Episode 67 - Mr. Personalities

Weird media. You see that guy with it now he's an actor. Driver and the only camp driver in his place. Good evening and welcome to night mister Walter's a Taxi podcast. I'm HP your co host and with me as always as my co host, father Malone.

Father Malone, how are you this evening? I'm well. I don't have anything snappy to say from the episode, but you're well, and that's kind of I've kind of forgotten one episode. This is honest. Well, I will let me allow me to introduce the episode.

It's Taxi season four, episode three. Mister personalities. Oh my god, I should have said something. You should have remembered him. Yeah.

This was written by Ian Praser and Howard Gewertz. Try saying that ten times fast. And then it was directed by Howard Storm. Again, we get a Burrow's List episode follom. Alone, we get an Avenger apparently.

An avenger in this episode. Well yeah, if anyone named Storm, they've got to be a superhero's right. I think I made that joke in the last episode that he was like the long lost Fantastic Four. That's it exactly, man, I'm recycling a joke. There you go.

It's a punch up, that's what we'll call it. So we begin this episode with the same old b roll with the outside of Marios where fake Phonsie opens the door. For his pal and those people are caught in a loop. Seriously, it's like something out of a nightmare. I want to do an episode about them, just like keep going to this bar?

Do we ever actually drink anything when we go in here? So they're like the Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern of the Taxi universe. I think it's I think it's up to us to make that happen. I think so maybe the stay tuned inside Marios, Alex, Jim and Toni are commiserating at a table together. Tony is debating whether to go to college.

Father Malone, Are we even sure that he graduated high school? That that that lunkhead? Well he must have or he got his ged or something or other, because he's ready to go to college. And you know what this I actually as a subplot. I like the notion of because it does short of connect to earlier plot developments or character developments.

Because Tony can no longer be a boxer in the Golden Ring. That's true. That's a very I didn't think of it like that, but you're right. This does kind of follow along the was a kid Rodriguez when he tries to take that person's license and become a Mexican boxer. That's that's that actually kind of enriches the episode for me.

Father Malone, good point. I mean, they don't do anything good with it, and it ends up being a pointless rotary. But I beg to differ. I mean, it doesn't really lead anywhere, but it does lead to a funny like micro development in the episode. We'll we'll talk about that when we get there.

Elaine walks into Marios and announces that she's made an appointment for Latka with her psychiatrist. That apparently Elaine is still going to a shrink once in a while. Father alone from I think it was a season two episode where she had to go seek therapy because she was so frazzled with life and everything. So it's good for her, you know, she's she values her mental health. She's on the path, she's on the road to wellness.

Do you ever see that movie with Anthony Hopkins yest Her that should supposed to be a big wild farce ended up being a big piece of shit. What do they call that arrest arrests something or other. It's a sanatarium. I'm sure mister Kellogg had some super duper cool name for it. There's a song by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown on the same album as Fire called rest Cure, and it's all about those rest cures where you know, women had to like drink nothing but milk for thirty days and couldn't get out of bed, and there were you know, Graham Crackers involved and all sorts of weird shenanigans.

But you may yogurt Enema's our next podcast idea, right there, Father Bland rest Cures. You heard it here first. When she mentions making this appointment for Laca to see here a psychiatrists, Alex surprisingly protests that Laka's changing personalities is not that serious. I beg to differ, Alex. It's very serious.

It's like the most serious thing going on in that garage that we have as an audience have not been privy to. I mean, we know he had that one moment, but it seemed like that was a one off. In the context of the show. There's always this very real, very real possibility that Laka could lose his persona, he could become Vic Ferrari and have no way of getting back to Laka. So I think it's very serious.

It is very serious. And here's the thing, like, yeah, we as an audience might be prepared for him to switch from Vic Ferrari to Laka and back, but evidently there are many more people. This is a new development because I think up to this point we've only ever seen him turn into Vic Ferrari. And that wasn't that wasn't triggered by some kind of you know, dormant disorder. That was a very calculated attempt by Laka, if you remember, to adopt a more American style of speaking, right, He immersed himself in that those playboys and listening to rock DJs.

It became so method that he just took the role home with him and then everyone had to call him Vic, just like Val Kilmer Mak call him Jim, except for Frank Whaley, who would only call him asshole. Him. Developing, for lack of a better term, multiple personalities is a very new and troubling development. So I don't know what Alex is talking about when he says there's no danger here that that just seems to be a very naive way of looking at it. Tony actually says one of his personalities is his friend, and another one owes him fifty bucks.

So there's at least three, probably more of these so called multiple personalities that he's manifesting at this point. The thing is they're speaking about it so casually, as if we the audience should be on board with this already. This is a ficking This is a fucking huge deal. This is very big, a very big deal for Loatka, and I commend Elaine for taking matters into her own hands and saying this, this shouldn't stand like we have to get him treatment. Listen, this is like Richie Cunningham going into Arnold's and talking to Ralph Mouth and they're both being so casual about Potzy's bipolar disorder.

Oh he's just down sometimes, that's Potsy. Yeah, I mean it's played for laughs. Make no mistake in this, and that part of that is this is a very unenlightened time. But when you stop and think about it, this is this is a very scary prospect that Lacka is just manifesting these other personalities and no one knows the rhyme or reason behind it. He could eat.

Like I said, there's a risk that you could lose Loka forever through this at least. Do you think do you think there's a possibility that that Alex doesn't believe this is an actual psychological problem, that that this is just Loka trying out new ways of being. I don't. I don't. I honestly don't know what what Alex's game is he how he could think that this is anything but something that needs to be addressed.

I don't know what his thoughts are on it. Why he's so casual about this not being a big deal, because it is. We agree here that it's a big deal. Elaine thinks it's a big deal. Elaine insists that she and Alex take Laka to doctor Jeffries.

Doctor Jeffries is her psychiatrist. It's different from the one that we talked about many episodes ago. Right on Cube, Tommy, Hey, we get to see Tommy everybody. Tommy gets a line too. He gets a line.

Tommy tells Elaine that she's got a phone call. It's her babysitter, So she goes to another room to take the call, which is a little weird. Take it. He says, yeah, take it in the back, and suddenly she's gone into this room we've never seen before after four fucking seasons of this show, Like they have a back. It's like the Godfather room where only the elite get to sit there, and you know, stroke a cat, and you know, the lighting is very dim.

I would imagine you said, you said Godfather. And while yes, that is an accurate description of what a Godfather room would be, it just made me think it was a payphone where you can bump people off really easily. No, at least I hope not. I hope not. So she takes the call.

Tony tries to convince Alex that the merit of having Latka to go see this psychiatrist, and again, for someone who's so seemingly level headed and enlightened, Alex totally shits all over the notion of going to see a psychiatrist. He literally says he doesn't see the point. I don't understand what. Maybe it's just baked into his stubborn personality, but it just seems like when Alex gets a notion in his head, he's it's almost impossible to shake him out. Of it.

Well, you know, just like the episode is playing with a TV version of a mental illness, this isn't This is Alex just sort of going through a character thing here, like where he doesn't believe in it and he'll learn his lesson by the end. You know when you say that way that there's some parallels to be had with the episode one of this season, Jim the Psychic, where Alex, I mean, it's superstition that he's dealing with there, so it's not quite the same thing. But if you remember, Alex refuses to entertain the notion that Jim is actually psychic, and he actually has predicted Alex's demise in that. Maybe I think Alex just delights in proving people wrong and proving that he's right. And all you idiots, you don't know what you're talking about.

You're being so foolish about this whole business. It's all a bunch of hokum, this psychiatry business. Well yeah, I mean, look, it's a generational thing too, you know, like people are just really now getting used to the idea that we'd all probably be better off with a little bit of therapy. Yeah, which I started to say earlier. It is actually a very enlightened thing for Elaine to be dealing with, because at least at this point in nineteen eighty one, there was definitely a stigma around getting treated for mental health issues and taking care of your making that a priority, whereas now it's much more baked into the culture.

It doesn't completely the stigma hasn't completely disappeared, but I think most people, if you ask them, will agree, Yeah, you know, it's just as important as your physical health. So good for Elane, That's what I say. So Elaine comes back out. She's upset because. Oh, those kids of mine, they're gonna kill each other, going to.

Well those kids, Yeah, Jason put Jennifer's doll in the microwave and that's set off a whole thing. So Alex reminds Elaine about the appointment. But now Elaine says she's got to go home for the stupid dolls funeral. Alex then, in another fit of idiocy, he says that she's. Indulging that child, Like, what the fuck?

This is a guy who we've already talked about this. He walked out on his family, never mind the reasons behind it, but how can he be giving parenting advice to Elaine. It's beyond well, look at the advice he's giving and look at the kind of parent he is. And there's your answer there. I've just I've answered my own question.

There you go, follom alone. Elaine gives Alex doctor Jeffrey's address, and Alex is all upset that he's got to take Laka there by himself, but he goes over to the bar. Alex walks over to the bar where there's a guy who's been sitting there in a cowboy outfit. He's been slumped at the bar this whole time, and Alex says, arlow are you ready? And the stool the guy in the stool turns round.

It's Laka and a cowboy outfit. I love when TV shows do this, where they have something like this in plain sight for the whole scene, we don't notice it until that moment. It's brilliant. I love those moments too. This one, I actually wish they had featured him a little more.

I wish they had come over and maybe not interacted with him, but made notice that there is a cowboy sitting at the bar for no reason. And then you know, because they don't ever really show him. It's a surprise, yeah, that Loca is dressed as a cowboy, but it could have been a surprise that that guy over there is Loatka. Well, and not to mention just the fact that there's a cowboy in Marios, let alone the fact that as Lotka as a cowboy, that would itself would be weird. And you know, he doesn't speak like Locka.

He speaks like a fucking cowboy right now. So he could have, even with his back to the camera, said give me another beer over here, Ramo beer. Yeah. So he he and Alex mosey out of out of Marios and then we cut to. The one to merit for you, mister Storm.

James Burrows wouldn't have let that one go. And that's you know, I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here, but but this is this is shaping up to be a pretty good episode because we've had Latka, we've got Kaufman at the height of his powers. But throughout this whole episode, I couldn't help thinking like, what would what would James Burrows have done with this? It's not poorly directed by any means, but I do think this is a good example of a missed opportunity with the direction. I think this is a director who's directing everything on the page, and you're not going to do better than the scripts they're doing here.

But James Burrows would figure out a way to make things funnier and new avenues of comedy to explore. Agreed, I totally agree. We cut over to doctor Jeffery's waiting room, where Alex is pacing like an expected mother. He's on edge about this whole process. He runs into a woman coming on her way out of office.

This is weird. It's very weird. It it kind of it reminded me of I don't know, like a like a Woody Allen movie or something. This little mini bit with this woman. Because this episode is based around psychiatry, it's like, here's here's a chance for everyone to drop in their therapy jokes there.

You know, they're analyst jokes. And that's what we get. This is this little tight scene within the scene with this woman. She declares to Alex that she's about to have her last cigarette, and she goes to this whole litany of how her life is going to improve, no more promiscuity and no more giving my number. When it's already listed, which is a joke that you couldn't make nowadays because nobody has a phone book.

It's not the same. Thing, that's true. But that was the only part of the interaction that I enjoyed, because she's very clearly says her name. She like gives all three names, like the middle name as well, and then goes, yeah, no, give it out my number. I wouldn't do that anymore, especially now that I'm listed.

Alex doesn't say anything. It's really just this scene, this little mini scene, belongs to this woman. She takes her cigarette, she smokes about half of it, or not even half, and she prabbles on about how she was able to quit. She declares it was so easy, and then she puts it out and leaves, and that's all we see of her. No, there is a funny button there at the mher.

She goes, oh, my taste, butts, I can taste so much better now. It's like she literally just stumped out a cigarette. It's been five seconds, not even since she stops smoking. She's like, I feel so much better through this whole thing. Loaka as Arlo the Cowboy, has been slumped in a chair sleeping and he wakes up at that as the woman leaves the office and it's Loaka again.

He's confused about his cowboy duds and what is he doing here? Why am I dressed like a poop kicker. That's what he says. Alex explains where they are. Loca, who was clearly frightened by the prospect of talking with the psychiatry, says it was all a joke.

Alex asks him to prove it, and Loka gets up and it looks like he's starting to kind of mosey around the office. But it's a good routine he's doing, doing cowboys stuff. Yeah, I love hearing cowboy jargon out of Loca's mouth. Hello, little buccer Ooh, you know, he's not fooling anybody, He's just putting you know, he's pretending to be a cowboy. He's not our Loo anymore.

Alex is completely unmoved by this, and then the secretary says that the doctor's ready. Loca panics a little bit, but Alex in alex way, convinces him that it's going to be all right. We now cut inside the office, the psychiatrist's office, where Loca is talking to doctor Jeffery's side. Note, By the way, Doctor Jefferies looks like an older, grizzled version of Brad Pitt. Did you notice that there's something about his face?

He looks just like an older Brad Pitt. I always thought he was like a second cousin of Robert Redford. That's even better. He does look a lot like Robert Redford. More like.

We're talking about Barry Nelson here. For those of you in the know or not in the know, Barry Nelson is somebody I'm very familiar with because I've stolen his character name for all those stupid videos I make where I interview people in other movies. Because Barry Nelson is the proprietor of the Overlook Hotel hotel who hires Jack Torrance at the beginning of The Shining Yeah, he played a character named Stuart Ullman, which is the character I use, the character name I use in all of those videos. I've seen those videos dozens of times, Father Malone, because are really funny. Go to people, go to Father Milan's YouTube channel and check those out.

But I never I never connected. I mean, I'm I'm not that much of a super fan of the Shining so I would not have guessed that that's fantastic. And he is in the infamous cut ending of The Shining where they do an epilogue that takes place in a hospital and Wendy is, you know, in bed in a room and Stuart Ullman comes to visit them to tell them, you know, I hope everything's okay. You know, it's really crazy and everything. But he's got a tennis ball in his hand, and when they finished talking, he tosses the ball to Danny who catches it.

And that was supposed to be the last shot. Interesting, And is this on YouTube? People can check this? Is this is nowhere? It appeared in movie theaters for one day and then all the theaters got word from Kubrick to to return that footage.

I mean to displice it where they where they where it was and return that footage and then it was all destroyed. Wow. So have you ever seen it or. You just know it? I have never seen it.

I talked to a post production guy who worked on The Shining who told me about it. That's really cool. Lacke is sitting down and he's describing his childhood to doctor Jeffries. But doctor Jeffries keeps he's dressing it up for doctor Jeffries, but the psychiatrist is pressing him on the details. And as he does this, in mid sentence, Laka becomes Vic Ferrari from that previous episode last season.

And this the audience is just delighted because clearly that Vic Ferrari episode was was a popular one because they all know who he is and what his whole shtick is. And let me say that I liked Vic Ferrari then, and I really like Vic Ferrari here. I like he's got some really funny lines. He's very fun I'm not going to repeat them, because. That right now, I'm okay, You're okay, corrals hilarious.

He's able to flip it on and off like a switch. He just becomes Vic Ferrari right there before your eyes. Doctor Jeffries introduces himself and and as you said, Vic makes a bunch of corny jokes. Uh. Doctor Jeffries then asks to speak to Loca again, and in a split second again he just becomes Loaka.

The way he's holding himself, his face, his mannerisms, it's Loka all over again. So then doctor Jeffries continues to poke at Locke's childhood, and Loca mentions this uncle Bobka from the Old Country who he was forced to spend summers with when he was a child, and he goes on to describe this uncle Bobka as basically a bully who would pretend to throw Loca into the lake when he couldn't swim, and he Locka hated spending time with this He was miserable with his uncle Bobka. Doctor Jeffries tells Locke, well, it's been a remarkable session, Loka. I think we've made progress. But now I'd like to speak to Alex Riager.

And he actually gets up to hit the intercom to tell the secretary to let Alex riger in, but as he's walking, Loca responds to doctor Jeffries as Alex Rieger. This isn't a mirror imitation. Kaufman personifies Alex Rieger right, the stance, with the weird way he puts his hands in his pockets where the pinky and the pointer are sticking out, the facial expression, the neutral sort of Alex Rieger face. It's all there. It's amazing.

It's yeah. Before anyone says anything, as soon as I'd like to speak to Alex Rieger, and Laca stands up and stands that way. I was like, oh, so he is Alex Rigar. Now, how fantastic. There's a slouch to the way he holds himself.

It's it's so brilliant. I mean, we've already this show has already been a litany of k Andy Kaufman brilliance. This is really that's just all the physical. By the way, the fucking voice recreation is kind of astounding as well. Well, it's the voice in the way that he's written, because I think what they basically did, which is smart, as they just wrote him as if he's a second Alex.

He introduces himself as Alex Reager, and doctor Jeffries is like, well, Alex Riager and he says something like, yep, I'm a cab driver and I don't mind, which is something that Alex would say, this self effacing way that he talks. Doctor Jeffries asks to speak to Laca again, and then Alex, I'm using air quotes here, the Alex number two replies that Loca's gone. So this thing that I talked about that where we're fearing seems to have happened that there's no more Loaka, there's just Alex number two. There is no Dana, only only Zuel. He's the same thing.

He asks to speak to Vic no vic or Rlow no Arlow, There's only Alex. Alex comes in and you know, we we kind of bagged a little bit on the direction so far. But I really like this shot because what we have is we have Laca as Alex in the foreground. In the middle ground, we have doctor Jeffries, and then Alex walks in and he's effectively in the background. But when he walks in without saying a word, he's in the same pose as Lockga, with his hands in his pockets in that peculiar way.

It's just a remarkable shot, and without even calling attention to it, the audience starts to laugh because they can see this juxtaposition of the real Alex and Alex number two. It's awesome. It's a twist on the old Harpo mirror gag. Right, it is, but it's not as in your face. It's just it's so much more subtle than that.

Because this is now four seasons that we've been watching Alex do his thing, and we're very familiar with the character. These foibles are so familiar, and he captures them. Andy Kaufman captures them so well. You don't need to be told more than once that hey, this is Alex riger right here. Alex number two goes outside so that Alex Prime can talk to Doctor Jeffries.

Alex is understandably confused by all this. He doesn't yet understand. He says, who does that remind me of? Doctor? And Doctor Jeffries assures him that all's well.

Locke is in no danger and he's gonna be perfectly fine. Alex runs through Laca's list of personalities. He's like, it's not our low, it's not vic who. He can't figure out who he is now, and Doctor Jeffries tells Alex that Loka is you. As we go to commercial, it's a great little Minnie cliffhanger, because now I'm like, I got to see what's going to happen here.

We fade back into the garage as Tony comes in and he confides to Alex that he's worried about his upcoming college aptitude test. Remember we talked about him wanting to go back to school, and this is another weird thing that Alex does Alex. He's encouraging Tony at the beginning to go back to school. That's a great idea, Tony, Sure do it. But now Alex tells Tony that not everyone is cut out for college.

What a mixed message he's getting from this guy he's supposedly his friend and confidante. It's almost as if they're giving us the worst version of Alex Rieger in this episode for a very specific reason. HP. Are you familiar with The Twilight Zone nineteen eighty five per chance somewhat? The pilot of the series is pretty remarkable and has some renown, particularly for an adaptation of a Harlan Ellison story called Shatter Day starring Bruce willis directed by Wes Craven, and it's a story about a guy who is kind of just a loser, who's sort of coasting through life and not really interacting with his friends and just kind of using those who actually love him.

And then one day he gets a phone call from himself and it's and he's he lets him know that it's not going to stand anymore, that he's going to start doing things right, and slowly but surely, this other version of himself like starts making amends with all of his friends and family and being a really nice guy and everything, and slowly but surely, the original version of himself actually fades away and disappears, and this other version takes over. And I was thinking that the entire time I was watching this episode of Taxi. Did you think that the real Alex Rieger was going to fade away and Loco was going to take over his his mantle. I was thinking, at the very least Alex Rieger would shrug and go, I guess I quit and then leave, and then we get one whole season of Alex Rieger played by Andy Kaufman.

I could see that. I could see that. Tony says to Alex that when he was in the ring, he knew exactly what he wanted to be. This is the continuing that runner of him quitting being a boxer, and he's still kind of out to see as to what his next move should be. So he says, you know, he was a boxer, he knew what he wanted to be.

And Alex suggests to Tony, this is his big advice, is maybe Tony should become a boxing referee, and this immediately brightens Tony up and he resolves to think about it. He's like, yeah, you know, that sounds like a pretty good idea. He goes off, and meanwhile Alex number two comes in. He gives his bookings to Louie. By now he's dressed exactly like Alex.

He has the slouch sweater and everything. He just looks like Alex. He is Alex, and Louie crows about Alex number two's big bookings, and then Alex number two makes a vintage Alex put down towards Louie. He says something like, well, what do you think of the human race? I'd like an outside his opinion, and even Louie has to admit that he's actually funnier than the real Alex.

The camera cuts over to Alex and you can even see Alex is kind of stifling a smile because he's like, that was a good dig. Alex number two sits next to Tony and they begin to chat a little bit. Tony excitedly tells Alex number two that he's going to be a referee. All Alex number two does is he just simply asks, sure, you want to be a referee. Tony thinks for a second, then says, well, the pay ain't so great and the fans hate them.

Alex number two says, well, then why do you want to be a referee, and Tony says, I don't know. Someone thought it was a great idea, and Alex number two says, well, it sounds like terrible advice to me, and Tony agrees, and he reacts very disdainfully towards Alex. It's really funny. Elaine hustles into the garage asking for Alex. Both Alex and Alex number two respond, but she wants to speak with Alex number two.

Elaine tells Alex number two that his advice on how to handle her kids work beautifully. The kids are so happy they're going to make Alex number two a card for his refrigerator. While all this is happening, the real Alex is listening to all this, and he has this semi angry expression on his face, because what we're effectively seeing is he's kind of stepped outside of himself. He's watching somebody basically live his life and be better at it than he is. That's kind of like the point of this whole scene.

And I guess putting yourself in his shoes father alone, I guess I would assume you would react similarly if you saw somebody effectively living your life better than you. No, I would have left. I would have freaked the fuck out and go what's going on here? And I don't care what the situation was that was causing them to do it. I would not be in the room with them.

Remember they've been living with this Laka thing for a while now, so part of it is I think they're all humoring him, I guess, for lack of a better word. Look, this is Alex getting his just deserts for so sort of blase and casually dismissing the possibility of psychiatry and therapy as as as therapeutic and you know, plus all of this other bullshit of not being the regular Alex we know in love. You know, he needs his life shaken up a little bit, so in this case, it's a good thing he gets to see himself. This is like a like a Scrooge situation. This is like the Ghost of Christmas a couple of weeks ago.

Elaine then turns to the real Alex, Alex number Alex Prime, and tells him that she has two tickets to. Lena horn A mighty Horn. I didn't know that Elaine was a fan of specific it. It's not like Lena Horn makes us it makes an appearance in the show or anything, or like they go to the concert. But maybe she was.

Maybe there was a big tour going on at that time, Lena Horn hadn't toured in a while or something. Part of the reason why I'm laughing is because the only other television appearance where I can remember Lena Horn Lena Horn was The Cosby Show, right. I think not only did they get tickets to Lena Horn, but it was it was in the prime of The Cosby Show where he could do whatever the fuck he wanted. So he's like, you know what, if I want to have Lena Horn sing a whole fucking song right in the middle of a sitcom, guess what we're getting Lena Horn. Oh So, just hearing Lena Horn, like you said, it's so specific that it just made me think of Bill Cosby or The Cosby Show.

Anyhow, she says that she has these tickets, but Alex begs off because he says he's going to the hockey game today. What then after a moment's thought, and this is another example of Alex making poor decisions and seeing those reflected back at him. Because after she thinks for a moment, Elaine, after a moment's thought and a real moment of pragmatism, Elaine asks Alex would he is essentially a carbon copy of the real Alex, so you're getting the Alex experience either way, and. This one gave good advice on how to raise her children. Alex number two replies, sure, I had tickets to the hockey game, but I'll just give him to some kid, and they cut over to the real Alex and he says to himself, I should have done that.

It's like you said, It's it's like a Christmas Carol, only it's not Scrooge seeing the error of his ways. It's actually Alex seeing the kind of person that he should have been, Like he should have given Tony better advice. He should have just said, I'm gonna just give these stupid hockey tickets away because I can go to Lena Horn with a gorgeous Elaine Nardo. Like, what's he thinking? He's not thinking clearly, but thank God has turned into him.

Then the real Alex after this, after saying this about himself, runs over to Elaine, and he says, you realize you just made a date with Laka, and Elaine says, well, yeah, I guess I did. She doesn't really seem to be bothered by the prospect at all. She just keeps walking. Alex is shocked and tells her that she should be more concerned. Elaine is the one that told Latka to see the psychiatrist after all, and Elaine says, I did, didn't I.

It's almost as if she's like in this haze. Maybe it's a carryover from their moment of lust during their European vacation. She just seems to be kind of enthralled by the idea of going out on this date with Laka as Alex it somehow it's intrigued her. Well, she remembers when Alex was a nice guy. She even says it's kind of strange because it's you, Alex, it somehow seems okay.

And hearing this, Alex is just getting more and more upset by this, and Elaine tells him, look, you're getting very emotional about this, and he says, you're damn right. He has a patented reager melt do. He says, you're damn right. I am. How would you like someone else living your life and having more fun at it?

Alex says, look, I might not have been much, but at least I was the only one being me. He says, how come he's smarter than me? How come he's booking more money than me. Exasperated, Alex says, maybe I should just give up. He does.

He does say is he more and she says, yeah, he's more fun than you. That's the best part of the whole bit. That's what he says. Maybe I should just give up being me? And then Alex number two goes over.

He's concerned, and he goes over to Alex and he says, I sense her upset about something, and he says, you know, maybe you should. I'm going to see doctor Jeffries. He's done wonders for me. Maybe you should go with me. Alex says, yeah, let's go right now.

So they both go out and they're both like side by side, and as they're walking out, Jim is walking in and he says hi to Alex and they both say hi Jim at the same time, walking the same way, wearing the same outfit, with the same cadence. It's awesome. Yeah, that's all we needed. We didn't need to belabor it for another two minutes. So now we cut to doctor Jeffrey's office again and Alex walks in.

Alex says to doctor Jefferies that he's worried about lock his health, but doctor Jeffries again seems very unconcerned. He says there's no danger to lock his health. But Alex is beyond frustrated and he wants to know how long this is going to last. Doctor Jeffries admits he's surprised it lasted this long, and then this is funny moment where he Doctor Jeffries chuckles to himself and he says, I'm a lucky guy. He's so pleased about having this case of so called multiple personnelity.

Jackpot, so many papers to come. Yeah, being he's seeing a book in his future, this is his meal ticket. Doctor Jeffries asks Alex for help to stay through Loca's session, and reluctantly Alex agrees. Alex Number two comes in. He starts talking to doctor Jeffers, and this is my favorite part of the episode.

Right here. Number two pours his heart out in front of Alex and doctor Jeffries about where he goes from here. He talks about his family issues, how he's how he's dealing with his friends, and the reasons for his lack of ambition, all of these character traits that we've we've we've grown to understand about Alex throughout the course of the series up to this point, and as he's talking, the real Alex is swept up in the truth of Alex number Two's angst. Alex number two says, he's starting to realize that his love of life is unrequited, and the real Alex is just cut to the quick by this observation. He just I think he like clutches his heart.

He even says, he's pouring my heart out over here. It's great. It's a fucking fantastic saying. And the rest of the episode has written so poorly that I was shocked at how good the writing is here. Alex number two says he was really, really down, but then it dawned on him.

He says, the one thing that can put his whole life in order, and he feels like a million bucks. That's that's literally what he says. The real Alex is at this point, He's hanging on every single word. He's saying, because he's desperate to know, like. What is what is the secret of life?

What's the secret of life? Tell me I need to know? And you know what's He's discovered it and he's still at the cab company and he's just happy. So whatever it is, it's so simple but applicable. And that's what he says.

Alex number two says, you know what, It's so damn simple. Alex number one is practically begging for the answer at this point, he's desperate, and just as Alex number two says, the answer to it all is and at that moment, it's almost like there's a switch flipped again and he just goes right back into Loka talking about Uncle Bobka and his spending summers at Uncle Bobka's house. Alex is absolutely crushed by this. He grabs Lotta by the face and begs him for the answer, but Loka doesn't. He doesn't know what's happened since he switched personalities.

He's he doesn't know anything about it. Confused, Loka then reaches into his pocket and he asks, very sweetly, asks to leave because he has tickets to Lena Horn. So he leaves the office presumably to have some a weird date with Elane. And at this point doctor Jeffries thanks Alex, who is still completely shell shocked by the switch by having the answer the secret to life, his life be ripped from him in such a devastating fashion. But just before he leaves, Alex asks doctor Jeffries, hey, can I use the remaining time in the session?

And Doctor Jeffries agrees and says have a seat, and we fade to black and that's the end of the episode. And I think that's meant to be a hopeful ending, because this is Alex who was disdaining the idea of going to a psychiatrist, and I think we finally see him coming around a little bit to that. Well, he's at least seen that there is a better version of him out there to be had, and it went against everything he was displaying in the early part of the episode. So he's now got to indulge all of that stuff and at least an attempt to get to that happy place. And when they snatched the moment away when they were going to reveal the secret of life to Alex, Riegert very much reminded me of Kirk being beamed up right before the Klingon guard on repent, thee was about to spill the entire plan about Kiddemer.

That is the episode. Now we're going to talk about yellow lights. What does he light? Reminder, we grade each episode on the scale from one to five yellow lights. One is the worst, taxi episode five is the best.

And also, as is our custom, we're gonna throw it to you, father Malone. What do you give, mister personalities? I give it three yellow lights, three yellow lights, three yellow lights, based entirely on Kaufman's performance of each of the characters who performs here, because I liked Elma a lot. I love Vic Ferrari, He's always solid as Laca. But we did get Laka trying to be a cowboy, which is really funny.

And then of course this fucking sublime imitation of Judd Hirsh for the last act. And yet you only consider it slightly above average. Yeah, because the rest of the writing is garbage. Well, I respectfully disagree. I gave this one five yellow lights.

Father them alone, five yellow lights. This is a wonderfully creative spin on the Loca split personality runner that we've seen for a couple of episodes now, Kaufman is at the top of his game as he embodies Alex, and by the way, having him become Alex is the only way this would work. You couldn't have Loaka become Tony or have Loaka become Louis. Louis would not react to the same way, nor would would Tony. I totally agree with everything you just said, but I would also like to point out that every other bit of comedy was a time waster.

When I mentioned when they leave to go to the psychiatrist for the final time and Jim comes in, he goes on and on, well, what are the odds of two tone two Alex is going to do? What are the odds? It's just like this endless Vaughan Villa joke, the ghost nowhere, all of this stuff, all this Elaine is completely from another planet as far as the writing goes here, I don't know what she's doing. This is what regular sitcoms think of women. They just have they come up with problems with their kids, and they show up for date.

You know, it's just like, I don't know. That was not alein Nardo. So the idea that you're giving this a perfect score is bonkers to me. The LACA stuff, the Andy Kaufman stuff is enough to carry all of that through. I just think it's so brilliant.

I hear what you're saying. I there certainly are some shortcomings to the episode, but if I'm going to show somebody the perfect put it this way. This is a perfect LACA episode. Maybe there's some debate about whether this could be a perfect Taxi episode, but to. Me, oh no, no, there is no debate.

This is not a perfect tax episode. Well well, well I beg to differ. We're gonna you know, it's. Remember that game show on SNL. Yes, so let it be written, So let it be done.

No, look, this happens sometimes. You know. It's good that we both have our own opinions. I gave it five yellow lights. Father Malone incorrectly gives it three.

But that's okay. So Father Malone was almost gonna give it two just to counteract your bullshit five. So we average out to be three. But Father Malone is a man of integrity and he will stay with the three because it does deserve three for Randy Kauffman's performance. And I'm a man of integrity as well, and that's why I'm not gonna change although you know I shouldn't say that, because there have been instances, Father Malone, where we do change our scores based on being persuaded during the course of the episodes.

That's fine. In this case, I'm sticking with five. You're gonna stick with three. That's totally fine. Hey man, you know what we're just we're just talking taxi here, No big whoop.

That's gonna do it for this episode of night mister Walter's Father Malone. Where can the folks find you when you're not clocked into the garage. I do a show called Midnight Viewing. It's on twice a week. We do lots and lots and lots of stuff.

We also have a Patreon, Patreon dot com slash Father Alone. That's where you find all the stuff that I do. If you want to go on my Instagram at Midnight Underscore Reviewing, check check us out there too. There you go. I'm for myself.

I am in the midst of trek Fest with Father Malone. We are covering the Star Trek film franchise that's on the Midnight Viewing podcast. Please check that out. We have a lot of fun with that. I host the Noise Junkies music podcast, and I also have a bandcampsite Hpmusicplace dot bandcamp dot com.

Thanks so much for listening. Please feel free to subscribe to the podcast, write a review or rate us. We'd love to hear from you, and in fact, if you want to send me an email, email addresses Hpmusicplace at gmail dot com for Father Malone to myself. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time.