Episode 76 - Bobby Doesn't Live Here Anymore

Weird media ni mister Walters. You see that guy with it now, he's an actor. I'm a driver and the only camp driver in his place. Good evening and welcome tonight, mister Walters. Taxi Podcast the mahe Peter co host and with me as always is my other co host, Father Malone, Father Malone, Hawaii.

This evening, I'm well, it's good being in the presence of a sex god. Oh hey, we are talking Taxi Season I'm gonna let that hang. We're gonna talk about Taxi Season four, episode twelve, Bobby Doesn't Live here Anymore. This was written by Glenn Charles, Unles Charles, the Charles Boys. This is the second episode in a row that they've written, Father alone and directed by the late lamented James Burrows.

A roll, not on a roll. Reminder, we're doing these shows in broadcast order and not in order of filming. We start in the garage where a large, purposefully crooked sign is hung in the back of the garage. It's it reads Welcome back Bobby, and it's hanging there and it's sort of crooked and doesn't look very good. HP.

Before we go any further, give me the give me the background, what's what what happened here? What is going on production wise? The truth is I don't honestly know, because in the Lovies book it's made out like Jeff Conaway was upset with the direction that it was going in that he he wasn't being given anything interesting to do, like his lines could just be given out to other people and it wouldn't make a big, a single look a difference. I've also heard rumors, I have nothing to substantiate this, that perhaps conaway addictions were escalating. He had a very well documented addiction to painkillers and alcohol that really did him in later in life.

So it's probably somewhere in the middle. I do know that he was interviewed for The Love's Book and he did say that this particular episode was a real hard one for him to do, just because there were a lot of mixed emotions for him coming out of this show. And I think maybe some of the other cast maybe wasn't happy with his decision to leave, like maybe they thought he was abandoning the show. My opinion is, as I always loved Jeff Conaway on this show. I loved the character of Bobby Wheeler.

I thought he filled a necessary character void of the struggling actor who's driving a cab to make ends meet. I take no pleasure in the fact that this is his last episode. I think that maybe the addiction were a problem, but I think everyone was probably doing a commensurate amount of cocaine on the set of Taxi at this time in nineteen eighty two. I think also what you said when you described him as being unsatisfied with the direction of his character and that you could give his lines to other characters and it wouldn't matter. I had read that that was a producer's epiphany where they that he was not available one week for filming, they just gave his part to other characters and stuck his lines in their mouths, and they were like, well, that didn't change anything at all, we don't really need Bobby as a character.

To me, what I think happened is that they just fell out of love with the character, the same way they did John Burns. At a certain point, they just stopped. They just stopped thinking of ways to feature Bobby as a character, and they kind of just kept giving us the same episode over and over again. Bobby gets his dream job. That could dream job get taken Away, Hey, what's this episode about.

The irony here is that we get the last aspirational Bobby episode. That's what we're getting here. It's just aspirational. Just spoiler. It's the same fucking story from season one.

Man, I can't discount the possibility that maybe there's a lot of this was driven on Conaway's part by ego. This is hard because I don't want to ever speak ill of the dead, and this is all hearsay and speculation. I don't know, none of us do. But there may have also. I would.

I would. I could very easily see some ego there. I mean, here's a guy who had already recorded an album who thought maybe his star should have been on the rise to a greater degree. He was on Broadway with Grease, he was in the movie The smash Hit Movie with Travolta, So maybe from his perspective, it was just time to move on and head for greener pastures. We know now, wow, with hindsight, that that didn't happen, which is the real shame of it all.

Well, it must have been tough for him looking at Trevaulte out there working with DePalma and he's stuck with Louis de Palma. Danny DeVito is nobody's second choice. I mean, look, this was like the such a smash comedy. I mean this made them all stars. Yes on TV.

This is nineteen eighty two, remember, and there was a television ghetto and character actors could escape it, people like Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd. But lead actors from sitcoms you weren't getting into movies. Don't even try it. Sit right back down, Henry Winkler, nice, try with your night shift. Those are modest successes.

It wasn't He didn't become the blockbuster fond. The movie was a success. Did Henry Winkler become a movie star? No, one hundred percent. Now Michael Keaton did, who didn't have the taint of TV because every TV thing he did was an abject failure.

That's true. He did a TV show, a sitcom with Jim Belushi, I think Working Stiffs. Yeah, oh boy, is it terrible. Although you can't really say that Bosom Buddies was was a failure because it in its time, it was a pretty popular show and it did make a star out of like Donna Dixon and Wendy Joe Sperber and uh. Tom Hanks, the fucking the the the hand up into the Ron Howard of course because he understood.

Yeah yeah yeah, although technically would would he did Bachelor Party before? Uh Splash? Yeah, But they were lucky to have him in that movie. It wasn't like a big star making role in a in a feature film like Splash. That was like a romantic lead that made Tom Hanks a household name.

That was the thing, that the springboard that made Tom Hanks who he was, and that eventually led to big and then it was Sky's the limit for Tom Hanks. Didn't happen for Peter Scullari in the same way, unfortunately. No, because it is happening. Man, he's a squirrely little guy. No offense to Peter Scalari.

I guess the question becomes, do we think that Conaway had it in him to be a leading man in the right circumstance? No, yeah, I don't think so either. I hate to say it because I love him to death, but probably not. No, he's a second banana at best, he's the best friend, he's the rogue friend. He's KANICKI.

It's perfect casting, it's perfect. When he was the leather jacket, wearing shirt unbuttoned to his navel, with big mane of hair. That to me is the vital Jeff Conaway, that is Bobby Wheeler. And they lost it. They lost the threat of the character, to your point, and that's kind of led us here.

Unfortunately, right back to Aspiration Town. Lokka comes in. He's carrying what appears to be a large, large beach ball wrapped up in red tissue paper or some sort of wrapping paper. And we don't know this yet father alone, but this is going to become a bit of a runner through the whole episode. And I derived no pleasure from this set of jokes.

It pains me that Laka is so painfully unfunny in this episode, except for one moment which I'll discuss, but it's not a good harbinger of things. When Lotka is falling flat, yeah, writing. Look what is it I have in this It's like a bicycle wrapped in the raper, Like, what is this gift? You told what I have here? And Rieger plays along and because the the idea is that Bobby has been in California for the last six months.

He's been working, he's been filming a TV pilot that the network is very high on. So Loaka explains to Elene and Alex that this is going to be a gift for Bobby to take back with him when he goes back to California, And like you said, he challenges them to guess what it is, and Alex refuses to play along, and he's like, that's a beach ball. And then he says, well, what color is the beach ball? And then he says, well, red, green, blue, and white and blah blah blah. And it's a silly guessing game that goes back and forth.

Two nonsense here man who cares. One interesting thing that I took out of it is that he ends up asking Alex to try and fool Alex. Ultimately, he asks Alex what it costs. Alex guesses ten dollars and he's Laca is like, Okay, you're right. Who the fuck buys a beach ball for ten dollars?

Fa them alone. I wouldn't buy a beach ball for ten dollars in twenty twenty six. That's what I'm saying. The beach balls are like like companies give away beach balls with like their logo printed on it. I mean, beach balls are not like a heavily prized is that shit?

Average price of beach ball in nineteen eighty two. And ten dollars in nineteen eighty two is probably more like thirty dollars. Now, that's a lot money, So I call kind of bullshit on that. But nevertheless, when this silly bit of escalation runs its course, Elaine, in a bit of exposition, points out to Laca that Bobby hasn't moved to California yet, he just went there for a pilot. And she also throws in the fact that because he bought Bobby a gift, that'll make the rest of them look bad, which is very uh, it's not a Laine.

That's not very generous on her part. Even inexplicably, Locha says, well, Bobby is going to expect it from him because Loca is his best friend. Now side note, fathermo One. In four Seasons of Taxi, has Latka ever demonstrated any sort of one to one relationship friendship with Bobby? No?

No, that's why this is a good joke. I enjoyed this joke. Actually, I didn't take it as a joke because what happens is Tony takes umbridge at this. He hears this, and he gets all upset because he declares rather loudly that everyone knows that Tony is is Bobby's best friend. They get into an argument, but perhaps Laca senses Tony's animal aggression, he backs off his claim and then proclaims that he's going to return the beach ball and get something else for Bobby instead.

But this is not the last time we're going to see this. Tony confides to Elaina and Alex if Bobby's been in California for six months already and he he's hoping that Bobby hasn't changed. And then Alex, setting up a bit of visual humor with Jim, declares that people from California can be pretty strange. And that's when Jim it's the squiggy effect. He comes in.

Jim comes in the juxtaposition, Oh, here's a weird guy, and then here. In New York City, look right everywhere everybody. Now another side note, maybe for the first time ever, father alone, Alex Slaters when he sits down at the card table, did you notice this? Do you know what I mean by slatery? Did he spin the chair around?

Well? He didn't spin it, but he sits on the chair so that the back of the chair is effectively against his chest. So he's sitting on the chair backwards. Yeah, which I call slatering indiference to save by the bell. Of course, we used to.

Talk about this with Tony all the time because he used to do this. Tough guy Tony, bullshit. Right, Tony has done it, but I don't recall Alex ever doing it. Gee, I can't recall him ever doing it either. The man of the hour comes in.

It's Bobby, and he gets this big round of. His class slend in his glory. Look at that mane of hair. Oh, look at him. He looks like a college professor.

He's wearing a brown tweed jacket. He's got brown slacks and kind of a grayish open collar shirts. He's been to Hollywood. Okay, it's too classy. We just got through saying our favorite iteration of Bobby is the lothario in the leather jacket, and we don't.

We should have made him California lothario here like it should have been the California equivalent, the eighty two California equivalent of what he was rocking in New York at the same time. He should be wearing leather pants and a fucking there should be a scarf involved here something. Yeah, exactly. There's any number of ways they could have dressed him to indicate that he's been in rock Star. They should have just dressed him like we're describing a rock star.

I don't know. It was a missed opportunity. So, like I said, the crowd goes crazy when he comes in, and the rest of the Cabby's run over and give him hugs and kisses. Tony takes him over to the old seat at the poker table, and Bobby regales them with tails of the West Coast and all of this clamor West is the best ageb the West. That's right, Do you get there?

They'll do the rest. Come on, baby, take a chance with us and meet me at the back. I'm not gonna this is the Door, as we're talking about here. It's funny how that now relieves your mind. Though.

These what you liked in high school, the music and everything for them alone, because I could rattle off The Door's lyrics all day if I had to go No, I'm not gonna do. It, damn it. Do you recall going to the Museum of Science for the laser show, the Doors Laser show. Oh man, of course, mister Mojo rise, that's Morrison, a lot of us, the letters. Late laser drawn, you know, snakes moving across.

The lizards, the lizards, the lizard king. It's good now, I see. I want to go back and listen to the Doors. We also did you go with Me to the Sea? That there was also like a just a general sixties one.

No, I did not go. The only one I went to was the Doors one. Okay, I went to the sixties one and I was completely blasted out of my brain and I just remember incense and peppermints being a transcendental experience. It's such the milk Toast song that's like an Austin Powers type of song, right, that too. Like sense and that song, but like the lasers were like off the fucking hook man.

Yeah, I I there was a lot of build up for that laser show that I can't say that it really delivered for for me as a as a high school kid with maybe high standards for that sort of show. But nevertheless it was it was fun. We had a good time. Planetarium shows are better obviously. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't think they even do this anymore. I wonder what the equivalent is now. I guess you'd see a hologram show with I don't know, Tupac or something. I don't know what the kids are doing these days. I can't get anybody to go to a planetarium with me.

All right, do they still have planetarium? Of course, every city in America has a planetarium. You know what you know about planetariums. The family went to Washington a few years ago and we went to some planetarium that was there, and it was it was very impressive because it was almost like the omni theater approach, Like it wasn't just the static, here's the constellations. It was like you you zooming through the Yeah, to the degree that that my son got really motion sick from the whole thing because your whole field of vision was covered by this animation.

It was really really kind. Of cool to the planetarium. That's right, Everybody, go support your local planetarium. No, seriously, is there anything more romantic than going to the planetarium. You know, Like, I don't know, maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm old fashioned, hp maybe I belong in the Sunshine Cab Company in nineteen eighty two.

I don't know, maybe go go catch the submarine races up an inspiration point. That would be so cool. That's oh, that actually hurt. You really always talked about that on Happy Days Submarine races. Anyway, getting back to the garage.

Here that the commotion of having Bobby around, Louis emerges from the bathroom. He has newspaper in hand and he's complaining that he can here. In the schoolroom in the last episode. Now it's a toilet again. Very weird.

I think it's the same room that he he peeped on on a lane, which no one seems to they conveniently, they never bring it up anymore. It's very very like. Hey, Louie, what were you doing back there peeping on some fucking girls? You fucking pervert. Mother fucking Yeah, Bobby, did you know what Louie was up to since you've been gone all the last six months?

Well, just buckle up because it's really sordid. Yeah. See, that's what they don't understand when they're doing these very special episodes that we remember as an audience. Even if your character suddenly has amnesia. It happened.

It's not. They can't go back on it. It's part of the cannon. Tony tells Louie that hey, Bobby's back, and Bobby flashes the classic Bobby smile at Louie as Louie approaches, and Louis starts in on all the jokes about what a ham Bobby is and terrible actor, and he's assuming that Bobby is back to get his old job, and the other cabbies mock Louis for Bobby's success, but Louis throws it back at them. Louis says he knows a little bit about the pilot industry because he saw an episode of Donahue.

It's a runner with these child's brothers. They're watching a lot of fucking Donahue. Apparently this is the second episode in a row where Donna Hue figures into the plot somehow, do you. Think, Like in the writer's room, they stop what's happening at two pm so they can all watch Donahue. It's right, they want to watch Donahue out of I think it was Chicago, so I mean it was huge.

This is proof how big it was at the time. Louis says that look They make hundreds of pilots every year, but only a couple make it to series. Even though the other Cabbys have faith in this pilot, Louis says it won't. This won't make it, chiefly because Bobby is in it. Because Bobby is a loser.

Everything he touches, according to Louie, is a failure. He's not wrong at this point. Can I just say louis correct and he will be proved correct through the course of this episode, Alex always jumps to Bobby's defense, and that's admirable. And he follows Louis to the cage and he's cautioning Louie that, look, you know, this time, Louis, you might be in for a big surprise, and that causes Louie to launch into Basically, it's a roast style run of jokes at Bobby's expense, and for some reason, Jim is so amused by this sort of impromptu roast of Bobby. He's just laughing and he's having a great old time.

Yeah. The joke here is that he keeps getting the punchline after the next punchline comes. By the end, the fake laughter felt very fake though. Riager then offers to make a bet with Louie, says if Bobby's show makes it, Louie has to congratulate Bobby in front of everyone, and then Alex corrouls everyone to go to Mario's again. Where else are they gonna go?

Right? The hell is happening? It's crazy as Louis continues his routine, his roasting routine to the delight of Jim. As we fade out into Marios, Bobby is leaving a message on the bar phone for his agent to call if he hears anything. Side note, Now this is a weird runner in this episode.

Somehow that sad looking welcome back Bobby Banner has followed them to Marios. Now it's hung up, crooked in the back of Marios. It's bizarre what they're giving us here in the last episode. As they're giving us the quintessential Bobby aspirational episode for the last. Time, please stop.

I can't believe it. And they're fucking ending him like this so lame. You know, at one point he was dressed as a bunny doing a scene from Whose Life Isn't It any way? For a children's party, Like there's real good potential with his character and they could have done something great with this whole pilot thing going, you know, like maybe he could have gotten a win here at the end, you know. Yeah, Or are you suppose there's even this remote possibility that they could have spun off Bobby into his own show, Like.

If it only you and I would have watched the Bobby Wheeler in Los Angeles show. Oh man, But now that I think about it could have been great. Imagine them doing a fucking show set in LA at the time, set amongst like struggling actors, this team like the Charles Brothers and James Burrows and fucking and Jeff Conaway. James Brooks. If they were doing it, I would have been all in.

I mean, it may not have been very good. It may have been like what was the Joey Trebiani show when he spun off from Friends? That was? This would not be that, sir, This would be good. It could have been, but I guess Bobby Wheeler man about town in LA.

Like Bobby Wheeler working actor. It would have been great. Every once in a while you could have one of the taxi people come out to visit him. And absolutely Banta comes out, you. Know, yeah, they Tom Kat around l Hollywood.

It would have been fantastic. He meets all the other waiters at the restaurant that Bobby works at. It's discouraging as a viewer to see him go out with another stupid aspirational episode. I can only imagine how he felt about it, his own trepidation about where the character was going. It's born out in this episode because they can't think of anything original for him to do, so it's just the same let's go back to the well.

Even when they're getting rid of him, it's like, well, let's do another he gets out of here, but he doesn't get out of here, like shouldn't he get out of here? At the end of this episode. It's a bummer all around. I have to say, this is not an episode that I take any real pleasure in watching. Just another spoiler alert.

So Bobby takes a seat at the table the customary Mario's table the Last Supper style, where there's one side that they don't sit in because their backs will be to the camera. Elaine asks about the pilot, and Bobby explains that it's an hour law drama about an old family clan in Idaho and it's called Boise which reminds me of I think Carol Burnett did a parody of a soap opera some years ago called Fresno Yeah, which it seems like. But I mean, but this Bobby is serious. This isn't a comedy that he's in. This is a drama.

No, they're all doing parodies of Dallas. By the way, those nighttime soap operas were really so. Now here's another rural super soap opera. But it's Boise, by the way, sounds terrible. I would not watch the show.

Have you been Boise? Have I ever been to Bois? Never never been Idaho? Oh my god, man, it's a It's sorry to everyone in Idaho listening, but I do not like your state there. You know what, there is a fifties diner in Boise where the girls still wear roller skates and they have good fried chicken.

So there is there is some goodness to Boise. I bet there's more to it. Obviously. I have a friend who lives in Boise who I never speak to anymore. But uh, but anyway, I don't want I would not watch it on television week to week.

A nighttime soap opera was never something that I would be interested in any way. You didn't watch Dynasty, no, man, did you? It has no interest As a kid like I can't relate to any of that bullshit HP. If you stayed up to watch Dynasty, you got to stay up till eleven pm. Brother, it was all strategic.

I didn't give a shit when I was watching. I was staying up. Maybe that's why I know. Donahue for an hour, I'll watch whatever the latest housewife trend is. No.

The closest I think I came like I might have watched a little bit of Hill Street Blues, which is not the same. It's obviously a police drama. We've got those Hill Street Blue bues? Is that an SNL? Was that a Bill Murray?

That's a real song? Hill Street Blues? Well, I know the song, yes, And I saw John Schneider singing that on a fucking awards show in the mid eighties. They had lyrics to the mic post yes. Singing it as a duet.

We should I should pull that up and maybe send it to you and cut it in here. But it's like him and this girl and they're singing, and he's like, we've got those Hill Street Blues. I can't believe your wy I've been carrying that stupid knowledge for nearly forty years. More than forty years. Oh man, YouTube to the rescue.

I'm gonna have to check this out. So Bobby's going to play the oldest son in this Boise Idaho clan. And Bobby Duffy he's playing the Patrick Duffy part. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It was Patrick Duffy supposed to be like the virile older son of the of the Dallas clan.

I don't know, they just seemed analogous. Patrick Duffy was probably like what like twenty eight years old when he made that. Yeah, that sounds about right. But to me, if I go back and watch like footage from that era, he looks like he's pushing forty easily like people. Just yeah, that's indicative of everyone at that time period, Like you and I are waalder than Wilford Brimley was during the thing.

But like, right, he looks like a fucking fossil, and I think we look Okay. Yeah, I was just last night, I was actually watching the Karate Kid, the original Karate Kid. Of course I had to look up how old Pat Merita was, and Pat Merita was legit fifty six years old, which isn't that much older than we are fining. No, but we're talking about generations of people who did not give a shit about their bodies at all, and ate the worst stuff and smoked and drank and lived fucking hard and expected to be that craggy when they got to that age, and that at a certain point everyone went, you don't have to be craggy. We can just be okay looking.

Yeah, we could just take a little better care of ourselves. Hey, you know what, maybe we should just drink more water. Everybody. That was a meme a while ago where it's like, you know, Tom Cruise is way older than Wolford Brimley was when he did Cocoon. Wilfrid Brimley can barely do a cannonball into a community pool, and Tom Cruise is hanging off the signs of airplanes that are taking off.

So yeah, I found this sort of odd. Bobby, he's crowing father alone about potentially making thirty five hundred dollars per week if this show goes to series, which Alex says, hey, that'd be pretty He's like humoring and he's like, hey, that'd be pretty good. Bobby, So I went and plugged the numbers in to amortization dot org. Do you know how much thirty five hundred dollars in nineteen eighty two would be now. Father alone eight thousand dollars?

No today, that would be the equivalent of twelve thousand, sixty five dollars and eighty four cents in twenty twenty six monety. So, if you do the simple math, let's I know that a season isn't twelve months or fifty two weeks. But if let's say, if he was going to do an hour long drama for he would be doing twenty two to twenty four episodes. Let's assume for a minute that we're talking twenty six weeks of work. Okay, that would be roughly three hundred and eighteen thousand dollars in twenty twenty six money.

Pretty good, I'd say that's very good. Yeah. Who wouldn't want to make that money today, let alone in nineteen eighty two? Yeah, man, I'll take I'll take the low. I'll take thirty five hundred a week.

That's healthy for somebody who's just starting that's their first series. Sure, yeah, man? And could you imagine that could be the first episode of the Bobby Wheeler pilot for the show that you and I are going to write. Yeah, boyse Bobby Wheeler. Like, what would the name of the klan be?

It would have to be some player. No, no, no, We're not going to write this fucking Boise show. We're gonna write Bobby Wheeler in La making the show boys making the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So we would have to figure out the show boys. Yeah, we would have to know what all the characters they're playing.

You got it, because there has to be some footage. Now, here's what we would do. Episode one is the the Los Angeles portion of this where he comes back and they fire him, and then he goes and does a really fun made up show that we can control that does not take place in Boise. He like he tries out for some was the eighty two eighty three what we're talking about? So what was really popular?

Oh? I know, we could put Jeff Conaway in a fantasy series where he has to ride on horseback and pretend it's medieval times and it's clearly shot in California. Oh wait, no, he did that. He did that. What was it called Wizards and Warriors HP.

I will totally review Wizards and Warriors with you. You know what, I'm not even kidding. I have that complete series on DBD. You can't. You can't hear my eyes wide and in sparkle over the airwaves.

Just then Tommy, he announces that Bobby's agent is on the phone, and Bobby takes the car. I can't do it. You open the I can't. I can't talk. Someone else talk.

So he does the thing where that everybody does, where he takes. Goods but they pretend it's bad news. Everyone does this stupid bullshit. It's so stupid. He walks over and he's like, hey, guess what.

The party's over, and they're all like, oh, you lost the part. They said no, because now the party is going to be at some ritzy hotel. We're gonna r the plaza, you know. We cut to a fancy hotel room where all the cabbys are milling about. Now that fucking banner is back father alone, Only now it doesn't say like welcome back or whatever.

It says, go get him, Bobby. It's the weirdest fucking thing ever. It's like it's shape shifting. It's it's a golm or maybe like it's double sided and one side was condolences Bobby and the other side is go get him in case he wins her loose. I don't know, it's it's weird.

It's an inexplicable part of the episode that they have a homemade banner no matter where they go. I mean, I keep returning to the fact that this is an episode written by the Charles Brothers. We normally have a very high rate of success to failure, and I I'm just inexplosive, like an assignment. It feels like they didn't generate this plot. I would have thought, given that this is literally Bobby's last episode, that this would be written with a little more panache or a little extra secret sauce to make it count because he was on the show for the last fucking years.

He's one of the original players, so they should have done him better than they do here. Agreed, it's depressing. Bobby is chiding the room service guy about how the champagne isn't cold enough. He's doing this, you know, pretentious bullshit. Side note, this is not a very good set.

We compliment. It feels like we compliment and come down on these sets and equal measure lately, But this one, it's it's so small for like a fancy hotel room, and there's way too many paintings crammed next to each other on the wall to look like anything but overcrowded. It just looks like this shortcut it making something look fancy? What did you think? Yeah, and there's just a bunch of flats outside the windows.

To be New York City, it doesn't. It feels it feels like a regular old sitcom set of what a fancy hotel room. It doesn't feel like what the people at Taxi have been doing for the past four years. It was a disappointment. So Alex makes a toast to Bobby, who declares that there's no one he'd like to share the moment with than all of them, the rest of the cabbes.

Bobby is, you know, he's happy to have all of his good friends around him. Just then, right on, cue the phone rings. Tony answers. It's say, Bobby, it's your agent. We know what's going to happen here.

So lame man, just let him have a win for Christ's sake? How about that? You know, why why can't we have Why can't our last sting image, final image of Bobby be Hey, he's going to be a success somewhere. But now he takes the call, he does the bullshit where he's like, well what no, wait, they can't do this, No, no, Sid, you gotta okay. So by his side of the conversation, we know that he lost the fucking part and we go to commercial.

Now we come back, Alex is upset. He can't he can't believe they're going to recast Bobby's part. So, to add insult to injury, father alone, not only is the pilot still a go, all they've done is replace Bobby. Because that's an old story, it. Is, and and the stated reason why they why they replaced him is because Bobby says they didn't think he was sexy enough.

True, which it's true that he isn't sexy enough. Not No, he looks very bookish far as you can. Imagine what he was dressed in as as one of the clan of potato farmers or whatever the fuck industry that family is engaged in the hour long drama Boise that's going to be canceled after three episodes. And by the way, in the midst of all this I'm not going to go into the details. Locked comes in yet again to try and give him the beach ball, and then Bobby has to tell him, now, I'm not going to go to California and Lock whatever.

Why wouldn't he go to California? He just almost gone a fucking pilot. Well, that's what we have to sort through here, because what happens is after Bobby explains, you know, that they didn't find him sixy enough, Alex kind of takes some bridge at that, and he says he's not going to let Bobby give up, but Bobby is sort of insistent that he's just going to crawl back to Louis for his old job back. It's it's the old tale of Bobby kind of reaching for the brass ring and missing it at the last minute. Alex and Elaine continue to try to buck Bobby up, and then Alex, this is sort of odd.

Alex rallies everybody to talk about the good things that Bobby's got, and I don't know if if I should be glad that we're spared the scene of them all telling. You, boy, was I ever stoked when we suddenly dissolved to the New York skyline that we weren't going to have to do the other thing they do in every Bobby Aspirational episode, which is they talk him off the ledge. You have to admit it's an odd decision to completely gloss over that part of it and just kind of skip to the next morning. You know, it all feels like a kind of a fuck you this episode to Jeff. Kind of yeah, kind of.

So then it's the next day. The b roll is I think, meant to convey that it's the early morning. So they've been up all night at. This raising Bobby. They've been they've just been prostrating themselves at Bobby's actorly feet.

We're not worthy, all this kind of stuff. So Bobby thanks them all for everything and says even feels better about getting his old job back. And Elaine and Tony are they kind of agree with him, giving him this idea, Hey, it'd be like gold times. You know, you'll come back. We're gonna you know, it'd be just like you never left.

But then Alex, but then Bobby takes out a pistol and shoots himself, and that would that would save the fucking episode. You know what, guys, it maybe won't be so bad. But I'll tell I'll tell you tell you what, it's definitely not going to be so bad. Blam. Alex tells him that going back to the garage would be the worst thing that Bobby could do, and this to your point.

He says to Bobby, Look, you need to seize the day you were in California. You got a pilot. You need to go back out there and follow through and build on the success that you've already had there. Like why were you gonna come back here and give up? It doesn't make any sense.

And then Bobby even throws in this Shakespearean speech as he's looking out the window that it's just rang me because I always hated when Bobby used to launch into these like flowerys. I'm a man. Bobby finally says he's gonna be on the noon flight back to California, so he's made up his mind. He's gonna he's gonna stick it out in California and see what happens. And we cut to the garage where Bobby hustles in to tell them that he's he's on his way.

Louis comes in and Louis starts to congratulate him and Bobby goes to try and stop him, but Alex says, no, no, let's let Louis continue. I think you know this is their way of getting back at Louis yet again, and Loui Louis. Actually Louie's speech to Bobby is actually very, uh, very from the heart. He tells him that he was wrong about Bobby, that he's probably talented, which is why he's getting out of the garage, and maybe someday when he comes a famous actor, he can send Louis a picture when he's famous. I liked Louie's speech because it's, like I said, it's humble, it seems sincere, even though you can tell he doesn't want to deliver it, but he has to admit.

You know what, I've been giving you guff all these years, but obviously you've got talent. By the way, trivia question for your father alone. Do you remember, once upon a time Louis that might this might go back to the first episode. Remember Louis said there's only one guy who made it out of the garage. Do you remember which actor he was referring to.

We were just talking about him earlier. We were kind. Of for some reason, I can only think about Robert Mitcham, but I know that's not in any way the answer. No, it's it's it's it's James Kahan. Oh, James Khan.

The only guy who got out was James Kahan, and he'll be back. That's right. I think that was the first episode when he's talking to a lane. I think yeah. And it should have been the final episode.

Should have been the last shot. Should have been James conn walking here and going all right, I'm back. Bobby tells Louis after this speech that he's given that he wants to give Louis a goodbye gift, and Bobby comes clean about getting fired, and initially it sounds like Louie is crying hearing this tale of woe, but then he kind of comes up and he's laughing his ass off and even walking away. He even jumps up in the air and clicks his heels. Louie is so happy to have another go at Bobby.

But it's nothing we haven't seen before a dozen times. And then here's where it's meant to be tugging at the heartstrings, but there's just something that rings false to me. Bobby says his goodbyes to every Cabby in turn, this is like the Wizard of Oz moment where Dorothy says goodbye to the tin Man and so on and so forth, and eventually they all leave. They say the goodbyes and leave the garage except for Alex. Alex tells Bobby goodbye, and Bobby gives him the hey, you know, it's not goodbye, it's more like, see you later.

We'll see each other a lot. And then Alex and I like this about Alex. Alex has none of it. Alex knows that if Bobby makes it, he's gonna be traveling, he's gonna be making new friends, he's gonna be busy. He tells Bobby and No, on certain terms, if if Bobby makes it, there's a really good chance that they'll never see each other again.

And then he says, hit the button on that is. Alex says, so here's hoping we never see each other again, and they give each other a hug and Bobby leaves the garage for good. As we fade, the black episode is over. So that's the episode. Now we're going to talk about yellow lights.

What doesn't yellow light mean? Reminder, we grade every episode on a scale from one to five. Yellow lights. One is the worst taxi episode and five is the best taxi episode. Father alone.

As is our custom, we're gonna kick it to you first. What do you give Bobby doesn't live here anymore. I'm gonna give it two yellow lights. One of those yellow lights is just for the presence of Jeff Conaway, because I've missed him low this fourth season we've been engaged in. I don't think it's very well written.

I think it's another fucking aspirational episode. I would give it one if I could. If this, if this had been a full season of Jeff Conaway as Bobby Willer, this would have gotten a one. But because of its vaunted status as of his finale, basically with the series, it's it's a two yellow lighter. I agree with you one hundred percent.

I gave this two yellow lights as well. We've talked about this, but I've always felt sad that Conaway couldn't make it on this show, and for because I think, for a time I believe he was every bit as essential as ever any of the other cast members. Absolutely, they did some good stuff with him when he was like remebody had to be that old man on stage. Oh the Charles Darwin One Man Show. Yeah, like that stuff was good, like some of all of his supporting stuff where he was just being a dick as a best friend.

Like there was good stuff to be mined with this character. At a certain point, they just didn't give a shit anymore, and like that's that's not his fault. I think it's a confluence of events. Yeah, And you made the reference to John Burns earlier, and there might be some truth to the fact that maybe they just got sick of the character like they did with John Burns. They figured there's they're covering all the bases with the other characters, why do they need Bobby anymore?

So I think reducing this farewell to just another aspirational episode, it just rang completely hollowed to me. And it's hard for me not to shake the knowledge of what would eventually become of Conaway's life and career. And that's a sad thing. It's a very sad epilogue. So two yellow lights for me, two yellow lights from Father Malone.

That's going to do it? Follow them alone? Where can folks find you when you're not clocked into the garage? You can find me at midnight viewing it's a show I do. You can all hear it all the time.

If you want to hear all the special bonus episode stuff we do, go to patreon dot com slash Father Malone. You can hear all the shows that HP and I do. We do a show called step Off about the White Wrapper Show, which is hosted by mc search from Third Base. We're two episodes in, We've got another one on the way. It's a fucking hoot.

Go go to Patreon dot com slash father you can. You can listen to the first one for free for myself. As Father Malone said, he does a lot of fests on his his channel, and we are in the midst of also in the midst of Von Doomfest, which is covering the MCU and related properties, books, comics and all that sort of stuff. I also host the Noise Junkies music podcast, and I have a band camp site for my musical nonsense. It's Hpmusicplace dot bandcam dot com.

So thanks again for listening. Please feel free to subscribe to this podcast, write a review or rate us. We'd love to hear from you, and along with that, our email address is Hpmusicplace at gmail dot com once again, thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you again next time. N