Episode 43 - Alex Jumps Out Of An Airplane

Weird way media. Nik. Mister you see that guy with it now, he's an actor. I'm a can't driver. I'm the only camp driver.

In his place. Good evening and welcome tonight, mister Walters a Taxi podcast. I'm HP your co host and with me as always as my co host, father Malone, Father Blone. How are you this evening? Being a live.

Oh so good? We're talking Taxi Season two, episode twenty one, Alex Jumps out of an airplane. That's the title. That's the title. Everybody like, hey, you know this is the Alex jumps out of that air playing Everybody, Let's go.

It's very literal. It's written by Ken Eston and directed by the estimable James Burrows. Reminder, we're doing these shows in broadcast order and not in order of filming. We open with a redo of the typical Mario's exterior b roll at night, and we cut inside as Jim, Laine, Bobby and Tony are at their customary table. Now, this is kind of weird bottom alone.

We'll we'll get into this a little bit more, but but I thought this was odd. Louis sees them at the table and walks over and asks if he can sit with them, but Bobby says, you know the rules, you can't drink with us, and Louis makes some vague reference to a problem he wants to talk about, and then the other caves reluctantly ask him over his problem. He says is that he's bored. He's so bored that he has nothing better to do than talk with you loses just then Tommy, Hey, it's DJ CASHEROV everybody. He comes over to tell Louie that mister mackenzie has a big problem and needs Louis back at the garage, and Louis makes a big show of acting like a big shaw like, oh, mister McKenzie can't run the garage, about me helping him out, and da da da, But Tommy says the boss needs Louie to bring him a pack of cigarettes.

And Tony makes a big show of laughing. Oh boy, doesn't he doesn't He put on a good show of his pretend laughter. It's really goofy. He's holding his nose and it's bad. The more he covers up the fact that he's not actually laughing, the more we notice that he's not laughing.

His pathetic attempt earns him a cab with no breaks for a week from Louie. I thought they just solved this problem that's with. A maintenance from the last episode. But what I what I think is odd, and I'm kind of leading up to here, is that it almost feels like they're setting up a plot of some kind a or B plot not sure with Louis, but it really doesn't go anywhere. There's really nothing that calls back to this moment in the episode.

It's literally just Louie comes over to the table, talks with him for a minute, and then leaves and that's it. Well, there is no real bet plot here, is there. There's no Bee plot. So they got to fill in business. They get to give us a little character moments.

This one's as good as any. I thought it was really fun that he basically begs them to sit down and then immediately insults. Insults them, so he walks out just as Alex is walking in. Alex takes his seat at the table. But I always think is funny is that these tables are round, but in service of the camera that's facing onto the set, nobody can sit on that other side of the table because their back would be effectively to the camera, which I know wouldn't work cinematically, but I always think it's funny that they make because they make a play of him, like having to make room to sit down.

It's always the last supper here on tax. He sits down and Elaine asks about his latest ski weekend, And faithful listeners to this podcast will remember that a couple of episodes ago they made a big show of having Alex at a ski lodge like Placid or something. And now he's going to taste for it. Baby, that's right. Now, he's a thrill seeker and he wants more.

I mean, those sticks strapping to my feet like gravity drag me down a mountain. I'm trying to work out in my head if Alex really seems like somebody who would be a skier. Do you think he would be a ski guy? Does he seem like the type? Yeah?

Yes, I think it's so unexpected that it's to be expected with Alex Rieger, Like you know it, all signs point to know, and those tend to be the people who will surprise you when it comes to something as physical as that. I guess he's got the sweaters, so he's already happy. There, right, he's ready for the lodge, even if he's not going to go down the mountain. Somehow they're really pushing this narrative that he's a big skier. All of a sudden, she asks him about his ski weekend and he says wonderful.

He won't give any more details than the cabves keep pressing him for more and more info, but he doesn't want to talk about it. Alex says the experience was somehow so profound. He doesn't want to cheapen it by putting it into words, which I think we all know, like anybody who comes to you and like says, I don't want to talk about it. Like they give you this nugget that's something really fantastic happened. All they want you to do is dig and dig for more info until you like.

On Facebook all the time. Right, Oh, it's exactly like Facebook. That was absolutely the worst thing that could have happened to me. What it? What happened?

People are reaching, they're fishing for somebody to dig it out of them, I guess, and this is no different. Elaine convinces him to tell the story. Alex met a girl that he's skied with all day I think he says she had the bluest eyes that he had ever seen. This woman, who was a little more worldly and experienced than Alex, invited him to go ski jumping, even though he never did it before. Now, I'll say this, in my younger days fallom alone, I did my more than my fair sheriff snowboarding.

Certainly, I've been to mountains where they have things like halfpipes and terrain parks and things like that, But I don't know that I've ever been to a mountain that had an honest to goodness ski jump. I don't know if maybe this is a liability issue nowadays, but certainly I guess back in the eighties maybe this was a more common thing on a ski mountain. Yeah, that they just have access to as skiers that I can, they can go up to it. There has to be, right, I mean, there has to be resorts for more extreme black diamond type folk who are looking to do that kind of crazy shit. Even back then, Alex was asked to go ski jumping with this woman, and even though he didn't do it before, he said he was going to do it.

He said it was the scariest thing that he ever did. But he wanted to impress this woman, so he went with her up to the top of the mountain. It was straight down. It scared the hell out of him, and she went and did this amazing, beautiful jump. She landed, no problem, she flew like a bird or what have you.

But he's up there, and he says, initially he wanted to just take his skis off and start clambering back down the mountain, but even that was scarying him. So after some soul searching, he decided to avoid the safe rational choice and make the jump. And he made the jump. He crashed in the end, but earned the respect of this woman. He does kind of point out that he kind of slipped, like he insinuates that there was no real choice there.

He just started sliding down the jump. Because he does make the point. He says something to the effect that if you didn't. Want to move that way, that way. Yeah, it would only take just the slightest shift of his body weight forward, less than he would think.

He says, which I guess, to your point means, what do you mean, right, you don't even want But he made the jump. He looked death in the face and he survived to tell the tale and this has affected him. Doing something so scary was the greatest thrill in Alex's life and it really has changed how he sees the world. He's decided that the most important thing in life to do is to face your fears. And as he says this, Tony likens it to boxing.

How every time Tony gets into the ring, he's testing himself. And this lights a fire under Alex and he says he wants to learn how to box because he's always been afraid of getting to a fight, And he asks Tony, will you teach me how to box? And excitedly, Tony agrees to teach him. Getting hit his like I said, is one of our fears and he wants to conquer. That is Alex Rieger, Tyler Durdan.

He's gonna start fight club with Tony and Bobby. How do you know your stuff? You've never been in a fight. This is what's happening in this scene. Kind kind of but he starts small because he as he's talking about things that making him afraid, he says, oh, like like that piano over there, and he gets up.

Alex says, that can play a little bit, but I've always been afraid of calling attention to myself. So he sits down at the piano, starts to tickle the ivories. And what song does he start singing? Ba ba balloon? Being Alive Stephen Sondheim classic.

Let's talk about being alive for a minute, Yes, let's okay. It comes from the nineteen seventy Sondheim Musical Company, which, on a personal note, is my favorite Sondheim play and possibly my favorite Sondheim song. I know you're a big Sweeney Todd fan, but I've always enjoyed Company. In the play, the song being Alive is sung by the main character Bobby at the end of the show. The show is basically this character Bobby, who he's a bachelor and he has all these friends that are married and he's observing them, and he's trying to decide if he wants the complication of being married and being with somebody or staying unattached and alone for the rest of his life.

And that's the dilemma that he goes through this whole show. The part of Bobby was originated by Dean Jones. Did you know that father alone? I did know that? From The Lovebug and other Disney movies.

Absolutely, the million Dollar Duck. Lane stretches in that she is the ladies who lunch, That's that famous scene. It's great. There are so many great moments and that. Actually you were talking earlier, there was a production of Company.

I think it was maybe like a fundraiser or some sort of charity event with Neil Patrick Harris Doogie Howser in the main role. But you know who was in it who was actually very very good. That woman from Madmen that you were talking about, the Redhead. Christina Hendrix. She's in it.

She plays this flight attendant girlfriend of Bobby's. She's fabulous, she can sing, she can dance, she's wonderful in this. It was Christina Hendrix. Really it was Christina Hendrix. Stephen Colbert, isn't it John Cryer, isn't it?

Jesus, I'm gonna need to see this. I remember John Crier talking about this in some interview I heard, but I didn't. But I didn't realize Christina Hendrix is in it, So now I have to watch it being alive. The song at the climax reflects Bobby's final choice to take the risk of a relationship rather than spend his life alone and without love. Some want to brown you in law, some want to force you to care, some want to make you come through.

You'll always be there as right as you. Bobby all lie a lote all lite all lote Alex singing the song is not really a perfect fit for his circumstance, but it is a decent reflection of his decision to face his fears no matter the risk. The lyrics are very slanted towards relationships, but it can be anything. I mean, you know it could be. And he does sing the song imperfectly, but very passionately with little trivia.

Note the piano is being played off stage by Stan Daniels, who I guess was a big musical. Guy, fucking jud hirsh Man. I believed he was playing that piano, particularly when he plays the encore of it and he's doing that bouncing thing the piano players do sometimes. I was like, he's definitely playing being alive. So he plays for the bar and they love it.

To eat it up. We cut to the exterior of Bobby Gleason's gymnasium, which I believe was the same place where Tony did the press conference with Carlos Navarone. For the Tony and Brian one of those episodes. Do you remember that I remember that we were in a gym. I don't remember that it was Gleason's gym last time.

But if you say it as I'll believe you. The exterior was Gleason's gym, the inside would look different. We're back to the stock dingy boxing gym, which they do a great job of as set decorators. It still works for me. So we cut inside.

Tony is sparring in the ring with Alex, and Alex is wearing like Alex looks like a he looks like a parody of a boxer. He's got the the goofy head gear on. The only thing missing is like the shorts that are pulled up to his nipples. He just looks like a Three Stooges character come to life, right. Yeah, when you say you didn't recognize him, was that a positive or negative?

No? It was positive. I thought, Okay, here's Tony, who's this goofy guy? Where's Alex? Here's where Tony continues on a streak lately, HP of reminding me that I'm agreeing with you more and more about the character of Tony Banta where he's delineating what Alex is doing wrong by saying, you got to keep your hands up because I didn't do that and I got knocked out of the ring.

You got to keep your got to keep your eyes on me. I didn't do that and I got knocked in the next week. You didn't like He's terrible, He's a Why is he even taking advice from this man? He is terrible. But what I did appreciate about Tony in this scene is what happens is they take a break, They leave the ring for a minute, and Alex is invigorated, and he says he wants to do some real spar He wants a guy that will actually box a little bit with him, someone who's good, he says, And Tony, this is what I like about Tony.

Tony cautions him against pushing himself because some of these guys are really, really good and they can really hurt him. Alex settles on a guy who's an amateur, but in Tony's estimation, he's a good amateur. This guy Carl Right. What I appreciate about Tony is that he's trying to allow Alex to push himself a little bit. But at the same time, he's really looking out for Alex.

He doesn't want Alex to get hurt in the ring, as it'll be his fault. So I appreciated that about him. He's being very protective of Alex despite Alex's enthusiasm for what he's doing. You know that's true. But he's still obviously a terrible boxer and a dummy on top.

Of that, there's never a question that he's a bad boxer. He has a losing record. He's a loser, but he's our loser, and we love him well. He's a better He will find in over time that he's a better coach and manager than he is an actual boxer, which I think is probably pretty appropriate. Yeah, that's probably where he would have ended up anyway.

Alex is adamant. He just wants one round with this guy. He'll be careful, just one round, that's all he wants. Tony asks this guy Carl to box with Rieger, and he agrees. Tony goes on to say to Carl, Hey, you know what, can you just take it easy?

Alex takes umbrage. Dad. He's like, no, no, no, I'm going to give you my best. You give me your best, okay and now, and then Alex has this great reaction like all right, there's don't all crazy on you or anything, but you know, because he really now he's a little bit scared of what he's unleashing here. And he should be, because as soon as Carl gets in the ring, he starts dancing and it's like, oh, you're about to be destroyed.

They're boxing, but Alex is mostly dancing around him. He's not engaging. He's scared of Carl. Carl gets to the point where he says, look, do you want to box or do you want to dance? And Riger's like all right.

So they start to mix it up a little bit and they bat back and forth until Carl lands a really nice shot right at Alex's head, which sends Alex comically tumbling to the canvas. Oh it is. It's very wiley coyote. It's like boink and they stand there and go oh and then collapses. Very comical, but it works.

He plays it well. The physical comedy is very good. Tony goes into the ring and says, you got knocked out, and Alex is ecstatic. I got knocked out. I got knocked out.

Great, He staggers around the ring a little bit, and we fade the black. We're back inside Marios and after a little bit of comic interaction between Tommy and Jim, Elaine, Tony and Bobby come in and take their table. Elaine has plate lead my favorite line, go ahead. Elaine has dubbed Riager Riager Knieval. And they all they're all wondering when is the subsession gonna end?

Right right? He's he's a thrill seeker, as his magazine will soon tell us. And it's easy to see. It's easy to see why. I remember the late seventies, early eighties.

This was the time of the of the thrill seeker, the Evil Canieval of the world. Were you a big Evil canevl fan HP. I didn't know much about his actual feats of daring, but certainly you got a guy who's dressed in a red, white and blue jumpsuit driving a motorcycle over Caesar's palace or whatever. He was a folk hero at that time. Oh my god, I loved Evil caneval.

I had the bike, the bike with with the ripcord, yeah, the ripcord yeah. And I actually remember seeing in the theater the Evil Canieval Story with George George Hamilton with George Hamilton as an do you know that about? I want to say, seven or eight years ago, I was in I'm gonna say, Idaho, wherever the fuck Evil Caneval's hometown is. I was there, okay, And I was at his favorite diner, which was festooned with Evil canieval memorabilia like that, Oh, like you wouldn't believe. And they had his favorite dish, which was some sort of chilly thing and it was horrible.

And can I just tell you HP that where we were, the view we had of the town we were in was one of the most depressing fucking things I've ever seen in my entire life. I could not wait to get out of there. I would jump fucking canyons too if it meant I could leave that town. He had a son, I think that was also a daredevil, didn't. He He did, Robbie Knievel.

Robbie Canievl. That's right, that's right. I don't know what he did or how good he was. Alex comes in. Speaking of Alex, he's flipping through a magazine.

He goes to the table. Apparently he's confronted so many of his fears. He's actually running out of things to do, and he's actually a bit depressed about the prospect because he's having trouble finding the next fear to conquer. And that magazine ain't helping, it's just not doing it. From HB, here are my thoughts at this point in the episode, before we get to the finale.

It made me think of g. Gordon Liddy, the thing of him going into the alley with the rats or whatever, or. Into the sewer with the sewer. Yeah, yeah, hunting a rat and killing and eating it because he was afraid of rats. And he was also afraid of lightning storms, so he had somebody lash him to a tree in the middle of a lightning storm so he'd get over that fear.

So it made me think of that, okay, and then it also made me think that Alex Rieger is indulging in riskier and riskier behavior. I started thinking of some really risky things he could have been doing when he's like, I've run out of things to do. Like, you know, you live in New York, you're around times square. I can think of some things you can get into, Alex if you really wanted to. You're right because he could have gone into like in Boston, it would have been the combat zone, right, He could have gone into the combat zone and flashed a bunch of money and called attention to himself to try and get out of whatever fight he was to get into.

Right, oh yeah, And there are so many scenarios that can end with running for your life and if that's not going to get your blood pump, and I don't know what is. At the very least, he should have called that British Adventurers organization that Graham Chapman was part of, you know, with they trying to go down they trying to go down Everest on a in a double decker bus on. Skis really what was the name of the what was the name of the group. Like the Incredibly Dangerous Club or something like that. A bunch of British thrill seekers were all fucking insane.

So he's got this magazine and Elaine turns it over and the name of the magazine that he's flipping through is called thrill Seekers, which is a little bit on the nose. But to be honest, I remember I would go to this place in Danver's father Malone called the Danvers News agency. Do you remember this place? Did you ever go there? Yes?

Of course. It's kind of a relative of a bygone era because now you just people consume their news online. There's not really you can really only magazines at like the airport now. But this was. You go in there and they had newspapers from everywhere, and they had all of these magazines, these pulpy, true detective magazines.

Soldier of Fortune. I love the good news stand man. Yeah, the news stand is something that you don't see anymore. I presume that's where he you know, he was just there and he flipped past the Soldier of Fortune and whatever else, and there's thrill Seekers. I imagine it was something like this.

He goes in and he's like, I'm looking for something for you know, I don't know people like thrill Seekers. If you tried thrill Seekers magazine, stop shout. I thought it'd be kind of funny. If she flips the magazine over and it's actually like barely legal something. I've tried.

And they flipped the magazine over, it's like chunky asses. I'm having lots of unprotected sex in Times Square. I've never felt so alive. Louis comes in. He makes a bline over to Rigor and he has some paper that he wants Alex to sign.

He's Louis has taken out a fifty thousand dollars life insurance policy on Reager. Given all of Rieger's risk taking, he figures why not. It's a way for Louis to make some cash. Alex agrees to sign once he sees an article in this magazine on the next thing he wants to do, which is skydiving, which I reckon skydiving nowadays fallom alone. I don't think it's as big of a deal as it might have been in nineteen eighty.

Like now, like I used to do it, now everyone does. I used to work with a guy in New Hampshire who was such a big skydiver. He would go out on his lunch break and skydive and come back like he can just knock it out in an hour. It was no big deal to him. But probably nineteen eighty it was God this is I mean, there was no bungee jumping, there was none of that.

Then grifs was it right? There's nothing crazier you had to seek it out. Then it sounds silly dust now like anyone could do that, But in nineteen eighty you had to It wasn't easy to go skydive. You really had to want to fall out of an airplane in order to accomplish it in nineteen eighty. Now you can just do it if you get in a United flight that.

Laudeville. Was there ever a time when you could do a solo skydive without having the guy strapped to you. That's the thing I'm wondering, And that's the when he goes, look, we're not ruining anything. He goes out the plane by himself at the end, and that was my thought, exactly where's his tandem coach? Yeah, because it's the suit that you go out on.

Now, if you're going to do your first jump, it's like two suits that are zipped together. The diving instructor is strapped to your back basically, and he's the one who takes who controls the parachute, and all you're doing is basically just passively along for the ride. What's happening is your instructor is going skydiving and you're ballast. Alex just goes in fact, Alex isn't even wearing those goggles. Alex is wearing a pair of ordinary sunglasses, which I have to believe if you're going to jump out of a plane, those things are gone like within milliseconds immediately.

I just don't understand rationally, like how you could expect somebody who's this is their first time jumping out of an airplane to have the mental wherewithal as they're plummeting, to have the mental acuity to remember to pull the SHOOTE. I don't know how. Maybe some of these had those shoots that are connected by wire to the wing so they open automatically. I don't know. Well, the thing is, he's got that big lever on the strap on the right side of his little uniform there.

But I also noticed that the flight instructor inside the plane, she does clip him onto a line. Yeah, so I'm assuming that at least that guide parachute, the tiny one that comes out to like slow you down before the larger one comes out, I think that gets unfurled at least on its own because of that. But I would assume at the time they would have just done like they did with fucking paratroopers in World War Two, Like you're saying, everyone's on the line, you jump out of in your fucking shoot opens this is skydiving. We don't trust you to open your own shoot. We cut to the plane in mid flight, not a convincing airplane set, by the way at all.

Oh, but the stock footage is particularly bad. Can we just say that bad in. The sense that there's nothing remarkable about it. Bad in the sense that when they show the airplane footage, that's fine. When they show the ground it is the grainiest piece of hey stomped on footage they salvaged from the fucking stock footage yard.

They're in this plane, it's Louis, it's Bobby, and it's Alex the pilot, and this this bulying instructor who of course. It's too many people, too much, a lot of people. They would have said no to Bobby at least. And also there's literally no door on the side that they jump out of, so they're all just sitting in this plane. It must be, at a minimum, it must be freezing in.

This plane, because according to Bobby's fantastic acting abilities, you can tell that through his shiverin once again, this is a cold situation. Thank you, Jeff. The flight instructor is cute, and of course Bobby's trying to make time with her while Alex is having this crisis of is he gonna jump? I'm not sure. Oh my goodness, I ask you a question.

M the version that you saw, the copy of this episode that you saw, yep, was the flight the cute flight instructor? Was she not completely blurry to you? She was not in focus at all? Okay, so that shot because Bobby eventually leans into that shot and he's blurry as well. Obviously that's a shot that they were stuck with.

Yeah, okay, because they kept cutting to like when she was talking for a long span of time. They just cut to the footage of the plane flying through the air, like during her entire speech, and I'm like, they must have been stuck with this shot. She's very out of focus. The focus is completely behind her on the instrument panel on the plane, like that's totally in focus. But the lead, this poor actress who's getting her fucking sagcard here, is like completely blurry in the foreground.

I didn't know if it was because that the focus pole wasn't correct or if it was because because I think there's some fog or smoke that's kind of rolling through the set to make it look like they're flying. I didn't know if maybe that. I think they're best doing a lot of setups because when Bobby leans into talk to her, they cut to a different angle and they rack focus really hard on him because he's way out of focus. So that other shot might have been a better take of that girl, but apparently they chose not to use it. To your point, I think they shot around that a little bit or cut around it to make it work.

So finally it's Alex's time to jump. He makes his way to this, Like I said, there's this opening where there's no door. He makes his way over, but he has second thoughts about jumping. Bobby agrees that if you don't if you don't want to jump, Alex, you don't have to jump. He's very sympathetic to Alex's prices.

Louis being Louis, tries to kind of shove him out the door. I loved it, actually, I wish it had worked. Even Louis has to say to Alex, you know what, Alex, I'm not even jumping and I'm scared. So if you don't want to do it, don't do it. So no one wants him to do it at this point, no one.

Any less of you, Alex. Yeah, but I will, I'll flth I'll think less. With a yell of Geronimo, one of those Geronimo. They cut outside to this exterior shot of the plane as he continunced. That they've put in the wrong footage because you don't see anyone drop out and dropping away.

Geronimo. But what's happened is he hasn't moved from his perch in this opening. In his words, he says something like, well, my spirit jumped, but my body didn't leave the plane. He hasn't budged. He's not sure if he's gonna do it.

Finally, he just kind of shrugs. He says, now what the hell, and he jumps, And now they cut to generic b roll of a skydiver jumping and pulling his shute as there's a bunch of hirsh Adr voiceover that plays over this. He's having this conversation with himself about how happy he is to have done this, and of course the climax of this jump is a reprise of being Alive. He's singing being Alive as he's coming down and he's confronted this fear, and we're all happy for Alex. By the way, this next part is my favorite part of the whole show, bar none.

And it takes place in a bar, so that's good it does. So they cut back to Marios. All the cabbies are at their customary table. It looks like it's about closing time. Tommy is sweeping up in the background.

Alex is just prattling on and on and on and on about his experience skydiving, how philosophical it was, and how he felt tiny in comparison to this big But every the rest of the cavies they panned across them, they couldn't look more bored or just more over everything that Alex is because it's clear that they've been listening to this bullshit that he's been putting out for weeks as he's been chasing these thrill seeking opportunities. He's trying to express to them how much it meant to him, and they couldn't care less, right, They're all like, I think they're falling asleep. Some of them are asleep in their chairs. Someone is trying to flip popcorn kernels into their mouth. There's something about the fact that it was so meaningful to Alex, but they're so sick of his bullshit that they're just sitting there like, all right, can you just be done with this bullshit?

Come on now. I love that. It's a nice mirror to the opening scene. It is because it starts out and they're so excited about. Hell, what do everything?

Alex? Please please tell us? Won't you shut the fuck up? Alex? Enough?

Already good? You're a fucking trickle seeker. And what they do is they he continues to talk even as they cut to a nighttime b roll, and you hear him droning on and on and on, and in fact, they add more and more and more reverb to his voice to make it sound more echoey and more distant and more transparent. I was like, this is awesome. I thought it was a great ending borrow.

This is working overtime because of that fucking out of focused shot. It was. It was very conceptual. I loved it. So that is Alex jumps out of an airplane.

Now we're going to talk about yellow lights. What doesn't yell light me? And to remind everybody, we deal with the scale of one to five yellow lights. One is the worst taxi episode in five is the best Taxi episode. And as we normally do, father alone, we're gonna kick it to you.

What do you give Alex jumps out of an airplane. Gonna give it four yellow lights? Four? Really? Yeah?

I really like this one. Wow. Okay, that surprises me. I thought you were gonna give it two. Nah.

Everyone gets a bit and hersh is really good here, and it's finally back to an Alex themed episode. And I like when Alex is operating in a way that is unexpected. And I like thrill seeking Alex. I like these different aspects that are emerging of Alex. I like detective Alex.

I like thrill seeking Alex. Uh, there's been some others. There was I'll fuck your mother Alex. So there's there's Jewish grandfather Alex. Come on, my boy, come in, let's talk.

Yeah, this is a good one. I love, oh my god, the many faces of Alex Rieger. Yeah, I'm gonna go with four. You know, I just dig this one. I think it's a good genial episode of Taxi.

Like there weren't as many false notes as some of the ones we've been running into recently. I agree with you for the most part, I only gave this three yellow lights, which is it's not a universe away from what you're saying. I did think this was a great showcase for Reager, and the risk taking is all well within his character given his gambling history. So I bought the idea that he's a thrill seeker kind of secretly. And I can never hear the song being Alive without thinking of riger belting it out in Marios, so that's a good memory for me.

It was close. I just couldn't give it that extra fourth light, just because I really wanted some of the cabbies to have more to do. That's always something I harp on. Elaine really doesn't do much compared to the last episode where A Jane is front and center with Louis through the whole episode. Practically she didn't feature much.

Neither. It is Tony. I guess Tony's in it a little bit more, but I don't know. I just I couldn't give it that fourth yellow light. But it was a better than average episode.

I thought it's one that I enjoyed, and I give it three yellow lights. So three from me, four from Father Malone. That's going to do it for this episode of night, mister Walters, Father Malone, Where can the folks find you when you're not clocked into the garage. I have a show called Midnight Viewing. It's on twice a week where we look at a couple things.

We're currently looking at Tals from the Dark Sided television series. In addition to that, Antonio Lapoura and I take a look at anthology movies, and at the beginning of every week I do Father Malone's Weekly round Up with my doc Ripley Jean, where we look at current things going on in the world. You can check out my show Midnight view and go there. If you want to hear any of those episodes early air commercial free go to patreon dot com slash Father Malone, where Patreon and subscribers also get a nifty new show called Cable Box Theater, which I host with the host of Noise Junkies. We do a show about the early days of cable television where they were showing Broadway plays which they shot on videotape.

Go there. It's great stuff. I say this every episode, but I can encourage people enough to check out the weekly Roundup at a minimum, it's great. It's a wonderful capsule look at stuff that you can find on streaming or in the theaters that week. There's always great recommendations, and he has the greatest co host in all podcasts as far as I'm concerned.

Ripley Gene is fantastic. For myself, you can find me also on the weirding Way Network. I do some Noise Junkies episodes. Recently those are some music based podcast goodness, so check that out. I'm an occasional guest on the Culture Cast with Christashu and I have a band campsite hpmusicplace dot bandcamp dot com.

I promise some new content is coming soon, so please check that out. But that's gonna do it for this episode of Night Mister Walters. Thank you again for listening. Please feel free to subscribe to the podcast, write a review, or rate us. We'd love to hear from you in any manner you see fit for myself and for Father Malone.

Thanks again for listening and we'll see you guys next time. N