Episode 57 - Out Of Commission

Weird way media. NI. Mister Walters, you see that guy with it now? He's an actor a phone. I'm a can't drive.

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 is my co host, Father Malone. Father Malone? How are you this evening?

HP? We gotta make this episode snappy. I gotta stick us to the fights. We're going to see Curly Anderson versus Irish Bobby Fallon. Ah, you beat me to the punch.

See what I did there? So we're talking Taxi Season three, episode twelve, out of commission. This was written by Sam Simon and directed by James Burrows. Reminder, we're doing these shows in broadcast order and not in order of filming. Now we start, Father Malone.

You, like I said, you beat me to the punch. We start on an external nighttime shot of the Madison Square Garden. This isn't some mockup of an arena that you know we're being presented with here. First things first, Father Malone, don't you think it's kind of refreshing that Madison Square Garden hasn't fallen victim to naming rights like so many other venues have. Like for me and I'm sure for you this is true.

The most notorious is Great Woods in Mansfield, Massachusetts. That became that that was great Wood Center for the Performing Arts forever, and then it became the Tweeter Center in ninety nine. Then it became the Comcast Center in two thousand and eight, and now it's been the Exfinity Center since twenty fourteen. But I personally, I think it robs a classic venue of so much of its personality. I agree with you, But then I think about Wrigley Field and how iconic that's.

But that wasn't a victim of naming rights in the New millennium. That was you know, the Wrigley Bubblegum Company or whatever. Back in probably the twenties. That was the stadium. And I'm fine with that.

If look, if Great Woods had been built by Andrew Carnegie, it was Carnegie Center for the Performing Arts, I would have been fine with it. But my problem is that it just doesn't have any style to it. The Exfinity Center is soulless. Well you know what, I lost all my help when we lost the Boston Garden, So. That is true.

That is true once that became the fucking Fleet Center. What the fuck was that? Like? No, thank you. I love the fact that Madison Square Garden is still just that Madison Square Garden, so true style is not dead in that respect.

HB. This episode takes place on April the fifth, nineteen eighty. I saw that. Yeah, this Saturday. By the way, is it April fifth was a Saturday?

Erroneously reported that Sterling K. Brown was born on that day. He was actually born in seventy six. Interesting April fifth, though, Oh okay. Well you said this up top, but there's a visible marquee for Madison Square Garden that is advertising the main event, as you said April fifth ten, Browns heavyweights Curley Anderson like you said, versus Irish Bobby Fallon.

Now I did. Maybe you didn't do this, but I did a search online to see if these are real fighters, and I'm sad to report they don't appear to be even bad or I couldn't find any record of who these guys are. Now, they spent their b roll budget on getting Madison Square Garden and put that on their side. We cut inside the dressing room as a Losy Tony. He's in boxing gear.

He's being carried in to the locker room by Alex and a couple of other guys. By the sounds of it, he was on the losing end of a fight. Tony's manager, Lulu comes in with Tony's opponent and his manager the other boxer. He's Gun. He's referred to his Shotgun, and he's played by Jesse Goins.

I hope him pronouncing jesse. Goins, Goins, Goins, you're correct. Goins, Jesse Goins. He's doubtless best known as Joe, one of the members of the gang that brutally murders Murphy in nineteen eighty seven's RoboCop. That's where I knew him from.

You didn't know who it was, Father Malone. No, because I was so focused on the fighter we're going to meet later. Ah Okay. He's the one who uhh when they're brutalizing poor Peter Wellery. Does it hurt?

Does it hurt? That's him. He's one of the gang members that eventually gets his comeupance. Anyway, Tony apologizes to Shotgun for not giving him a good fight and remarks how classy it is for Shotgun to check on Tony, and on the way out, Shotgun ended up complaining to his manager on walking into the wrong locker room. So, unfortunately Tony bott mil Lulu proceeds to give Tony his take for the fight, which is three hundred and fifty dollars father alone, which in twenty twenty five money is approximately twelve hundred and eighty dollars.

It's not a bad take for a fight. Yeah, but he's at Madison Square Garden, so he should be getting a little bit more than that. Well, he's well, we know over the past three seasons he's not a good fighter. He's probably on. Nevertheless, he is in the undercard, he's at the garden that's square and around simultaneously, then Lulu.

Takes out all these fees. It's like it's like that old Cosby show where Feo was gonna go away. He wanted to go and remember that where Cosby is like, okay, here's your five hundred dollars, but then you got one hundred for rent, so on you got fifty for this and he ends up with nothing. I do remember that, HP. Listen.

I miss Malcolm Jamal Warner too. But we have to stop talking about the Cosby Show. Rip Malcolm Jamal Warner. After all of this is said and done, poor Tony is left with only twenty dollars, which in today's money is seventy three dollars, so not a lot of money. Then or now, the doctor Doc Webster comes in to examine Tony.

He clearly isn't liking what he's seeing. He quizzes Tony on his record, how many knockouts he's had? Who's this doctor? Who is this actor? He looked very familiar.

I didn't look him up, though, I regret that I didn't. I know Lulu Carmine COREDI yes, yes, he's been in a ton of stuff, a lot of He was in a Tail from the Dark Side I covered over a midnight viewing. He was in The Godfather three. It's a bunch of those actors and Godfather three, but I mainly remember him from He's the contractor, not Joe Mantegnet, the other one in the money pit, who is like, well, you're not going to offer me a drink? He's like, it's ten am, and and then he like gives him, He gives him a scotch and then Carmen coreed is like, Oh, you save the good stuff for somebody else.

The actor has the capacity to be very menacing. Here he's actually very very nice, and he's looking out for Tony, so he's he's quite he's quite sympathetic here. I guess. The doctor assures them that nothing requires immediate medical attention, but he does bring up the notion of Tony quitting boxing. He brings up the example of another fighter that didn't quit when he should have, and now he can't hold a job, he can't drive a car.

Even then, obviously the effects of a life spent getting hit in the head were just starting to be understood. Now I'm supposed to feel bad for all the fun I've been having at Tony's expense for the past few seasons, knowing it's all injuries. It does put things in a new light, that's for sure. Doc Webster recommends that Tony quit boxing, and he says he's going to take Tony's case to the medical board. But Tony is stubborn.

He says he ain't quitting boxing. But I think we know where this is going, especially due to the title of the episode. HP. Then you nearly lose your mind because you find out your boy has got a glass jaw? What is that from?

So you want to be a boxer? And the gold enering you don't know Bugsy Malone's so you want to be a boxer. He didn't come to mind. I'm sorry, sure. My god.

And he needs to lose your mind when you find out your boy's got a glass y'all. So you might as well quit if you got got it. Put him in the ring, Joe Chicken, ala cart, let me have a wing, Joe tearing him apart. Come on, man, you're actually singing it like Paul Williams. I love it.

Uh No, I'm singing it like the characters and the thing which are just singing it like Paul Williams. I've heard both verses. Yeah, he is there like a demo of him singing that song somewhere. Oh yeah, absolutely, he just got the Yeah, there's tracks of him doing all of those songs. By the way, Hi Ivan, Hello.

So we cut to the garage after a quick sequence in which Louis on the phone is cajoled by his mother into singing Happy Birthday to her. It's kind of a little charming little sequence. The action shifts to the poker table. Does it shift there before we know who wrote and directed this episode by any chance. I already said Sam Simon and James Burrows.

Oh you did say Sam Simon, because and I would like to talk about Sam Simon, this being his first episode of Taxi. Yeah, please do. This is the Simpsons guy, right. This is the Simpsons guy. So he had been puttering around doing little writing jobs here and there, wrote a spec script.

This is a spec script he wrote for Taxi. Actually knowing now the episode that makes a hell of a lot of sense. So they bought this and then hired him as a staff writer for seasons four and five, which he remained on. This is kind of a monumental episode actually, not talking about the quality of the episode, but a lot of things in this episode I think are inspirations for other things later. But Sam Simon would as you said, he's one of the creators of the Simpsons.

Really, I mean he was the one who did it on Tracy Allman. He was a writer on the Tracy Almond Show, so he ended up writing a lot some of those early Simpsons shorts that would appear on the Tracy Allman Show. So when he started on Simpsons, he wrote with them until like the fourth season, and was like a major producer on it and was evidently like butting heads with Matt Groening from the get go, and Sam Simon always felt that Graining was getting too much credit for work that he was doing, and he felt that he wasn't getting paid enough, And eventually when he left, he negotiated a deal because he was essentially suing them because he you know, he argued that he had started The Simpsons with them, was one of the creators because of his work from Tracy Allman, and ended up getting a deal where he was getting ten percent of merchandising from The Simpsons from than On, meaning he was making tens of millions of dollars a year for doing nothing, which obviously I'm not saying he was doing nothing.

He earned every dime of that money. Yeah, but the merchandising, at least in the prime Simpsons years was astronomical. I couldn't go to Newbury Comics without seeing a full wall of Simpson's figures, plushies, fake Duff beer cans. It was insane, So that I'm not surprised, wasn't he didn't He end up marrying Jennifer Tilley. He did, in fact well, their marriage ended in ninety one, but she still gets I think thirty percent of his Simpson's money.

Now, I knew that she was still reaping the benefits of that marriage, but. How most do you make a living playing poker and being a fabulous actress. Seriously, he's no longer with us, am I correct? Correct? Yeah, he died.

I think like ten twelve years ago. Maybe I won't give Sam Simon all that much credit for the Simpsons. I think George is the reason we're still talking about the Simpsons to this day, over matc Graining, over Sam Simon, over most of that original staff. I think his voice and his sensibility was what guided that show in the early years and suffused all of the best episodes. One last note about the Simpsons.

It's still astonishing to me that the Simpsons is still around because they were new when you and I were in high school. Fought them alone almost forty fucking years ago, and they're still around. It's crazy. Here was the slogan, I remember the Simpsons coming to save the nineties because the nineties were right around the corner. So Elaine walks in.

She's wearing a two big sweatshirt and a fuzzy purple beret. Now, before I could say she Elaine looks frumpy today, she asks Alex and Bobby do I look frumpy today? I mean this literally was the thought process that went through. We all thought frumpy when she walked in with that fuck This is Elaine's entire plot for this episode right here. Pretty much, this is it.

She asks Alex and Bobby do I look frumpy? And they reluctantly agree. She admits that it's by intent. She says she's sick of guys hitting on her while she's driving, so she figured she'd trump it up to keep them away. But it's backfiring because she just gets hit on by a crummy r class of creep.

I did want to mention something about Elaine's outfit, Okay, yeah, please, because it is one of the things I think when I mentioned that this episode inspired many things, I think this might be the inspiration for Princess song Raspberry Beret, because if Prince was watching television in nineteen eighty and so Mary Lou Henner in that hat, that would have inspired me to have written that song as well. I know it's years away, but I'm telling you they planted the seat. Maybe he saw a rerun, but it. Was a purple beret. It's not really raspberry.

No, it was not purple. It was too dark for that. It had too much black there it was. That's a raspberry color. It could be.

And it has to be said, despite the frumpiness of her outfit, she's still beautiful. Oh that was That's the ridiculous things. She's still got this maine of beautiful red hair and these icy blue eyes staring at you and like, now, well, because I'm wearing this trash bag, I'm ugly, right, yeah, you're you're fucking hideous now. So the phone rings and Jim who I don't know if you noted this. He's actually sleeping face down on one of the cabs when he's woken up father bah Love.

I thought it was a funny little touch. You wonder what what what what does his day consist of? Like he's just he's literally like Forrest Gumpli the feather floating in the breeze, kind of going from place to place. Right, I did notice how fucking dusty that cab was for the first time ever, no dusty, which made me think how long has that been sitting there on the set? Somebody should dust that cat.

I mean, it's a working garage that cabs would be moving in and out. We're all supposed to believe that that's a different cab sitting there. Speaking of technical flaws, I got to go back to the opening scene in the locker room at Madison Square Garden, where my focus the entire time, unfortunately, was in the top right corner of the screen, where I was watching the boom mic dancing around. I didn't notice that, and I'm usually very quick to pick up on that. It makes it.

It makes a return appearance later in the episode. So but you know, but one thing I wonder is is it possible that that is because of the broadcast versus the DVD version. Maybe you're getting more of. The reject I reject that. All right, I just I'm trying to be charitable, I guess.

But framed down, sir, frame down? Yeah, Well, what are you gonna do? Jim picks up the phone. He fumbles the call, and then it rings again and Bobby picks it up. This time it's Doc Webster for Tony.

The quickness this is like the next day, right, It is the next day, so that doctor went to work that evening. He's super concerned about Tony. I mean, that's to be committed. He tells a story like he knew a guy who he didn't advise and he ended up being a vegetable. So it's this kind of serious episode.

Ultimately you get. The sense that there's no there's no subterfuge with Doc Webster. He's genuinely concerned about Tony's well being and he doesn't want to see him end up like this, this example that he brings up. So yeah, he apparently he went to the boxing commission the very next morning. And here we are, hb this, Okay, this is just another episode where like we had the episode with Elaine's rival who when she's trying to contact Elaine, calls the payphone at the garage.

Now this guy, the doctor who has spoken to the commission or is this the doctor from the commission, is. Called dock Webster. This dock Webster, so he's calling the garage payphone. Why is nobody calling Sunshine cap I'll tell you why. I know exactly why.

And I think I might have brought this up in the past because Tony and the rest of the cabbies know if somebody calls and leaves a message with Louis, they're going to have to pay money to get that message from Louie. He's always you're. Telling me that when when anyone is getting a call here, it's because these cab drivers have given that number out as their number. Call me at this number. Yeah, I think that's the case.

Why are none of them giving their home phone numbers? Because clearly the cabbies are spending more time in the garage than they're spending at home. I mean, look at we talked about the the the masquerade Ball episode, the costume party. Where do they go after the costume party? They went right over to Sunshine Cab in their costumes.

Why pizza and beer? I asked that same question, Why are they going back there? It didn't make sense. HP. I think this is lingering effects from John Burns's evil spells from season one.

Yeah. I don't know why, but I feel a magnetism. I can't leave this garage. I don't know why, though, you know, is it weird? Is it strange?

Even if you put the money, the extortion out of the picture, they don't want to risk Louis like, can you imagine if Elaine's rival, her friend from high school called, and there's so much opportunity for Louie to embarrass Elaine that she doesn't want to risk that. All I'm saying is Elaine would have given her home phone number. Maybe she gave her book Let's Not Forget. Also, this is a time when you didn't really have voicemail. You had call services, and some people had answering machines.

Do you remember answering machines? Father Blone, Of course I loved my answering machine. I little micro cassette one. Yeah, I had two cassettes. One was the outgoing, one was for the recorder right right.

And you'd always try to come up with the funniest, like you know, outgoing message. Sometimes you do like hello, Hello, I'm just kidding. This is a this is a message. Leave a message after the beep you know something, or maybe like a song. Remember that that TV commercial for like the funny.

For the you gotta leave the name, you got to leave your number, wait for the beep. Crazy Calls a tape of seven different songs and funny recordings for answering machines. I am very sorry that I'm not to take your call, and I will get. Message out to give someone the gift of God for their answering machine. Lit a friend.

What you've actually done is but one way ticket to the answering machines. Nobody's, nobody's but I'm not home, but I'll be back till you got crazy calls, A tape of seven different songs and funny recordings for only fourteen ninety. Five, you got, you gotta leave, I guess my My point there is like we take voicemail and cell phones and everything for granted now, but back then, it wasn't that easy to leave a message for somebody. You had to have an answering service or an answering machine, and that those weren't cheap. So I could see that.

I could see them wanting to cover their bases. Also, it's lazy writing. They just have all the characters in one place and they need to have a phone sometimes, and they're doing this run around the Louis problem that you're bringing up. Also, I'd like to point out that Alex is wearing a blue quilted vest over a red and white plaid shirt, and it's bizarre. It's one of many bizarre fashion choices in this episode, like Elaine Smock ends up looking the best.

Somehow, Tony pleads with the doctor for a minute and he hangs up dejectedly. The rest of the cabby's asking what happened, and Tony announces that they just took away his boxing license. Now they all react sympathetically, But as I expected, father, and I said to myself an Isialely, I said, I'm just waiting for Elaine to say this, and she did, which is she says, She admits to Tony that she's relieved that he's done boxing because she hated seeing him get his head beat in. And Bobby Actually, Bobby deserves some credit here. You're a terrible boxer, Tony.

But but the thing is, he knows how conflicted Tony is about giving up boxing, so he's giving him a real dose of tough love. Here. He says, not even in so many words. He literally says the words that you said, you're not that great a boxer, Tony. He tries to be delicate, but that's basically what he's saying.

And but Tony actually agrees with him for them alone. He says, he's gotta know he's not that stupid. I mean, you lose that many bouts and you get knocked out that many times, you know you're not doing something right. Right. He says he gave up on his title dreams a long time ago.

He relates anecdote of the perfect combo that he threw during a one momentous fight. He says, basically, if I can only have strung it's his on the waterfront speech, right, I could have been a contender. I could have been somebody like. He's like, look, I touched greatness briefly in one fight, and if I could only have strung more of those together, maybe I would have made something of myself. But he says, without that special feeling that he gets in the boxing ring, he's just the cab driver, to which Bobby suddenly mister sensitivity.

This is new for him. He points out that Alex is just the cab driver, but Alex ends up playing it off with humor. He's fine with it because, as we know, it's. A callback to the original thing. It's a call back to the credits of this show.

Yeahah, cab driver here. Yeah. Anyone who listens to the theme of this show knows that the only cab driver in the whole garage is Alex So there's no insult there. I think it's a badge of her for alex. So.

Louis comes over to give the cabby's grief for just standing around, and Tony gives him the bad news. Louis, oddly enough, seems to take it kind of hard, but then he admits it's only because he's made a fortune betting against Tony. And then Elaine calls Louis on his callousness. Louis says, this is kind of weird. This subplot I was a little uncomfortable with because I don't know, just there is something troubling about the visual Louis says he's saving up for an operation for his mother.

Oh yeah, and then Elaine asks what's wrong. Louis says, female problems. She's starting to not look like one. What are we supposed to make of this father alone? Is Is it menopause related?

What is going on with his mother? His mother is ancient and has now stopped looking like a woman or a man. Just is just a human thing now, I think is the idea. For some reason, I kept thinking of the elderly characters in the Texas Chainsaw Mamassacre Part two where they're just so oh, you know, it's like it is it a man or? Yeah, let's take that premise for a minute.

What kind of operation could possibly like? Are we talking plastic surgery on our face? Yeah, that's what I guess the idea is. I don't know. There was something off putting about the whole notion, and I'm not sure I'm totally on board with the whole.

Joke, but it's a weird runner. But go for it, guys. It is very weird. And this isn't the last we'll hear of it either, which is even more troubling. We fade out and we're back into the garage.

Sometime later, Lane's given up on the whole frumpy gambit. Okay, I got to jump in now, because what the fuck is Bobby Wheeler wearing? HP He's wearing this checked sport coat over this royal blue sweater. Like that's not weird enough to be wearing a to be wearing any sport coat over a sweater is just bizarre, but this color combination is something to behold. And then for what's covering his legs?

Jeans? Jeans? Because everyone in this episode is from the fucking Twilight Zone. Did Alex help him pick out those clothes? Because that's the only explanation, you know what, HB.

Honestly, I went away for a second because I finally got into I think you should leave? Oh yeah, yeah, okay, it finally clicked with me. Okay, and I watched I watched the entire run and I laughed myself silly yesterday watching it. And there was one joke where it's a character basically this a guy crashed the Wienermobile into a party, right, and so he's standing there in a hot dog suit and somebody says, you're dressed like a hot dog. You're the only one dressed like a hot dog, and he goes, no, that guy is.

And they pan over to another and he's wearing a tan suit with a red shirt and a yellow tie, and he looks down and he goes, oh, damn. It does require a very specific mindset or a specific sensibility, because I've tried watching it too, and. You're laughing it just it was so funny as a gag, and then my mind immediately went to who thinks of that? Like, what frame of mind do you seem to be in to think over the sketch in general, but then to come up with a guy dressed in a suit that you could mistake for a hotbuck. I don't know, man.

Elaine asks Bobby how Tony's been doing, and Bobby figures he's just trying to work out his thing by himself, this whole losing boxing thing. And Elaine confesses she doesn't know what the problem is. Bobby patronizingly responds that boxing is Tony's life. It's like if he had to give up, acting like, I don't understand what's so hard for Lane to grasp. This is Tony's whole identity.

It's like when you have these football players that have been playing they're forced to retire. They got no fucking clue what they're going to do with their life. Elaine can't imagine a passion that involves being punched in the face. She can understand Bobby's passion for it because it's an artistic band. She doesn't understand sports in general, and she just hates boxing as a blood sport in general.

And all she sees is Bobby. I mean all she sees is Tony showing up time after time completely bloodied and bruised at the garage. She can understand passion, but at the same time, there's a physical toll being taken here. It's not like, oh, I didn't get the I didn't get the job. It's true, but her her passions mean that she has to make some sacrifices too.

She's passionate about art and because of that passion, she has to hold down two jobs just to support herself and her kids while she pursues that part time. I don't know, it's she knows how much it means to Tony, and that's really all that should matter. Elaine's in Elaine's favor. She's about to do my favorite thing in the episode they said up the joke where Louis calls down like he's like, who I have never heard anyone from the stage, Like no, just the playwrights and the audience and whatever. Yeah, And as he's fucking doing it, Elaine, without speaking mouths the words I'm sorry because she knows she set up the situation for that to happen.

It was awesome. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't call that out because I don't like to call out all all of the jokes in an episode. But yeah, there Louis makes a joke at at a at Bobby's expense about giving up acting. But I didn't notice what you're talking about that.

Elaine actually kind of you see this wordless. She mouths the words I'm sorry to him, and like he sees it like is kind of shrugging, like, what are you gonna do? Oh, that is a good call out. I didn't. I didn't see that at all.

Tony's manager Lulu comes in and Alex introduces him around to the rest of the Cabby's apparently fatherm alone. His full name in this episode is Lulu Pantuso. Well, that's the other innovation here, and it's really it's sort of hammered home at the end of this episode. I didn't want to jump to the end, but I will because you're bringing this up. I think this is where Cheers is born.

I think this episode is the birth of Cheers because what we're talking about here is I know Sam Simon wrote this one, but the Charles Brothers and now solid producers on this episode, and this is about a washed up athlete and his manager named Pantuso. And at the end, the fucking music if I hadn't been watching an episode of Taxi and I had been in the other room, I would have said, oh, an episode of Cheers just ended. There's something about the way the piano goes. It's almost like a kind of a thing at the very end. So I'm convinced that the wheels started turning in the Charles Brothers minds after this episode aired.

I'm inclined to agree, especially when we get to it. The ending has a little bit. Of that many years sort of like not Maudlin, but like poignant moment. Cheers could pull off poignant moments at the end of their episodes. There's kind of a soulfulness to the ending, like where it doesn't end on a laugh.

It's not completely like you said, Maudlin, but there is a poignancy to it that I think I totally agree with you. It does really fit into that Cheers aesthetic. And can I point out another thing, because that's how this episode is, and that's Sam Simon's writing going on here, I'd like to point out that in the first first season of The Simpsons, the very first Treehouse of Horror, the Raven adaptation that was Sam Simon and Matt Groening fought him on it because he thought it was pretentious, and it's still one of the best segments of The Simpsons. Ever. One last question on the Simpsons.

Have there been any books written on the history of the Simpsons and the production and all of this? Interesting? Nothing definitive yet, because how how could it be? Because you you could sort of you could break down the Golden Age the first sort of eight years. I'd say, the of the Simpsons are are pretty infallible, and then everything else is a crapshoot.

Right right, Yeah, that's what I understand. Uh yeah, so I I picked up on that too, that it's because it's coach Ernie Pantuso in Cheers and here we have coach Lulu Pantuso. I mean, it's it's not rocket science. Lulu confides in the Caves that Tony has this idea of fighting under another name. He's bought the license of a fighter in Jersey who was retired and apparently by the way Father Malone, I read a little bit about this.

This at least at this time, this wasn't an uncommon strategy for about boxers to get a second shot at boxing. This isn't just something that was invented for the sake of this episode. This actually happened. Tony is going to fight under the name Kid Rodriguez love it. Yeah, it's really funny.

Kid anything is a good name for a boxer. Yeah. Lulu tried to talk Tony out of it, but at the same time, Lulu also figures that if Tony's hell bent on doing this, he may as well stay with them and make sure that he's gonna be okay, which, I you know, it's a sweet gesture of his manager who cares about Tony. Alex thanks Lulu for coming to them so they have enough time trying to talk Tony out of it before he fights, but Lulu says, you've got an hour and a half because he's scheduled to fight at the Brooklyn Armory third bout of the night. Lulu leaves to prepare for the fight while the cabves brainstorm a little bit.

Bobby insists they talk to Tony about the dangers of boxing, how it destroys your brain, damages your nervous system, and leaves you a stumbling, disoriented, pathetic wreck. And he says all of this father alone. While the closest analog to this description. Obviously, Jim is standing right there. It's a great visual juxtaposition as he's saying this, and you can even hear the audience giving some anticipatory laughing because you can see they're setting up this joke with Jim in the in the background as he's saying this.

I thought it was this is this is the same principle as Michael Meyer sitting up in the background of Halloween and and it's the same right, same reaction. Yeah, there, you're like, ah, here's like he. He They all leave the garage and tell Louie that Tony is going to be fighting again. Of course, louis thrilled that his sure thing is back and he immediately calls his ma to tell her that this mystery operation is back on. Can we cut the commercial before we can think any more about this very troubling situation?

God, we faded on a shot from the perspective of the boxing audience looking out at the ring as fighters are boxing. Now judging, First of all, did you get a good look at this b roll shot? Oh? Yeah, judging like from all of the suits and Fedora's in the audience. Nineteen sixties.

Yeah, it had to be sourced from some film or TV show about boxing in the forties or the fifties. It was really kind of weird. It was early sixties, and it's not the first time we've seen this particular be roll the last time we had a boxing match. Remember that set was fucking awesome, where if we believed it was, we were oh it was, yeah, yeah it was. It was an arena, and the bureau preceded that sequence as well.

Before we went backstage at that fight or that bout, we had the same exact footage of those fighters. It's funny because I'll be talking to my son about this all the time, like he'll bring up some little blooper or something he noticed in a movie that he's seen a million times or a TV show, and I'll say to him, you know this, You got to remember when these TV shows were on. I'm not even sure. Certainly at this point there were no VCRs, or if they were, they were the province of the of the elite few. So don't one imagined that you could go back and freeze frame a scene or tolution or rewind it.

So I don't blame them for shortcutting these b roll shots because they had no way of knowing that somebody, you know, forty fucking years later was going to scrutinize the shot. But nevertheless it's they were, you know. But at the same time, HB. They were shooting for five seasons because that was syndication, and Syndication is a reruns, so they knew people were going to watch it. They weren't going to look at it in like minute detail.

They couldn't have foreseen this Internet. And then I now have DVDs of this that I can pause and blow up, not that I'm doing that or anything. So we cut inside the dressing room where Lou is getting Lulu is getting Tony ready for the fight. I call this sent Boomtown because the return of the boom mic, which is evident here. The ring announcer pokes his head in to see where they're at, and Lulu says, they're almost ready.

This guy, the ring announcer, by the way, father alone, is none other an actual ring announcer, Jimmy Lennon. Did you recognize him? Yes, maybe not facially, but as soon as he opened his mouth, I did. This is the voice I hear when I think of a boxing match. This guy was the ring announcer.

In fact, he he was. I looked him up. He was a popular ring announcer in the seventies and eighties. He did a lot of wrestling in boxing matches, including some Tyson matches, which was like probably the zenith of the sport really in terms of popular acceptance. This guy, Jimmy Lennon, was also featured in movies like Raging Bull and Rocky Three.

Of course, I. Remember that's where I recognize him from. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's clear that Lulu is stalling his pre match prep. I think he's he already taped me up six times Stalin I'm Rodriguez, which.

Is probably an indication of how punchy he is because he doesn't figure out immediately what this guy's up to. So finally Alex, Bobby, and Jim show up. Alex asks for a minute to talk to Tony. Alex tells Tony they're not gonna let him fight, They've resolved to talk him out of it, and then Bobby, in a show of solidarity, picks up these trunks that are on the bench and he's like, you can't bucks if you don't have any trunks, and he rips them up like you know, really rips them good. But unfortunately there aren't actually Tony's trunks.

There are another boxers who conveniently walks in, Hey, where's my trunk? Anybody said, anyone's seen a pair of blue trunks? Yeah, blue satin trunks. That dude was in repo, man, was he really? Yeah?

Man? He There's a scene at the repo office where he comes to get his car and like he's got his money and he's giving them nothing but shit. It's a great scene. That's right, Go get my fucking car. I didn't pick up on that.

He looks big and mean in this though. In fact, Bobby gives them five dollars not to hurt him. So Lulu comes in saying there's no more time to stall. Alex asks everyone to leave him alone with Tony for a minute. Tony insists to Alex that he's already considered all the possibilities.

There's nothing he can say to convince him, and then Alex pleads with Tony to consider his health, but Tony says he's fine, and all the while he's doing this father alone, he's applying a like a mustache, like a like a how we like a handlebar? Mustache kind of thing and. Cybersh. Yeah, it's his Kid Rodriguez. Look, and I gotta tell you it's it's convincing it look.

Look, he looked great. Man. I was wishing that he would just be Kid Rodriguez from now on. He did. Uh.

Alex even says he's at a resort. It's really funny, just the fact that this Italian boxer is going under the name Kid Rodriguez. It's a wonderful uh. You know, it's a great physical it's a great visual joke, you know, him with the mustache and the cyburds. I was disappointed he didn't hand right segway komamiando over keep on trucking.

Alex tells him he's going to use physical force if he needs to to prevent Tony from leaving. But just at that moment, he's up against the door and Lulu throws open the doors. It's a wonderful bit of physical comedy where he basically slams the door with Alex still in it. So Alex is shoved aside and it's time for Tony to go to the ring. It's a good gag in theory, but for some reason it didn't actually come off.

There's something about the timing of it that it's not quite as funny as it could have been. Oh, I thought it was okay. Like I said, it's a great idea that he's standing in the door on the door swings inwards, so he doesn't understand that. But there's something about I don't know the way. I don't know.

All right, I'll have to go back and look at it again. We cut to the ring where Alex. He's now in the ring with Lulu and Tony and he's still trying to convince Tony not to fight. While all this is happening, Jimmy Lennon is announcing the fight. He's arguing as the ref is trying to give his instructions to the fighters.

Here's another piece of versimilitude, Father Malone. The ref's name is Vincent Delgado. Now, I know what you're thinking, Father Malone. This is not the Vincent Delgado who's a master percussionist and jazz composer. I know that's what you had on your mind.

Obviously, this is this Vincent Delgado was a promising young featherweight who gave up his dream to fight in the Korean War. It's very interesting. He would go on to announce matches for over thirty years, even dabbling in acting roles like this, and he was also in A Million Dollar Baby the cloonice would hit he Unfortunately, Delgado died in twenty sixteen. Rip Reserve Forever Here on Taxi. Yeah, and you could tell, I mean, just just hear.

It seemed like this was peopled with a bunch of non actors as well as the actors. Yeah, you could. You could tell this guy was authentic. Alex is continuing to argue even as Tony's in his corner waiting for the bell. But his final gambit, the thing that finally gets through to Tony is he asks Tony, how would you feel if you heard a fighter, I mean really heard a fighter.

This gets I feel real bad, you know that, Alex. And this this actually penetrates Tony's stubbornness for the first time. He says he needs some time to consider that. Unfortunately, that's exactly when the bell rings and it's time for him to fight. He's out of time, so Tony immediately tells Lulu to end the match, and then as Tony goes over to the other fighter, who happens to also be Hispanic.

I don't think. I think it's it's inferred that he doesn't speak good English. No, he just speaks no English and he's from California. His nickname is the. Cat el Gato.

Yeah. Tony goes over to the other fighter to plead to tell him that it's off, but the guy either doesn't listen or can't understand what Tony's trying to express, and he starts. The other boxer starts, actually the box start hitting. He starts hitting a defending Tony, who continues to plead with him to stop. I don't want to fight.

Finally, he says, I ain't fighting no more, and he just kind of throws a punch to keep the guy from advancing. But of course, in you know, classic taxi fashion, this end up. This ends up knocking the fighter out. The other guy's out. You really lose your mind when you find out your boy's got a glass job.

Bugsy Malone coming back to to make a point here. HP, here's my thought on this scene overall. Remember at the scene I'm mentioned from a previous season, there was a boxing ring built and it looked amazing and we were like, look, it's like they're in a fucking arena, Like, how are they doing this on a sound stage? This is the opposite of that. This is the Now.

I know this is supposed to be like in the armory, so it's supposed to be a little more low scale and whatever. But I'd like to point out the next time you watch it, watch what they've done in the background to indicate depth. They've run two sets of lights back as if it's a like the hallway, like the aisle leading like stretching off into the distance, and then at the top of it is an exit sign. But the exit sign is the size of what would be the door, because the exit sign is real, is actual size, and these lights are sort of trying to convince us that that's an aisleway. Anyway, it was kind of infuriating and it was all I could see, And maybe that's a good thing because the fighting here is terrible.

It is. Now are you saying that it could have used more forced perspective to make it look bigger than it was. I'm saying, if you're going to do force perspective, don't use something of actual size at the top of it, because it looks like a gigantic exit sign where a door ought to be, but the exit sign is also the size of the door. Well, even not that this is an indication that this is all phony, but even though the ropes, the ring ropes are like literal ropes, they look like something like you remember the very first scene in the very first Rocky where Rocky is boxing Spider I think is the boxer's name, and he's getting is he's just getting the shit beat out of him. I think they're fighting in a church, right with this makeshift ring with ropes for the ring boundaries, that's what it looks like where we're dealing with here.

It looks like it's completely ramshackle, like very low. Rent, right, So don't put any force perspective in the background, don't give us any sort of attempt at depth of field. Just have a black background where you know, uh. They should have because there's a lot going on in this scene. This isn't just a quick scene and it's over.

I mean they linger in this boxing ring for a good portion of the episode, the other boxers knocked out. Tony leaves the ring just to kind of put the final button on it, and the ref yells at him that he'll lose by default for leaving the ring, and Tony can't win for losing, so he leaves. He loses the fight, and the ref actually goes over to the other boxer to try and lift his glove up in victory, and of course it just flops down. The guy's out cold. I wish he had woken from his stupor and punched the ref out instead.

The reaction yeah yeah. And in fast motion like a Benny Hill might like whying, and he falls over and then maybe tweeting sounds. We cut to the locker room, where a very satisfied Alex tells Tony that they're behind him whatever whatever he decides to do next, they're all gonna support him. Tony says, this is kind of this I thought was interesting. He says, he's going to gather all his boxing winnings over the years and by himself a new suit.

Now, I upon hearing this, father, I thought this was going to be a joke with a punchline something along the lines of that gives me a doll of thirty five to start with, But no, I was actually really really pleased that they just played this straight. It's just again the poignancy of this scene is at play here, Alex leaves and the final image is Tony posing. He does this sort of boxing pose for the last time in the mirror. He still get his trunks and everything on before literally hanging his gloves up on the wall, which is not a not too subtle metaphor obviously, and. It's tempered by the yah by slapping the mustache up against the walls.

Yeah. Wow, he puts the mustache up there. And that's our that's our the lingering image from this episode, ben Very, you know, there's no there's no wrap up of there's no button to the episode. There's no callback to Louis's sick mother. That's it.

That might be my favorite part of the whole episode is the fact that we don't get some silly, you know, wrap around story or some way to undercut that melancholy of these final moments of his boxing career. I really like that. An emotional Tony episode. What Yeah, who would have thunk it? So that is the episode out of commission.

So now is our custom. We're going to talk about yellow lights. What doesn't yellow light me? Now? To remind everybody, we score on a scale from one to five yellow lights one is the worst taxi episode.

Five is the best taxi episode. And again our custom is throw it to you, father Malone. What do you give out of commission? I give three yellow lights. I think I want to give it more, but there was so much bullshit in the episode, technically boom mics and horrible force perspective backgrounds, the weirdness of the Louis runner and his mom looking like a man that was unusual.

And I don't think it can be overstated how wacky the wardrobe choices were for this particular episode. So while I do feel that this inspired cheers, maybe that should give it another yellow light just for that, but I'm going to keep it sort of judging the episode on its own merits. It's getting three and that's all it deserves. I was very, very close to giving this just two yellow lights. To me, this was more or less like kind of a one note episode about Tony and he can't give up boxing and he whatever.

But I'm gonna bump that up to three yellow lights for many of the reasons that you just stated. I think it's an uncommonly sensitive Tony episode. I like the fact that there's no haha moment at the end, they let that sort of sad image of him giving up boxing speak volumes. I think the writing is pretty good, especially for a spec script, and it makes sense to me that this is a spec script because it feels like Simon was really really trying hard to get into the mind of Tony the character and kind of write him a lot more deeply than we're used to seeing in these episodes. He kind of got deeper into Tony than I think we've seen in a long time.

And very wisely, because this is his first attempt. He lets everyone have a moment. Yeah, the only one who doesn't is locked in and he's just not here. Aside from the weirdness with Louise's mother's ailment and some weird jokes here and there, I thought it was a pretty slightly above average episode, so I'm giving it three yellow lights. Good laughs there too, so that's going to do it for this episode of night Mister Walters follow them Alone?

Where can folks find you when You're not clocked into the garage? I do a show called Midnight Viewing. It's a horror review show, but we also review pretty much everything. It's on twice a week Mondays, it's fall the Malone's Weekly round Up, where I look at current streaming and theatrical releases and television too, I guess, and Fridays is an alternating schedule which was alternating twice a week, but it's going to three times a week now A three. I don't know.

It's a weird thing. Basically, if you tune in on Friday, you're either going to hear a review of Tales from the Dark Side of the television series, or you're gonna hear of a review of the movies of John Fusco, or you're going to hear a review of The Predator movies, or you're gonna hear a review of the Rick Moranis movies. Because I'm holding you to that and we're actually doing it. I was rereading my list today and that's on That's on the schedule. Baby.

Anyway, my viewing is the name I do a lot over there. Go check it out. Yes, and I would encourage anybody this is what I say. I think every week. Check out the Weekly Roundup.

At a minimum, it's great. It'll give you a good idea of what's current in movies in the theater and in streaming and it's just a lot of fun. It's it's Father Malone and Ripley Gene the best canine co host around. So for myself, I'm in the midst of all of these different series as Father moll Invention. But yeah, I should point out all of those anything that's not Tamns from the Dark Side and not Father Malone's Weekly round Up is HP is my co host, So you know, if you like the show, you should probably come check him out over there.

Please do. I'm going to spotlight yaoucha Fest, which is the Predator movies that we're covering, the Predator film franchise, and I think we're up to Predator two. But if you go to the Patreon, I think, what is it? You get the newer episodes two weeks ahead of everybody else. Hey man, as soon as they're recorded, they're on the Patreon basically, which can be as much as two to three weeks before its actual release.

Yeah, so AVP is up there, Alien Versus Predators already up on the Patreon. AVP is definitely up there. In the latest episode of HP, Hates Me is on the Patreon channel that's Joe where you pick movies to try and make my mind explode. Ooh, so much content, but it's all very worthwhile. I would encourage anybody to check it out.

I also host the Noise Junkies music podcast. Hopefully some new content happening there soon. Yeah, and I'm gonna get on that, I know, man. I'm an occasional guest in the Culture Cast with Christashu, which I understand is going through a little bit of a spit shine. I'm looking forward to hearing the new Culture Cast.

And I also have a band campsite Hpmusicplace dot bandcamp dot com. So once again, thank you all for listening. Please feel free to subscribe to the podcast, where a review rate us. We'd love to hear from you, speaking of which you can write me at Hpmusicplace at gmail dot com. Once again, thanks for listening and we'll see you guys next time.

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