Episode 49 - Elaine's Strange Triangle

Weird media. Ni miss you see that guy with it now he's an actor. Driver. I'm the only camp driver in his place. Good evening and welcome tonight, mister Walter's the Taxi Podcast.

I'm HP your co host, and with me as always is my cost father Malone. Father Malone, How white you this evening? HP? Yeah, your simplicity is engaging and we'd be wonderful together. We will solve the mystery of those words.

Momentarily, we're talking Taxi Season three, episode four, Elane's Strange Triangle. This was written by David Lloyd. Oh spooky like about Elaine's Triangle. It's written by David Lloyd and directed by the man James Burrows. Reminder, we're doing these shows in broadcast order, not in order of filming.

So we begin in Marios. Haven't been Marios in a while, where Loacha Lane. It's nice to see Laka by the way again, he's I don't know what was going on in Andy Andy Kaufman's life. It's not until season late, season three and season four that he really figures more prominently. But he's very catches catch Ken in these episodes, don't you agree?

I completely forget that he's a member of the cast. And then he shows back up and I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right, Andy Kaufman. He has some funny bits here that we'll get into Laca Lane. Alex, Tony, and Jim are all sitting around their customary table. Before we get there.

Yeah, there's a hypnotic b roll we've never seen before of a New York thoroughfare at night. This vaguely blue. There might be a filter on the camera. The street lights look blue lining either side of the road, and then there's another row of them down the median, and then you have red and white lights from the traffic going back and forth. It's gorgeous.

It's like something out of Tron or something. Right. Yeah, you know, you expected to like. The transition to be a focus transition, you know, like a blur out and then blur back in. It's beautiful.

I mean, we tend to forget that these cabbys are living their lives at night always. They're the nighttime caves. So of course we're gonna see a lot of gorgeous shots of New York at night and this You're right, that's a beautiful b roll. So we're in Marios, the cabbys are sitting around eating. They're actually eating.

They're all eating together. It's weird, isn't it. It's super strange. Laka has the napkin tucked into his collar like you know, he's easy, he's enjoying it. Alex is eating.

It's it's weird because we're used to thinking of Mario's as the place where they catch beers and they hash out life's mysteries. Right, well, we never see them eating. We certainly never see them eating communally because what they have on the table is a pizza. By the way, that pizza looked great. That's the gluten thing speaking though, I.

Think, yeah, man, I want that pizza. I want any people. You know. I have instructed those around me, my loved ones, my immediate loved ones, that if it comes down that I know I have a certain amount of time to live, like within a day or something like that, that day we'll be spent eating pizza and cal zone and fucking napoleons, you know that pastry. So many napoleons.

I'm going to be so sick, and I'm going to love every minute of it right to the end. Like I said, usually they're they're grabbing a drink at Marios, but this time they're eating, which is a weird tableau that we're seeing there. Elaine, however, is sitting with her head in her hand, looking down. She basically is behaving like a depressed child. She you, you can't even see her face because her hair is covering her her eyes.

Basically, she's she looks like somebody who's just miserable. But she's odd. We've seen her do this before. We've seen her drunk and sort of sad before. She's not really drunk though, because she's eating.

I mean, she's just depressed. She's eating. She thinks she's not drunk. You can get to that bar and have more than beers, my friend. No.

But we what we find out is that she she's she's bummed. I mean, something is up. She whinds something about appreciating everybody taking her because Alex asks her, Elene, how is your how's your meal? And she says, oh, it's fine. Look, guys, I'm sorry, I appreciate you taking me out.

She apologizes, and she says she just doesn't bounce back like she used to, and then Tony says, hey, no, guy's worth getting upset, over. So it's it's guy trouble again. You know we've seen this before with Elaine. She just she has poor tasted men. Apparently, Alex thinks this is weird advice for Alex to be dishing out.

Rebound rebound fuck, will fucking cure your ailments? A rebound fuck heures all my ills. There isn't a man alive rebound fuck. That's that's what he says. Alex thinks that Elaine should go up with another guy right away.

Like this guy, he can be a fucking dummy. Elaine, You're not there for conversation. It's weird. I mean, you would figure he he would because she she's very, very vulnerable. Maybe this is part of his scheme.

Maybe he's picking up on the fact that she's vulnerable and figures, well, maybe this is my shot. Elaine complains that she doesn't know anybody else, which I think is kind of a crock of shit. No, I remember the Psychiatrist episode when she was gonna have sex with Rieger. Remember, oh yeah, close, I know. Riga remembers it.

He should be he should be right, and he should be plying his trade here. Well, they Riager and in Elaine are really like the the will they or won't they of Taxi that we'll see over the over the the course of the whole series, where they're they're constantly circling each other. Sometimes they come off like good friends, but sometimes it's a little more than that. And sometimes he's pursuing her, sometimes she's pursuing him. It's an interesting dynamic.

And I just say that the will they won't they is as far as I want it to go. Like mostly when you have characters like Sam and Diana, it's will there, won't they get together? Won't they be a couple. I don't want these two to be a couple, but I do want them to have sex with. Each Just then, sporty looking Bobby.

Bounces to his dick. It's old Wheeler, I wrote. He's got a brown flannel sport coat, white shirt, unbutoned to I didn't say to his dick. I said to his navel, and I said, a caller is wide as the Grand Canyon. He announces that he's he's got the part.

Hey, he's got he's got another part. Good for him? Really, old Wheeler back, Oh my god, he just wandered in from season one. We do but but they don't pursue this. He says he got the part.

So Tony says, hey, drinks are on me, and he cajoles a Lane to go to walk to the bar and get get the drinks. So we never hear about Bobby and his part. He sits down with with Alex, and interestingly, like I said, just as he's about to ask Bobby about the part, they cut away mid sentence to the bar because this is really this, this episode has nothing to do with Bobby. As we'll find out. This is this is everything to do with Tony and a Lane.

And this what happens. They're at the bar Tony, a Lane, and a man in a suit creeps over to Tony and Elaine. The man will find out as a man Kirk Bradshaw. Yeah, Kirk man, we're talking about Kirk Bradshaw. That is such a sitcom.

Ye name, isn't it, Kirk Bradshaw. Do you know any Bradshaws? Have you ever met a Bradshaw or Kirk for that matter. Well, obviously like there's Terry Bradshaw, so that the name is in play. Have I met a Kirk?

I don't think I've ever met a Kirk. Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains, No, not too many. He ruins that movie. The Kurt Russell Best of Times. He plays Kurt Russell's son in that movie.

He is, wow, I haven't seen that movie in forever that that movie is so depressing. Yes, it is all. I mean, it's funny because Kirk Kurt Russell is so great in it. But man is it depressing because it's all about Robin Williams lose, you know, losing the football game, and he spends his whole life as a loser trying to make up for it. That's good.

And his father in law is played by Donald Moffatt, who was in the thing with Kurt Russell's. Everything comes back to John Carpenter. Goddamn right, it does everything. So Kirk comes over. This guy named Kirk comes over to Tony and Elane.

He asks if Tony and Elaine are together, and initially Tony kind of brushes him off, but then sensing a romantic possibility for a lane, he clarifies, oh, we're just friends. So now we have Tony going into matchmaker mode because he sees this is the opportunity to get a lane to fob her off on somebody and maybe make her feel better. Tony starts in presenting a lane to Kirk as a romantic possibility. Tony asks Kirk about himself and he says he's an investment analyst, which is a very eighties occupation. It's like something out of Wall Street, right, anything investment yuppy is a yuppie exactly right.

And Tony plays all this up to a laye. Hey, he's an investment in a lista lane? What do you know? Tony asks Kirk if he's married, and when he says no, Tony inveigles him to go over to the rest of the cabbys and he introduces them to everybody. Jim and the Cabbys make a big show of sitting Kirk next to a lane, and Bobby chimes in giving Kirk the lowdown on a lane.

It turns out weird. It's very weird. Turns out that Kirk is an art buff and when he hears that Elayne is working at the gallery, they Elaine and Kirk strike up a conversation which is all encouraged by the cabbys, and he asks her to dinner, which delights everybody because it's like they're all their main purpose now is to set a lane up with some guy. So weird, it's very weird. Elaine gives to say that when it seems like, oh, the plan is working, Wheeler does this move where he he I think he does it in Greece as well, where he wags his hand like like.

This is so hot, like. Which in my notes I wrote it's the same thing as like biting your fist, like like you bite so hot. That's that's the Lenny from Lenny and Squiggy from he used to do that right. Yeah, anytimes as sexy as a foot, you can wag your hand or bite it. Yeah, yeah, that that thing.

So Elaine gives Kirk her number and Kirk leaves, so we're off to the races. We cut to the garage where Elaine bops in. She's dancing, she's singing a song. She's so happy. Okay.

The first of all the transitional b roll had the crazy Joe Jackson like bit that they play from some time to time, and it's always weird because it really it really replicates a Joe Jackson number. And I'm waiting for him to start singing, and suddenly we're back in the fucking cab company very upbeat. There was a soundtrack album. I think I might have mentioned this. It's called The Genie by Bob James, and it is all basically music from Taxi.

I should try to find out which song that is the Cabby's all. Notice this improvement in Elaine's morale. She admits that Kirk is great and so far they're going everything's going awesome. They're really enjoying each other's company. Louis gives the assignments, the cab assignments out all except for Tony who's on the payphone with his Jim.

And at that point, this fellow Kirk Bradshaw walks into the garage. If I may. Before we get there, he gives out the cab assignments. He gives Reverend Jim starship three one four. Yeah, that's that's supposed to be pie, is it?

I thought it was. Maybe. I do love when they let Louis be Louie. An episode with Louie doesn't have to feature him as sensitive Louie or conniving Louie. This is we're just seeing every day Louis here where he's giving out these assignments and he's making snide comments up to Jim or whoever.

I love that it's because it's just a day in the life Louie. I was delighted. Yeah, just throwing Louis in and letting Di Palma be to Palma is all they ever need in episode. Like what we're seeing in this episode. In the previous episode we watched are sometimes they'll throw characters a stupid bit just to give them something to do.

You can't give to Palma something stupid to do. He'll make something funny. And the character is so flexible in that way. You just have to give him a few one liners and let him go to town and he will. He will deliver.

Devido will always deliver, no matter how small the bit. Kirk, like I said, walks into the garage and Louis starts pumping him for salacious details about his about Alane. Tony comes over talk to Kirk. Kirk wants to talk. He says there's something he wanted to talk to Elaine about since they met, but he can't find a way to do it.

Tony sits him down to talk it out. Kirk admits that he really likes Elaine, but he likes someone else too, which he says is a real problem. Kirk even says that he'd never even meant to get involved with Elane. He recounts to Tony when he approached them that night in Marios and asked if they were together. Kirk says, are you ready for this?

Father alone? What Elaine wasn't the one that he was after? And my god, oh my, there goes the neighborhood. Hb turn off the television before the children see this. Some of this is just so dated and so bad because he he says, well, Elaine's not the one that I was after, and he kind of gives he doesn't overplay it.

I'll say this, the actor doesn't overplay it. He just kind of looks at Tony for a beat, and Tony, being the simpleton, is confused at first, but then all of a sudden, the penny drops and he's like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no no no, like, how could you ever consider me attractive as another man? Like that's so foreign. Let me just say about that that shy and weirded out was not what I was expecting from Tony Batta. And it was kind of funny.

Because we know in reality it would have been a series of quick punches and Kirk Bradshaw going to the emergency. You're right, it is sort of refreshing that Tony doesn't respond with pure violence as we might expect him to, because he's been able be like, whoa. Wait, ain't like that? You know, it could have been just as simple as that. The rest of the episode, Tony learns a lesson.

They just skip over all of that shit and just go, I don't know, I feel about you liking me that way. It's less about dealing with Kirk and more about Tony feeling really really bad about Elaine and being confused about what all this means. And he knows that Elaine is so happy with Kirk and things are going well, and he doesn't want to spoil that because he's the one that fixed them up after all. But at the same time, he's uncomfortable. This really weighs heavily on him.

We fade back into the garage. We've gone to commercial. We fade back in. Tony is still sitting at the table. He's got about four cups of coffee, empty cups of coffee in front of him.

It's implied that he's been sitting there for a long time thinking about this and drinking cup of coffee after cup of coffee. He's got a very anxious look on his face. No one else in the garage. Let me ask you a question. Yeah, Tony's basic uniform on the show includes his New York Yankees satin jacket.

YEP with the big and Y on the on the front. Yeah, pretty iconic. Did you own any sports paraphernalia clothing as a child. No, nothing like that. I mean it, my dad liked sports, but it wasn't something I'll say that I grew up watching.

It was later in life that I got into like the Patriots and and so forth. But no, I never had a I certainly never liked a team enough to have a jacket, a satin jacket with their logo. Did you I didn't have a satin jacket. I had a fabric jacket that was blue and red and it was red Sox and but I also had a cap, but it was sort of old timy. But it's still blue and red.

But my favorite thing in the world was my T shirt that said Red Sox fever catch it. I remember that shirt. I remember that that was there like catchphrase for a time, right, was it? Like? Was it like a like a little like ribbon of a banner or something running through.

It was, I believe, like a ball with a ribbon behind it. I'm sure you can look it up and find it, but that's my memory of it. It's the kind of thing nowadays where I bet you if you went into Target to the children's section, there are just generic sports shirts and you get them for kids without them being real fans. It's just not something that was ever a big deal to me. I much preferred like, I had a Star Wars shirt with archwer D two and C three po said Star Wars blue shirt.

I had a Star Wars watch. Try and paint me as a jock and you anderd, I'll dope slap you. What are you talking about? I had? I had a C three po necklace in fucking preschool.

Was it his head on a necklace or was it his whole body? It was his whole body, a little jangly body. Also that the joints were hinged so that he could do Oh, that's kind of cool. Loved it, That's cool. Tony's sitting at the table deject, did not sure what to do.

Louie walks in, like I said, there's nobody else in the garage, but Louie walks in and harangues Tony to get out on the road, but Tony says he's not going. He's got a problem. By the way, I actually like the scene falla Blon. I love this scene them relating as Italians. Oh my god, it's just the two of them.

It's like this little pocket play in the middle of all of this where they kind of play off of each other. He says he's got a problem. Louis makes a joke about you know, oh I know, Banta. See the gas pedal is on this side and the brake pedals on that side. But he says Tony is desperate.

He says, leave him alone. Louis asks why Tony isn't confiding in Riager. That's what he normally would do, but Tony says they're always unloading on him and it's not good for Alex. Louis offers himself as a confidant, but Tony refuses to spill the beans. Louis says, I know how you feel.

He's got a problem of his own. Elementary psychled we can see what we know what Louie's doing because He's gonna like imply that I'll tell you my problem if you tell me yours. Very sick Tommy, very sitcomy be drawn out too. I don't understand why we're taking this long to do this stupid joke. But I love the interplay between them and and to your point, he even appeals to Tony as a fellow Italian.

He even says like paisan no, and then Tony says something back to him in Italian. I don't remember what it is, but it's funny because you can see Tony lightning up and feeling more comfortable with Louis because he's brought up like that. They're they're they're Italian brothers. You know. Either way.

Mid conversation, at one point there is a biting of a knuckle, just like we said earlier. Yeah, yes, I only noted it because I wrote down a the the wagging hand is just like biting your fucking knuckle or hand, and then they fucking do it later in the episode. Look, you're right, this is a long a long way for a kind of a silly joke, But I just I loved the journey to get there, because DeVito's really funny. Tony plays up the simple aspect of this whole thing. It's really funny.

Louise's idea is they're going to trade secrets. They're even going to write them down on papers and trade them so that they don't you know, there's no danger of somebody not disclosing their secret. Tony gives them the real secret that it says that Kirk made a pass at him, which delights Louis and is at the point where Louis kind of does the eh, he bites the knuckle. It's such a great fucking secret he's gotten out of. Yeah, his plan has come to fruition.

This is exactly what he hoped for. And my favorite line in the episode right here. Tony reads it and he's puzzled for a minute. No, it's not even that. It's what Louis says after he knows he's tricked him, where he just screamed, you're my favorite Banta.

What Louie's written to Tony is on his slip of paper, He's only written two words. Haha. He hasn't even written a fake secret. He's just laughing at Tony because he knows that he got him. Takes Tony a minute to figure out what happened, But it's just enough time for Louis, of course, to retreat to his cage, where he's got some kind of hermetic force field that no one can ever penetrate except Rieger.

Yeah, riger can get in there. He can get in. By the way, if this were an actual scenario where he was trying to beat on Louis, he would have scrambled through that little hole that he hands the assignments out through. You know, Banta could get through that. If this would, this would this scenario would end very very badly for Louis to palm if if if, if Banta was going for it.

Banta in this episode zigs a lot of the time when we think he's going to zag because we implied that he might have responded to the to Kirk making a pass to him with violence, but he doesn't do that, So maybe this is a kinder gentler Tony, I like it. I like this, Tony, I like it too well. The problem is when they don't include Tony in the main plot, we just get dumb Banta making stupid jokes, so we forget that he has a capacity to be a really good character. When they write him that good. Yeah, the episode wouldn't work as well, not nearly as well, if you had Bobby being the one who Kirk makes a proposition too.

Because the thing about it is Bobby is so street smart. He would have understood in ways that Tony doesn't, the politics of what's going on, and he would have been cool about it, like, hey, hey man, that's not my scene, but I'm really flattered. Like I could see him being like, hey, you know, laughing it off. Whereas this sends Tony almost into an existential crisis about what he's going to do. It wouldn't work as well with anyone else.

So it's really inspired what they do with Tony here, I think. So we cut to Marios. Tony is again sitting dejectedly at the bar when Bobby we just talked about Bobby. Bobby comes in, Tony says to Bobby, things aren't going great. Bobby asks, why aren't you drinking.

Tony admits that he had to give all his money to Louie, but he refuses to tell Bobby the story. We know that Louie basically extorted him all the money that he had on him so that he wouldn't divulge the secret by the way. I have to mention this. This is a side note. We don't see Tommy the bartender, which is a shame.

But the guy the bartender who serves up Tony his drink. Did you notice him at all? Did you look at him? He had like curly hair, he was weird. Well that's not what I picked out as the weird things.

He's got like a white button down shirt, but he has a clip on bow tie, father blone. But it's not clipped on, it's like halfway off of his If you think of somebody who's been to a party, a wild party, and now the bow tie is kind of hanging off to the side. But that's not the case. This is a guy who's just bartending in Marios. Why does he look like a slob?

Well, you gotta figure that's the end of his shift and maybe he worked too, because apparently Tommy's nowhere to be fucking seen. Where's Tommy? I guess so. But Tommy has Marios has a rep to protect. You can't have some slob, even if it's the.

End of the night that breakfast buffet. Don't give me this rep bullshit. That's right. Was that the Angela episode was that the breakth No, that wasn't that was burgers that they had. Yeah, it all looks bad.

Don't give me this. There's no reputation to it. Call they're not They're not in the Zagatz guy. This is true. Tony is talking to Bobby.

He lays out this hypothetical situation. He's trying to tell Bobby what's going on without naming names, which, by. The way, this is a fucking great performance by Wheeler because he's like. What is it? What do you call that?

When you're asking a question. It's like the hypothetical Yeah, yeah, yeah, Like what if you know a guy like he basically is asking him, how do you break it to somebody that their boyfriend or girlfriend is cheating on them? And will or what? He goes like, why are you asking me? That is so great because he's really fearful that his girlfriend is cheating on him.

He's probably thinking it anyway. Yeah, I love this because we see so precious little of Bobby in the last few episodes. This is kind of a nice little vignette of having him because it's very much in character for him. Bobby, as you said, he gets very suspicious. He thinks that it's about tonyas making a pass at his girlfriend, who he implies like she's done this before, she's kind of gotten interested in guys.

So what this does is basically Bobby storms out, saying something to the effect of, she's not gonna, I'm gonna give her a piece of my mind. She's not gonna he's gonna break up with her, basically for this hypothetical that she has nothing to do with. It's really funny. That's how you do a sea plot. That's how you fucking bring a character in just for one bit and like get them out, not fucking tired old sitcom jokes.

It's a little capsule moment. It's no more than about two or three minutes worth of screen time, but it's really funny. I love seeing Jeff Conaway, do you know, doing something besides just being the straight man for some stupid vaudeville joke that is thrown out there. So it's really funny. There's a again we talked about this in the last episode.

There's this weird adr of Elane asking if Tony is there, because because Bobby is stormed out, the implication is that outside Elaine is coming in. Oh right, yeah, there is a terrible lady and. Talking to Bobby. So the's adr of Elaine asking if Tony's in there and Bobby says yeah. So it's just weird, like it's it's as if they didn't trust the audience enough to connect the dots to have this additional moment of like, which is I didn't like it because it takes me out of the scene.

Really this adr it should because it sets up what is a stupid scenario, and the stupid scenario just needed to be a stupid scenario. It didn't need any extra help in being stupid pretty much. Elaine walks in and asks Tony if Kirk visited the garage. Tony panics at the mention of Kirk's name, but he refuses to talk about it with a Lane. She leaves to go home, where Loka comes out of nowhere to talk to Tony.

Here's I don't know Loka again is just sort of hanging around Marios since Tony won't talk to Loaka. Loca carries on a conversation, a made up conversation where he plays both Tony and Lotka, and it is glorious, Father Malone, because it's not Loaka doing a foreign man's spin on Tony's voice. It's Andy Kaufman doing his impression of Tony Banta. He God, it's going pretty good. Laka, it's so funny.

It means nothing to the episode, but I was I loved it. What did you think? We never get to hear a Locka doing this voice. We never get to hear Locka doing an American voice, never mind him making fun of fucking Tony Banta. U.

Yeah, I wrote spectacular where you said glorious. It's the best part of the entire fucking episode. It has no bearing on anything at all. Nothing. He can't coax Tony to talk.

Loca eventually just gently suggests let's get some drinks and we'll talk about it. But again, Tony says, I have no money, and besides, Loca, you wouldn't understand, but Loca says I would. The scene with Laca is going on longer than I even expected it would. Tony asks if he knows anything about bisexuals, and Loca says, sure, they're very I think I know where this is going. But the punchline has enough of a twist, so he says he asks lockup of bisexuals and Loca says, sure, they're very popular in my country.

Tony's surprised by this, and Locke goes on to say that in his country everyone owns one, and one of their favorite sports teams is racing them, and we all know that. Get them around and you lock them up, and oh, it's bicycles. He's mistaking the words. Right, And then Tony says, very vaudeville. He says, I'm not talking about bicycles, I'm talking about bisexuals.

And I rode here very ominously. Loca says, so am. I, and then he really walks away. Right, that's it. It's very disturbing, that's what I mean.

This is so disturbing because you think it's going to be just a joke about bisexual bicycle. Loca will throw out one of his well, thank you very much and leave. But no, when he tries to correct him that, no, you don't know what you're talking about, Lacke says, yes, I know the word. I know what you're talking about, and then he leaves. So are we to believe that bisexuals hold a very strange place in Laca's culture?

Biletom alone. The thing is, had it been a couple of references to bicycles, then it wouldn't be quite so freaky. But he's so specific about riding around on them and locking them up outside and then so now you have to conjure back up everything he has just said, and imagine that someone doing this to another person, and like, and it's a society where it's cool. It's a weird place to take the taxi viewer And I don't know if this was Kaufman or the writers, but whoever did it, God bless. He comes in, he breathes into the scene, he leaves this bizarre, are weird obam and then he just he's gone, He's out.

It's a delight. I mean, Andy Kaufman is so good. Laka leaves just as Alex now comes in and orders a beer. Tony goes over to talk to him, and he admits defeat. Basically says I tried working out this problem, Alex, but I really need you to help me out.

But Alex stops him. He says, he refuses to answer sentences to begin with I need your help. He doesn't want to hear it. He's through solving people's problems, and after he gets this rant out, Tony asks you finished, to which Alex says, yeah, Now, what's your problem? So I think we've seen Alex do this before where he protests, like, don't give me these problems.

All right, what's your problem? So whatever, it's. Fine Vaudeville goth version Vaudeville. Tony says that Kirk may not be right for a lane, which kind of settles Alex. Alex says, well, that's your problem, he says, Tony, we picked a winner.

Kirk is perfect for a lane. Kirk Branshaw's a thoroughbred Tony. Tony says that Kirk wants to date him, and that's when Alex gets incredulous and says, you must have misunderstood. But then Tony says that Kirk's exact words were his simplicity is engaging and they'd be wonderful together, which is not something that Tony would cook up on his own. So we know he's telling the truth.

And Alex said that, and he meant it exactly. He said, basically, you're a dummy, but I think fun. You'd be fun to be around. Tony is concerned about the impact on a lane, but Alex says rightfully that Kirk is the one that should be telling a Lane about all this business. Tony tries to convince Alex to tell her, but Alex insists Tony should be the one to do it.

But then Tony begs Alex to at least come along as more support. Here's where things get really interesting. Bon we cut to Alex entering another bar. This isn't this isn't Marios. This is someplace different, another great job by set designed by the way, it's big.

There's an actual bar, there's places to sit, there's a lobby. There's even a separate area with two pinball machines in the back. Did you see that I did. It's an amazing fucking set. All the ferns and accent lighting you could ever want.

We must be in a gay bar. In fact, it is so well decorated that one can assume that maybe Bobby Wheeler himself is a homosexual, considering his fucking painting is hanging on the back wall. I knew you were going to pick up on that. I wrote that down in the area where they're playing pinball, where those pinball machines are on the wall, is the painting that Bobby picked out in the artwork episode. It's the photorealistic painting of the outlet, the electrical outlet that you and I were both delighted by in that episode.

I still want that painting in my house. That thing is awesome. Maybe a little bit of a faux pas on the part of the set designers because that episode didn't It wasn't like that episode was like five years ago. That was a pretty recent episode and that's a pretty iconic painting. That was last season.

Though this show doesn't hit reruns yet. This is third season. They figured no one's watching these more than once, go ahead and throw it in there. And that's a great point because I've you know, we've we've watched these episodes over and over and over again, so I maybe we're just more likely to pick up on that. I was thrilled to see his painting back there, because clearly there's a prop warehouse somewhere, and the set designers are like, yeah, it could be one of those pinm mall machines and one of those Oh that painting, that's perfect.

There's Warhol prints on the wall, it's very well decorated. But the thing of it is, there's a preponderance of men with mustaches. There's not one woman in the whole bar. Which is a gay bar. For Okay, it's a gay bar on national television in nineteen eighty one, so let's just appreciate that.

But sure, but it is a gay bar featuring homosexuals from nineteen eighty one. All of the style is terrible. Everyone looks awful early. That transition from seventies to eighties is so fucking awkward, like nobody knows what they're doing yet. On the one hand, and that's kind of where I'm conflicted about this episode a little bit.

On the one hand, it's actually really really progressive and cool that this primetime sitcom in nineteen eighty featured a gay bar. It's very straightforward. I mean, Alex walks in, there's a conversation. Things get a little bit stereotypical shortly, but for the most part, you know, it's treated very normally. There's people there playing pinball, having drink, seating.

It's just a bar that happens to feature gay men. I thought that was wonderful. This episode is kind of genius because it's dealing with bisexuality and homosexuality. Really my just treating it as another variable to be plugged into the sitcom machine. It's just another humorous complication.

There's no greater debate we have to have here. Fuck you, Angela Matusa. I knew you're gonna bring her up again. Alex walks in. He meets Kirk Kirk sitting at a table by the bar.

He asked Kirk if Tony's there yet. Kirk says that Tony's been delayed. Alex is clearly a little bit uncomfortable, especially when because Kirk confirms for him that yes, it is a gay bar, which makes Alex stammer and fumble a bit when Kirk asks him if he's ever been there before. I mean, it's it's just a bar. I mean, it's not no big deal.

This being nineteen eighty, obviously, there's a little bit of apprehension on this straight guy Alex. Alex tries to broach the subject of Elaine to Kirk, but Kirk informs him that he already talked to Elaine and told her that he's bisexual, and he goes on to say that he and Elaine are still friends. It's okay if Tony's not interested, which I got to say. The actor who played Kirk, He's not playing up any stereotypical aspects of who he is. He's just he just seems like a really good guy.

He understands that Tony's not interested and that Elaine maybe didn't bargain for somebody who's bisexual. But it's totally cool. He plays it really well. No, he's great here. And I gotta say that they wrap up all those plots with just a few words from this guy.

It's a snap of a finger and it's done. Pretty fucking great, and you don't feel short changed at all. What you're saying it ties into what I said, which is that everything's just treated so fucking matter of factly here that it's kind of a marvel looking back on it. Yeah, and all of this is a total relief to Alex because he figured that there'd be some difficulty navigating this complicated situation with Lane. But what you just said, it's all resolved in two lines from Kirk, and he's like, Oh, that's such a relief.

Hey, you know what, let's get a couple of beers. You want a beer, Kirk. So now he's loosened up. He's like, my job is over. Now it can.

Relax, and now let me say that, in the spirit of everything that just came before, the matter of factness, that we're not being weird about homosexuality, we're not being weird about the plot contrivances so far that I'm going to give a pass to the gay panic joke that they've chosen to end the episode on. This is where I really got conflicted, because what happens is this giant of a man walks over to the table and asks Alex if he wants to dance. Alex assumes that he's there for Kirk, but the guy insists that he wants to dance with Alex. Alex says no, no, no, no, I don't really, but the guy basically man handles Alex onto the dance floor whisks him around the bar in this would be dance, and the audience is going crazy with after this is like the funniest thing they've ever seen, because he's dipping Alex, he's twirling him around, he's picking him up, they're doing dance moves.

The uproarious laughter at this tableau was a little disappointing. Uh yeah, in that all the jokes are it's two guys, right, But I will counter that that the guy who has chosen Alex to dance with is a giant of a man, and he is very, very graceful. So the joke I thought it was funny seeing a man that enormous that you just think is just you would think of him as the bouncer of the bar, if anything, and to see him move in such a lie the manner, I thought was very amusing. None of the isn't it funny that Alex is being forced into this situation? Was very funny, But.

I guess you know, look, it's no worse you have. It's the same as fucking animal house. Do you mind if we dance with your dates? It's kind of the same thing, but that's equally troubling. But they're just going for all out physical comedy here at the end.

I think it's part of their plan to sidestep any of the religious groups that might have protested even mentioning homosexuality. And TV show. Sure, and the actual choreography of this dance is really well done. Like you said, this gentleman who's dancing with Alex is super graceful and capable of doing all these lifts and things with Alex, and Alex ends up getting into it. I think he picks him up and puts him on the bar, and Alex does the sort of John Travolta points in the disco move, which is.

A little embarrassing for everyone. Pretty much, but at least this guy who who's dancing with Alex. There's never a moment where he's not deadly serious about the dance, which I guess is kind of admirable. He just wants to dance with this guy. The punchline is Tony walks in and he's stunned because I think the whole bar at that point is clapping and dancing and really into the whole scene.

And I think Tony says something like Elaine's hat is getting broken and you're here having a good time. You know. It's that's the punchline. Hey, you know, punchline. It's terrible.

He should have said nothing at all. He should have just turned and walked out. Yeah, maybe he just shook his head and been like, ah, you know, Alex said it again to your original point, because there's so much about this episode that I would rate as fairly progressive in terms of how they treat bisexuality, I'm willing to overlook the cheap humor of let's watch these two guys dances and that funny haha. That's you know, it is what it is. It's the times I'm willing to let it go.

We fade back into the garage. This is a little bit of a bumper. At the end of the episode, Tony is holding up a trophy at the poker table, which evidently Alex won for being the best dancer that night. Alex is sort of lost in thought. Tony makes a crack about Alex dance with that guy, to which Alex grabs the trophy back.

Hey, that's mine. Don't take that, because Alex doesn't care whatever. He's you know, he's happy he won this trophy. It's been a weird night for them both. That's it.

Jim wanders in. We have one last joke about the trophy. I don't remember what it was. It's not that consequential, but that's effectively the. End, and there's some forced laughter and everyone's in blue jeans once again.

Pretty much. Now we're going to talk about yellow lights. What does a yellow light mean? Reminder, we score the episodes on a scale from one to five yellow lights. One yellow light is the worst taxi episode.

Five is the best, and as is our custom following Malone, I'm gonna throw to you, what do you give the lanes Strange Triangle. Four yellow lights? Easily? Four yellow lights? I wish I could give it five.

There are too many problems with it, but of what we've gotten so far this season, this is fucking head and shoulders above everything. Man, I just really enjoyed this episode a lot. Really, Yeah, I'm kind of shocked. I'm happy that you enjoyed the episode. I'm just surprised that you rated it so high for all.

The reasons previously stated. It's a hot button issue that they managed to do so delicately and in a very funny way, and to remind us of the comedy in every fucking situation, no matter where you're falling on a political or religious spectrum. They give every character their own beat. All the character beats are funny and in keeping with those characters, we got a return of Latka here, who fucking kills it with his tony impression. Like, there's so much to recommend this episode.

I gave it three yellow lights, but now I'm second guessing my choice because, as I said before, I love that they kept the Kirk character fairly realistic and matter of fact. There's nothing outrageous about him, and the he's just the guy who happened. If you were going to have a gay character on your show, he was going to be a lisping sort of stereotype. You were gonna get the same hello kind of character. The fact that it's just this dude who for most of the episode we assume is heterosexual.

In the way he approaches the romance with Elaine and then it approaches Banta in the same exact way, it's fucking great. I agree with you there, I don't. I didn't love the way that they use the dance in the gay bar as a cheap joke, but again, that's I have to just figure that's the time. That would play very differently now if it was on a television show in modern time, and Laca's tony impression is at least worth a yellow light, at least because it's such a hot it's so weird. The whole scene with him about the bicycle bisexuals is just so out of left field, and it doesn't really resolve itself and the way you'd expect.

I guess I'm going to give this four yellow lights. You've convinced me, father alone, I'm going to give this four yellow lights for all of those reasons we've talked about. It's progressive without being heavy handed. I liked it four yellow lights. You know what, I would give it five if Alex Rieger at the end, if it hadn't been a forced situation, if the guy had come up and said you want to dance, and Rigo just been like, Eh, well, why the hell not and then just gone for it instead of like him trying to get out in an aggressive congo line chasing him back.

And if it had just been Alex fucking having the time of his life and then Banta walks in, that would have been great. Five yellow lights then. But as it stands, I enjoyed this more than I remember enjoying it previously because thinking it through, I think this is a pretty cool episode for a lot of reasons. So four from you for from me. That's gonna do it for this episode of night, mister Walters, Father Malone, where can folks find you when you're not clocked into the garage.

Well, you can find me and HP over at Fusco Fest on my show Midnight Viewing. HP and I are working through the filmography of screenwriter John Fusco. So far we've got Young Guns and Young Guns Too, a Crossroads in the camp. We've got a lot of great episodes in the future, including The Babe About the Babe, Ruth, the biography of him. I don't think either of us have seen that, so that should be interesting.

Underheart, we're going to be doing Oh man, I love thunder It anyway, check us out over at midnight viewing. That's where I am when I'm not here. There you go. Fusco Fest has been a true delight to do with you fallom alone. I love everything all of our podcasting that we do, but it's been so special for me because these are movies that are kind of in the fabric of when I was a kid, you know, in high school and so forth, and being able to revisit them with you in this context has been really, really fun.

So I would and hopefully that translates when you listen to it. Folks out there, so give it a shot. As for myself, you can find me also in other areas of the weirding Way Network. I host the Noise Junkies music podcast. I'm also an occasional guest on The Culture Cast with Chris Dashi and I have a bandcampsite hpmusicplay dot bandcamp dot com.

Please check that out. If you want to check out some of my music again, that's gonna do it for us here. Thank you again for listening. Please feel free to subscribe to this podcast, write a review, rate us. We'd love to hear from you in any manner you choose.

For myself and for Father Malone. Thank you again for listening and we'll see you again next time. Nis