Episode 47 - Tony's Sister and Jim

Weird media. Ni misters, you see that guy with it now? He's an actor phone. I'm a camp driver. I'm the only camp driver in his place.

Good evening and welcome tonight, mister Walters 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, HP. I used to know a guy like you. I just letting it hang out there.

We'll fill you in on the significance of that quote in a little while. We're talking Taxi Season three, episode two. It's Tony's sister and Jim. This is written by Michael Leson and directed by the one and only James Burrows. Reminder, we're doing these shows in broadcast order and not in order of filming, so we start off this episode in Louie's cage.

I was actually delighted because Jeff is there, and I just love Jeff. I think he's fantastic. He's got dialogue too, always great. A sweaty Louis gets a rightful reproach from Jeff when he asks Jeff to fan him like apparently it's very hot in the cage, it must be like. I love this exchange because we've only ever seen Jeff sucking up to Louis in the past, and here he kind of gives it right back to him.

Bike, I forgot my palm front back at my hut. Yeah, why do we go to racism? Like? What is this exchange between these two? Why haven't we spent an entire episode with these two characters.

A gleeful Elaine hustles into the garage and goes over to Alex and Bobby. Side note, Bobby is continuing his preppy look from the last episode. He has another purple cable knit sweater over what looks like a felt blazer. What did you make of that? I didn't make a lot of it.

I joked in our last episode that Clark Honis from the Blue Jean Committee, was in charge of wardrobe this season, And now I'd like to point out I'd like to digress because the wardrobe is making me so angry this season. I'd like to point out that HP. Did you know that the Blue Jeen Committee, even though they're known to be from Chicago, originally we're from Northampton, Massachusetts. I do remember that. Yeah, they performed that great song Massachusetts Avenue.

They absolutely did. When Jason Siegel was part of the it was great the bad. Yeah, that felt like the classic ten to one. We don't give a fuck. Let's just let's.

Give Fred arm a special Yeah. Yeah, let's give Fred Armison his you know, because he loves these musical bits. I rewatched that probably once every two or three months. I love that that sketch, It's great. That is my second favorite sketch of the entire run of documentary, now only second to the test pattern parody of Stop Making Sense.

I will disagree with you there. Blue Geen Committee is still top three or four for me, but I think number one has got to be co Op with Penny. That is super specific as well. Yeah. Oh, one of the best bits of documentary.

Now really yeah. I don't like this trend. They're giving Elaine absolutely nothing in these first couple of episodes, and this is no different. She is bursting to tell the guys the Cabby's something about her kids, but they shut her down. Oh my god, this is again, like, what are they doing this season?

Are they just making fun of the fact that they just keep regurgitating the same plots over and over again, because here she is like her I wanted to hey guys, you know how you it's worse than that because she's like, hey, you know how I never talk about my kids and like, yeah, we thank you for not doing that. Well, I want to tell you about my kids. Ah, good, out of here, relaying like this weird vaudeville kind of bullshit just so they can get her over to Loca. So it's all set up for a locka joke, like they don't need any of this setup. She's acting like an imbecile two episodes in a row now, just like this, this abulliant, a bulliant I don't know, just like excited bullshit, like here's some random thing we can shut down or comment on and get us to the next fucking scene.

So she seethes at the Cabby's at how rude they're being, and she goes over to Laka to try and tell him the story, but then he starts telling her a kid's story about himself. It all was, to your point, very vaudeville, and it doesn't go anywhere, and it's just kind of don let's get past it. Tony comes in and Bobby asks if Tony's sister got moved in. Tony says she's coming down to the garage soon, and Bobby says, I can't wait to meet her, which makes Tony recoil a little bit. He says he'd rather Bobby didn't meet her.

Tony says, if you had a sister, you wouldn't want a guy like you meeting her, would you, which, for some reason Bobby can't help but agree. That, don't act like you're crazy. Don't act like this is a crazy moment. This is where the episode begins. Here's where the characters become the characters that we've been watching for two fucking seasons.

Where Bobby Wheeler is fully self aware enough to know his best friend here Tony Banta, and his relationship with his sister and how he is with girls, and yeah, he's probably gonna try and fuck her. This is absolutely in character with season three. This suddenly we stepped away from the goddamn stupid I'm surprised nobody has accidentally dyed their hair orange so far this season, with all the fucking bullshit dot com tropes. The hair tonic from Brady Bunch, Yeah, sure, I'll go along with that. So Tony goes over to chat with Alex.

Apparently Alex made some offhand comment to Tony a while ago that he date Tony's sister if she was. Available, if she wasn't married and didn't live in Spokane. Tony he was being nice. Tony is a simpleton. This is just confirmation of that fact.

This episode more than ever. Alex rightfully shrinks away from that offer, explaining that it's not a good idea to date a friend's sister. But weirdly, Tony goes on to give Alex permission to sleep with Monica because he knows Alex would always do the right thing. This is just he's It's like you got hit in the head or something. It's weird.

This is like a I don't even know what this is because I would say this is some sort of weird throwback, But the permission to fuck your sister is like, what is happening, Tony? Are you okay? Is he giving a flashback? I think he's having a stroke or something. It's like he's patting himself on the back for what he's doing for his sister, like making this all possible.

But everybody, rightfully so is pretty mortified by everything Tony does in this episode, including Alex Ellya. He's back in the jungle for this entire episode, he's having a flashback to Noam. It was a time and no where. He was running naked through the jungle with a head full of LSD and everyone he saw was Monica and he had the savor. Loaka overhears Tony basically pimping out his sister, and it was actually that this is kind of funny.

He actually asked Tony's. Part of the episode maybe maybe, no, not the best, but it's really good. It's good, He asked Tony if he can get her. That's what he says, Can I have a crack at your sister? What I love about it and about Loka's interactions this episode is we know, just because we're familiar with Andy Kaufman and his persona, we know there's a darkness to Andy Kaufman, but you rarely get to see that with Laka and the fact that he actually uses those words, could I have a crack at your sister too?

It's kind of like Andy Kaufman peeking from behind the veil and making a joke. It was that's great. I loved it, and it's not uncommon for him to do that. We've seen Laka like sort of wise up and be the smart person in the room, like the you know, I'm not this innocent knife, Like I get concepts like why are you treating me like an idiot? So I wrote it in my note here Loaka's on fire because not only does he say can I have a crack at her?

He then says like, who are we fooling? I would marry her. Tony gets annoyed at Loka butting in, and he takes Alex upstairs to chat in private, at which point a woman walks in and knocks on Louis cage and asks where Tony is? And who is this woman who comes in? And you see how big I've written her name.

Julie fucking Cavno shows up. I'm so excited, never enough Julie Kavner. Obviously we've all been living with her for the past thirty years on The Simpsons as Marge Simpson, but there was a time when she was on camera a lot, and she's so fucking good. Best known as Marge Simpson, she's played that role. Father Malone.

You said thirty years, it's very nearly forty years, over almost half. It's actually going to be over half of her life she has spent playing this one character. I've seen her a couple of times now in a couple of different things. Recently over on Anthology's Attack. We did the New York Stories, the Anthology film, and she's in the Woody Allen segment there, there and here.

Both times, I'm expecting when she opens her mouth to hear Marg Simpson, and I realized that Marg Simpson is a character she plays because I never hear Marg Simpson when she's talking. It's crazy. Look at her IMDb and it's just dominated by Marge Simpson. She played her in a video game, in the Simpsons movie, and all these different projects and stuff. You could say the same thing about all the cast members of the Simpsons, but it's just amazing.

She's obviously done a bunch of other stuff. Her breakthrough role was Brenda Morgan Ster and the younger sister of Rooda in the sitcom Roda. You already mentioned that she's been in a bunch of Woody Allen movies. Fun fact, she was in a relationship with Taxi co creator David Davis, who also co wrote the premiere episode Like Father, Like Daughter. She was in a relationship with him until his death.

In twenty twenty two at the age of eighty six, although it was unclear if they were actually married. Some reports had the married, some said they never got married. One thing I found remarkable in doing a little bit of research around Julie Kavner is I always assumed that she was a native New Yorker. Not the case. Really, No, she's from California.

No, she's not. She is I want to say, Santa Monica. I don't know if that's actually true, but she's a native Californian. I don't know where how she I mean, you know, cause on Roda and in this her New York accent is flawless, right Wallace, it's crazy. So she's just that brilliant of an actress, I guess, wow, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I Also it's interesting I read also that she refuses to do the March simps and voice in public because she doesn't want to ruin the illusion of Marge Simpson. I think that's that's fascinating. I don't know. I love that. That's like Bill Bixby not wanting to be seen with Lufa Regno in public because it would destroy the illusion for children.

Wait, so that that's a conscious effort that they all made. Yeah, I didn't know that, lest I just made it up. No, it makes sense by the way I just looked it up. She Julie Kavner, was born in la She's a native los Ange los Angeleo. Wow, there you go.

It's she went to high school at Beverly Hills High School. Oh wow, Yeah, fascinating, that's fascinating. She knocks on Louise's door looking for Tony. Louis gives her the business when she says who she's looking for, and of course Louie tries to shake her down for a buck, which is par for the course with Louie. She has a great line.

She says, you must be Louie, and Louie asks, how do you know me? She says only three people were described to her. One was good looking, one was smart, and one was you. She delivers it. She's so and it's funny because I wrote like she fits in so well, and it must be her experience on RODA which gave her those sitcom chops.

It made me realize something HP We'll get to it later, because I had a revelation during this episode about how this episode could have been made better. Okay, I look forward to that. So Louis retreats to his cage after getting insulted, and Monica flags down Loaka to try to find Tony. Loka gets angry with her about how they are forbidden to love because he's been waved off by Tony, and he swarms off. Jim now sidles over to her and he starts trying to make smart all talk with her, but he mostly flakes out and she's not interested.

Excuse me. They have a conversation about Spokane because she's from Spokane, Washington. Well, I mean she's obviously from New York, but has spent the last five years in Spokan, where she's been in the symphony. Mh. I just bring it up because I love Spokane, like I spend a lot of time, and I have spent a lot of time in Spakhannan.

It's one of my favorite cities on Earth. And to think that one of the first of all somebody on the writing staff or on the staff of the show has been there because they called it Spokana, not Spokane, which it seems like every fucking human being does until they go there, and I don't know, just call it on Spokane. In fact, I'm going to specifically call it Frank's Diner in Spokane, Washington, which is a train car diner. It has the best Eggs Benedict in the United States. Ooh, I love a good Eggs Benedict.

That's my go to. Jim and Monica are having this awkward conversation. He's undeterred and he, like you said. She mentions that she played the flute and an orchestra and Bokane. They start to chat about classical music, and they have a mutual love for Vivaldi, and they start to hum a classical piece together by Vivaldi, and of course Jim is being very boisterous.

Yeah, it's the Rights of Spring. It's one of the it's one of the four seasons, HP. You know, four seasons. You can name all four seasons quickly, Alan, all that will appear behind you and warn you about the crippling depression that can come with middle age. No, but he will, but he will put his hands so tenderly on my shoulder and give me a little tug and say it's okay, Bud, it's okay.

They make such a ruckus with the Rights of Spring that Louis is forced to pass a no Vivaldi rule over the PA I'm with him, which is you know, it's kind of like the no Stairway to have him rule in Wayne's world. So anyway, they Monica and Jim start to hit it off and they end up making plans to go to the Symphony together, which is kind of sweet. Just then Tony sees her. He comes down the stairs. He gives her a big hug.

He tries to match her up with Rieger. He introduces her to Reger. It's very awkward. He kind of butts in to get them out door to go to lunch. Before we leave.

HB, one of our at least my favorite extras wanders past. In the background. That's leggy blonde in pants suit. Oh she was back. I didn't notice that.

Leggy blonde in buttondown shirt over turtleneck on top of blue jeans. It's like the fucking invasion of the body snatchers. Why is everyone in blue jeans? The day that Louis de Palma steps out from the cage wearing blue jeans is the day I stopped recording this show with you. Catalina Breeze, Catalina Breeze Catilina.

You know, the falsetto is like the most masculine of singing styles. Alex and Monica go out for lunch. They go out of the garage. As we fade into Monica's new apartment. They Tony and Monica walk in.

They're toting groceries and they're discussing the new apartment. Side note, here's one thing that I loved about this scene. It's a little touch, but I really it meant a lot to me. Is she they're coming in and he's got a bag of groceries. She is carrying a brand new broom which still has the cellophane around like the bristles.

Anyone who's ever moved into a new place, that's always something you do. You get cleaning supplies. I thought that was really I don't know, I just thought that was really brilliant of them to do that, because it's so on the nose. What did you think? I think?

As these this particular episode was progressing, all my fears that the first episode was engendering about this season were falling away because it started to feel really like taxi here. There's something about Jim and by extension, Christopher Lloyd that I just find it. It kind of Booy's an episode or Booie's whatever episode he's involved in. It hasn't happened all that often up till now. We're gonna see more Jim centric episodes.

But there's just something about Christopher Lloyd and his sweetness and his honesty that I think these all seem like platitudes, but it really does mean a lot when you're watching this because Jim is such a great character and he's so great playing him that to your point. In the last episode we talked about Louie's rival, how Louie is so detestable that there's no way we can root for him, But with Jim, we are never not rooting for Jim. It could be some hair brain scheme like him buying a broken down old racehorse, but we still are rooting for Jim, and I love that about this well. He's always coming from a place of joy and love. It's never there's never a scheme with him, and even Alex Rieger we can't really trust him.

Sometimes he just wants to fuck his niece. Barry his nose in her hair, and take a big olds whiff pervert. Tony asks Monica about the lunch her lunch date with Alex, and it sounds like there's no chemistry between the two of them, but Tony keeps pushing her. Can't get a pause in edge wise, is something Alex Rigo said on their date, and yes, Tony can't understand. That means it was a terrible date and they have no chemistry.

But it's also the perfect Alex line. You can hear him say that, can't you. Absolutely That's why I was saying, because we've seen him on awkward dates with Angela and so forth, and we know that's his safety mechanism is these quips. Tony insists that Monica just has bad taste in guys and he just wants to best for her. Monica does mention there's one guy that she met that she likes, Jimygnatowski, and this freaks out Tony immediately, and he takes this as further evidence that she's just attracted to losers.

Just then, she gets a call that Tony assumes is from Alex because we're hearing the one side of the call via Monica, and he sits on the couch. He's satisfied that it's all going well with Alex because they're talking about going out on another date and blah blah blah until she mentions going Dutch for dinner, and then she has to go and explain that this has nothing to do with wooden shoes, and right, it is a good bit. This confirms to Tony that it's actually Jim on the phone, and he doesn't, you know, he leaps and yells and then we fade to black. Now, the problem with this episode is hp it is a high school story that they're telling with adults, So now sex is involved. So it's one thing for him to be setting up his sister with Alex because he's a responsible guy, but he also has to give permission Alex to fuck her.

And then you know that's only compounded with Laka's leering weirdness. Right, so now this is all about somehow Tony defending his sister's virginity or something. But she's already been married and lived on her own and what is happening here? Look, and I know this was an antiquated idea, the brother defending the sister and all that shit, but like, get what why nineteen eighties? It's not as if she's incredibly young and naive.

I mean, we're led to believe that she's probably in her thirties. I would guess so it's and she's been married already. She was married for five years some guy and Spokane, and here she is back in New York, putting her life back to you. So it's not as if she's crying out for somebody to take care of her and show her the ropes in New York. She's very capable of that.

She'd made that clear, and Julie Kavner plays her that way. I don't know all that. None of this does anything to make me feel any sort of affinity for Tony. I don't like him anymore. By what he's doing here, it's only making me hate him even more, the simpleton.

We fade out, We fade in to Monica. She's all dressed up. She's waiting in a fancy French restaurant. As we mentioned in the previous episode of this podcast, Fought Them Alone, there was a time when French food was considered the height of upscale fine dining. So that's where we're at here.

We're in a fresh right now. Now we get the rest. This is probably the same restaurant that Louis went to right. He probably recommended it to Jim. Yeah, probably because there's probably not that many within their the radius of where they all live and they work, so probably it is the same place.

Monica gives a note to the waiter to give to Jim when he shows up. Presumably she's been waiting there forever and he has he's flaked out, But just as the waiter takes the note, Jim stumbles in. He's wearing a brown suit, kind of ill fitting, looks very much like Jim would. The waiter gives the note to Jim, who reads it to Monica, and it's basically saying I couldn't wait any longer, blah blah blah. And he turns to go because he's like, oh, I'm leaving.

You said you're gonna leave. She coaxes him back. They sit at the table. Monica asks why he was late. Tony asked Jim to wait until he got back to the garage.

So apparently Tony is caught wind that they're going to see each other, and he he warned Jim not to see Monica after tonight. That's why he wanted to That's why Jim was late, because he had to wait for Tony to get back to the garage, which she. Had to get there from nineteen fifty two. What an asshole Tony is. So there's some funny business with the waiter in ordering drinks, which amuses Monica.

Jim admits to her that it's been a long time since he dated. The waiter comes back and Jim asks if he can order for the table. After a minute, he orders a full meal in French, which impresses the waiter and Monica, and the waiter's like, oh, very good, monsieur, and he goes off, and Monica expresses wonder to Jim that while he can speak French, but Jim admits he only learned what he should order at the restaurant. It took him all day to learn that much French. Which this is just she's eating this up.

She's loving this right, she's so impressed with him. No, it's better than that. He learned that phrase and then called every French restaurant in New York to find out if they served that, so that he could take her and impress her. Is she's eating it enup? Because it's a fucking effort like this is almost an antidote to the previous episode where Louis's response to losing a girlfriend is to do fuck all.

Here, it's like he's just this getting to know you date and he's going full out. I love him, man, He's. Essentially worked backwards. He's learned what to order. Now he has to go back and find a restaurant that actually serves all of those dishes that he learned French for.

So it's beautiful they have this moment together that this brings them closer together. I think she even puts his hand, her hand on his hand, which kind of gives him a thrill. Jim asks if he can still see her, and she agrees, but only if they agree not to tell Tony they're going to see each other. And like I said, she holds his hand. She holds his hand, which embarrasses him a little bit.

And there's some more romantic chit chat as we fade back into the garage. Everything's going well with Monica and Jim. Let me just say that there are some close ups of Christopher Lloyd here where he's looking at her from across the table, and he's so charming and so youthful, and you get it, you know, like we've seen him be every kind of wanky character known to man, but like this is kind of Doc Brown Back to the Future Part three. It's the romantic one, but even more so because this is a guy who's with it when he wants to be, when he needs to be. I don't know.

I just love seeing him when they gave him something to do. Well. I'm glad you mentioned that, because Back to the Future three, for whatever criticism people like to levy against it, I I the thing that I think that I probably loved the best about it was that they gave Doc Brown a romantic love interest. And when I think about it, I don't Christopher Lloyd. I don't know how many opportunities he's had to be a leading man to be somebody who woos the woman and who can be that romantic lead, and I think he's fantastic.

It's a real shame. It's a drag he didn't get more. Yeah, that's the only thing that came to mind is Back to the Future three, And by the way, that's the only part of that movie that I enjoy. I mean, it's not like he didn't work steadily, it's just he never got you know, he rarely got this. Being an eccentric because the guy's a fucking eccentric.

Apparently he is. Maybe it's just not something that he feels comfortable playing. I don't really know, but he works wonderfully here, and I wanted. To see the love life of Commander Kruse. Is this where you do Kevin Pollock as Christopher Lloyd.

I'll do John Learra Katt. I'll do the John Lyra Catt if you want. Or the guy John Shuck. Is that now we've run that, We've run all the juice out of John Shuck. So we're back in the garage.

Tony enters and starts talking to Jim, and Jim's a little startled because I think he's walking on eggshells trying not to let the cat out of the bag. It's evidently been a couple of weeks since Tony had to wave Jim away from dating his sister, and in a rare I don't know a bit of candor, Tony apologizes to Jim and he says, Jim, if you're still feeling sore, then you can plant one right in my face. Right. It's like it's this is all all the worst of Tony Banta in this episode, Like This is him trying to ameliorate the situation. Just more of the same caveman, goddamn nonsense.

Punch me in the face because I told you you can't see my sister. What ear is this? He's done that a bunch of times. He did that, I think several times with Bob. Bobby.

Yeah, punch me Bobby, Like no one wants to punch you, Tony. But the wording is very important. He says, plant one right on my face, and he kind of even like adopts a little boxing box and fake. Sure. The joke is great and no one could pull it off like that like Jim could, so he uh, you know.

Jim is sort of stunned by this offer, and he basically kisses Tony right where he said plant one right here. He kisses him on the cheek. Tony is obviously immediately freaked out, but Jim says that actually made me feel better. So Jim walks away. For some reason, he casually mentions it's going to see Monica.

It's like he I loved it, see Monica. Oops. Yeah, he forgets that he's supposed to keep this a secret. Tony lunges at Jim like, actually, animalistically like lunges at him like he's gonna hit him. He's gonna kill him.

Man, here we go drama, and now everything goes handheld and we're running through the streets of New York. Lots lots of close ups of Christopher Lloyd's feet banging on the concrete. Oh my god, it's amazing. But there's this. It just reinforces the notion that for Tony, there's this, there's a thin veil between being savage and being a civilized member of society, and it doesn't It's so preciously thin, this boundary between barbarism and civility, that it's just one snap of someone's fingers and he's an animal.

All the goodwill they build up over many, many episodes of making him sympathetic goes out the window immediately when we get an episode like this, and now I don't trust him anymore. I don't trust him either. Alex intercedes. He stops Tony from beating up Jim, and he says, let's go to Marios and cool off over some beers. But Tony wants to go over to Monica's place while he's still got a full head of steem.

Alex goes on to point out that no one, not Jim nor Monica has a problem with this. The only one who has a problem with this whole situation is you, Tony, And then Tony, unbelievably, he goes on to blame Alex for the whole thing because his lunch date with Monica went so bad. This guy's a maniac. Okay, it's all played for laughs, dude. These are traditional jokes.

Like everything that Judd hers sets up, Tony agrees with and then subverts like I don't care, you know, like yeah, but I still want to beat him up, you know, Like, Okay, we get it, we get the jokes. But the thing is it, it's one of our beloved characters being threatened by a character that we go hot and cold on. There's nothing funny about this situation. It's like he's created this fucking stupid scenario and is now joking that he can't stop himself. The only more horrifying scenario would be if Tony was going to beat up Laka.

He's probably the only person who's more helpless than Jim in a way. Maybe they're equally helpless in different ways, but we make no mistake if Tony wasn't stopped by Alex, he would have killed Jim. He would have been blood all over his knuckles getting up, going what just happened? What did I just do? And he looks down and sees that Jim has been beaten to a pulp by him, Like, there's no question in my mind that he would have killed Jim.

That's scary to jail door clang shot sound. We fade in on flute music as we cut to Monica's apartment. She's playing the flute, which, by the way, was actually being played by Julie Cavaner. So that's good. Yeah, very multi talented.

I'm so glad we watched this episode of learned so much about Julie cavanor my estimation of her, which was very very high already as only ground. Absolutely, Jim is sitting next to her. He's blowing into a bottle, you know, like one of those things, yeah, jug band kind of thing, like keeping time with her. Yeah, I mean, she's playing a classical piece and he every once in a while goes ooh, blowing into this bottle. But it's very sweet.

Again, in stark contrast to Louie's idea of romance, like they're actually sitting playing music together, having a sweet old time. It's very much what I would expect Jim to be doing. He's figured it out. He's figured out something fundamental that Louis will probably never figure out. Right, that's this just this tableau of them playing music together and then him basically saying this is the best that's getting another yellow light at the end of this episode.

Age. Yeah, it's beautiful, It really is. It's it's yeah, it's what you're saying too. It's something that fundamental that Louis can never understand, like that interaction with another human being is the best you're ever going to get in this life. Yeah, But of course Tony barges in.

He's got to break up this idyllic scene. He demands that Jim hit the road. He ends up grabbing Jim by the back of his neck and his kind of like the back of his pants, like by by his ass, and he's he holds him there for a good long time. He's holding Jim up like a Wild West bartender that's getting ready to throw someone out of the saloon. Or like from him down the length of the bar.

Yeah, Like he's literally holding him up now here's my question to UHB, is he on wires? I don't think so. I looked for wires, but he definitely is wearing a harness because this is the same subtle harness work that we've seen before when they strung Bobby up on the winch. Inside, he's wearing all this bulky clothing and everything, although it's sewn into Jim's clothing a lot better, but you can tell there are kind of handles that he's holding onto. Yeah, because there's no way if he's holding the back of Jim's shirt like behind his neck, there's no like it would have sagged down, like there's no way that his shirt would have supported all that weight.

Right, and he's flat as a board. Now, look, Christopher Lloyd might be a yoga enthusiast, a planking person before his time, but there has to be some sort of aid going on there, which is why I was wondering if he was on wires. I agree that he had some kind of harness on, but I think if I'm going to compliment Tony for anything in this episode, it's the fact that he holds up Christopher Lloyd for probably it felt like a long because the scene proceeds and he's giving dialogue and he's moving around the apartment holding Christopher Lloyd, never putting him down until a few minutes later, so that I thought that was a very predigious, prodigious site. Yeah, he's crossing the stage with him and gesturing with him.

So yeah, it's what's impressive is not Tony Bant, but Tony Dance in this scene. That's when I say Tony, I guess it's one and the same. It's Tony Danza and he's giving his He's delivering his lines without any sign of strain on his part. He's not doing this, he's just you know, guess it's just that strong. Now.

Tony Dance is doing great work here, but Tony Bant does an asshole right. Yeah. So there there are Tony and Monica are arguing all the while, Like I said, Tony is carrying Jim around like this Wild West character. Uh. Jim finally points out to Tony how ridiculous he looks holding him by the scruff of his neck, and Monica agrees, and she's pointing out to Tony that his arms are by now, his arms are getting tired, and this is something that he's always done even when he was a kid.

He's getting himself into these tight spots with no way out, and reluctantly Tony agrees and he finally lets Jim go. But like I said, it felt like he held him up for a good five six minutes worth of It's probably less than that, but man, that's some upper body strength. Absolutely, it was very impressive. And here HP is where I had my revelation, not only for this episode, but for the series in general. Oh to tell now, when the series started in season one, we had the character of John Burns, who was the audience proxy, right, so he was supposed to be this rube and we were going to see through his eyes, and what they ended up doing pretty quickly was realized that we don't need a proxy.

We're all going to get used to these characters very quickly. And then all that left was he's a rube. They so he continued to be a dummy, but next to him was Tony Banta, who was a much more efficient New York ready and appropriate for this series dummy, and he's a lot funnier than John Burns ever was. So they got to get rid of John Burns and now Tony Bantitt is the goofball here, right, Well, now we've got Jimmy Natowski, who's the fucking king of it. We've still got Locka in the background there, right, So Tony's Banta's antics are becoming less and less interesting to me.

But once his sister showed up, I thought, oh, why didn't they just replace him? Why didn't they shuffle her in and him out? Because then we would have two possible female points of view going on here from a wildly different perspectives, and Julie Kavner could do it. Man, it wouldn't be the case of we have two dummy characters we have to write for. It would be two stronger characters we have to write for.

Maybe that was asking too much, and I'm making this entire scenario up in my head. I'm just saying Banta is no longer necessary on the series. Whether or not they would have employed Julie Kavner. Well, I would say you're not wrong that the backstory behind Burns and all of that, and his personality in comparison to Tony's, I agree. I think we're talking nineteen eighty one.

Having two female points of view was maybe a bridge too far. At that point. It would have been great because it would have been it would have been Mary Lou Henner and Julie Kavner on screen together. What a dynamic duo. It would have been great because not only is Julie Kavner like a pro when it comes to all of this, she is funny and she would have brought a completely different spin on what it means to be a woman in the garage living her life.

Elaine has the single mother making ends meet whatever, but Julie Kavner like this would have been the perfect opportunity because she's coming to New York for a brand new start. The possibilities storytelling wise would have been pretty wide open. But it's an interesting what if for sure, something to think about. It never is it And in the realm of we're dealing with a dummy character here, like in the form of Jim mcnatowski. He's a burnout from the sixties.

Like this is stuff that these characters are still dealing with, and that's but Tony is just this kind of behavior is just fifties throwback stuff which they'd already tackled over on Archie Bunker. Not like they've solved anything. I'm just saying as far as popular entertainment goes, like re examining the Poluka, who gives a fuck? This is Taxi. This is like that they're at the height of television comedy writing here, like who cares about the Vinnie Barberino stereotype.

Well, it makes me wonder if the writers, the creators, who what have you, they just really love Tony Danza. The guy worked steadily as hell in sitcoms for something like twenty twenty five years or something, so there's got to be something to be said for the fact that people really love working with him, and maybe that's why he stuck around so long. Because I can't think of any absolutely essential favorite episodes that I have of Taxi that are specifically Tony centric episodes. I can't think of any I can think of Locka episodes. I think of Alex episodes, but not Tony.

Yeah, I can't think of one upcoming episode in the next three seasons that's including this as one of the seasons. Obviously, I can't think of one episode I'm looking forward to that involves Tony. However, as you're saying, yeah, Tony Dancer keeps working because Tony Dance is fucking phenomenally talented. Look, he can be kind of cheesy, there's no question about it, particularly lately. But doing the off shoe, that that clip you had.

You know, why do they all have to become crooners? But here like vital young Tony. I'm on the record of praising him. I love Tony Banta even for a long time. But now what we're in the we're in the we're in the tall grass.

Now there are raptors, were raptors out there in from of Carol Cain. They're heavy hitters. On the way, man, I don't know. What are you gonna do? It would have been it certainly would have been an interesting twist if they had taken her his sister and made her one of the focal points or one of the cabbies.

So finally, after they have some more conversation in this apartment that Tony eventually apologizes for busting in on the on the fun, Monica is impressed with Tony because apparently, in his younger days he would never have apologized, So it this is some indication of growth on his part. Cares nineteen eighty one. They're all adults is fucking high school? Fucking plot, it kind of is. He apologizes to Jim.

Tony then gets an invite to dinner with the two of them, which is lovely. They we fade out and fade back in, and Monica and Jim are still playing music. Tony is looking on admiringly, and then Tony starts chiming in with his beer bottle, blowing into it like Jim is. So it's a nice little tableau in the show. You know, Jim, I was really aggressive earlier.

I just want to say, you can fuck my sister. I give you. That's it. The show is over. Now we're gonna start talking about the yellow lights.

What does a yellow light? Reminder? We score every episode from one to five yellow lights, one being the worst taxi episode five being the best. And as is our customer, I'm gonna throw it to you, father Belone. First, what do you give Tony's sister in Jim.

Giving it three yellow lights most exclusively because of Julie Kavner, No that they're I you know what, HP, I wish this had just been a romantic episode between Reverend Jim mcgnatowski and Monica Bata or whatever accident her last name was, that I would have given it for if they didn't have the fucking Neanderthal plot running around and me making me hate one of our principles here this is the second episode in a row where we're just shown one of our lead characters as total cocksuckers. Is that the plan who's next is like Elane just gonna be like is she gonna be like slapping her children in public in the next episode. Having said that, the romance between Julie Kavner and Christopher Loud is very, very sweet, and she's so good and I wish she had just been in everything.

Three yellow lights, And for the second episode in the row, I'm in alignment with you, father Blon, I gave it three yellow lights as well. It was a little bit of a It was really tempted to go four, but again. Because it's so lunk headed and so much of the same, well, it's. So lunk headed, and again there's not a lot of input from the other caves, which is always for me, that's a mark of a good episode. Maybe I'm a little harsh with that criteria, but anyway, despite that, this is a sweet showcase for Jim and his own brand of weirdo charm.

And as you've already said, Kavner is such a pro. She mixes in with zero problems and it's ends up being kind of a nice, sweet episode of romance between Jim and Monica, which is obscured by a few other things that we don't We didn't like very much, hence this is slightly above average. So three yellow lights from you, Father alone, three Yello lights from me. That's going to do it for this episode of night, mister Walters, Father Alone. Where can folks find you when you're not clocked into the garage?

Check out my show midnine Viewing. It is a twice weekly horror anthology show. On some occasions, it's sort of a new release thing. On some occasions, I do a show with my dog on there. HB is frequently over dropping by.

We do a Patreon only show together called Cable Box Theater, which you can get at patreon dot com. Slash Father Alone, Yeah, those places you can find me over there. I drop on in other places too sometimes, like with you here, I do this show anyway. You're here too, and like fallom alone, it can find me elsewhere. On the weirding Way Network, I host the Noise Junkies music podcast, which has been a lot of fun.

I'm an occasional guest on the Culture Cast with Chris Dashu and I have a band camp. Oh by the way, scratch that. Let me back up for a minute. What are you doing? Father?

I breeze through this. I need to say once again, I always say this the weekly round Up with Father Alone and his co host Ripley g. If you're not on the content train with Father Malone, you're missing out. It's great stuff. You'll hear all about what's coming out on streaming or in theaters, what to see, what not to see.

It's great. They come out what typically on Sunday, right or Sunday or Monday. It depends supposed to be Monday. But if I finish it early enough on Sunday and get excited, I'll just release it. Yeah, they're great.

I have a band camp site hpmusicplaces dot bandcamp dot com. Newly released album called Wired and Waiting. Please check that out if you so desire. As always, everybody go check that and it's cap right rock and roll. It was that too, was a great fun writing and I hope everyone who checks it out enjoys it.

As always, please feel free to write us, rate US, review US. We'd love to hear from you in any manner you choose. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you again next time. My mister Walters