Episode 65 - Jim The Psychic

Weird media nis. You see that guy with it now, he's an actor a phone. I'm the only camp driver in his place. Good evening and welcome tonight, mister Walters Taxi podcast. I'm HP, your co host and with me as always, he's my co host, Father Malone, Father Malone?

How are you this evening? HP? God gives everyone a gift. He gave me a gift, and that is I can see other people's gifts. And when I look at you, I see a guy who was born to make podcasts about taxi.

Oh very good. I thought you were gonna say, I God gave me the talent to see bullshit. Everybody else's bullshit, and you, sir, are bullshit. Anyways, That's why would I say that's terrible? I don't know.

We're you know, we're having fun. Hey, speaking of having fun, Father Blone. It we're back. It's season four. I'm so excited for this.

It's going to be a very interesting season to discuss. It's a bit of a transitional season. Bobby is on the way out, but Simca is on the way in. You know, when God opens a door, he also throws open a window and tosses you out of the window and then hopefully you can get some residuals from Greece. Let's hope.

So. I don't know how much that really helped Jeff Conaway in the long run. It might have hurt him more than it helped him. But rest in peace, Jeff Conaway. What's remarkable is, and we'll get into this as the season progresses, is that normally when a show, a sitcom starts swapping out actors original actors, that that usually the quality.

It's an indication that the quality is taking a nosedye. But not in this case. I think we're going to find Carol Kine might be one of the best things ever to have and to Taxi. But we'll talk about that when we talk about it. This episode is going to be Taxi Season four, Episode one, Jim the Psychic.

The story Now, this one we have a story credit in addition to the writing credit, Father Malone. It's the story is by Holly Holmberg Brooks and it was written by Barry Kemp and directed, of course by James Burrows. How is that James Brooks's wife, James Brooks's daughter, Who is that? Father? Him alone?

Guess what? You are absolutely right on target. Is always my friend. Holly Holmberg Brooks is in fact the spouse at the time, at least of James Brooks. We know James Brooks, producer extraordinaire.

They unfortunately sadly were divorced in nineteen ninety nine, but at this point she was still married to him, so that must be her in to the world of Taxi. Very well spotted. My friend James Brooks has good instincts because this is a good story. That's true. This is the last episode to be written by Barry Kemp father alone.

He brought us such episodes as of Cab. Was he fired? Was there a scandal? I'll get to that. I'll get to that.

He wrote Memories of Cave eighth four, parts one and two. Lane's Secret Admirer Guess Who's coming for Refinish one of my favorites. Although as much I guess if he created that episode, then he wrote that episode. He probably did create the characters. That's pretty cool.

Finally, he wrote Bobby and the Critic, which we reviewed in the last season. That's a great one, a wonderful episode. That is, all of them are great in one way or another. So, but you asked, was he fired? No, Barry Kemp would go on to co create New Heart.

He left this show to go do that. I think so, because I think New Heart started in eighty two. That's probably probably a good move, considering this is only going to run another year after this. Once again, the production tree that sort of started with Mary Tyler Moore, we're still seeing those branches spread out. A New Heart is one of those classic sitcoms.

What were you gonna say? Sorry, I inter. Replied, I don't have anything else there. Sorry, All right, well then I'll say this is a reminder we're doing these shows in broadcast order, not in order of filming. Of course.

We start this episode Father alone. We're in the garage. Alex and Elaine are playing cards at the customary table while a spiffy looking Bobby. He's wearing an open collar shirt and a brown blazer. He sort of vacillates between collegiate look and you know, lothario with the leather jacket.

I find these days. He was a pirate there for a little while too, So. Bobby is reading a newspaper while they're playing cards. Tony enter the lunkhead. Yeah, he's a bit like a Greek chorus see.

I like the fucking hockey. I like all sports. This hockey going on right now. Hey, Louie, you see that hockey game last night? I did notice, to be fair, I did notice Tony Dance's ass was looking really good this year.

I did not notice that. But what I did notice is that your impression of Tony Danza has a lot of Dana Carvey playing John Travolta. That's entirely what it is. But that's what I hear when I hear Tony Dance to speak. Sometimes.

Remember that when Wayne Gretzky was hosting, and he was it was back. It was in the locker room of La Kings and Jack Nicholson went on SNL and why don't you put like a big, a big fat guy in the net because no one would score? That would be so weird. It was Dana Carvey doing John Travolta, of course. And then a couple of years later he'd be hosting that year and performing his own version of his own character Barbarino.

Mister Conna, I thought. You was going to swim. That was the Tarantino episode. It was. It was a trout episode and they did any reservoir dogs already was a mash up with Welcome Back Cotter.

Well, welcome Back Cotter, that's right. I think Jay Moore was prominently involved as well. He was, Yeah, he was one of the writers on that, but he was. He played he was mister Woodman. Yeah, he's there.

They're torturing mister Woodman, like like the cop and the reservoir Dogs. Tony comes in. He like I started to say, he's a bit of a Greek chorus in this particular episode, he is expositioning a lot. So he comes in. He's raving, like you intimated about the greatest hockey game he's ever seen.

There was like two hundred penalty minutes. It was so cool. It was like the Islanders, oh something, I don't know, one of the New York teams. It was the I don't know. It was the Islanders versus the Flyers.

That's what it is. Philadelphia. Oh shit. It was like thirty one points and two hundred penalty minutes. It was so weird.

But uncharacteristically, this is I think this is interesting. Maybe this is a little bit of real life bleeding into the show. A lota of all people starts taking unprovoked shots at Tony. He he hears this, and his first The first thing that Laka says is fouye. He's almost disgusted by Tony raving about this hockey game, and Laka goes Laca scoffs at the NHL hockey players.

He says, he derisively calls them cupcakes. And he goes on to talk about the tough athletes in his country who apparently they wear nothing. I don't mean they don't wear padding. I mean they wear no clothes. Not only do they do they not wear clothes, but they don't wear skates.

And they don't even they don't even skate on ice. They have to skate on gravel. Apparently, I want to go to Loco's country. Have I mentioned that before? I really just just for a week, we've.

We've had conversations about how perverse his his country appears to be. I want to soak it all in. There's a lot of nudity and a lot of people getting subject game in some way, shape or form or put into tortuous predicaments. That seems to be. Like, don't forget constant warfare.

That's that's true. He was almost the what a general in the in the army back home, a little little weird, but not a little weird, a lot weird. Let me correct myself there, So this argument between Laca and Tony event, do you. Think this argument springs from potentially the the one between American football and rugby. Whereas tough as the American players are there, they do kind of come off like cupcakes considering rugby players are just smashing the fuck into each other.

I mean, anybody who's even seen a little bit of rugby on TV, it's brutal. It is like wall to wall injuries, dislocations, things getting broken, concussions. I'm not even I don't know how how regulated that the concussion protocol is in in rugby, so it's pretty brutal. I bet they have less concussions than we do, though, because they don't run at each other head first. That's true, but they probably have a lot more broken kneecaps.

Oh sure. I'm not saying that they're not going to be way more injuries over there. I'm just saying that the one particular one we always hear about in America is the concussion and the brain damage, and it might be because they run at each other head first. Yeah, pretty much, it's like literally going through fifteen car crashes in a quarter. It's pretty brutal, but you might be right.

I think there might be some merit to that. I'd like to see the medical data of a rugby versus American football. It's possible that Lacda maybe has a point here, but I choose to look at it like we all know or people who've are nerds for Taxi like we are. We are aware that Tony Ganza didn't exactly get along with with Andy Kaufman while they were producing the show. I don't think Tony Danza understood Kaufman.

I don't think he liked his comedy. And plus he's dick. He's probably all signs point to him being kind of a dick. But I wonder if that maybe a little an element of that is present in this argument that they have that takes place in this episode. I certainly hope so, because when Loca realizes he's telling Tony to shut up and he's he's still living, that that that oh, I'm not dead.

I can I'm just going to keep going now, like it's part and parcel with the new Loka, the evolved Loca, the slowly taking the place of burns Loca as the malevolent forest here at Sunshine Cab. There as they're having this argument, there is this element of amusement on on on Loca's face and bikes and Andy Kaufman's face. It almost seems like it's piercing that fourth wall a little bit, like he's having a little bit too much fun arguing like nose to nose with this brute Tony Danza, I think maybe there's. A You're not gonna knock me out. I'm adorable and defenseless.

I love that he does say, like I wrote this down here, I said a beast deal. Tony even threatens to knock lock out, but Loka declares he won't beat him up because he Laka, as you said, is weak and defenseless and cute, and if Tony knocks him out then no one will like him. So true, it is so finally Tony again. He did this in the Tony and Brian episode. He suggests they cut cards to settle this argument, and I didn't realize until just now that that's exactly how he settled.

Remember Brian, he said, well, cut cards and if if I win, you leave, and if you win, you get to stay. It's a horrible way to treat this orphan kid. But now he's applying it to Loaca somehow, so the loser. At least he's consistent with his betting strategy. It's always treting cards.

I mean, you know, it's easy and it's quick. I mean it's not it's quicker than flipping a coin even. But you need cards, is the thing, right, Well, he's always making life changing decisions in the in the face of a deck of cards. That's right. Let's let's let the fates decide.

So the loser, the low card, has to shut up for a week. Loca. Actually, Tony first draws a queen and he's rarely psyched, and Loca draws something that he doesn't say what the card is, but it's clearly not going to beat his queen. So secret twist, he actually drew an ace, but he was relishing the idea of tormenting Tony for the next week. Usually, these b plots, especially at the end towards the end of last season, they mounted to nothing.

But this b plot is great. It's this humorous vein that runs through the whole episode, and it's all Kaufman and it's all good. If you notice, though, hp any B plot last year that featured Loka was gold, So maybe they just should have had Loaca take the role of all B plots and like involve the other characters in Loca's misadventures. It's true. But the nice thing about this is it it doesn't amount too much.

In other words, it doesn't really impact the main storyline at all, but oh lot it is. It is funny in its own right, and it gives you a little bit of a distraction from the main plot, not that it needs it, but it's a very welcome bit of humor. And Kaufman, as always, is on point at every turn. Loaca, having lost this cutting cards business, he has to shut up for a week. He shuffles back to the car that he was working on, but not before he mimes what I presume is an obscene gesture back at Tony.

He kind of grabs the side of his head or his ear and kind of like, ugh, like does a flex Do you know what that was supposed to mean? Well, it's like a sprinkler head. It's one of those moves. I don't know specifically what Laka was trying to convey, because I don't know what culturally that would mean in his homeland. But I do know that if you slap the back of your head in certain nations, you're telling people that you aren't worth even speaking to.

Just look back here, So them's fighting words. Interesting. Maybe I'll take that because it actually makes sense in the context of the scene. Now the newly mute Laka is saying to Tony perhaps like you're not even worth the words that I want to say. But anyway, that's the first bit of this runner that comes through the whole episode.

We'll see more of that. Meanwhile, at this point, Jim has stumbled into the garage and he asks to speak to Alex privately. And I just say, Christopher Lloyd's performance this year is the performance I think of when I think of Jim. He's really locked it in here, Like the look, just the way he holds himself, like he could just recite anything in this demeanor and everyone would accept it as Jim. I don't know what it is that it finally like locked into place here, but this is really Jim y Knatowski.

Now, if people are going to do impressions of Jim, they're doing this season's Jim. This is the platonic ideal of Jim y Datowski. Sometimes he's gone further into the sort of drug addled part of him. Sometimes he goes into the wedding reverend or whatever, the person who's conducting a performing a wedding service that's a little less drug addled and more sixties pseudo spiritual this. You're right, he kind of locked into the speech patterns, the behavior, the look of Jim mcgnatowski, and that's kind of where we stay for the next two seasons until the show is over.

But yeah, it is kind of weird right out of the box. Season four, he's there. Like the previous seasons, he definitely felt like a nod toward burnout sixties counter culture, and now he just seems like Jim y Natowski the burnout, you know what I mean. He feels less beholden to anything and he seems more just himself. Well, there's no more mythology building about Jim.

You know, we've seen previous episodes, previous seasons where we meet people who've known him, and we met his family that all knew him before he became a drug casualty. That's all kind of in the past. Now, now we were all comfortable with the character and his his his ways and means and how he performs as that character. He's earned that right because he's been on the show for a couple of seasons as a main player, and maybe that's part of it. Well, he's definitely nineteen eighties Jim Yntawski now as opposed to leftover sixties Jim ken TASKI yeah.

And the reminder, by the way, we're still about five years away from perhaps Christopher Lloyd's defining role as Doc Brown and back to the future. So I thought you were going to say Krug from Star Trek three. Spot it's about six years away from Krug, right eighty six? No, what are you crazy? That's eighty four four.

Are you suggesting that Krug is his more defined role that he's known for, or he should maybe have been. I would say that Krug is further afield of Jimmyowski than Doc Brown is. I think Doc Brown is another flavor of Jimy Natowski. Well, he's a mad scientist, but he's you never you never think for a minute that the man isn't brilliant. He's just a crazy mad science.

Right, But I think he lives in his own world as does Jimmy Natowski, whereas Krug lives in the galaxy and wants to function shit up. And by the way, we're dropping all of this information about Krug and about Star Trek. Because we live Christopher Lloyd and that's the only reason. No, no, no, I'm going to do a little plug. We're gonna plug at the end too, but just a little plug.

In the midst of this episode, Father Malone and I are on his podcast mid not viewing. We are covering the films of Star Trek, including Star Trek three, so come on and check it out. Jim is talking to Alex privately, and he says he has terrible news. Alex is going to die on Thursday, and this we're led to believe is Monday. You see, Jim had a terrible dream about Alex, and he goes on to say that he has dreams that come true.

He admits to the rest of the Cabbs that he's psychic. He just didn't want to tell them that because he didn't want them to think that he was off beat or something, which is of course, there's nothing about Jim that is an offbeat. I like that there was a time when that was a bad term. That was a right, you know, he's that one. He's a little offbeat, maybe like oh, he's he's a little strange.

Now it's like, well, you know me, I'm a little bit offbeat. Now it's just like a cool thing. I'm a little kookie, a little off beat. I'm a little left of seven. A little whimsical in me.

Jim talks about his dream and it goes something like this, It's going to happen on a Thursday night at seven pm at Alex's apartment. Alex will be with a friend. But Jim couldn't make out who that person was. Well, then he's not much of a psychic, now is he. Don't love when people dismiss psychics that way.

It's like, well, you got the net. There's an extra tea in the name. I don't think so like they they found that kidnap victim. What are you talking about? Well, the big example from when we were growing up, father alone was Nostre Damis of course the man who saw Tomorrow, the Orson Wells pseudo documentary.

Here we are there we. Alex will drink a glass of water very quickly, and someone will mistake Alex for a girl, Alex will do the can can in a green shirt and catch his mask. Finally, there'll be a knock on the door, Alex will open it, and then that's it. That's the end of both the dream and Alex. Before I go on, father, let's talk a little bit about this, this dream, how it's laid out.

This, I think is one of the things I love best about this episode because they're laying out a patently ridiculous and seemingly disjointed group of prophecies. Let's say about Alex and and what's going to happen to him. Well, once we got to can can, green shirt, catcher's mask, then it became untenable. Everything else it's like, okay, all right, well we'll wait to see if that happens. But that it's like, well, no, that makes no sense.

Why would any of those things be occurring. So, but as a as an audience member, as a viewer this, you're already kind of trying to put this together in your head, like how could this part because they're not. It's kind of like Chekhov's gun. You're not gonna talk about it in the first act and not deliver in the third act. So it creates this wonderful puzzle that doesn't really fit.

I'm anxious to see how this is all going to shake out. How is going the writer going to piece this puzzle together in such a way that it will be satisfying and it will make sense. That's what I was going to be. Like the movie Drowning by Numbers, it's just a puzzle. And you're watching as you're watching taxi, like looking for the catcher's mask, Like, oh, that leggy blonde and pant suit is back there, she's wearing green.

Maybe she gets together with Alex. It's really the bit about the green shirt, catcher's mask doing the can can. That is the part where you go, what, how is that gonna become a thing? I can make a scenario on my mind where he's drinking water and somebody calls him a girl's name, and you know he's there with a friend like all of that. Yeah, but then white, why would he be doing those three things in tandem?

Yeah, it's very weird. And then there's a little bit more. Actually so then Jim, well, so Jim is despondent about this whole state of affairs, and he says that the worst part of this whole psychic prophecy is that between now in the end, Alex will be at Mario's and a beautiful sexy blonde is going to fall into his arms. They will date all the way through to the end. Tony is incredulous all this is going to happen the next three days Jim.

Alex does his best to try to calm Jim down, saying, as you said, sometimes psychics are wrong. And Bobby also takes the high road and asks offers to buy Jim a beer at Marios, and the gang leaves, but louis where we go, and this is kind of what takes it from a seemingly a good developing episode to a great episode, because we've got all the Cabby's sort of roped into this plot, but to have Louie involved too, and he really is the secret sauce for this whole thing. His performance that we'll get to at the end is Chef's kids, but he's been he's been watching this all play out from his cage, and before Alex leaves, he kind of intercepts him and I. Think you should take this a little more seriously. Riga Yeah.

He asks Alex to hang back and he says, you know what, but there's don't take this this dream thing lightly Louis. We've seen Louis in the past. He's very religious in his own way, and. He's Catholic religious, which means very very superstitious. I know I was Gray's Catholic.

I understand everything Louie is saying there. Louie is a firm believer that God gave everyone a special gift. He says, Alex, he gave you smarts, Banta has muscle, wheel has got hair, has knobs. He's right, he is. Right, but her special gift is not limited to that.

But no, she has those eyes too. Man on the hair. She's oh God almighty, and she can dance. She can dance, she can sing, She's awesome. She can remember the date that she fucking had a piece of gum that was disappointing to her.

Louie says that he his power is to spot everyone else's power, and he believes Iggy has the gift to see into the future and it's frankly, Louis says, it scares him, but Alex is still unmoved. But Louis asks if he can still give him a little blessing to protect him from uh, from Jim's evil dream. Louis does this thing. It's the evil eye spitting thing, like. Yeah, that's how you how you counteract the evil Eye.

Yeah, oh okay, but it's a real thing. It's like, I'm not. It's oh yeah, yeah, absolutely that you know Danny Devino has witnessed that occur. Yeah, so. In essence, he spits three times on on Rieger to try and protect him, and Alex is a little disgusted, but he leaves and he walks out as we fade into Now this is something father alone.

It's Mario's b roll of the outside with the Marquee. But this might be a first you actually see Alex walk into Marios from the exterior. I don't know that we've seen anything quite like that before. Yeah, we did. We saw the exact footage before.

Of him walking with the white jacket. Yeah. I think it was maybe season two and they had jud Hirsh with them in New York and they filmed a whole bunch of b roll for and they used most of it in that season. They would be like, remember it was they used it when What's her Face came back and they were Angela and then they had to like, we got to make sure Angela's not eating, and they like ran around the city trying to make sure that she wasn't eating. And they had they had footage of Rigor like driving through the streets in a cab, but.

He had the white barracouted jacket. Oh yeah, because they showed him running too Marios too, So that was like that was part of the the him running into different restaurants. Ah well, I stand corrected, because usually we see that b roll of the Fonzie look alike taking his friend into Marios. But that was that's differ. That was from a different angle that one.

Sure, I'm sure we're going to see that again. I'm shocked that they didn't do any more beer real honestly, I was looking forward to more Bureau this season, and now they've dashed my hopes. Probably not. I think at this point we've gone too far. I don't think at this point in the show's run they're going to do you anymore new.

They should have just gone out onto the streets of Hollywood and just started filming cabs there and they just start cutting it in like who gives a shit. Alex, We cut inside As Alex joins Elaine, Bobby, and Tony at the customary table inside of Marios, Tony reminds Alex that this is the place where the sexy blonde is supposed to fall into the arms. I'd like to point out that he says sexy blonde by gesturing with his hands in front of him palms back toward him in the typical Gazonga's motion. I didn't notice that. But yeah, man, yeah, well with a sixy blonde boob like, Okay, that's that's that's what it equals in your mind, okay, Tony.

Yeah. But then we get a vintage Bobby moment because he laments that the only sexy blonde in the place is him, which I think is a little creepy. I don't know, there's something about that that's creepy to me, referring to himself as a sexy blonde. I would have accepted it had he leaned over and or jumped into his lap said stay out of my lap. Loca comes in and we're gonna continue this runner.

Oh yeah, he goes, this might be my favorite. He goes to the table, but. Because of the first card, says tell them it's carollers. Is that a love Actually, yeah, exactly, this. Is where they love actually seen him.

Came from the subterranean Homestick Blues. The same thing vandals took the handles. It's so loca. He can't because of Tony's bed. He still can't talk, but in this case, he's brought in a big stack of Q cards with him.

There's and he starts to show them to all the cabbys. The first one says hi Alex, and you can almost tell the handwriting is so poor that I would bet that Andy Kaufman actually wrote these up himself. Well, I would agree with you, except on the back of each card at the bottom, the prompt master has written with what that card is, which is ridiculous because the cards are all stacked flat against each other, so he can't tell what the next card is going to be. The first one says hi Alex, and Alex says hi Lata, and then he goes to Bob. The next one says, gets sick, get well, hang around the ink.

Well, so he goes through all the caveys, but when he gets to Tony, it starts out with Tony question mark, and he just sort of sits there, imploring Tony, and finally Tony begrudgingly says what Laca reveals the next card and it's a great drawing of a horse's. Ass, a very detailed drawing. It's very detailed. And then Tony gets upset, and then the next card says, now now, as if you know, Loaca has predicted what his reaction is going to be. And then Jim walks in and he shows him the high screen.

Fucking Laca is just clowning him the entire episode. That's one of the great things about that in your. Head and I know what your next move will be, Banta. He's living rent free in Tony's head at this point. So again Jim walks in, and Jim makes a show of insisting on buying a steak dinner for Alex to show him how much he loved Alex in life.

He goes into this speech about how people die and people fret about the fact that they never told them how much they loved them in life. So I'm gonna buy you a steak dinner. I saved up all this money after quitting drugs, and I want to buy you a dinner. And he slaps the money on the table. Yeah, Alex looks at it and he says, that's only a dollar thirty five.

And then Jim kind of scratches his head and says, I gave up drugs for a dollar thirty five. That gave me hope that Jim will get back on the drug eventually. It's worth a dollar thirty five, I'm telling you. So Alex says, you know what I already ate. Why don't you get us a picture of beer?

So Jim goes away to get the beer, and then while he's gone, the cabby's all start talking about his psychic dream, and they all admit that there's something odd and spooky about the prediction. And then and Tony even says, like, well, maybe Jim can see in the future, he definitely can't see into the present. And Bobby suddenly remembers an anecdote where Jim refused to take out a specific cab and later that shift, the person who took that cab out got into an accident. But Alex, ever, there was a fender bender. People with your hens, with your sew encircle and your gossip and your psychic readings and your in search of starring Leonard Namoy.

He's just the eternal skeptic. He's like, it was just a fender bender nothing. Big Tony says, yeah, that's true, but maybe it would have been worse had Jim taken out the cab. We don't know. Elaine then remembers herself.

She says, well, you know, last year she was worried about her son Jason's grades, and Jim told her don't worry. The next test he takes, he's going to get in eighty seven. And sure enough, the next day, the kid takes a test and what does he get? And eighty seven? Father alone.

This is how religions get started. Seriously, HP, do you know that if my grandmother dreamt of a rat, one of my family members was going to die? She told you that, Yes, it was well known within my family. Really did did ever come into play like it for real? Did someone die?

Yes? Really? Okay, I dreamt of a rat last night and then suddenly everyone in the family is terrified. HP. Do you know that if a black cat does, in fact cross my path, I will pull over and let three cars go because that breaks the spell?

Be serious. I will not walk under a ladder. The one thing I won't do is step on a crack. Ooh, well, it depends on what part of the rhyme you're in, because you could also be stepping on the crack to break the devil's dishes. Yeah, and I guess you know what.

I don't open umbrellas inside either. Do you put hats on the bed? Yeah, I don't care about that. I didn't know that. Oh, I got to get you some holy water.

I didn't know you were so superstitious, father Malar. I'm actually surprised. If I still salt, I will throw it over my left shoulder. Huh. The only one that I don't care about is breaking a mirror, because I know where that comes from.

Where does that come from? Seven years bad luck is because if you were to break a mirror while you were working in Versailles, that would be seven extra years have indentured servitude. So breaking a mirror was indeed seven years of bad luck. It's like getting your sentence extended because of something you did. That makes sense.

Yeah, that's not superstition, that's just what looking out for yourself basically. Yeah, that's you know. I want about going under a ladder makes any sense at all? That you're suddenly now cursed. Do you remember chain letters?

Did you ever get a chain letter back in the day. You know what, We used to get those all the time, and it was always a source of delight for us kids. I don't know, just getting mail. People don't realize, kids who you know, haven't really grown up with snail mail as the only form of correspondence don't realize, like just getting mail or a package back then was a big, big deal, including a chain letter. But yeah, so you've you've gotten chain letters as well.

Oh yeah, you know. They used to get them in the mail and it would say like you have to send this to seven other people or be cursed, and somebody didn't, they broke the chain and then they were murdered or something. Yeah, I remember they used to early on in when when email became a real thing. And it makes me sound old even saying that you used to get the odd chain letter that was sort of reformatted for the email, and it didn't have the same import at all because there's no effort involved. You just hit forward to seven other people.

We had to actually, you know, xerox this letter six times or seven times, get seven stamps, seven envelopes, set you know, write them out, address it to seven people. It was not just a little click of a button. Was at least you could hide an anonymity of the seven people that you had cursed, knowing you were going to get at least one of them back from those seven people. Pretty much pretty much, but I totally forgot about those. That's funny.

At this point though, Alex, he gets really annoyed at all this chatter about a superstition. He uses tip. He says, let's talk about something else. This is dumb. And at that moment we cut to the bar where two stereotypical drunks are arguing.

One of them one of them spills beer on. The other one. There this is the worst part of the whole episode right here, because they're terrible. You can tell that they are first and foremost they are stunt men, because they're gonna be They're going to be called upon to perform a stunt in Marios. So one of them is spilled beer on the other and he gets a little uppity and they kind of shove each other.

And then at that same moment, a woman comes walking in a blonde as it turns out, walks into Marios and just you. Know immediately that she too is a stunt person. She too, and I'm going to get to that. I'll talk a little bit about her in a minute. She just as she starts to pass them on the on their right, one of the drunks shoves the other one into her.

She goes ass over tea kettle, over a table, and what do you know, she lands right in Rigger's lap. It's actually a very good stunt. It's pulled off very well. We were expecting you. Yeah, that's Tony.

She apologizes, and Tony goes, it's okay, we were expecting you. Now Here it fades the commercial. But here's my side. Note, father alone, I also saw her and said, oh, she's obviously a stunt woman. There's nothing about her that doesn't scream stunt woman.

Well, in fact, her name is Diane Peterson, and she has done stunt work for TV and movies since about the mid nineteen seventies. You, in fact, Father Malone, have seen her and not even realized it. Her stunt credits include the Jerk Airplane, Just one of the Guys, and RoboCop two. But I mean, I'm talking dozens and dozens of credits. She also acted not just stunt person, but she acted in an episode of Tales from the Crypt which you being an anthology.

Mute witness to murder. Yes, recall as she gets murdered in the opening minutes by Richard John Boy Thomas. So she is the one who's who who Patricia Clarkson sees murdered? Correct? Ah, okay, I remember it.

Well, Well, that's cool. I should have known that you were going to remember that, Father Malone, So good on you once again. So we fade into the garage and Loaka pads his way into the garage holding this time he's holding a tape recorder. Father alone, he presses play and the recording makes small talk with the other cabbyes, Hello Alex, Alex, isn't there Hello Bobby. The best part of it is he says hello Bobby.

Bobby says hello, Laca, and Loca's recording says, how is your acting career going? And Bobby goes, oh, great as a matter of fact, and then the recording cuts him off and says, I'm sorry to hear that Bobby, like as if he just knows he's gonna get nothing but bad news about Bobby's act career. It's really good. He goes through this whole thing, the same thing with the note cards, with all the other cabbies, and then he gets to Tony and he says, Tony, Tony, Tony like. He keeps badgering Tony as it's recording, and Tony, finally, annoyed, says what, and the recording starts blowing raspberries over the recording at him.

Yeah, it's kind of an archaic thing. Now. I don't know that it's considered that big of an insult in today's culture. But do you remember Raspberry's father alone. Oh yeah, well, of course it's the most annoying sort of I never liked them.

I never thought they were funny. It was like a big thing on let's say Laverne and Shirley. I could see them doing a lot of raspberries to insult people. It almost just sort of signaled a fart, and I was never down with it. Tony.

Eventually he has no choice but to walk away because he knows he can't beat up Latka, so he's chastened. He walks away. Alex rushes in asks Louie to check him out quickly because he wants to get home. The other Caves rush over to remind him that today is Thursday, and they're really worried about him because this is the day that Jim's dream is supposed to all that stuff is supposed to take place. Bobby reminds him that he met the girl whose name is Peggy, just like Jim predicted, and they've been seeing each other every day, just like Jim predicted.

Alex asks what should he drop everything, stop seeing Peggy just because of some silly dream, But they all insist they don't want him to do that. They just want him to be somewhere else than his apartment tonight at seven pm. Alex basically says, look, all right, will it make any of you happy to know that I've got a date with Peggy tonight so I won't even be in my apartment? Does that make you happy? Does that make you feel better?

And Alex near the Cabby's leave and Louis goes to answer the payphone. He's alone in the garage at this point. He picks up the phone and it's Alex's date Peggy, and he picks it up. He picks it up with a handkerchief because he doesn't want to touch Cab cuties. Yeah, it is a good touch.

He kind of takes out that hanky and you know, he's like on a crime scene, you don't want to get finger prints. He's like, ooh, Cabby, cute, Kabby cooties. So she we find out that she can't go on the date tonight because she's sick. She has one hundred and four degree fever and projectile vomiting. Louis at this point is concerned because he's been following this whole thing, just like everybody else, and he rushes out of the garage, in his words, to save Riager.

So now we cut to Alex's apartment. He's running around getting ready for his date. I think he has his dress shoes in his hands. He's looking pretty spiffy. There's a knock at the door.

It's Louis, insisting that he to leave. Louis tells Alex about Peggy canceling their date, but Alex insists he's not going to go anywhere. Louis points out that it's Thursday night, it's Alex's apartment, and it's almost seven pm. Alex at this point is eating pretzels right near the couch there, and he's talking to Louis and trying to convince him how stupid he sounds. And he starts to cough because he's got a piece of pretzel in his throat.

And he goes over and gets a glass of water and he starts to drink it quickly, and Louis goes, ah, see you're drinking the water, and Alex yells again that he has no intention of leaving, and just then he gets a phone call. Alex picks up the phone and he says to the caller, now this is not Mary. Do I sound like I'm Mary? And he hangs up. But that freaks out Louis even more because now, just like the dream, Alex has been mistaken for a girl.

I'd like to pint out. Louis at this point goes, it's happening. It's happening. It's heavening, it's happening, riga and he at this point, he's physically trying to shove Alex out the door bodily, and but Alex says, if and this is this is prime jud hirsh slash Alex, he kind of gets on this high horse and he says that you know, if he walks out that door, he's violating everything he believes in. He'd be seating control of his entire life.

He's gonna live his future. He's not gonna be afraid of it. Alex walks off screen to his bedroom while Louie's still saying, like, kind out the crap, let's get out of here while you still got time. Alex says, tempt fate. I'm gonna beg fate.

And he comes out and he's now got a green shirt that he's pulled over his dress shirt. It's like sort of disheveled. It's not even like he didn't even take off the shirt that he had on. He just throws a green shirt on top of it. And Louis like green, green, green, and he's just freaking out all over the place, and he's pleading with Alex, don't tempt fate.

And Alex dashes into the closet and he emerges with of course, a catches mask now, and Alex tells Louis if I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die as I lived dancing the can Can they had a green shirt and catches mask and he starts to do the all the while Louis is just freaked out of his mind. He's yelling, he's pleading, he's begging. He just he doesn't want this to take place. He's begging him to stop. Finally, the clock Riger's clock on the wall tolls for seven PM and nothing happens for them alone.

Alex and Louis sit down, try to calm down on the couch, and Alex tries very calmly to get Louie to admit that this was just a ridiculous, superstitious thing. But as he's talking, there are several exceedingly heavy raps at the door, which I think is a little weird considering what we're about to find out, and it's fun. To doesn't allow Louis to grab a pillow and go I almost apologize. Yeah, yeah, He's like, you stick, I also apologize to you riga. So uh, they get up.

Louis refuses to let Alex open the door, but again Alex being Alex, He's like, I have to see what's through that door, Louis, I have to face it. So Louis does him in a great in an episode filled with great moments that choices that Danny DeVito is making. As Alex opens the door, he grabs hold of the chain, the security chain, as if that's going to protect him somehow. It's all he's got and he needs something. Alex opens the door to reveal a girl, a girl scout selling cookies, and when Louis sees this girl, he shrieks.

He starts to shriek, which makes the girl start to shriek, which makes him shriek even more. The girl throws the cookie boxes up in the air, about three or four of them, and runs away, and then Alex looks and says, look, Louie, it was a girl selling sugar cookies. And he even gives Louie one of the boxes to make him feel better, and. He it's sugar cookies. It's his favorite.

It's his favorite. But this for you. I love that he may he called that out because there's there's four boxes. Alex gives him one and he's like, what, only one for me. Alex says, hey, Louie, thanks for coming out.

But before he leaves, Louis confesses, not that he needs to, but he confesses to Alex and he was pretty scared. But Alex, he says, you got guts, You're a rock riga. And once Louis leaves and the door shuts behind him. Alex lets out this sigh of relief, giving you this indication that, you know what, maybe maybe he was terrified too. Yeah yeah, so uh so that's effectively the end of the episode.

We get a little bit of a of a button at the end of it, which I didn't think amounted to much where it's it's like the next day, let's say Jim's in the garage. Alex comes in and says high and Jim is convinced that he's a ghost, because of course he must have died. Ghost. Everything that Alex says, he he puts a different spin on the ghost, like, you know, a courtious ghost, a ghost who can drive a cab. It doesn't really go anywhere.

Whatever it didn't didn't hurt things or help things either way. That's the end of the episode. So now, Father Malone, that's the end of Jim the Psychic. Now we're going to talk about yellow lights. What doesn't yellow light me?

Reminder to our listeners, we score on a scale of one to five yellow lights. One is the worst taxi episode and five is the best taxi episode. And as is our custom, Father them, we're gonna throw it to you first. What do you give Jim the psychic. Let's start the season right with five, five yellow ladies.

Five right out of the box. REALLY laughed so hard during this episode, more than I think I've laughed at any other episode of Taxi. This is my new favorite episode of Taxi, and I know it's worth five yellow lights because then this afternoon I watched it again and I laughed just as hard. So I mean, look, I think the writing is smart here. I think the characterizations are all good.

Obviously, there aren't enough interactions with the Cabby's that, which ordinarily is a prerequisite for getting five Yella lights, that everyone sort of gets their beat. But the b plot is so fucking funny, and Danny DeVito's performance is so fucking great I want him to Did he win any awards for this show? Did he win any Emmy Awards for this goddamn show? Because he deserves it. For this episode, I haven't laughed that hard in years.

I am one hundred percent in agreement with you on this. I gave this five yellow lights as well. This is easily a top five all timer Taxi episode for me. It's one of the episodes I think I've rewatched most often because it's it's never not funny for me, just like you. Every time I turn it on, I get a laugh from Louis.

I love there's something about the pairings of Riga and Jim, and riger and Louie, and we get a little bit of the maybe not as much of the other cabbys sprinkled in, but they're there. There's some funny stuff. The thing with Lata Versus two and the Battle of Silence is really it's so much funnier than any other B plot has any right to be. And as I said earlier, it doesn't really add anything to the main plot, but it is. It's its own thing.

It's funny without being annoying or out of place. We've had B plots that go nowhere. This one rocks, yeah. And I love how we talked about this, the ridiculous nature of Jim's dream and how it's described, how it all becomes concrete by the final scene. And I gotta say it's a little ironic that Rieger, someone who prides himself on self determination, would basically choose to follow Jim's dream to the letter at the end.

I mean, he essentially that's what he does. He gives himself over to this psychic dream, this prophecy in a way that I don't think he really understood at the time. I think he needed to do that though. He needed to not be ruled by superstition, and because the superstition was being so forcefully made clear that it was real, that more than ever, he needed to make it a self fulfilling prophecy and take the power away from it. It's such a funny episode.

It laughs from beginning to end, and it's a wonderful way to kick off the fourth season of Taxi. They're still firing on all cylinders in my opinion. So it's five yellow lights for me, five yellow lights from Father Alone. That's going to do it for this episode of night mister Walter's Father Alone. Where can folks find you when you're not clocked into the garage?

I do a show called Midnight Viewing. Check out Midnight Viewing. It's on a couple times a week, and we look at everything that comes out new and we look at horror anthology, television and HP here and I take on special assignments where currently, as we mentioned earlier, covering Star Trek Fest Star Trek Movies, we love them so. Good, so good. So like Father Malone said, I am in the midst of Trek Fest with Father Malone and really enjoying that a lot.

We're covering that whole franchise of Star Trek original series, Next Generation everything. We're going to cover it all for you, folks. I also host the Noise Junkies music podcast, and I have a band campsite Hpmusicplace dot bandcamp dot com. So, folks, thanks again for listening. Welcome to season four, So glad to have you aboard again.

Please feel free to subscribe to this podcast, write a review, or rate us. We'd love to hear from you. Speaking of which, if you want to send me an email, you can send it to Hpmusicplace at gmail dot com for Father Malone to myself. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time. Ni