have the chessboard there. But you know, but I will say that if you're there with the same people every fucking day and you're all earning the exact same amount of money, that maybe they would just play for nothing.

Just at the time. Let me back up a little bit. Not necessarily money, but steaks like meatballs. He's playing for peanuts, right, literal peanuts, right, that's what he's you know, make it interesting. Give give me some kind of steaks.

Doesn't have to be high stakes, but some reason that I'm going to care whether I win or lose this competitive card game that I'm playing. Otherwise, it's like you'll go all in every single time because there's no downside. Sorry, go ahead. What could have solved the scene is had she said we're not paying, we're not playing for money, and then cut to the other player going we're not and then like putting the cards down and walking away. Yeah, that would have been a wonderful button on this little bit of the scene.

I one hundred percent agree. At that point, Jim strolls into the garage finally, and Alex asks to speak to him privately. He knows that Jim is borrowing money that he doesn't have. He tries to give some advice to Jim about the dangers of borrowing from someone like Louis because it can lead to having to borrow from a loan shark. And it becomes this, oh yeah, okay, it's a routine he gets into right HP.

You know me, when characters start doing gimmicky bullshit like this, it makes me want to stick my head into the television and kill myself. But again we keep saying this, jud hirsh pulls it off. If judd Hurst started doing that in front of me, I would be excited to watch him do it. If my buddy whatever starts doing a fucking routine. I just want to throw him out of a car.

It's like a little one one man play because he portrays Jim's father, the loan shark that comes to collect money from Jim. And it's all done in this like I mean, Jim is rapped with attention. He starts getting worried about all these hypotheticals because every time he comes back, Alex makes the scenario even more dangerous and more life threatening to Jim. It all escalates to the point where Jim is basically begging Alex for help out of this hypothetical loan shark situation, which he's not in, by the way. But finally, at that point, everything is too much for Jim and he declares that he's done gambling.

And Elaine is relieved to hear this, and she says that it's great you've quit gambling, Jim. You'll pay back all your losses, and but he interrupts and says, what losses. It turns out that Jim not only hasn't lost money gambling, but he is actually one ten thousand dollars gambling. Now, of course, I had to go to my favorite website, amortization dot org to look this up. What do you figure ten thousand dollars in nineteen eighty is worth in twenty twenty four?

Father belone, what do you figure twenty seven five hundred? No, actually, way more than that. It's actually according to this website. According to amortization dot org, in twenty twenty four, ten grand is worth just shy of forty thousand dollars. It's a lot of money, man, you know that's that's I mean, well, look, ten thousand dollars.

Is a lot, a lot of money, absolutely. But it's basically worth four times as much in today's So Jim has had a really I'm not trying to shortchange ten grand, but Jim has had a really good day at the track to come out HP. That's a life changing amount of money, it is. And everybody makes this point to Jim that this is a big deal. So he the way he made this money wasn't as if Jim found a system that worked for him or he's an inveterate gambler.

He all Jim did was put thirty five dollars on a three hundred to one shot of course named Don Dasher. Because Jim being Jim, he identifies with long shots. Jim even pays back Louie every penny plus interest, plus a little something for his troubles he makes. He squares up with Louis immediately, and then Alex starts in back with a lane now saying, look at Jim, now has life changing money. You're going to give him a hard time for being a gambler.

And then Bobby asks Jim what he's going to do with all this money, but unfortunately Jim says he's already spent it all. And then the cabbes argue about what could he have spent all this money on. They can't figure it out. He literally just got back from the track. What did he spend the money on on the way back?

And at this point, as they're arguing, this man walks into the garage leading a real horse, an actual horse, and he's asking for Ignatowski and Jim. Apparently, what he later explains is that he bought the horse that won the race for it. Jim looked at the horse. This is so I mean, this is really beautiful. Actually, Jim looked at the horse after the race and it broke his heart to see this horse so broken down.

And tired and exhausted from winning this race. So he reasoned that horse won the money for me, so it's only right that he returns the favor. So he approaches the owner, and, of course, in typical sitcom fashion, he asks the owner, well, how much do you want for this horse? And the owner says to him, how much do you have? And wouldn't you know it, it was the exact amount that Jim had on him, which is ten thousand dollars, which tells me that the horse was probably worth a quarter of that, probably.

At the end of its life. Like if he had said I have five hundred dollars, I said, deal right, I'll you know, I'll. Throw in the blanket for free. Alex asks him, what are you gonna do with a race horse, and Jim's response is he's gonna give him his freedom, And with that, Jim leads him back to the garage door, gives him this sort of slap on the rump and says, you know, off you go and the horse. I mean, he's in the middle of Manhattan.

Where's the horse going to go? The Cabby's all free, right, I guess, Well, I don't know. There's there's a lot of unanswered questions about this horse that we'll get to. But it makes sense that Jim, just being so naive, you just figure as well, I'll just let him run free. But of course you can't have a horse running free in New York.

So everybody runs, Alex and TONI run. I disagree with you, But now a horse running in New York, what are you talking about. You could just let horses run free in New York, so they'd be fine in. What I mean, anywhere, but Central Park? How are you gonna have him running free in time?

I'm square. Look, that's just the first wave of my plan. HP. When the elephants are let loose, then we're gonnah, we're gonna have a real party. Alex and Tony run out to catch him, and we fade to black at that point.

Now we're back inside the garage. We come back from commercial and and Bobby has caught the horse and is leading him back into the garage, and Jim says, you know. He protests and says, why didn't you just I want the horse to be free, just let him free. But Alex replies that, look, Jim, this isn't the Frontier. There's nowhere in New York for on Dasher to go, and Jim says Jim tells Alex, don't call him on Dasher.

That was his slave name. Tony asks, was I love this part? Tony asks him, what's his what's his new name? I think. Jim thinks for about a split second, looks at the horse and says, uh, Gary, he looks like a Gary.

So Louis comes in at that point, blows a gasket, demands to get the horse out of the garage, and we fade into a b roll exterior of what appears to be a warehouse or some sort of industrial building. This will discover is actually Jim's apartment. Now here's where we're going to get into the logistics of owning a horse in New York. We cut inside the I think this might be the Is this the correct me? If I'm wrong, Father Malone, But I think this is the first look we've had into Jim's apartment.

Right, absolutely. I think they've repurposed Burns Burns. You think they repurposed so. That set that stage whatever, and built built Jim's apartment there. It could be.

I liked it, though. I like Jim's because it's so weird. I mean, I think they had a little fun with this apartment. There's it's this is my favorite apartment from the entire series, don't get me wrong. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

The center decoration is so fucking perfect. Like, here's the thing. You can throw a few playbills on a wall, and that's Bobby's apartment, right, But not everything there was chosen with that character in mind. I think everything here is chosen in mind. The character's been around long enough that they're able to do that.

It is. It's such a it's a mishmash of all this miss odd furniture that doesn't really match. There's stuff hanging all over the walls. There's a water cooler in the back and a giant wooden spool for a coffee table. It's funny because when they cut into the apartment for the first time you see Jim, he's just he's wandering the apartment.

He has this little tiny feather duster in his hand, but he's not actually doing anything with a feather duster. He's just looking around in this sort of a dazed aspect to him. I know, he's not doing anything. He's just wandering with this feather duster. So he gets a knock on the door and Alex, Bobby, and Tony enter and they're all you can tell, like you get the feeling that not only is his apartment really weird, but it's probably not in a very good part of town because they already have a very apprehensive look on every one of them walks in and they're just kind of they look very on guard about the whole situation.

You know, he's down the street from CBS. Probably he's you know, it's not a nice part of town where Jim's living. And as I think, Tony compliments him on his kitchen, which all the kitchen is in the back. There's it's literally a small table with a toaster and a coffee pot, like an electric coffee pot. But he notes that Jim is He asks, Jim, are you getting all your electricity from that one cable?

There's a plug coming out of these giant windows, And it's true, he's getting all his electricity from there, from the next building over, because this building is condemned, you see. Bobby then suggests, like, look, you have a steady job, now, why don't you maybe you can afford to move. But Jim likes it here he says, what can they do to a condemned building? Save it? Vaudeville?

It wasn't a funny joke at all. I mean, we know what they were going for there. They were trying to make some joke about the fact that he lives in an abandoned building, but I don't know that that was it. Alex asks Jim where Gary is, and Jim says, he's sleeping in the bedroom. This is our first clue that maybe you know things, aren't you know what's going on here.

Jim goes on to say that he's gotten He's trying to make Gary's life as pleasant as possible, which I can really relate to. I have a dog that I've had for seven years or so who had a really tough life, and I a lot of what I do is sort of dedicated towards making her happy because of what a tough life she had. Well, Gary is in a similar spot. So Jim is doing all he can to make his life comfortable. He's got him a nice blanket, he bought him a heater, lots of food, and he takes him for walks every day, he says, which I think is really sweet and really speaks to Jim's character.

But I have to break in here and say, how the hell does Jim get this horse in and out of the apartment? I ask you, Father Malone. The exterior makes it plain that he lives on the second floor of this condemned building. Yeah, because he's living in an abandoned loft in New York City. And generally when you have lofts, you have those giant freight elevators because the loft was never meant to be lived in.

Those were working spaces, So freight elevator up, down, there goes the horse. It still seems a little far fetched that he would get this horse in and out of this building with no repercussions. But whatever, maybe maybe I'm overthinking it. I'll tell you what if it's that kind of neighborhood. Everyone who sees him coming in and out of the building with a horse, just like it's that fucking crazy amount, you know what I mean, Like, no one's calling the cops.

It's just a car horse. He didn't bother anybody. It would No one's going to call the cops because they're probably up to stuff that is no good. If they don't want that heat. Reverend Jim knows them from some home some other you know.

Oh that's the guy who steals up caps, right. So Jim tells everybody to make themselves comfortable. They start to talk a little bit, and what we're gathering is that the rest of the caves have been trying to find Gary a new home, because they're talking about what they've all uncovered. And it turns out there's not much call for an old horse in Manhattan. The police don't want an old horse to hire onto the force.

And there's Tony mentions some vague ad in the paper that they've gotten no response to which I can only assume if it's Tony putting. The end, the writers are doing us a disservice by not letting us read that ad. It was probably written in crayon and submitted to the newspaper with a lot of backwards letters, you know. But yeah, I horse. They can't figure out how to get Gary into a new home out of nowhere.

Jim offers them walnuts as a snack, and as this is so, he hands out a walnut to each of the cabbys. And as he's doing this, Jim is continuing to talk about how nice it is to have Gary around to spend time with and to watch TV with, and it's all very nice, but it's hard to focus because in the background, every one of the Cabby's is having real difficulty getting these because he hasn't given them a nutcracker or anything. So you have this image of Riager repeatedly like hitting the walnut against the table in Vain and having it spring back, and they're all trying to figure out how to do this. By the way, don't think I didn't notice. At this point, Tony gets up and goes to this table, this chair behind the sofa, and what is do He turns the chair around one hundred and eighty degrees and Slater's right there for no good reason.

But I know he has a reason here. You can't. I guess he does in a regular chair, right. So Alex finally asks Jim if he has a nutcracker, and Jim responds rather mysteriously that it's right in front of you, and he looks around and there's nothing there, and finally Alex at dawns on Alex. He says, what the table?

This giant spool that I mentioned before is the table, and Jim says, by golly, I guess that could be used as a table, which I love because that's what other purpose could it serve. And for some reason, Jim, it never occurred to Jim that could be a table. Finally, Alex, in a little bit of physical comedy, wordlessly gets this aha moment and he gets up and he picks up the table and a little bit puts the walnut underneath it crack. So that's how Jim cracks the walnuts. He puts them underneath the table and sits on the table.

HB. Have you had a friend like Jim in your life, probably person who looks at a giant wire spool that most people would turn on its side and turn into a table, and his thought is, oh, that can be used for cracking my walnuts, my precious walnuts. Yeah, I would say so somebody who's a very unconventional thinker. Sure, yeah, that's nice. I thought there was a story in the ad.

Okay, I thought you were going to sail with this guy that you knew in La who is whatever. And know most of the people I knew in La were like that. So I'm not being super vinicular just taking shots. I'm just saying there are lots of dreamers in Los Angeles, much like Reverend Jim. Yeah, and it's part of It's part of Jim's charm.

And no one delivers those sort of drug addle pearls of wisdom, and like Christopher Lloyd does. We've said it before and we'll say it again. He really well, we'll talk it, we'll get to it. But but. You can get to him right now because when Alex is trying to figure out what the fuck he means by your you've got the nutcracker right in front of you and he's trying to understand how to actually crack the nut using it the look of encouragement and I'm really not here and how can you not see through my own eyes that how that thing works?

Like Christopher Lloyd is just so, he's not even saying anything. He's just smiling at Alex, urging him. I don't know, he's amazing. It really is kind of miraculous. And it makes me a little which is not to say that he hasn't had a wonderful career, but it makes me a little bit sad that he didn't get these more roles that were as meaty and as fulfilling to watch as Redford the Gym.

What about the legend of the Lone Ranger. Well, I mean, look, he had his moment. I mean, you know, he was He doesn't always have to play that type of character. He's awesome and who raym Roger Rabbit. Obviously, Doc Brown is iconic and he's nothing like Jim.

But but I think there is a soulful quality to his work in Taxi that I think hasn't always shined through HB. You know, recently we were having a John Chakathon, a shuck off doing our best Klingon impression, and yet we have such an amazing Klingon in our presence every time Reverend Jim comes on screen. That's true, very unfairly maligned for his Klingon in Star Trek three. But is he maligned for that? I think well, because I think, like do lots of impressions.

Basically, what you're talking about is that fucking Kevin Pollock impression. Ye kind of thing, right, But I don't buy that. In his performance in Star Trek three, the Search for Spock hit Commander Cruse, I thought he was fucking awesome, man, I. Thought he's very good. I just you're right.

I have sixty seconds for you and your valiant crew. He's good. I don't think he's honest, If I'm being honest, I don't think he's as good as John Shuck. I wish John Shuck had more of a more, you know, more of a presence in those movies. But if such had been Commander Kruz and Christopher Lloyd had been the ambassador, it could have worked.

But I love John Shuck and we're getting off topic, but I love John Shuck as the klingon functionary who. I mean, he's more refined a little more. That's exactly what I'm getting at. He's much more refined and suitable for dealing with the Federation in those in that fashion, whereas Christopher Lloyd's character is much more of a real klingon a battle, a guy who's willing to kill to get what he wants. Whereas you know, But but you're right, there was the Kevin Pollack thing, which was omnipresent at that time.

But I have I think I remember at the time people were viewers going, well, this is odd. This is the Reverend Jim was he doing in a Star Trek movie? But like anything, I think time has proven those people wrong, and I think if you see it free of those biases, I think it's a great performance. We are Okay, listen, I'm going to continue this Star Trek trend here and just say that around the time that Search for Spock came out was the time I started going to Star Trek conventions. Creation conventions.

They were called then put on by Creation, the same company that put out star Log. Every convention I went to after Kevin Polling did his thing, and he if you remember at the time, he did the fucking fantastic Shatner, So there was that as well, and every convention would always have an impressionist contest, like an impression. They would invite audience members to come up and do an impression from all of Star Trek. Right, And so what you got was seventy five percent nuclear vessels, right. You got another fifteen percent of Kevin Pollock impressions of either shatn or the Thing or something super.

The last five percent is just super fucking obscure, Like somebody did Vic tay back from a piece in the action, And I was like, give that guy the fucking award right now. But did he do him as as mel as a bell? Ox mix. Yes, it's like you know, a couple of the younger guys. Yeah, they show him, but they get rubbed out real quick.

Like he was doing a really good big tay bag. Wow, he did not win. He did not win. Oh you know who did win? Actually, Jesus Christ, I can't believe him.

We're okay, but you know who did win? A little girl because she did an impression of the gorn oh like the it was like, no, no, it's an eight year old girl. She just they had a microphone. She got on the micament like that, and she rightly. Now we find out why Tony has to sit Slater fashion back there, because he kind of he goes, you guys, and he has a walnut in each hand and just by squeezing as hard as he can, he breaks the walnuts, which according to the Official Taxi Fan Guide, he did for real without actually having you know, they pre score this stuff sometimes, but I guess he found walnuts that he could do this trick with.

So what a tough guy. He can crush walnuts with his hands. Hey, Chrissy is listening now listen. I thought it was lame, but only because he didn't put them on his biceps and crush them by Yeah, now that would have been a real man's move. I could see that.

Bobby asks Jim, Gary is going to be up soon, and Jim says, well, he's been asleep for quite a while. In fact, Jim says it's a myth that Horace's sleep standing up, and then Alex asks, you know you can see Alex or Jed Hirsh does really well because he has this look on his face like I don't want to hear what I'm about to hear. And he says, well, how do they sleep, Jim, And Jim says like this, and he mimes a horse on its back with all of his legs fait, you know, basically straight up into the air. That it's the universal sign for dead animal. Basically is what he's done.

But the penny drops for Alex and Bobby and they both get this oh shit look on their faces like, Okay, this is really happening. He's dead. And Alex asks how long Gary has been sleeping like that, and Jim says, oh, since the day before yesterday, so he's been dead effectively for probably the better part of a day and a half. At this point, sympathetically. Bobby gets up and says, can I have a look at Gary?

And he gets up, and this might be one of my favorite line readings in the whole shows. He's walking past Tony. Tony warrens him he's Bobby, don't wake him up, because Tony, maybe he's been barely listening, or maybe it's just because he's an idiot. He still has this idea that Gary is sleeping, which I thought was funny because Bobby stops for a minute and kind of gets this WinCE on his face, like, oh, come on. And then my second favorite part of the scene, where it's my favorite visual of the episode for sure, Bobby tries to go into the bedroom, but he is presented with a whole wall that just made up of doors, one after the other, so he can't there's no way of telling how to get into any Yeah, it's like something out of Holy Wonka.

Basically point out that it's not like a wall, and there's a door and then a space and then a door. It's door, door, door, like all jammed up against each other. He asks Jim which door, and even Jim has to stand there for a minute, and I think he on a you know, kind of aggressively. He kind of picks one door at random, and it's the one he opens the door Bobby steps through, but almost immediately Bobby steps out of the room and delivers the sad news to Jim that Gary isn't I think the way he says it is actually very affecting because he doesn't say to Jim, Jim, I think Gary is dead. He says Jim, I Gary's gonna be going for any walks anymore.

Yeah, And it's Look, Bobby hasn't had a hell of a lot to do in the last handful of episodes, right, but moments like this are a reminder for me that he's really good. Jeff Conaway can he's a good actor. And the way that he's presenting this in a way that we'll let Jim down easy, and he's trying to be very sensitive to Jim and his relationship with his horse, as ridiculous as it is to us. So for him to say it that way that Jim, I'm afraid you're not going to have any more walks with Gary, it's really it is a little heartbreaking to hear him say that, because we know that he's dead anyway. But Bobby remains one of my favorite characters on the show, and it's because deep down he is decent and we see that here and we see it against especially at the memorial.

Yeah, I totally agree. Sort of somberly, Jim walks into the bedroom and he's asking for Gary, like Gary, and that's the end of the scene. It cuts to the garage. There's something about that, the sudden cut from that. We don't get to see Jim come out, we don't get to see the aftermath.

We kind of fill in in our minds what actually transpired, and it just it feels I'm so sad for Jim in that moment, because he really cares about this horse. Well, you know, I agree with you that it is a kind of an abrupt cut where we don't get any reactions from anybody. But the next scene I think more than made. Up for it. We cut to the garage and Jim is sitting really forlornly in front of the coffee machine.

I think his head is hung low, and the rest of the cabb looking at this with great sympathy, and Alex goes over to comfort Jim and talk to him about the whole situation. How he's feeling, and Jim admits the apartment's empty without Gary and Alex being Alex. This is actually a really cool thing that he does. He says, he's surprised that Gary's been gone a couple of days and they haven't had a service for him. He says, maybe you haven't noticed, Jim, but a lot of the guys in the garage have been really down about Gary.

And as a man of the cloth as you are, Jim, you should do a eulogy for Gary. And this sparks something in Jim and he gets up and he asks everybody to gather around for the service. And then at this point they set up the garage and what I guess you could call church service configuration. They did this in the paper Marriage episode where they take some of the benches and they arrange them as pews. They take out the toolbox thing and making it into a pulpit for Jim that he can stand at.

And they even Bobby, to your point, even rather sensitively takes Gary's racing blanket and he lays it on the this would be pulpit, which it makes. A perfect character moment. Of course, boy is looking out for the theatricality of this moment, because this is a theatrical moment. All sort of religious ceremonies are yeah, and it's a. Beautiful little touch to what's going to be this, you know, this nice little service.

And even Louis Is he leaves, he leaves his cage and he's watching this all from his spot in the garage. The whole garage, including all the B players, are all gathered for this service. And Jim, of course Jim and by extension, Christopher Lloyd, delivers a typically sensitive eulogy about how Gary he was born and bred to run fast, but as he got older he noticed he was getting slower. But in his heart he was still a two year old horse that could run fast, and he always thought he had a chance. And what he points out in this is that Gary is running as fast as he always did in his mind, and he did not understand why he wasn't running as fast as the other horses.

This is Jim's empathy for Gary on display here, and he makes it so explicit for the rest of us, like, yes, and you and I are of a certain vintage HP, and you know you one day you go Jesus Christ, why am I not doing that. That was easy. I used to not even think about such a thing. And in that case, you know, when you put yourself in the mind of an animal who maybe doesn't even understand, can't fathom beyond it's just happening, can't understand why, doesn't understand even the concept of age. As you point out to Gary, Gary is still two years old, and he's still like, what the right conditions will win?

Yeah, and it just to hear it, it really, even now, it kind of breaks my heart a little bit to think about it, because you're absolutely right, You're The point of the whole eulogy is that, through no fault of his own all, you know, all that happened, Gary just got old. He didn't realize he was getting old. He always tried his best, but in the end he was not that two year old speedster anymore. It's just it's just sad. He tried his best and he had a last shining moment, but maybe that just took too much out of him, and that was his swan song.

Effectively. Even Elaine at this point, who all we've seen of Elaine in this whole episode is for getting upset at everybody. She starts crying in the middle of this service, and the service can includes and Jim has handshakes all around and louis to your earlier point during the intro is he's so moved. He asks Jim if he can deliver the eulogy for his ma when the time comes for her, and he's which is a really really nice thing for him to say. And then they undercut it nicely with a little bit of comedy, just because otherwise it's almost too much.

He says, you know what, you wouldn't even have to change the words all that much. And with that, Jim simply just walks out of the garage. There's no fanfare, there's no music, there's none of the Bob James has not heard at all. He just walks out and the credits. Were in front of a bus.

He just says, goodbye, Cruel World. No, there's something they I think they've done this, or then maybe they maybe I'm thinking forward where they do this quite a bit with certain episodes, certainly some of the ones dealing with Jim, because they're cut from a different cloth, I think than a lot of the other episodes. But I think the device of just letting the final image speak for itself without any music to undercut the moment at all. I think is a really smart choice, and in here it just it's so beautiful because at the end of the day, it's nice that he was able to have this eulogy and everybody cares for him. But at the end of the day, Jim is still alone, and he stills to work through his grief at losing this horse that became his friend.

So it's a lingering image that even now I think is still affecting to me. And I've seen this episode many many times. Is Reverend Jim the best character on the show? He's certainly top three. It would be hard for me to make a choice between him and riger first off, because Alex is really the heart of the show and that's where the the show was designed.

But I don't know, they all feel certain. It's like any good ensemble. I think it's hard to make that judgment call. But he's certainly one of my favorite characters and clearly one of yours. What do you think.

I don't know that he's the best character on the show. Maybe yeah, I think maybe he is. Actually the ensemble of it all means that he works as well as he does, because the others are working as well as they do. So it's all well and good to say Empire Strikes Back is better than Star Wars, but it's like you couldn't have gotten there without it. So what are you talking about?

If there's anything that's maybe a little bit regretful about the show. And we've talked about this, we've touched on this many times, is that it took until really season two for him to become that featured and later regular player. I can only imagine how much better the first season would have been if he had been a regular, you know, a regular member of the cast at that point. I think we've talked about this a lot, that we missed him even you know, there are certain episodes that would have been enriched immeasurably by having him there. Not again, no disrespect to John Burns.

We've beaten up on him enough, but imagine how special the show would have been if he had been there from. Day one, you know, not only for us the audience, but I think just the presence of Christopher Lloyd energized the writer's room. Because this season is markedly better than the first. It is there certainly there have been some episodes that are that have not been great. And what's been interesting is, as we've been going through this season, I'm actually surprised.

I thought there were a lot more Blockbuster favorite episodes. But having said that, certainly the episodes dealing with Christopher Lloyd specifically are are cut above and a good portent for the rest of the life of the show because there's a lot more of that coming in the offing. And he just it's been said time and time again, but Christopher Lloyd brings something special, whether you know, and part of that is the writing. The writing is fabulous, but that nobody, nobody plays this character, this type of role better than him. We must also bear in mind father alone that he was a two time Emmy winner in nineteen eighty two and eighty three for playing Reverend Jim.

So wait, how many did jud Hirsh win? Ah, that's a good question. Let's take a look here. Well, of course, we know that jud hirsh was nominated for an Academy Award in twenty twenty three for The Fablements. However, it appears that he was nominated one, two, three, four five times for playing Alex Rieger and he won twice.

He won in nineteen eighty one and eighty three for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, so he was at a minimum. He was nominated every year the show was on, and he won twice. That's pretty cool. I guess that means that it is a tie between who is the best character on the show? I guess so.

I so that is that is the episode that is Jim Gets a Pet. Now we talk about yellow lights? What does he yell light mean? Reminder, we gread on a scale of one to five yellow lights. One is the worst taxi episode five is the best.

And as is our custom, I'm going to throw it to you first, father Malone, what do you give Jim gets a Pet? I think this is the first time I've done this, but this is a five yellow light episode. I think that. Here's how good the episode is. They completely mischaracterized Elaine Nardo, like really poorly whilst hitting grace notes on everyone else, and that alone should take away a yellow light.

But I'll tell you what the rest of the episode is so fucking spectacular. All the jokes land. It has nothing but heart at the center of it. That heart extends out to the rest of the cast. Everyone is affected by Jim's speech at the end, including me.

I might just be a sentimental old man, but I cried like a baby at the end of his speech. That doesn't necessarily mean the episode deserves an award or anything, but God damn if every episode was this good, it would be the best series of all time. I concur completely. I also gave this episode five yellow lights. These for all the reasons we've already talked about, but these Gym episodes always seem to have a little extra dash of sensitivity about them.

I know the Secret Admirer episode you weren't as much of a fan of it as I was, but there's something about the character, especially at this point in his life span on the show, that I think they were just knocking it out of the park writing for him and acting as peerless for him. It's so empathetic. The writing is awesome, and even though it's not a laugh riot, it's not like a laugh a minute like some of the other episodes that are my favorites. This one has nothing but hard at the center of it, like you said, and I can't help but give it five yellow lights. This is a really great episode that is.

I've rewatched many times and every time it gets me at the end. So and I just say, I think the reason why Alex and Jim are a cut above the rest of the characters is because they are never at inspirational. Jim is there to do the job. We never hear Jim making other plans for anything. Right, Jim gets the amount of money that any other character on the show would have said see you and gone out the door.

I'm off to pursue my dreams, and instead, Jim Ymctowski, known cab driver, uses that money to help a fellow creature here on Earth. And that's why. I mean, that's not why I like the character so much, but it's certainly an underlying factor to why I like him so much. That's an interesting thing to consider. I know that you're you've never been a fan of the aspirational stuff.

It's no secret that those episodes often are frustrating for you. But you're right, and in fact, this won't be the last time that we see this type of episode from Referend Jim. I don't want to. I'm not going to. Spoil anything for anyone who's following along as we go through these episodes, but he often is seen as a champion of the underdog and somebody who just wants to help people and make their lives better.

So that's very well called out. I agree. So yeah, so in a rare bit of well, I guess it's not really rare. We agree often, but in this case, I'm not sure we've ever agreed on two five yellow light scores. So that's pretty cool.

Five yellow lights from you, five from me. That will do it for this episode of night. Mister Walters fo them alone. Where can folks find you when you're not clocked into the garage? Find me over at weirdingwaymedia dot com or any podcaster you listen to.

I have a show called Midnight Viewing. There are several facets to it. There's a weekly roundup show where we talk about new movies and new TV shows. That's me and my dog Ripley. We host that show together.

And we also do a horror anthology podcast, which is we're reviewing Tannis from the dark Side. I do that with Culture casts Chris Stashu and Projection Booths Mike White. And then there's Anthologies Attack, which is all anthology films from any genre. I do it. Filmmaker Antonio Lapour.

Father Malone is indeed the hardest working man in podcasts. He produces more content more regularly than anyone I can think of, and I personally I love the weekly roundups that they're my new favorite podcasts to look forward to every every Sunday. They're awesome. It's nice because it's a little bit of a bite size glimpse into what to look out for that week on streaming or what's in the movies. So they're awesome, they're a lot of fun to listen to, and he's got the best co host ever in Ripley Gene.

You can't get any better than that. We believe in quantity over quality HP. But but but what's remarkable, and I'm not I don't want to get into a big thing, but what's remarkable is that for producing so much content, all of it is of such an excellent quality that you really can't miss whatever. You If you decide to pick one facet of his podcasting over another, you're you're still going to have a great experience. Just it's I don't know how you have enough time in the day to produce all this stuff.

So for myself, I'm also poking around the fringes of the weirding Way Network. I also am an occasional guest on the Culture Cast with Chris Statue as well. You can also check out my band camp side. I have a band camp called the Hpmusicplace dot bandcamp dot com. Check that out if you wish.

And I also have been producing some new episodes of a little podcast that we've been doing here and there in the past called Noise Junkies, and that's also been a lot of fun for me lately. So, uh, those are great. Go check that out everybody. No, it's HB. Please feel free to It's kind of you know where it was.

It was kind of laying dormant for a while, and now I'm producing having some fun with some new episodes, some solo ventures. So yeah, so that's been fun. So that'll do it for us for this episode. Thanks again for listening. Please feel free to subscribe to the podcast, write a review right us.

We'd love to hear from you in any way that you see fit. Thank you, Chrissy, thanks again for listening for myself and father alone. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you guys next time. Thank mister Wallers