Episode 40 - Guess Who's Coming For Brefnish?

Weird way media. Hike. Mister Walders, you see that guy with it now, he's an actor a phone name. I'm a cant driver. I'm the only camp driver in his place.

Good evening and welcome tonight, mister Walters and 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'm doing well, HB. I needed to do me a favor.

Yeah, anything hit a seven on the jukebox. Tugging at the heartstrings already, Father alone, We're in for it. This is uh. This is of course Taxi season two, episode seventeen. Guess who's coming for breathnish.

This is written by Barry been directed by, of course James Burrows. Reminder to everybody, we're doing these shows in broadcast order and not in order of filming we opened. This was one of the more odd I mean, I feel like I always say that father. A little bizarre. Actually, I think this is even even for Taxi.

What they do with their fucking b roll here, I don't know what they're doing. It really had no real context. It's a still shot of New York. And when I say still shot. It's literally not it's not in motion.

It's as if they're photographing. They're filming a photograph, and it kind of looks a little bit like a still frame from the eleanor Rigby segment of Yellow Submarine. And because it's like it's the sort of urban blight of New York with and the sky is an odd color, and there's a static zoom on what appears to be a building exhaust, like one of those fans on top of a building. I don't know what the context was. And then this gives way to a more traditional motion shot in front another garage.

We see the taxi's coming in and out. But I guess I'm just not really sure what Burrows was going for with this weird still shot. Do you have any notion. I don't know what he was going for other than he wanted a particular thing and this is the only way to accomplish it. But I'd like to point out that while it does freeze frame, it starts out in motion.

So what we've got is footage that they were filming, and he decided no, I wanted them to see down there, but they didn't do anything with the camera, so he freezes the frame and then zooms in. So what it ends up looking like is any transition in a rob zombie movie. Oh interesting. I imagine Leonard Skannard playing and you'd be like, oh, yeah, yeah. We cut into the garage.

The woman walks into the garage asking Louis for where mister McKenzie is, and she says she's here for the secretarial position. I'm going to say, right off the bat, like, this was a very thin premise for introducing this one of the main characters of this episode. I don't know how you felt about it. I thought it was disposable what they do. It's so, this woman's here for to apply as a secretary for mister mackenzie.

Louis walks her over to this group and tells her to wait and puts on this big, cheesy smile and says that he hopes she gets the job because she's his favorite. And he walks back to the cage and another woman comes in and again the same thing happens then, And I guess we're supposed to think that he's in he takes a special interest because he wants to get in good with the boss's secretary. I'm not I thought it was this maybe the worst thing about the episode, which. You know, first of all, the first woman had hair more Adrian Barbo than even Adrian Barbo, very. Very curly and fluffy.

I guess it was the word fluffy. It was like one of the stone lions outside the New York Public Library. Secondly, I thought this was going to be a disposable opening anyway, This was just some bit of pifol before the main plot kicked in. So the fact that it actually led to the main plot, I actually thought, can I say, actually again, can you cut out one of my actually is there no actually that Ken mentioning it so much love actually series of one act plays get out of here. The fact that we end up meeting Simp at the end of it, I thought was clever.

I do think the very thin joke of you're my favorite, you know, like, ugh, it's Louie being a creep, Like Louie is a better creep than that. Louis takes the second woman over to this group of women who are applying for the secretarial position. Elaine is seated playing cards with Alex and Bobby, and she wonders aloud why Louie is sucking up to all these applicants. Just then Tony walks in and tells Louie the bad news that he's been robbed. He tells Louie they got pretty much all of his bookings, which was close to one hundred bucks, which.

Promt he's ever had. Right, Louis calls him a dough brain for losing his biggest booking night in six months. Tony goes over to the card table to fill. It even better. HB.

He calls him a momo, which you never I never hear anymore, but when we were growing up in Boston, I used to hear momo a lot. But what is a momo? Is just an idiot. It's just a tent. I think it's a nonsense word, honestly, but it just means you're a fucking idiot being a Momoh.

Okay, he's filling out this form that Cabby's are asking Tony questions about the robber. There are some jokes at Tony's expense, but honestly, I was too distracted by Elaine's sequined green sweater. It kind of made her look like a mockup of out her space with all these sequence on it or a bad magician's assistant outfit. This is probably the worst outfit I've seen her wear in many episodes. I'm sure you agree.

No, I don't, because we've seen her in that poor western wear that they sometimes put her in that's worse. In fact, there's one shirt in particular that every time I see it, I used to get mad when they put her in red. I would rather they put her head to toe red and red lipstick rather than this faux western shirt with different colored piping on each of the collars and the things. It'll show up either here or in the next episode, but it's gross. So comparatively, the green at least compliments that her red hair, so.

It does, but it's sort of formless. It's a bit like the sort of slouch sweaters that Alex favors. But it's, like I said, it's this weird shade of green. It has these c sequence all over it. I was saying, I think perhaps this is a choice so that they can highlight Simca in this episode, because let's face it, if you're highlighting marily Henter in any way, you're not going to see anybody on screen.

And by the way, this whole business with Tony and getting robbed. This is another qualm I had with this episode because it doesn't go anywhere. You think that maybe it's going to lead into a real solid B plot, But there's no B plot in this Just spoiler alert, there's no B plot in this whole episode. I was expecting a C plot because we get introduced to the new secretary right. Like I said that that was the only perplexing bit, but it is eclipsed by what's to come, so I didn't really mind it that much.

But just and the good news is all of this shoe leather is getting taken up early in the episode. We don't have to worry about it after this scene. Literally, HP, here's the question, why didn't they just hire Simka. We can't have her being at the garage with Laka. There has to be this idea that he's not going to see her.

He's off doing They need to ask him what they've done up to so he can outline their adventures. Maybe I hear what you're saying. I just feel like they're There's a dozen different ways they could have introduced Simka without adding this weirdness with Tony getting robbed and the secretary job getting filled because, like I said, those two would be plot threads go nowhere. But that's okay because we're about to be wrapped up with them. At this point, an older woman comes down the stairs and tells the rest of this would never happen in real life.

She comes down the stairs and tells the rest of the applicants you can all go home now because the secretary position has been filled by me, which I think is absurd, Like you're gonna tell these people leave because I've got the job. It seems like it would be not out of place in the nineteen thirties when an actress comes out of the casting agent's office. You can all go home, suckers. They've cast me. But it's like secretary for a fucking cab company.

It did have a feel, like a vaudvillian feel to it. I think you're right. Yeah. So he tells him all to beat it, and one woman in the back is sort of muttering to herself, well, what catches the cabby's attention is that she uses the word yakta bee, which we've heard Laka use over and over again during the course of the series. This in turn catches Laka's attention and he starts to talk to this woman in Laka speak.

He takes her over to the cab he was working on and they start to chatter back and forth, and it becomes apparent that she's from his home country. This is, of course Carol Caine, veteran of a million guest roles that everybody knows by now. She was in The Princess Bride, she was in Scrooged, she was in seinfeld ishchar She has one hundred and seventy five credits in counting dating back to her nineteen seventy one debut in the movie Cardinal Knowledge. But this character of Simka Doblitz just might be her most indelible, do you agree, father. Blow Oh, definitely her most famous role.

Certainly, I'd like to point announce him was also on Tails from the Dark Side season two. Has talked about her over on Midnight Viewing and what was the other Carol Caine role that that sort of m she was. In when a stranger calls, she was the star there. But she's been in a million things everybody knows or she's so distinctive, But like I said, I believe she'll be. She's best known as Simca in taxi and hears her introduction.

Laka introduces Simka to the rest of the caves he introduced. He's very specific. He says she is Simca Dobblets, but not the Simca Doublins nedline it is, and there's I'm so happy to see it feels like any Kaufman hasn't really been a presence in a lot of these episodes, and we're about to hit a nice run of having Laka involved and I'm really here for it. He's It's really nice to see him active and engage in the episode. By the way.

I also, I don't know if you noticed this father alone, but as uh Simca and Laca are having their conversation, I couldn't help but notice that Carol Kane didn't seem to yet have a good grasp on how to really do Latka speak. Did you notice that there's something in the way she's doing it that just it feels like she's kind of cheating the idea of doing it. It doesn't have the same I don't know, there's something about it that didn't feel right. Did you notice that. I noticed the exact opposite of what you just.

Said, really, because for me, it was a lot of like, which I think is is a cheap way of doing it. If you really listen to Andy Kaufman, he's not just doing like I could do that, but he's mixing it up and making it really sound like a real foreign tongue. But you're saying you had the opposite reaction. Yeah, I don't think she's cheating at all. I think she's keeping up with him.

I think Simca talks faster than him. I think Simca has more practice with it with her language than Lakla does, since he's been in New York City. I know. I as soon as they started verse thing, I thought, wow, she's because you can hear her. She's hitting the words.

It isn't just like flibbity bibbity bop. And you know that. I'm sure you've read a book of the story about Carol Kine like trying to figure out the language and asking him for help and saying they're going to go down to Tijuana. No, no, please enlighten the listeners. Carol Caane ask him, you know, can we rehearse?

I need to be able to speak this language you speak, and he said, yeah, let's get together on Saturday. And we'll go down to Tijuana and we will only speak in that foreign man language and we'll be surrounded by people who don't understand us either way, so we can really focus on it. And so she said she called him on the day and was like, so when are we going? And he was like, what are you talking about? Like it was just a joke, Like he didn't intend to do any of that.

He was just like, just show up and do it. Laka is acting as interpreter with this conversation with the cat. He's in Simca, and he says that where Simca explains through Laka that she came to America because in their country, the mountain people are moving into the villages and there's much hatred because no one likes the mountain people. When pressed by the Caves, Laka can't even explain why there's hatred. He just says it's because they're mountain people.

Which I think it's a facile analogy, but it really really works here because of the innocence of Laka, the character and the idea of his home country. They don't get wrapped up into the hows and whys of the racism involved, but they keep it sort of very surface level and abstract about the mountain people. I really like that part of it because. It's my side. My left side is black, my right side of my face is white.

Your face is the opposite. We are enemies. Frank Guscian, it is Frank Orsian, it is I don't recall the name of sure, but yeah, I just i'd like the fact that, I mean, it's a comedy and they don't get too bogged down and the awfulness of racism. I mean, there's so much they. Turned into Romeo and Juliet.

It's just the calculates and the yeah, exactly, Jesus techniqu. Anyway, there's this thing about the mountain people. Laca then proceeds to tell the first of many mountain people jokes that we're going to hear throughout the episode, but it's he's oblivious to some obvious discomfort at the attempt at humor. Laca then declares that he's going to show Simca America and rather disarmingly, he's gonna go and get his coat, but not before kissing her hand very very sweetly. And I know the innocence of that, and say what you want about Andy Kaufman, the sort of provocateur.

He is so sweet as Laca, and it's just it's so beautiful. I don't know, you're already rooting for him and this woman. I just thought it was a nice touch, really beautiful. Yeah, for all his provocation, for all his outrageousness, I think there's a reason everyone tolerated any of it, and it's because it was a deeply sweet human being underneath all of it. Yeah, he can do all of that with just a glance or, like I said, a simple kiss on the hand.

It's the curse of John Belushi, right, he Like they demonstrated that in the Blues Brothers, like, well, let me just take off my glasses and give you these eyes. It's like you prick. Some people could just do that. Like I said, Locker goes to get his coat. Do you think that Mike Myers was attempting to signal his love for Carol Kane when he created Lothar of the hill People for Saturday Night Live.

Now, knowing that Simka is a mountain person loo. Bar of the hill People, I'm now gonna have to look that up on YouTube. I haven't seen that sketch in decades. That's that's great. You know what's funny.

I don't know if it's a callback, but did you know that there was a group in the nineteen sixties called Lothar and the Hand People, And I've often wondered if. Maybe there's no coincidence there. No, I did not not know that, but obviously. It's gotta be right. The connections are too strong there, hand people versus hill people.

Yeah, it's got to be good group. By the way, you should check them out. Simka is waiting with the Cabby's and Elaine says that Laca really likes her, which Simca says is really bad because as you would expect, she's a mountain person. You see, Simca left her country to get away from the Flatlanders who hated her. The way that Carol Kane plays her, she's so sweet, but she's so guarded and so sad.

You really get the sense that she's very sensitive about this whole mountain people thing, and she seems like. An open wound HP. Yeah, exactly exactly, so sort of waiting for the other shooter drop during this whole episode, and it just makes it all the more wrenching when it does, because they're so sweet and they're sort of a courtship. Not one thing that I know. Of course, it's in most of the episodes, but for some reason it clicked here during this scene, which is I really love the dynamic of the fact that Reverend Jim is the newest character on the show, and as the newest and as that character, that character is just an outsider in general, he's always on the periphery.

Yeah, no matter the scene, the setup is always everyone and over their gym, just like it's everyone in over there, Louis. And there's something about that dynamic every time they show it that I really like, which allows Christopher Lloyd to sort of like bring the focus to him as he like creeps up and then like recedes like that. I don't know, something about the dynamic on this show with that is pretty spectacular. I agree. I'm in fact, I'm glossing over a lot of the Reverend Jim Bitts because he's there and he's making comments and he's getting involved, and to your point, he's receding.

It's not gonna do any good for me to try and do repeat the humor back because it'll just take all of the funny out of it. But just understand, as father Malone is saying, here, Jim is great, He's always there. He pipes in with a story about some drug casualty that he knew or something that he did, and then he just he kind of fades back into the background and it's really really funny. Loka comes over, he finally gets his coat. As they leave, Bobby asks Loaka where he's gonna take Simca, and Loca replies that they're gonna see all the sites of New York City.

They're gonna see the Knights on Broadway, They're gonna see the Statue of Liberty, and then the final thing, he says, they're going to see the apartment of a lonely lonely man. Fade out as they exit the garage and Loca and Simca are often running. We fade back into Marios, where Jim Alex Marios. Yeah, the role on Marios, you know, the zoom don't ever have to cut to some random honing restaurant in New York City. Now we've got Marios on tap.

It's no longer like the Beast's Stronghold and Krull and I think you've made that comparison before. It's in its place. The Marquis is there. They zoom in. You know exactly where we are.

We're in Marios. Jim, Alex, Bobby and Tony are getting served by Tommy. Hey, it's a TJ. Castronova sighting him too. Yeah, they like like the picture.

He picture of beer and then they like make them go get another glass because there are a bunch of pricks. Elaine hustles in to the table as they ask her how the dinner with Laka and Simca went last night. Evident least she went out to dinner with or had dinner with them, maybe up at his house. And Elaine is just she's smitten. She says they're a cute couple.

They all agree that they've never seen Laka so happy before. At this point, Tony and Bobby go to the back to play air hockey, which is only they only do that so they that they can have those two seats available. When Laca and Simca come into Samarios at the same time and they take those newly vacant seats, it's almost like they're just there to leave. Odd, they shouldn't have even been there in the first place. So they tell the Cabby's all about their day.

They among the activities Laka took her to see Greece. I assume at this point in the scene, have Banta and Wheel are taken off for them. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They went to play air hockey and they leave their seats. But I think it's only because Laka and Simca arrive.

Right, So the writers are getting rid of these characters because these two characters are arriving. But in the scene, Vlaka wants to come. Oh no, Jim wants to come play air hockey, and Banta is a cocksucker to him. Man, he's a. Real dick because he again I'm glossing over this, but he says, well, I'm gonna come watch you guys, and then Tony starts in with, well, you're gonna make me nervous, So basically he freezes poor Jim.

All she wants to do is hang out with him and be included in their fun, and yeah, Tony just ices them out. I got right here in my notes, Banta is a dick, and you know what, I'm usually on Banta's side, I'm like, I'm you know, I think he's a lovable dufist most of the time, but like here, he was just being a prick. Well, he's gonna ruin your air hockey game in the back of Marios. Oh my god, what if word gets out. It's a kid's game.

Let's not forget it's you know. But I've been saying this all along, you know me, I've been saying that he's a I wouldn't even say lovable dufus. He's just a dufis. He's a momo. What are you gonna do?

They mentioned that they went to see Greece, which I assume must be the like a stage production of it, because I think the movie had already been out. Obviously the movie you've been out because Jeff Conne was in the movie. Anyway, Loco was disappointed in Greece because he thought it was going to be about mechanics, which dismade him. Apparently, Loca gets up to get drinks and then Simca again expresses her concern about the truth about her being a mountain person coming out. She still has some turn here.

I have concern for fucking jud Harsh's cream turtleneck and corduroy brown jacket combo. But that's par for the course for Rigor White. Is this in particular bothering. You because it gets matched by the fucking red turtleneck gray thing that Laca is wearing. Suddenly I got these bookends, these turtlenecked book ends.

It's just I don't know, something wrong, the twin. Towers of Corduroy and wool. Loka returns with her drink, something called mushi. I don't know if that's a real drink. It looked like it was milk in a glass.

No, it's not a real drink. I don't know mushi. But then why how does how does Tommy have mushi on tap at? You know, I don't think he does. I think Laca went up and said I would like a mushie, and Tommy went, what the fuck are you talking about, Laka, and he said it's this, this and this, and he way, oh, well just say so and then he made it.

Or he said, well mushi, and Tommy's like, we what is mushie? He said, well you get the cow and you oh you mean milk? Yes, milk, Maybe that's what it was. Maybe mushie is another word for milk. Who knows.

I think there's vodka in there. There could be like a white Russian something like that is that have vodka and milk. I don't know, well, yeah, half and half. So Simka gets up and takes Loaka to another table. She's going to reveal the truth to him about her being a mountain person, and this results in the it's the iconic scene of Simca.

She had already had her hand lovingly on Lakas says, she starts to tell him the truth, and she grabs his hand and starts slapping him in the face with his own hand, like hitting himself, which they reproduce that for the Man in the Moon movie with Jim Carroll. That's right, They even reproduce it there. But it's iconic. She's slapping him. Every time she slaps him, she's rebuking him for all the mountain people jokes she's telling.

He was telling like he says, this is for my grandfather, and this is for my father, and keeps slapping him, and she ends by saying that her heart will be broken because he won't love her anymore, but he says, well, that's not true. But despite his words, Simka is pressing him to look at her, but he can't bring himself to look at her. But there was actually a really funny bit where he's trying to push his face in her direction so that he can look at her, and it's just it's not working. It's almost this robot thing where he keeps touching his cheek to try and get his face to turn. It's a really funny bit.

It's great physical comedy from Kaufman. But eventually, sadly, Simkis says so long, Lacha and walks out, and we fade to commercial. We cut back to the garage. Is some sad piano music plays Laca halfweight. Before we move on.

I would like to say that one of the places that they visited was the Automat. Oh right, right, Oh, that the automat, which is a real Do they still have those in New York anymore? There was a documentary on automats. Did you know that? Yeah?

I think the final one closed a few years ago, but yeah, no, I went to that one in New York when I was a kid in the eighties. That the automat that they're talking about. There might have been a few at the time, but I definitely remember going to the Automat and getting a piece of cherry pie out of the thing. Yeah. For people who don't know The Automat was basically like a wall of dispenser and you would get pie or all kinds of sandwiches.

Yeah, it was like something out of the Jetsons. Really, it was all this food hidden behind little dispensers. It's a real slice of New York history. Like I said, I don't recall the name of this documentary, but they did do a documentary. Was it called The Automat?

It may have been nominated for an Academy Award. I don't know. I think mel Brooks was involved somehow. He might have done the theme song. I think maybe he's definitely interviewed for it.

Yeah. Yeah, so it's a real New York thing. You're right. He did mention that he took her to the Automat. We're back in the garage.

Locka asks Louie to go home because he doesn't feel well. He says he has the blues, but Louis, being Louie, refuses. Locke goes and asks alex In Lane for advice about Simca. He says he feels terrible since they broke up. He can't eat, but he can't sleep, and as much as he wants to be with Simca, he says there's nothing worse in his country than to data.

Mountain Girl Lane asks Alex to give Lacka some advice, but, as is typical, Alex box at telling someone else how to run their life. It's this. I guess that's consistent, right, that's he always does. That, the pendulum swing that is Riager. Yeah, because sometimes he's all about getting in somebody's fucking business no matter what.

And sometimes he's like, what, don't get me involved. Nobody wants to hear from me. They're grown people, make your own decisions. It is a little bit of a pendulum swing. You're right about that.

But anyway, Laka is begging Alex to help him, so he relents and Alex urges. This is really weird sequence where Alex urges Laka to reflect on all the good aspects of the last week that he spent with the I like this. I like it. I like how weird it gets. It starts off very innocent, like remember how.

I'm with Riager, Because as he's describing it, I'm thinking, you know what, you're right, riger fucking get up and walk out. Go stay here, Laka. Right, Because it starts out he's just saying, well, Remember how it felt when she held your hand, Remember how her the neighbor of her neck felt, And he gets he keeps escalating hair. Yeah, he's like getting he's getting into it. He's getting a little bit aroused.

And I think he even concludes by saying, look, if you don't go out there, Laka, I'm going to go because now I'm getting excited. Laka finally resolves to go to SIMCA, but Louis is again he's refusing to allow him to leave, and then we have angry Alex comes out, the same Alex that we've seen chase Louis around the garage and a murderous rage. He starts yelling at Louis, but Elaine opts for a different approach, and what transpires is a funny sort of escalation where she says, if you don't let Laca leave, I'm going to report you to the Board of Labor Relations. Then yeah, and then Louis says, well, if you do that, I'm going to fire you. And then she says, well, if you're going to fire me, I'm going to report you to the union.

And it keeps this war of keeps escalating until finally they're threatening physical violence, and he says something like, well, if you do this, then I'm going to kick you, and she says, well, if you do that, then I'm going to kick you where you live, which she's threatening to kick him the balls basically, and at that point that it's it's too much death. Louis can win. That's it, Louise. You know, he's stymied by Laine. Finally and he lets Focka go on his way.

We feel like Riger's outburst. I like that it suddenly got tempered by Elaine because it was feeling like once too often, Rigor does the now listen. To the way, Well, it makes it makes sense because Elaine has been there for these Alex outbursts, so she finally correctly deduces that he's not gonna get anywhere. This is just going to become ugly. I'd rather handle this with a little bit of subtlety.

We don't need to rip the fucking cage open again, Alex. We're just trying to get lock out on a date. We fade into Marios's Laca is sitting there waiting nervous, nervously for Simca. She arrives and says that she's late because she has a job now. She apparently there's a rake at the horse track that the horses that picks up all of the horse mess and you need people to weigh it down, and she's the one in the middle.

It sounds perfectly awful, but whatever I mean. Honestly, they probably should have just said that she's a secretary in a dentist office and it would have been fine. I don't know why they create this. Weird anyway, this image of her like on a tractor with horse shit, Like, what the fuck? Yeah, And it makes even less sense given what we hear she's been up to.

So Laca declares, you know what I mean, like, just to spoil it a little bit, she's eventually going to disclose that she has a boyfriend who's gonna want to date this woman who's sitting on the back of a horseshit rake and the race tra it just seems odd to me, but whatever. Laka declares to Simka that he has good news that he no longer cares that she's a mountain person. He says he's willing to disgrace himself to be with her. Upon hearing the news that he's going to go forward with Simka. He says his mother has disowned him, his grandfather put a curse on him, his brother never wants to see him again, and his crazy uncle Dobby gave his blessings.

He tries to touch Simka's hand, but she recoils and says they can't date anymore. She says she's never going to be able to get past his prejudice, and besides which, like I said, she's found somebody else. At this point, again, I'm speaking his praises, but Kaufman does a great job of conveying the quiet impact of hearing that she's found someone else. I think anybody who has dated somebody and maybe hasn't that news, even if you've broken up with that person, when you hear that they found someone else, the way you die inside a little bit. I thought Coffin does a great job with that.

He really just kind of it's almost like a momentary jolt. Did you notice that how this affected him? Oh? Yeah, I know. He's marvelous here.

It's amazing If the episode works at all. It's not just because of him. It's because of him and Carol Pain. But they're driving the engine here. To be fair, not to again get too ahead of ourselves.

But any yellow lights that this episode is earning are being earned in this scene. In particular, this is really where the This is the money scene for this whole episode. This is where everything comes together. Simca says her new boyfriend knows that she's a mountain person. He doesn't care.

And this new boyfriend comes in to meet Simca. He's a very good looking guy who turns out to be a good catch. He's a surgeon. Laca is making these feeble attempts to throw shade at this guy, but it doesn't do any good. The boyfriend says he's going to wait outside for Simca, and she finally says to Loaca.

She basically says how sorry she is that all of this happened, and he can only respond that he's sorry too, and Simka leaves, but not before Locha says to her that she's a wonderful girl and that he's learned his lesson, but it does no good. She then, in a nice reversal of what I talked about earlier, she kisses his hand, Locka's hand and leaves with this new boyfriend, and Loka cradles his hand that he as he shuffles back over to the bar, and it's heart wrenching because he's just staring at his hand that he just got kissed by this woman who's now walked out of his life, who was really the perfect woman, that his prejudices just wouldn't allow him to be happy. He goes up to the bar. Tommy says to Loaka that he's got to close up, but Loacha can stay for one more drink to Tommy's awesome Tommy is everything you want in a bartender.

Bro breaks up with you. Tommy's there with a beer. You can sit down, beer in a kind ear and a joke and he'll light up your smoke. You. Alaka asks Tommy to play the song that he and simca used to love together.

It's a seven, as you said earlier on the jukebox. Tommy punches the numbers into the jukebox, and over the jukebox we hear Summer Lovin from Greece starts playing, and which gets a lot of laughs at first because it's so incongruous with what's happening. Yeah, it's a nice juxtaposition at first, Yes, happy love tune mixed with this scene of breakup, but of course that song is about a breakup. Really side note, I'm sure you already knew. This clearly, Away singing in the background.

Well, yes, so the it's not the actual you know, it's not the song from the movie, and it's not a song from any of the stage productions. This was recorded specifically for this episode. Now it is Jeff Conaway doing the Travolta. Bit, which is what he played initially, right. But as saying the role of Sandy in this song none other than Mary Lou Henner.

Wonderful she's singing because I didn't realize this. She actually was also in She performed as Marty in the National Touring Company of Greece alongside John Travolta, who played Duty HP. Is there any footage of that? I don't know. I suspect not, but it's probably worth checking out.

I hear what you're saying about this scene and their songs playing and the break breaking heart of poor Latka, right, yeah, but because it's Jeff Conaway and Marilyn Janter. And by the way, I did not know that in information before you telling me that they had done it, but I recognized their voices, so what I thought was happening was they were literally off camera with microphones singing as the scene was going on. So that made the scene more ridiculous in my mind, but only slightly less ridiculous than me falling for this fucking treacle. Here at the end where it's I'm supposed to feel bad for Laca, I don't feel bad for Laca one fucking drop. But here's the thing.

I've seen this episode probably at least a dozen times, and it always gets me because we are we shouldn't feel bad for Laca because he was done in by his own prejudice. He deserves to feel bad in this moment. I totally agree with you there, But Loaca is this cute, cuddly, sweet presence, and it's impossible for me to not feel and the way that Kaufman is playing this, it's impossible for me to feel nothing about this. I just despite myself, I can't. It's treaquily, it's but it's so sad, and like I said, the juxtap position between the happy music and him just shoulders hung low, looking into his beer and just being depressed about the whole thing.

It works for me. I can't help it. But the final button is what always gets me, and this is really this final line in the episode is so typical of James Burrows and these kinds of shows, because I've seen moments like this in Cheers, the same vibe, the same bittersweet feel, where there's an incongruousness between the comedy of the scene and the sadness and the pathos of something that just transpired. In this case, As the song is playing, Loca starts to tell one more mountain girl joke to Tommy. He says, how does a mountain girl make love?

Tommy says, oh, I don't know, Loka, how does she do it? And all Locker replies is like an angel and the song you think that maybe it's going to be a joke or something funny, maybe, but it's so sad his response, and the camera just stays on Loaka. He's absolutely despondent, and the music is playing and it holds for longer than you think it should, and by the end of it you just see that Loaka is really on the verge of tears. It's just an amazing ending to this episode. That's all.

It's the song keeps playing and we fade the black, and that's it. There's no button. There's no resolution to any of the other B or C plots of the episode. We're left with the image of Loka and the shame of what he's done, in the sadness of what he has wrought. I love it.

You know, you remind me of scenes like that in chairs. I remember when Chili long when she finally left to Sam saying I have a good life, and they cut to the exterior of the bar looking down the stairs with Sam framed through the window, and that being the sort of button first. And I remember that because that was really really good, and I think this is really really bad. Well, I we're gonna have to agree to disagree. I love this, but I will give you here's look, We'll put a pin in that.

I have a great additional note to this, And this is another nugget from the Official Taxi Fan Guide by Frank Love's. Though this was Simka's first appearance, the character Father Malone was brewing in the writer's mind for some time. Do you remember the episode we talked about a few episodes ago called Alex's Romance with Dee Wallace? Of course you remember it. Of course in a there was a never used speech in an early draft of Alex's romance.

Okay, if you recall, at the end of that episode, Alex is pretty down in the dumps and both Laka and Reverend Jim trying to cheer him up, and it becomes this absurd thing. Yeah, that was great, But there was an. Unused speech Laca made while he was consoling Alex. Forgive me. I'm not gonna do the lock of the voice, but I'm gonna read.

There's actual dialogue that I have here from this, which is I think is really really interesting. Laca says Alex. In my country, I had a girl, Simca, golden haired beauty. We love ourselves. Wow, she say, Laca, I love you.

I want to spend life together. I want little Lotkas. I say, oh, thank you very much. We plan wedding. When big day come, I wait and wait, but no Simca, only dear Krepke letter.

The years pass, I come to this country. Then one day in Central Park there's my Simca. I run yelling, Simca, Simca. She know here. Two babies take her to the swings.

She kissed them and smile. She look very happy. I walk away that. During this story, Loaka becomes increasingly emotional until the very end he's reduced to heaving wailing sobs. So at some point in the Taxi universe, there was an alternate universe where Simka was Laca's lost love from his home country who basically left him at the Altar, and then he sees her in Central Park years later.

She's remarried, she has kids, she's happy, and this just guts Laka. I mean, this crushes him. I think that is fascinating. That is fascinating. That would have been a great episode like that could have been good in this episode, and then at the end I would have given a shit.

We're gonna talk about yellow lights. What doesn't yellow light mean? As a reminder, we score on a scale of one to five yellow lights. One is the worst taxi episode, five is the best, the perfect taxi episode, And as is our custom, we're gonna throw it to you first, fallom alone. What do you give?

Guess who's coming for Breafnish? I give two yellow lights? Ooh, you and your valiant crew. Is that a callback to the Klingon. Christian that's right?

Oh no, Christopher Light says that, Yeah, you're right. But we talked about shock recently. We did two yellow lights below average? Right, And I guess why it's getting two yellow lights at all. Well, I know you're gonna say that you don't give a shit because Loka made his bed and now he's gonna lie in it, that there's no reason to feel sad.

Right, No, no, no, no, no. I want to tell you the reason I'm giving it any yellow lights because I think this was nothing of an episode. I'm giving it two yellow lights because Caroll Caine is fucking awesome. Carol Caine is not only matching Kaufman comedically, she's out shining him dramatically. And she is fucking luminous.

Man. Look, I can't argue with any of that. I will say that. And let me and you know what. Okay, you know what, Now, let's get into it.

What you no give me your yellow lights? Let's get into it. Okay, I give this four yellow lights. Okay. Not only is this the introduction to another future Taxi all star in Simca Doblets, but it's an emotionally devastating showcase for Andy Kaufman.

That alone, the fact that he shows all of these different facets to his acting. It's fascinating. Given the fact that He certainly wasn't known as a deep actor in that way, but it's the added dimension to Laka despite the fact that it is his fault. I'm not letting him off the hook. But we've all made mistakes, not to this degree, but we've all made mistakes.

We've all done stupid shit that we regret in relationships. And it's so poignantly depicted here, and I just every time I watch it, summer Lovin comes on, that does it for me. I just I'm so sad for him. So I'm giving it four yellow lights. What do you think about that?

I think you're dumb. I think you're a stupid head. Here's the thing. What you're talking about are youthful, not necessarily indiscretions, but the sort of stupid choices we make that have impacts that we're not considering. That's what you're describing as these little personal tragedies that we all have.

Right, Certainly, we've all done it. We've all made stupid things that we've regretted instantly and perhaps regret to this day. Not one of those things was based on my racism. Because as much as they've just made this hill people flat land people, as as as they might try to make this the fucking Montacuse and the calculus what they've done by already introducing portions of Laca's country to us and in this oppressive regime that's there. A couple of episodes ago, Laca almost went home for war.

Okay, so now we're talking about the rivalry between the flatlanders and the mountain people, and he is gleefully telling these jokes throughout that at the end, when it's like, oh, Laka's girlfriend did want to be with him because she knew that she would never be respected in him because she's a fucking racist. Sorry, just didn't. It didn't click with me. It's so false and it's so string pulling, like you're gonna cry now, just like Angela fucking Matusa. Here's the part where you fucking relate, and here's the part where we go for our emmy, fuck you.

I guess I'm just I'm giving it bonus lights, probably just for that final scene. I get it. I'm not excusing his racism. I think he gets everything that he deserves. It gets me every time.

Maybe four is a little bit too much, but that's also coupled with the fact that to your point, Carol Caine is amazing in this. There's a reason why she comes back eventually, and she'd be even given the fact that she's only really around for about a season and a half. She comes in about midway through the fourth season, and she carries through the rest of the fifth season, which isn't a lot. That's not a lot of episodes. But when you think of Taxi, she's one of probably I would guess, one of the top five or six members of the ensemble that come to mind, even though for the majority of the series she's nowhere to be found.

I think that's remarkable and it's a testament to how good Carol Caine is in this. Like I said, when you think of Carol Caine, simc is probably one of the top three roles that she's most heavily identified, Right, So she's a marvel in this and that's going to count for something. Yeah, it counts for two yellow lights. All right. Well, it's one of those things.

It's not quite as egregious as Angela. Maybe, but it's honestly. So two yellow lights from Father Malone, four yellow lights from yours truly, So that's going to do it for this episode of night, mister Walter's Father Alone. Where can the folks find you when you're not clocked into the garage. We're ever clocked in at midnight viewing.

It's a twice a week show. Monday's is Sunday Monday it's Father Malone's Weekly round Up. It's all the newest stuff. And then every Friday it's either the television series Tails from the Dark Side or an anthology movie. We have lots of guests and filmmakers and stuff dropping by to like talk about their favorite anthologies.

You can check all that out any of your podcasters midnight viewing, or if you want to support it, because we've got a Patreon show that HP and I are doing. It's gonna be pretty fucking hilarious. Check that up. With that said patreon dot com slash Father Alone. And two more points on that.

Number one, the Weekly Roundup is my favorite of all of the content you produce currently, that's my favorite with you and Ripley Gene. I will also say that in terms of guests and gets, I will say recently you had director raconteur special Guy Alan Arkish, the director of Rock and Roll High School, Get Crazy. The man is a legend. Go seek that out. He talked anthologies with Father Malone and it was fucking great.

So check that out please. He's great. Yeah, I encourage people, not for me, check it out. To listen to Alan Arkis talk about movies. Man, It's like it's a true It is an education and a fun one at that.

It is. The man is really a treasure and it's wonderful. You guys are on the same wavelength and to hear you guys talking anthologies and movies is really special for myself. You can also find me here and there on the weirding Way Network. I'm an occasional guest on the Culture Cast with Christashu.

I also have taken up the mantle of a podcast called Noise Junkies. I've got some new content up there, some new episodes, please check that out. And I've also got a band campsite hpmusicplace dot bandcamp dot com. Feel free to check that out as well, for myself and for Father alone. Thanks again for joining us and we'll see you again next time.

Thank mister Walders.