Episode 74 - Louie Goes Too Far

Media nights is see that guy with it now, he's an actor that. Drive and they only can't driver in his place. Good evening and welcome tonight, mister Walter's a Taxi podcast HP your co host with me as always as Father Malone, Father Malone Hawaii this evening. I represent the National Organization of Women and I'm shutting this episode down. Someone's got to shut it down.

We're talking Taxi Season four, episode ten, Louis Goes Too. Far, which, by the way, is a terrible title. It should be like Louis is a total creepyzoid and is lucky he's not in jail. Like the Louis Goes too Far it sound like, oh he's been a bad boy. This is not that, like you're wagging your finger at him.

Oh, Louis, this is much more egregious than you would get from that title. I think you're right. Yeah, this isn't some lascivious thing he said to the tool woman he never should have said it, or something like that. This is beyond the pale. This is assault.

If ever there was an understatement, Louis Goes too Far? Is that understatement? So we're gonna get into it. This is written by Danny Kallius and directed by Michael Lessak. It's happening here.

Yeah, I think I believe we've come across Michael Lessak in the past. I'm not really sure about Danny Kallis. I don't know. Danny Kallis sounds like a fake name to me, like a sag thing. Yeah, as does the other one too.

It sounds like James Burrows couldn't, like, you know, there was some loophole where he couldn't direct every episode or something, so he threw that name up because I could swear I heard him honking off stage. It could be he may have been there in a kind of an associate produce her capacity, but that does explain a lot that the man isn't directing it. But nevertheless, I'm gonna remind you we are doing these shows in broadcast order, and not in order of filming. We start here, as we often start, father alone in the garage. As a lane hustles in, she announces to no one in particular that she has no time to talk.

She's got a change for a big opening at the art gallery tonight. She goes up the stairs to her locker and she grabs a glittery sequined dress and brings it downstairs. A side note, Father Malone, our sequence dresses still a thing. Yes, I see them often. Well, being in Las Vegas, I would assume there's a gas in a you know, if you are going to see it anywhere, I would assume you'd see it in Vegas.

Yeah, but we're not talking just like showgirls on stage, just people out in nightclubs and stuff. The Sequence are still a huge thing. Trust me, what's kind of an easy shortcut to glitzy glamorous And I'm putting air quotes around glamorous sort of clothing because it's ultimately just a blouse or a dress with a bunch of little sequins sewn into it. You say it like it's not magic. Well that I always felt like it was a big eighties kind of style choice.

I guess that's true. Still, I don't think sequence have a decade. I think they're they're perennial. I guess so. But would you say they debuted in the seventies, Is that where they became popular sequence?

No, I would say in the fifties, if anything in the fifties, fifties, yeah, I would say the fifties right, huh when you started getting sequence? Okay, I don't know. Maybe I don't Maybe I'm completely wrong. Maybe it was the twenties of the eighteen nineties, who knows. Maybe some flappers.

Maybe it was a thing, you know. I don't know if it was flappers, though, come on, let's not go crazy here. H I don't know anyway. Anyway, we've spent too long on sequence. I say, we didn't spend enough time on set.

Well, we could make this, this could be, you know, mister Walters, a sequence podcast. That could just change it format shock? Why not? So with a with a flirty head turn, Elaine goes to the downstairs bathroom to quote, make herself exquisite now, But in my book, she doesn't have to make She already is exquisite. Because they put her in a fucking red sweater.

It's gross, not putting red heads in red things. It's not It doesn't go. Who's the guy who is on? Uh with that? That reality show, the one about the designers?

Is it? Tim Gun? Tim Gunn, You're like the Tim Gun of Elaine fashion choices. I want, my god, Elaine in a red sweater. No world leaves.

She cannot make that work any anyhow, inexplicably and to a roar of applause for them alone. This this is a real head scratcher. Vic Ferrari walks in there's no context. I guess, yeah, they're applauding because the Fonsi character walking. It's the fonds That's exactly it.

He's become a fons and that can't have been a happy development for Andy kaff And knowing what we believe we know about him, I don't think he was after the cheap laughs. No, and I'm sure by by now he's really sick of this television series after how many. Years probably, I mean this is four years. It's probably four years more than he thought he would get out of it. He probably didn't think it was going to be a big success.

The thing about it is, I think you're going to see him playing Vic. He's so over the top here, there's no there's no not that Vic is a subtle character, but any sort of pretense towards being clever or being kind of subversive and his portrayal is out the window. He's in full project to the back of the theater mode. And I really found that grating in this episode. Yeah, because I've been a big fan of Vic Ferrari.

I thought he was really funny, a smarmy, smug kind of way. But he's really a cartoon character here. He like never stops rumba ing or something or jazzer sizing the entire time, like right, buddy, Like his arms are constantly like I'm in a dance. I'm in a quiet little dance on my own. You could have taken Dick out of the episode entirely and it would not have made a single lookup difference.

I have a feeling that because of the nature of the a plot, maybe they felt like they had to do something to lighten the episode a little bit, because it's really we're gonna see it's some very dark stuff and stuff that maybe isn't tailor made for comedy. Well, I will say, we get to see Reverend Jim in another outfit, so maybe the subplot is completely worth it. It's true it was rather jarring as well. We'll see what we're gonna get to that in a moment. So so Vic comes in, he banters with with Reverend Jim a little bit, during which he extols the virtue of jazzer size.

As you just said, Now, if there ever was a word that screened eighties, it's jazzer size. Yeah. I'm shocked at how frequently they are pointing out contemporary things on this show. And this one's a perfect example because obviously this show came out in eighty two or whatever the fuck it was, because that's when jazer size was in the lingo that that could be a joke on television. Yeah, we've seen them do that with the Rubik's cube that became like a focus in the Vienna Waights episode with Alex.

At a certain point in a future episode it kind of revolves a little bit around the movie Et, which, as we all remember, was a sensation in the eighties. I think there's a pac Man episode two, isn't there in the video games? So yeah, oh, Kuran' tire on taxi. That's a perfect example right there. So yeah, I don't think as much as we like to kind of class up the idea of this show, they're not immune to these sorts of like pandering to the current times.

Unfortunately, that's the case here. Jim is intrigued by the notion of improving himself through jazzer size, and Vick agrees to take him to a class with him tomorrow at eight. Okay, now we get into this. A shaken and confused a Lane kind of stumbles out of the bathroom. Reader notices that she's upset by something, and he asks what's up.

She says, there's a small hole in the bathroom, and she could swear that she noticed an eye staring at her. This is like Porky's stuff we're dealing with here. If Blade runners Rick Deckard had been there, this would not have happened. Little holes, you know, they like that drill, so I can you'd be so surprised at what a man will do to get a glimpse of a beautiful body. By the way that that happens to be one of my favorite moments.

It's so inexplicable, Like how Deckard is just able to like put on that that goofy persona just at at a moment's notice. It's great. It's underrated that moment. I think, well, lady time. Yeah, anytime Harrison Ford does like a voice or like weirdo character, it's like, what is happening all of us?

Where did this come from? Elaine jumps at this conclusion that it must be Louie and Tony. Actually, maybe it's because he's a paisana of Louis, he says, he defends Louie initially says even Louie would not sink that low and on cue, absolutely on cue, Louie walks out of the adjoining poem doing the spiggy. He comes out of the adjoining room. He's singing, A pretty girl is like a melody.

He should have walked out and said, nah, oh you're looking good. That would have you know, a man. That's what's happening on screen. Elaine wants to kill him immediately, but Riger insists that without proof, it's just her word against his. I guess it's Riager being pragmatic, but I'm a little surprised that he's not leaping to her defense in the face of such an obvious situation.

I'm a little surprised they don't let Tony just go back there. Just pull pull Louis out and beat him, usc. Beat the shit out of him. Yeah, like what's up here? Like maybe not so much this time the initial thing, but when she goes back to trap him, who would have been able to stop Tony from going back there to kick the ship out of Louis.

He would have scared the ship out of Louis, because we all know that there's the savagery just under the surface of Tony. He's barely civilized. And I'm sure all those trophies from Vietnam, let's not forget those. There's some darkness lurking in Tony that I know Louis Louie's aware of. He keeps a shriveled ear in the pocket of his Yankees jacket to trap Louie.

As you said, Elaine loudly declares that she's going to go change back into her earlier outfit, and then when she does this, Louis casually walks back into the adjoining room. I don't know if it's meant to be the tool room that we've seen on occasion. I don't know what room that is. Maybe another bathroom, perhaps supposed to be. I don't know, because you don't ever remember.

There ever being a second door there. Honestly, it's there. There's a lot of secrets in the garage. We've talked about this, and Louis knows them all, so I wouldn't be surprised. Maybe it's an I maybe we assume it's another men's room, because why else would Louis be like in there, kind of doing his business.

I don't know, it seems a little suspect. The whole thing is suspect. It's just ridiculous. I mean, he walks out after she comes out, and then he walks back in after she goes back in. Come on, Yeah, this show really gives new meaning to the phrase suspension of disbelief because things would play out much differently, you know nowadays.

Louis goes back into that out of the room and then seeing this, sends the like I said, you always hair trigger Tony into a bloodluss and he declares he's gonna break Louie's jaw just like you said. He's the one who's gonna get it done, but Rieger stops him, apparently having faith in Elaine's plan, and then with a loud shriek from Louis, both Elaine and Louie emerge from their respective rooms. Louis is notably clutching his eye and Elaine chases him around, accusing Louis of peeping, but Louis, of course insists that he didn't do it. All the while Louis is scrambling around the garage, but his every exit is blocked by either Riger or Tony, and finally Louis barricades himself in a taxi as Lane runs out, declaring that she hates Louis more now than she ever has before.

You know, at least the kids in Porky's were in high school and didn't really fucking know any better, you know what I mean. I'm not letting them off the hook either that I don't believe in boys will be boys bullshit. But like that was a period piece set in the early sixties about high school kids who are horny and crazy. This is Louis de Palma, and as reprehensible as he's been so far, this is just wrong beginning to end. There's nothing cute about this.

There's nothing sort of scampish in his behavior here. He deserves to go to jail, never mind being fired. Yeah, there's there's no whimsy, and they play it like it is. That's the problem. They keep like making him like, oh, he's he's trying to wriggle out of it.

Hah, Like no, man, like everyone knows he just did this. Why why is there any confusion? They should be renaming the garage to the Elaine Nardo taxi company. She should own that fucking garage because this leaves them open to insane litigation. I mean they they have witnesses.

They've got him dead to right, so there's no there's no her word against his at this point. It's it has happened. There are witnesses. That's this is this is the deal. I was sort of like, I mean, I guess I had.

This isn't one of the ones spoiler alert that I watched that often because I don't find it a very It's not a fun episode to watch. It's pretty it's pretty awful what Louis. Does, and I don't watch Angela again. Oh that's that is wow. That is pretty definitive right there.

Follow them alone at least you get that groovy song by Bob James. Now, would you rather watch the first one or the one where she comes back and then they have to find her because she's eating again? Oh good question. I think I'd probably have to go with the second one because it's like a scavenger hunt in it, Like they have more cabvis involved. Alex Is offended at the gall of Louis.

As I said, they all saw him go in knowing that there's a peep hole there and his eye is tearing because Elaine poked it. Alex is so angry fall the one he literally sputters it's one of those things where he's like, you know, I don't And finally he just storms out, saying, ah, I forget it. He I think. He even does the thing with his hands like I forget it, and then Tony follows him out. Even Vic, who is obviously cut from a very different cloth, voices his disapproval that LOUI Louie, but you know that's not cool.

Think is a jerk. But he's not a creep. He's not a creep and he's not going to cross that line. So and then Jim tells Louis that he's He's Louis is one of four heroes in his life. There's Saint Thomas, Aquinas, There's Mahatma Gandhi, there's Alan Alda and Louie.

And even after Louis admits that his eye is hurt because Elaine poked that, Jim says, well, that's good enough for me. So Jim being Jim, just he doesn't know what's going on. That's Jim's representation of his entire generation. They don't see it when it's happening. That's right.

So we fade back into the garage. It's some time after this incident. Vic again comes bopping into the garage. He's wearing his banana yellow track suit, and again father alone I mentioned this earlier. Kaufman is hamming it up in a way that he rarely ever did on taxi.

He's got a wide smile, he's cheerful, really going through he's pantomiming these ridiculous jazzer size. Actually do you think this is? Do you think this is the lack of influence of James Burrows that. I think it might be. I think the scuy director was probably intimidated by Andy Kaufman, and when just whatever you want to do, man, we're happy to have you.

I think probably they kind of maybe had it gave him a little too much, you know, he gave him the proverbial inch and he took a mile. Maybe he wanted to push it as far as he could take it Kaufman. But it's just again, it's sort of disheartening that usually he's so reliably, you know, punchy in his targeted bits on other shows. So then, as you alluded to earlier, there a sweaty, gray sweats clad Jim comes in and he's grousing about how awful the jazzer size was. But I never want to hear that word again.

You can get angry, Jim gets violent. He does. It's he It's so weird to see him in the sweats. And for some reason, the sweats are very form fitting to him, so it's not like this, these baggy sweats that you'd see. He almost looks like Rocky Balboa climbing the steps of the Art Museum.

That's that's the look. He has, gray sweats top to bottom, and I think he. Just traded out his one uniform for another. You remember when gray sweats were all that there was. It was just like gray top, gray bottom.

Oh yeah, every and every time on in a TV show, like if it was Lavern and Shirley. I remember once they went to like a fat farm or so called fat farm, and what was their their dress of choice, gray sweats top to bottom of tube sox. Yeah, that was it. You didn't have if you weren't wearing if you were wearing, uh, dark sweats, let's say, black sweats you were probably engaged in some sort of cat burglar type situation. That's the only reason you'd wear any sweats that weren't gray, like dark you know what I mean?

Maybe a watchcap too. I don't particularly fail the eighties is a decade, but there were some benefits to it, like we can add color to our wardrobes. It's just weird to see Jim and in an outfit that isn't his customary Canadian tuxedo, of course, and like you said, Jim is so upset with Vic and the whole thing that they almost come to blows about the jazzer size. I think Jim actually leaps physically at Vic to try and like, I don't know get his point. Did you read the subtitles?

Because he was like, I'm usually not a violent person, but I will engage in fisticuffs with you. I was like, what the fuck is happening, Jim? It's up and down? Left is right? This is a very weird episode.

This is another reason for that. So they again their subplot doesn't that that's pretty much it. They walk off as Elane walks into the garage. She's escorting another woman who will find out his named Andreas Stewart. Elaine introduces her as the she's from the National Organization for Women.

I don't does she say what she is, like, is she a litigator or something. No, she's like the New York representative or something like, yeah, whatever. The highest tier of the local chapter is. Yeah, I got handed to Elaine. She really snapped into action quick because this is where led to believe.

This is probably the next day. So she got on the horn with with the Organization of and got this Andrea Scott to come down and like help her address the issue with with Ratledge the owner. Elaine tells everybody that that Andrea is going to settle the score with Louis. But Andrea cautions her like, hey, I want I'm going to be fair about this, Elaine, you know, don't don't oversell this. And of course at that point, Louis comes in, who's the tuts?

Yeah, who's the tuts? Which I mean tuts? Even then with such an antiquated turn of a phrase. Yeah, I'd be like getting called a honky now. So after his faux pas, Andrea kind of exchanged a look with with the Lane like yeah, okay, I see what we're talking about now, Elaine introduces Andrea to Louis, who doesn't care at all.

He's not he's not phased in the least about anything that's happening. And Alex tells Louis that they're gonna they're here to take action for what Louis did to Elane, and Louie's response is he just makes light of the threat as the two women go up to talk to to Ratledge. What's curious about this is that Alex almost seems to be cautioning Louis about the situation, like what what Why is he beholden to Louie to to kind of like be his consigli air in this situation. I don't get it. Well, I mean, Louis doesn't in any way understand the gravity of that situation.

And I guess even as a friend, you might go, hey, you better start fucking saying you're sorry here, man, because this is bad, bad news. I guess. But he's But Louis isn't and has never really been his friend. They've had some tender moments, but they you know, every episode's a new reason to hate Louis, seemingly, so it's just weird that this is kind of the logical endpoint of Louie's bad behavior. Why Reager wouldn't go finally, you know, he's gone too far and now he's going to be dealt with.

But yeah, maybe he should have been telling him in a gleeful way. You know what's going to happen here in Louis. They're gonna go up there, they're gonna talk to about you're getting the glucier job if you're lucky, if you're lucky, and then they might sue you personally. Louis is confident that his fifteen years of service to the company will be taken into account. Fifteen years, wasn't didn't he work for the company like right out of high school?

No, he went into the army right out of high school. Okay, he wouldn't. Okay, so does fifteen So that would have been let's say, nineteen sixty seven, let's call it. Yeah, what eighty two mightus fifteen sixty seven? Is that that makes sense?

Actually, well, let me ask this, do we know when was it Douglas Fairbanks? Was he the one that he rolled for the money and the wine in the previous episode? Remember the story that you're talking to me, I am remember the story, Louis told the regal. Right, yeah, yes, they hookers rolled him, right. Was it Douglas Fairbanks or somebody else?

I think it was Doug Fairbanks. Yeah, well, then when did he die? Pre sixty seven? I guess that's the crucial thing. I have no idea.

It would be interesting. I don't care enough to look it up, but that would definitively tell us if the dates, Well, the. First season took place in what year? Seventy eight? U seventy nine?

I thought seventy nine, And that was louis tenth or was it his fifteenth? It was his tenth anniversal, his reunion, his high school re union in tenth, so that would have been sixty eight. Yeah. I don't Something is fishy here, but I'm just going to leave it at that. Well, we'll just consider this file this under puzzling.

Louis also tries bribing Tony with the promise of a brand new cab to bring him over to his side in case there's like any you know, he has to testify, but to no avail, because Tony says, look, even if you give me this cab, I'm still gonna have to testify against you. So he gives Tony like the widow Maker. I think he calls it the widow Maker instead of this brand new cab. So Jim stumbles down the stairs. He's been up there, and he's wondering aloud why they're saying such things meaning rat legit, and Louie pumps Jim for info, which he relates in bits and pieces that indicate the case could go either way.

They're referencing his time, his service to the company, the seriousness of the allegations would have you. Finally, Elaine and Andrea come downstairs. Odin says she's decided to take their out of court settlement rather than the soup, which I guess we're led to believe must include some sort of monetary recompense. I would think, oh, yeah, clearly she was going to get some money out of that. She should No, no, no, no, no, I don't think she is.

I think the I think the settlement is he gets fired. He gets fired. Yeah, So that's when she says that she's taking the settlement. Louis is crowing about it, and Elaine replies, well, guess what, Louie, you just lost your job, and that it's like the record scratch moment with Louis, he completely freezes up. As we fade to commercial, we fade back in as Louis is saying his goodbyes to Jeff and his cage while toting the customary cardboard box with all of this stuff packed into it.

We've seen this anytime someone gets fired, they have that cardboard. Box right, the banker's box right. Well, maybe with the plant kind of sticking up out of the top and picture frames. That's just if you're being thrown out of an office, your plant and your picture frame will be sticking out, just as if you've gone to the market, you will have a loaf of French bread. I will say I've I've worked a lot of offices in my life on them alone.

I've never never had a plant. I don't know. Maybe that's an eighties thing too, Maybe that's just I don't know, never had a plant. Everyone was crazy for ferns back then. Guess everyone wanted to have a green thumb.

Tony insists to Alex as he they're watching this play out that they got to say something to Louis for goodbye. But Alex is still so disgusted by what Louis did. Although he does admit to feeling sorry for Louis. Despite that, Alex ultimately says a quick goodbye to Louis, who is resolute. He's defiant.

He insists that they could have stuck up for him, but they didn't, and now Louis is going to get back on top of the dung heap someday, no matter what. And he huffs out of the garage. He's apparently for good. He's leaving good. I mean, honestly, like putting aside our history with the show.

Fuck off already, Louis to Palma. This should have been him actually getting fired permanently, Like no if sands or butts, as you said, he's he would be fortunate that's all that happened to him, because he could have criminal charges pressed against him at this point. He could have been a lot worse for Louis. So we cut to Aline's apartment. She's getting ready for a date.

Laine answers a knock at the door, and of course, you know, she thinks it's Robert whoever her date is going to be, and it's Louis. He's he's begging for forgiveness. He's literally groveling at her feet and he's he's warning Elaine that he might kill himself, and while he's begging for his old job back, Elaine's date comes to the door and Louis slams the door in his face, ruining the flowers that the guy brought. That's where I started. That's where I heard Burrows honking off.

When when the flowers got when the flowers got severed? Yeah. Yeah. By the way, I'm starting to think that Elaine has a thing for like nerdy white guys, because. She has a thing for, let's face it, wealthy white guys.

I think that's because they all have very nice three piece suits. Like, none of them are attractive, none of them have any interest or personality. It's just that they're will to do. And that makes me not like Elayne all that much. Yeah.

The only one that she had any sort of that had a bit of flair maybe was to Tom Selleck, of course. Yeah, and that was an unrequited thing. He was a good looking guy too, on top of it, like they gave him charm Andy had those looks. That one made sense. This guy, this.

Guy, this guy just seems like her rumpy and someone who is better suited as a major d at some snooty restaurant, Elaine, like, you could do so much better than these clowns that you're dating. I don't get it's not even interesting enough to be at a French snooty restaurant. This guy, this guy is managing a fucking TGI Fridays Man. No offense to the managers of TGI Friday's nation wide. We appreciate your service.

So now it's like the armed forces, we thank you for your service. You know what, Honestly, I would just as quickly thank weight staff across the United States as I would any soldier or a fireman or you know, like they do a It's like, it's like they say, reservoir ducks. This is a hard job. Sure, I mean I would never make the comparison necessarily, but I will agree with you that, you know, working both in the hospitality field and restaurants and working in retail, this fucking sucks. Man.

You see the worst of what humanity has to offer typically. You know, Yeah, people go there just to fucking take their shit out on these people. It's gross, it's terrible. I sort of feel like every kid should have to work like a retail or restaurant gig at least once in their life. I agree, you for like six months too.

Yeah, so you get the real feel for it. You just can't appreciate like or even appreciate a g with customer like that breath of fresh air. Somebody who actually appreciates you and and and you know, takes care of you accordingly as a server. Let's lett we forget. You can learn a lesson from a good person as well.

Absolutely snoody Robert here, he he's he's getting to be more and more concerned for Louis, which is also a little confusing because all all In has to say is, look, this creep peeped me while I was changing a defenseless and a bathroom. You're gonna take his side of this. Get the fuck out of here. That is the end. That's like, okay, you can both leave.

Fuck you both. It's ridiculous. And and and Louie is like he's huffing and it looks like he's having a heart attack or something. And Elaine tries to explain why she's so blase about what's happening, because she keeps saying, oh, he's just making it up. He's you know what, He's just hamming it up because he wants he's upset about this and that at you.

I've been in this situation where I seem like the bad guy because I finally had enough with somebody and they seem like they're perfectly fine all the time, but really they're a grinding, fucking nightmare. And then you're the dick. So I can get that aspect of it, but not if your date, your prospective date says this guy peeped on me while I was naked, then the conversation's over. It's like, okay, then he needs to go and don't forgive him. You're right, like, fuck that guy.

That should have been the end of it. Like, okay, you know what, pal, I'm sorry that you're so worked up, but you got to You gotta deal with the consequences of your actions. Now go home, sleep on it. Maybe things won't be that bad in the morning. Just get the fuck out of here.

But the guy doesn't do that. Robert, this date doesn't do that. He's basically doting on Louis to try to get him to calm down, and he even asks Elaine, what's the worst thing that would happen if she gave him his job back now, putting aside the idea that it's not up to Elaine to give him his job back. It's not her, she doesn't own the company. No, but she could just rescind the potential lawsuit, So that makes sense.

However, why is he even asking the question? I would say it could get worse. What are you talking about? He could be retaliatory now, like, don't be a fucking dummy. Also, what would I what did I see in you?

Get out of my fucking apartment? Say you're taking his side of it? Why am I even going out on a date with you in the first place. Get the hell out of here. I'll just think I want to have sex with you now, sir.

Please, so you know. Robert eventually decides to leave and he runs out of the apartment, which makes Elaine even more furious at Louis for showing away her date, and she yells at him to get out as she retreats to another room. And but Louis is so pathetic he can't even bring himself to leave without getting his job back, and he basically faints as we fade back into the apartment. Later on, Now he's at this point, he's resting on the couch as the two of them continue this sort of mini play about the situation. It's just the rest of the episode is just them.

Elaine insists that Louis he has no idea why it was so wrong what he did, and Louis kind of has this light bulb moment and says, well, if he can understand, will that motivate you to get me my job back. It's like this lifeline that she's just thrown to him inexplicably. Like, yeah, I would say, no, absolutely not, but I think you ought to know why this happened. Yeah, I think for your own betterment, I understand why this happened. But it's not going to change a thing.

You can't go back in time and erase how violated I feel. You can't do. That, actually, Like, maybe she could have forgiven him and maybe he could have gotten his job back, But the fact that she has to fucking lead him by the hand to why he did, why what he did was wrong, is like the fucking cherry on this ridiculous Sunday. Just for a moment, put yourself in this position. I've never been in this position, thankfully, But let's say someone did peep on you at work or something, some something skeevye, right, yeah, and they are summarily dismissed.

But there's the opportunity that maybe you can forgive them and have them come back and work. Would you ever take that option? Would you allow someone? How could you work? I guess my point is, how could you work with somebody who has violated you to that degree?

How could you ever go back and to the way things were? Well, look, things would never be the same. I could see entertaining the notion that if somebody were to come to me and they were genuinely penitent, that I could say, okay, but that can't ever happen again, or whether sort of circumstances or strictures on their behavior from then on. But if they came to me like, uh, it's because boys shouldn't peep on girls, and I go, no, that's not it an okay, it's this other stupid thing superficially that I just thought of. And I'm not actually taking any of this seriously.

I'd be like, fuck you, it's good you're fired. I don't want to see you again. I just feel like that there's there's something, like you said, it will never be the same, and I would just have trouble looking someone in the eye after they've you know, hurt me so deeply. In this case, I don't know how how Alane would come back from that. But maybe it's not.

Maybe she's just a bigger person than me. I just I fail to see it. I don't know, man, I can forgive somebody if they're genuinely sorry about something. You know, the past is the past. It doesn't have to be prologued.

In this case, it's this is egregious just because the stupid sitcom and this plot shouldn't even be happening here. They shouldn't be having this discussion because the writers aren't taking it seriously. And that's the thing. This is ultimately kind of a nothing episode that there wants to say something but really has nothing to say that much like Angela fine, as you said, like she's trying to get Louis to see her side of things, but he can't. He's having trouble like coming up with the actual nitty gritty of why she's so upset.

He comes up with all these empty platitudes of like you said, well, I guess guys aren't supposed to peep on women when they don't know right. That's so simplified and so on the face of it that it doesn't really register. So Elaine is not buying it. She'd like to forgive Louis, but she knows that he's just not getting it, and she even gives him a hint. Has there ever been a moment, Louis, where your most fundamental right, the right to privacy, has been violated?

And Louis says, yes, Finally, this kind of seems to get through to him, seems to get through to him, and he proceeds to go into this monologue. It's essentially a monologue. Louis did this too when he was talking about his high school reunion when he remember he talked about how. He thought the bullshit he got put through. Yeah, yeah, the high chair and all that kind of stuff.

So he delivers another monologue and he says, twice a year, Louis needs to buy himself new clothes, and the only way he can get anything to fit is if he goes to a men's store and goes right to the boys department in a husky size. He makes it. This is the only thing I've remembered from this episode for all these years, is that he says the word husky like ough, like it's so painful to have to mention that I wear husky clothing. Husky becomes a dirty word when Louie's telling this story. And in fact, I will also say father Malone that in the Love's book, The Official Taxi Fan Guide, that Louis speech apparently came directly from Danny de Vito's experience.

As you would expect because this being probably the best part of the whole episode, low bar, but it is a good showcase for Danny DeVito, and he's quoted as saying in the book that that speech came out of an improv that that he did with Jim and ed James Burrows and ed Don Weinberger about how he always hated going with his mom to Robert Hall or Barney's or wherever, and that she would take him, and he says he hated it because he could just never go in there and get something off the rack. It was always horribly embarrassing for him, and that's what the speech came out of. And I thought that was actually kind of cool to note that because it is the only sort of bright spot in this whole episode, and Devido nails it.

So he talks about having to go to the husky section and he always tries to go. Louie always tries to go when there's no one there, but he says, there's always kids there, and he doesn't even look at what he's buying. He just takes it and goes. He grabs it and goes. And one of the mothers once said to Louis, you're lucky.

At least you won't outgrow it in a couple of months, which is awful. And Elaine is watching this and you can see that it's tearing her heart out having to hear this, and Louis says, the worst moment is when he opens the doors and he walks out into that room and he can see all the parents telling all the kids not to stare at him and this. At this point, Elaine is almost in tears, and he says to her, this is kind of a weird echo. Remember the take Me to the Place You Cry with Zena. This is almost like that where Louis says to her, like, is this how I made you feel?

Is this how violated you felt? And Elaine says, yeah, that is basically how he made me feel, and Louis tearfully asks for forgiveness and they hug, but of course, this being a stupid sitcom, Louis proceeds to grab her ass and it's a little funny little job. At the end, he hasn't changed it all. Thank god. That's the end of the episode.

We don't have any any callback to anything else. That's it. She apparently forgives Louis for his you can't even call it in this indiscretion, for his violation. Let's call it what it is. So that's the episode.

Now father alone, mercifully, we're gonna talk about yellow lights. What doesn't yellow light means? A reminder, we score every episode on a scale from one to five yellow lights. One is the worst taxi episode and five, Hey, it's the best taxi episode, as is our custom file. Alone.

We're going to kick it to you first. What do you give Louis goes too far? HP? Do you like card games? Love card games?

You know? My favorite is P knuckle Nope. Coincidentally, what I'm giving this episode. Likewise, I give this one one yellow light as well. Look, no one is looking for a hard hitting melodrama from Taxi Father Alone.

But I will say if they if they are going to open the door to this type of story, they should have the courage of conviction to do right by it. They've taken what we agree more with you. Seriously, they've taken what should be a very consequential story and. Common story, a common story. It's all too.

Common, and they've made it so inconsequential that I can't give it any more than one. Sadly, I want to give it more because it's important, but boy, they bungle it. Not good thumbs down, thumbs. Down from both of us, unfortunately. So that's going to do it for this episode of night mister Walters, Father Alone.

Where can folks find you when you're not clocked into the garage. Well, you can find me twice a week at midnight viewing the show I do sometimes with HP, sometimes with Mike White, sometimes with Nukakota. Quantum mondays it is either you know, I just cut it there just that's. Enough for myself. You can find me also on the midnight viewing gallery, Father Malone, the Fests, Father Malone, Father Father Malone, and I are currently covering Von Doomfest, which is kind of it's not just the marvelmovies.

It is kind of what we cover other pieces of the Marvel universe, the comics and the TV shows and things. It's been great fun where we're just getting started, so please check that out. I also host the Noise Junkies music podcast, and I also have a band campsite Hpmusicplace dot bandcamp dot com. So thanks again for listening. Everybody.

Please feel free to subscribe to the podcast, right a review or rate us. We'd love to hear from you. Of course, you can send us an email at Hpmusicplace at gmail dot com. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time.