Episode 9 - Money Troubles

We're being way media hik. Mister Walders is check out with it. He's an actor, a fault rise violent to me. I'm a cab driver. I'm the only camp driver in his place.

Hello everybody, and welcome to night, mister Walters a taxi podcast. I am your co host HP and with me as always is my co host, Father Malone, father alone. How are you? That's father alone? Super jerk, that's super obscure for this episode.

Wonderful job is always father alone. If I look forward to that, that moment in every episode. So of course we're talking about well, let me remind you before we get into it that we are doing these shows in broadcast order and not in order of filming. We are going into episode nine, which is called Money Troubles. It was written by Earl Pomerantz.

And I'll give you three guesses who directed this episode, Father Malone to the first two. Don't count James Barrows. You got it. Our friend James Burrows, the pride of where wherever he's from. I don't know where he's from, like unlike the Charless, but I'm sure wherever he's from people are very proud of him.

Spoiler alert. This is a John Burns centered episode. Oh boy, I think that brings. Well, we'll get into yellow lights, but I think we were already working at a minimum of yellow lights here, just on the face of it. Because John Burns is what did you call him, the giant pink whole of charisma, the sinkhole.

I took that and made it into the sinkhole of emotion, which applies also a black hole charisma at one point you called it. But yeah, we're all applicable. But I don't want to go that hard on poor Randall Carver. This is not going to be a five yellow light episode. I can just I can guarantee you that.

But nevertheless, here we are. Let's move forward. Apparently we kick off the episode once again, to my delight, we're back in the garage. I love these episodes that start and take place primarily in the garage. So we're in the garage and apparently John is hosting dinner at his apartment for Reager and Laca, and there's a funny bit where Elaine is coaching Laca in English dinner small talk, and he keeps getting the line I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.

He keeps getting it wrong. I think he wants to change it to I could eat a dog, which is somehow more acceptable for him where he comes from. Dogs Apparently it's just but horses. Yeah, that's literally what he says. He keeps trying to say the line please pass the salt at inappropriate moments.

So it's very sweet again, and we talked about this previously, but I love that they're you know, they have Elane. She's kind of expanded what her character, you know, what she does and what she represents. She's very sweet and she's helping Latka with his small talk. Louie, of all people, is pressuring John to invite him for dinner the following week because they're going to be hosting Elane. Apparently this is a thing where every week maybe they're hosting a different cabby to come to their house, their little apartment for dinner.

So weird, well, and it's equally weird that Louie who says it. He says he doesn't like to fraternize with the cabbies. Why does he care to be invited to John's place for what promises to be an awful dinner? Doesn't make any sense to me. He knows Elane is going to be there.

Well, no, but that's isn't that before he knows that Elane is coming? I maybe I don't know. You know, you know you're right because he's been inviting people like every week, and Elaine is going to be next week, so you should invite me next week? What time should I be there? And he's like, okay, would you and Elaine like to come next week?

Because Elane's already on the on the docket as far as Burns is considered as concerned, Yeah, she's already on the calendar. Louie doesn't necessarily know that, but I don't know. I's it's an early indication that this is not going to be a very good episode when even Louie is missing the mark. And it's the writing. It's not DeVito, it's it's the writing.

We cut to the Burns's apartment, where John and his wife Dorothy Hamill Cut are making last minute preparations for Rieger and Latta. So Rieger arrives with Lacca, and Rieger brings comes bearing flowers, and Laca comes bearing the most disgusting homemade wine that I could ever imagine. And I'll tell you, son, Okay, you a story in nineteen ninety two. This is New Year's Dave of nineteen ninety two going into nineteen ninety three, and I'm in Venice, California, at a party. It's in one of these little bungalows, and somebody there was from the Ukraine, and they said, oh, you guys, I'm so excited.

I've been brewing it all year long, my family's wine. And they brought out a jug very similar to the jug presented here on Taxi and then they poured a consistency of maple syrup wine, again hearkening to what occurs in this episode. This one they go to the extreme and they basically turn it into like molasses, where it's it's so slow moving that it's impossible to even drink the fake wine I almost called. The homemade wine that I had was a little more viscous, but still it was dreadful and it just tasted like medicinal confidence. And anyway, so once that jug came out of the thing and he said, look it's brown, which I remember the wine I drank not being brown but a deep amber hue.

Anyway, I flashbacks and it deeply disturbed me. Anyway, let's continue, so funny enough. I actually I have it's not as funny of a story as you have. But I also have an experience with homemade wine. I used to work with the guy years and years and years ago who had his father was I think first generation or second generation from Italy, and he took great pride in his wine.

And at the time, well, I still love wine occasionally, that's you know, I just I love a good glass of wine. So he said, yeah, you know, I'll next time we have some homemade wine, I'll bring some in for you. I said, yeah, it'd be great, not thinking about it, and I got it. It didn't come in the jug like you described or the one that is featured in this episode, but I'll never forget it came. I should have known something was up because it was in like a like a blue glass bottle, so you couldn't see I couldn't see what color the wine was, you know.

I brought it home and I didn't drink it immediately. It was still some time I'm elapsed before I got off the guts to drink it. And I opened it up and it smelled like feet. It just smelled so funky and not in a good way. That I never got.

I never got a chance to try it the way you tried your Ukrainian wine, George Clinton, funky, decomposing, funky, Yeah, like like funky, like there's bacteria involved that you don't want in your system. So I said no, thank you. John and Laca and Alex and Dorothy Hamilcut. They decide to jerk a toast to it or whatever. It's very funny.

It's the consistency of honey. Basically, is this wine another thing I really liked about this particular this I guess you can call this, you know, like going into the second act, Locke has been working so hard on his English and trying to work up, you know, how to use I could eat a horse and context and like literally, I think the first thing that Alex says after he walks in is he says, I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse, to which Locke gives him this incredible glare like this this death stare. That he's so upset because he's been working so hard on this. It's a great payoff of that bit from the first act, and it pays off again because he lets the slip again. He has while they're sitting at the dable doesn't taken.

He passed the salt, and Lacca slams down on the table, and the death stare of returns and it's even better than before. The timing is so great. He pounds the table in frustration. He has two possible things he can say at this dinner, and this dickhead just sort of casually keeps throwing them out there. What's great about it is it underscores the awkwardness of the whole scene.

Because while they're sitting down and trying to start having this meal, Dorothy Hamilcut gets called away from the table. She gets a phone call. She gets off the phone, and she's in a very agitated state. She's slamming things around. She's upset for some reason.

Lunkhead John burns Like decides to cajole her into talking about what's bothering her, which is totally inappropriate for a dinner party with guests at the table. I noticed you're feeling kind of bad. Well, why don't you tell us? Why are you're feeling bad? In front of our guests?

I insist, come on, do it. It's not awkward enough that you have somebody who can barely speak the language, and you have Alex, who just feels awkward anyway, he pressures her into saying what it is, it's on her mind. She reveals to Alex and everybody else that her parents. Well, first, before we even get to that, for some dumb reason, John reveals to Alex that her parents are paying their rent. Why the hell would you reveal that to a dinner guest, It's beyond me.

What an idiot. He cajoles his wife to saying, what's on her mind? What's bothering her? And she reveals that her parents are moving to a condo in Florida. It's about so burled, but they're no longer going to be able to pay their rent.

She is going to nursing school. She's paying her way through nursing school. The apartment is tiny, right, it's time, and it's impressed upon us that they're really having a hard time making ends meet. So to not have that rent coming every month is going to basically kill for one of them, it's going to kill their higher education dreams. She wants to be a nurse, like I said, and idiot John wants to be a forest ranger.

Right, Okay, here's the thing. The rest of the episode is now invalid. There is no contest here. She wants to be a nurse, a highly sought after and in demand profession which commands a high salary very quickly and you can earn so much money. Or he could learn to be a forest ranger in the hopes that a forestry job might pop up somewhere in the United States that will take them out of New York City to go do this.

There's no question. Oh, they're not going to pay the rent anymore. Okay, honey, keep going to nurse and school. I guess I'm a cabby now, at least for a little while, until you're making the big bucks, and then I'll go fuck off and do whatever I want to do. I said to myself, Well, if these were real people, real reasoning people, they would of course look at the earning potential of a nurse versus a forest ranger, and they would make the prudent choice, which is, honey, I will help put you through school, and then you'll be making more money.

You can support us. Then you can help me achieve my educational goals, whatever they might be. If I want to be a stupid forest ranger. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's it's a far fetched dream for somebody living in the middle of New York. The decision is obvious.

Yeah, let's continue because we'll dig back into this. Yeah, you know, we're going to circle back to this. It gets worse. They start arguing about the money and who should quit school? Is she gonna you know again?

It's a ridiculous argument on the face of it, to which Dorothy Hamilcut just storms off into another room. Idiot John decides that he has to cool off, so he's gonna go for a walk, which is leaving poor Latta and Alex looked awkwardly leave the house of their own accord. She's locked herself in the bathroom, there is no other room, and their host has stormed off. Lee I personally, look, man, I would keep eating Laca. It makes the right call.

He just keeps eating a salad, and would I would get up and get myself a plate. There's hot food waiting. But I will say this. Alex does deliver the line about wanting him to pass the salt. But let me ask you a question, Fallow Malone.

How when's the last time you put salt on a salad? Didn't make any sense to me. It doesn't make sense, and it never has made sense. But I do recall a time when people did salt their salads, and I have salted silence in my youth, just because I had seen other people doing it, and I thought, oh, well, that must be that must be the sophisticated way to eat a salad. You a little dash of dash of salt.

It's just there for the laugh. But there is press for salting your salad. That's also a thing. There's already salt in whatever dressing you've decided to apply to the salad. The salt just just becomes redundant.

But whatever, you don't have to assualt you. I mean, you don't have to sauce your salad. You know, you can just eat it as it is. You can add a little bit of oil and vinegar, and a little bit of salt on the oil and vinegar. It it makes it taste good.

Actually, it sounds delightful. I'll have to have a salad after this episode. Actuallying and Food show, Well, I mean, you are the macho gourmet, so of course it's talking about food here. So now we cut to the garage where now Alex is struggling with the dilemma about whether the love the show right. Here's the drama, whether or not really going to give these poor kids the money because he's got money.

He's got money to burn. Alex is independently wealthy. He does this for love, apparently, because you know, he volunteers this. I mean, the cabbies are his friends and what have you. But it's a little weird that he kind of so easily volunteers the fact that he's got all this extra money.

I have a new theory. Alex Rieger is Batman. He's like the Cape Crusader of cabbies or something. Yes, that's what he's actually doing at night. That's why he hadn't picked up any fairs in the previous episode when Lockett was hiding in his backseat.

Why he wasn't looking for fairs, he was looking for crime. I found that a little bit off putting. I mean, look, it's great that Alex is so concerned about John's plight, but he's ambivalent for good reason. I mean that people's friendships have been ruined over money, you know, routinely, so he's uncertain. I'm sure there's a part of him that just doesn't want to part with the money because regardless of how much he claims he has, he's not a rich man.

So he's he's struggling with this notion of whether to give the money or not. Then John comes in and he looks awesome. No no, no, wait wait, First of all, before John comes in, they gotta they gotta give us a button. Here this moment to remind us what a cheapskate Bobby Wheeler is. Where where he's like, oh, you should definitely give him the money.

Is it somebody we know? I'm like, hey, yeah, there is somebody we know. I'm like, oh no, no, no, non't give him the money. Don't give him the money. Yeah, right.

And then on top of that, j John walks it. Bobby walks up to him and says, you look terrible. It's literally the first thing he says to John this he he says, you look terrible. And he says and then he explains that He's like, I'm working like sixteen hours shifts and I'm like killing myself. He's like, oh, then I guess you don't look so bad.

It's like burn burn burn burns. Bobby doesn't feature in the episode much at all, But he's very memorable in this little bit here. He comes in and he basically, you know, conveys the fact that he's a selfish prick and he just he just cuts down burns like left and right. It's amazing. So John, he looks miserable.

He is miserable, and he pours his heart out to the rest of the Cavies. He's insufferable because he's still refusing to understand the logic of the situation. He's not even dealing with that dilemma at this point in the episode. This is the gross part of the episode. And I'm no prude, hb.

But his main problem is they didn't settle their argument. They did everything in silence and then just went to bed, and he feels that pattern of behavior is going to continue in their newlyweds and they didn't have sex, and really that's the only thing that's troubling him at this point. And I'm now going to be haunted by the image of Randall Carver cocking his head in the place of saying the word sex. That really is the crux of what's troubling him. He doesn't really talk about You're right, he doesn't talk about the financial and moral dilemma of what they have in front of them.

What's troubling him is there newlyweds and they didn't have sex to settle the argument. They didn't have sex that morning. They've gone what two days without having sex, and this is really troubling to him. Not their monetary situation, not that one of them is going to have to give up their dreams and it should be her. You know, In previous episodes, I haven't liked John Burns as a character just because he's been dopey and he's out of place and out of step with the rest of the characters on the show.

But now this episode, I'm actively beginning to hate him because they're making him out to be completely despicable and it just keeps happening. In the episode, his initial reaction that he didn't immediately say you should be the one, it was sort of strike number one. Strike number two is that he doesn't even really care about anything but getting fucked and then it'll come back again. He's digging himself a hole. The more that he tries talking about the situation and what's troubling him about it and what everything around it, the more he's painting himself as completely unlikable for somebody who is ostensibly designed to be an audience proxy.

I don't want him speaking for me as an audience, as a viewer. I don't want him speaking for me because he's a jerk. So they cut back to their apartment. No no, no, no, no, no, how dare you sir? We're not there yet?

I thought, oh, oh, Elaine him. We got to talk about Elaine Nardo here for a moment. Because Elaine comes in, I'll ever the Voice of Reason talks to John Burns, tells him, you know, maybe one of you just not to apologize, And of course he takes that to me, and yes, how do I make her apologize? Ha ha ha. Isn't that funny?

No, it's not funny. This guy's a prick. But here's what I noticed in this scene. HP Mary Lou Henner could convince me that I was born on another planet and I arrived here. Like if she said, if she in conversation told me that, I think I would believe her.

She's She's just that earnest in her delivery and so warm that not only would I believe that I was an alien? If she told me that, but I would believe the date I had arrived because you know she would remember it. That's right. Well, what I think is great about the scene with her is she's speaking from experience. Is really what's wonderful about it, because, as she says, I'm not maybe the best person to give advice on this, given the fact that I'm divorced.

But here's my perspective on this, here's the benefit of my experience. John, take it for what it is, but here's how I would handle this. There's two words that will cure almost anything, and those two words are I'm sorry. But for somebody who's such a blockhead like John, he's taking this as how do I then make my wife apologize for something that she shouldn't have to apologize for. It has been living off her family's largess this entire time.

He needs to apologize. He needs to go and say, baby, you do it, You go, you do school. We'll figure me out later. Thank you for keeping me alive in New York City. I'm clearly helpless.

This town was gonna eat me up. Her influence in her family and the resources therein have kept him afloat. Because how many episodes have we seen Louie threatening to fire John because he's not making bookings. He's not pulling his weight in the garage. He's a bump.

He doesn't deserve Dorothy hamil cut and she's working as well and going to nursing school. Listen, I'm the child of a nurse. I'm the grandchild of a nurse. That shit's hard forrest school. What is he learning about sap about deciduousness.

No, that's easy. You can do that in between passengers in your cab. She's dealing with blood and lucasites. I don't know. We can't stress it enough, like there's no comparison.

I'm sorry Forest Tree Majors. I'm sorry forrest rangers out there. I guess a Norris isn't going to be that useful if the forest is on fire. I guess you'd really need a forest ranger there to fix the situation. You know what, We're going to keep having this conversation because it comes to bear in the next scene as well.

When we finally okay, they've he's gone back. There's no apology made, but they're at least talking right. No, that's that's that's not true. He walks in and the first words he says are I'm sorry. So his credit, he finally his conscience finally gets the better of him when he sees his wife, he says, I'm sorry.

However, that does not mean that a he's willing to compromise, or be that he was in the wrong at all. No, because he comes in and says the words, and then they don't have a conversation. They just start because they're both horny. Clearly, you know, they are newly roads, so they immediately start unpacking their their hideaway couch bed sleeper. And but then they start having the conversation like wait, which one of us is quitting?

Which one of us is not going to school? But before that gets anywhere, Rieger shows up this bit of comedy that makes no sense to me. I'm sorry. It's like a it's like a French forest moment. It's like a Threes Company moment where they're they're trying to shove the bed back into the couch and they can't get it in there, and it's like this panicky, we gotta get this in before we open the door.

First of all, they they're the ones opening the door. Riager can wait in the hallway. He showed up unannounced. Secondly, calmed down. Everything goes back together very easily if you just don't freak out.

And third, who cares if he comes in and sees the bed? What is this not children? I mean these are adults. He knows what you know. They're newly weds.

He was a newly wed once himself, Alex was he's not a prude. I don't think this is a big deal. The bit of comedy about trying to get the bed back into the thing was already done on network television on Happy Days. You remember this one. Richie Cunningham has a girl in Fonzie's apartment.

He thinks he's going to score and she's in the bathroom. So he starts taking and he's singing, I found my thrill and Blueberry and then she like clarifies, by the way, this is not a sex thing. I'm just your pal, and he's like, and then so he starts rapidly putting it back and he's singing I'm Blueberry Hill quickly and said I'm in big trouble anyway. That's all. I can't believe he brought that up.

That is the perfect example of this. Yes, As I'm watching this unfold, that was where my mind went to. I thought, well, this is like a Threese Company moment where they're feverishly getting the bed unfurled and they're they're tangled in an embrace, and then he knocks on the door. Alex does, and then they have to re reverse everything and the thing won't go down. They open the door and John is left sitting awkwardly on this half collapsed bed, kind of like, hey, what's going on?

Frankly, it felt beneath what I consider like the reputation of tax he unnecessary slapstick. We don't need it, as you say, it's like a French forest kind of moment, and Alex comes in. Alex kind of opens up about his ambivalence and loaning them the cash. Initially, John refuses the offer. Dorothy hamil Cut is his ambivalent and her point is, why is it okay for us to take my parents money, but it's not okay for us to take the money of a friend of yours when it's so willingly offered.

That's a fair point. The rest of the scene is them debating whether or not going to take the money. While Alex has removed himself to the restroom because it's such a small apartment, that's the only place he can get Okay, So now he's trapped in there, we don't get to see him. Unfortunately. I wish they had cut into the bathroom of him just sitting there, because I kept wondering what is he doing in there the whole time.

You know, they doesn't have a cell phone. He can't be like checking anything. There's only so many labels you can read on the bar axe, like check the medicine cabinet. I'm sure he was doing that anyway. So the debate rages between them about why it was acceptable for them to accept the money, and he lays out a very reasoned argument that it ended up bothering him for the wrong reasons, and he was feeling guilty for taking that money, and he didn't want to experience that again.

He didn't want to experience it with a good friend of his. All of that makes sense. It would bother his peace of mind going to sleep at night knowing that he owes ALEX twenty five hundred dollars, And I would say the price of his peace of mind is dropping out of sticks for Hicks or whatever. They call forestry school and doing the right thing and letting his wife continue on her course of becoming a nurse. John actually makes a lot of sense in his conversation with his wife.

I can relate to that. It's one thing with his father in law, because we've already seen his father in law and he's delightful from our perspective, but he's probably not the easiest man to deal with as a father in law. You know, there's expectations I'm sure that come along with that. So I can relate to a degree about John's not wanting to let it hurt his friendship with Alex or hurt his peace of mind. Alex makes it also very clear that like getting paid back is kind of important to him.

It's one of the reasons why he doesn't want to lend the money, because he doesn't want to put that pressure on anybody else at trepidation. You're feeling it's warranted. I want my money back. This isn't a gift for you crazy kids. Good for him for setting that expectation to say, like, you know, just understand that I'm not just giving you this money.

This isn't a gift. You're gonna pay me back someday on this. Now it's become a two hander. It's just John and his wife debating what direction they're going to go in, and finally John decides, well, the only fair thing to do would be he continues his despicable streak here by deciding, let's flip a coin. What are you doing?

Man? Can it get worse than him deciding whether or not him and his stupid aspirations or his wife's noble profession should be their course of action here? No, he's going to decide it on the flip of a coin. No, but he wins. He wins, but he doesn't win though.

He doesn't win because he's a liar on top of everything. He flips the coin and he kind of peeks under his hand and it's I think it's tails. She gets to stay in school and heads. He gets the stay in school. So he flips it and he picks up his hand and he says, ooh, it's heads.

His wife immediately starts to kind of fall apart. You can see how disappointed she is, you know what. She falls apart, but she keeps it together. She doesn't like start sobbing and you know, begging to be the one to go to school or anything. She accepts her fate and does so with grace, unlike her partner, who now falls apart crying and you know HP.

At that moment, I thought, Oh, is he He's finally doing the right thing. He's gonna say no, you should go, not me, and he does. But it's only because it was only right because she won the goddamn coin toss and he lied to her. I wanted to share what I wrote in my notes about that scene, flip a coin, fuck you anyway? Uh?

Their apartment, by the way, am I wrong? Or will that eventually become Reverend Jim's apartment? I seem to remember Jim being visited by aliens in some sort of dream sequence episode and later later in the air, and it seems to me that he lives in a loft with Florida ceiling windows. It's a it is a little different, to be honest, the layout of their apartment. Not that I'm a big fan of this show, but it reminded me much more of what would become the Friend's apartment, with those like sloped windows that they would always I think there was a guy like a like a someone who like would walk around their apartment naked.

They'd always watch the guy out the window. No. No, the thing about Jim's apartment, if memory serves, and we'll talk about it when we get to those episodes. It's much bigger, and it was Florida ceiling windows on that side, but it was like what you would expect to see in a warehouse. So they flipped this coin and he he finally comes clean that he didn't that chi one, not him.

They talk about it a little bit more and they decide that why don't we just take the money from Alex. He's offering the money. It will help us, we can we won't have to give up either of our dreams. Let's just do it. Alex comes out of the bathroom and they say, Alex, we've come to a decision.

And what's what's funny about it to me is that Alex is clearly anticipating that they're going to turn down his offer, because I think he even starts saying like, I get it, you know, you don't want to ruin the friendship or whatever, and they go, well, no, I think we think our friendship is strong enough to last you lending us the money, So we would love to take all the money you can give us. That's it. They decide to take the money. Poor Alex is now stuck giving them the twenty five large Alex Rieger super jerk, That's what he says at the end, you know. And then there's a short epilogue after that where now Louis knows that he's going to this dinner with Nardo, which I maintain he has known all along.

This was all part of a scheme too. He knew Nardo was going, and now he's invited himself along, and that is certainly in character for Louie to do that, to have that kind of like devious plan. I just didn't really buy it. But the button is basically he comes on to Nardo in a very uncomfortable moment says to her like because she says, don't get this wrong. This is not a date.

I'm not going with you and knowing you know. But but his thing is, well, if I tell everybody that we were on a date, and I tell everybody that we were involved, then you know who's to say like that, I can't say that and basically spread a really nasty, awful rumor about you, to which her retort is, well, you can do that. But what if I just say that you couldn't perform and that's somehow enough to keep Louis at bay and he backs off. But that is a little weird, uncomfortable that he's basically talking about shaming her, and like it'stally not cool. It's not cool at all.

But that's Louie. I guess if you're going to be fencing with somebody, don't fence with Elaine Nardo because she's ready. Man, she'll yell, she will yell rape if you won't get out of her cab. So she's ready for your lay mass I had sex with her. Charge she's locked and loaded.

You're impotent? How about that, Louis de Palma. I'll get on the microphone and start yelling it right now, like okay, fine, Narna. She wouldn't take it from that irate customer, and she's not going to take it from Louie. She'll never take it from Louie.

So that's the episode. Let's talk about what good can we pull from this episode? Follow them alone, tell me there's more to this episode than all the negativity that we just yammered on about. What's good about this episode? I think we've been speaking positively about the episode as well.

There's been lots of good gangs and lots of good lines. And my favorite bit in the entire episode is when Alex first goes into the bathroom and they begin talking. She says two things are bothering her, one being that they've taken money from her parents the other time the whole time, and now he refuses to take any more money. And the second thing is one of the first things she mentions is the fact that she forgot to put towels in the bathroom. When Alex, mid conversation, comes out to see where they're at, and he like hears that they might not be taking his money, he's shaking his hands and looking for a towel.

I thought that was a nice callback and it was really funny. My favorite part of the episode is the interplay between Lacca and Alex as they're going to this dinner party, if you will, and Alex keeps stealing the lines that Lacca has been really working and working and working at I thought that was great. The interplay between the two of them is always solid to some degree. I have to give some credit to Earl Promarands because it maybe is slightly unusual that in the end they decided to take his money, because it feels like the easy, more kind of tidy it COMMI solution would have been for them to refuse it and they'll just they'll figure something else out or whatever. But in the end they took the selfish route.

They took the money that was offered. That was somewhat unusual that they went in that direction. No, it is surprising because yeah, everything seems like every other sitcom into the eighties and nineties would have been not actually deal with this financial problem. A lot of a lot of sitcoms dealt with financial issues to sort of hang their drama on and then never really paid off. So it was interesting for them to take the money at the end, when when the clear moral decision as we know, was for John to not continue his education at least postponent for a little while.

That can be looked at it as a positive. You know, I have one other positive thing which isn't in that the little stinger at the end with between Nardo and Di Palma, when she threatens to tell everyone he's impotent. He's holding a receipt in his hand, which goes limp when she accuses him. It's a great bit of comedy, a visual, physical comedy. Everything.

To me, all of these combinations that we're seeing kind of bounce off each other. We have Alex and Locket, we have Louie and Lane. All of these just further reinforce in my mind that John was and continues to be the odd man out, because every time he's on the screen interacting with anybody, could be his wife, could be Alex, could be you know, Louie. He feels like a character from a stock sitcom. He could he could very easily fit into an episode of Mama's Family.

That's what he feels like to me. He's just a yokel who doesn't understand the ways and means of New York. He should have been on making it with David David Nutts, you know, the rube amongst the disco boys. Like he's that character, that that caliber of character. I guess we're talking about the bad parts this episode because now he's a villain.

He does everything in his power to do the wrong thing in this episode and only does the right thing, I don't know, out of convenience or something, or some level of guilt, or maybe I don't know. This just makes me actively really dislike him, Whereas before you could put it aside when he got a good line and wasn't insufferable in the episode. Prior to this paper marriage, he was fine, like there's there's nothing necessarily that would hold you out of the episode. Here it's a heel turn. He's no longer just someone who acts out of naivete, you know, without thinking.

He is a villain. He is doing the wrong thing to further his own selfish needs. He's like a Jim Thompson protagonist. He's been going around pretending he's this lunkheaded dummy when really he's a schemer. He's the killer inside me.

He's this He's Sheriff Lou. And the funny thing is, I've been watching the show like you have for for decades now, and I never really thought of it. But you're right. This episode is really effectively a heel turn for him, where he goes from being just a woody archetype, if you will, from from cheers to being just a not a nice person, certainly someone who doesn't deserve a supporting and loving wife that he has. On second thought, maybe maybe this is the effect of new York on John like they could have played this like where he just kept saying, like he becomes more and more like the other characters in at the Cab Company, like Bobby Wheelers, you know, you know, cheap skatedness, and Louis de Palma's depravity, and you know, Tony vantis will to violence.

We haven't seen that yet, but I know it's there. So we're kind of witnessing the the the disintegration of the moral character of the only innocent who has been Morales show. Deduction of John Burns was the colon subtitle of the series. Maybe it's become kind of a Scorsesean descent into a mind of a person trying to hold on to their innocence and their ideals in a corrupt town. That's how I'm viewing the entire ship from now, at least until this season.

It certainly makes it more palatable and maybe more amusing. The bad is very self evident here. It's this is already a Burns centered episode. So that's already a couple of yellow lights, you know, knocked off the final score, just on principle. The struggling newlyweds with money difficulties.

Let's face it, we've mentioned this as a tired sitcom trope to begin with. They really don't add much to that or further it, except for the fact that, as we said in the end, they take the money from Alex, which is a little unexpected. So there is that. The other thing that I wrote down here is I'm still missing the rest of the Cavies here. I think collectively they may have three lines.

Bobby is probably the one who has the most to do outside of everyone else, but this is really Alex, John and Dorothy Hamill cuts episode. Everyone else is kind of secondary, which is a shame. So it does Banta even get a line? If he does, it's unmemorable. Let's talk some yellow lights.

What doesn't know light me follow him alone? What do you give this episode in terms of yellow lights? It should be a two yellow light episode because it's a burn centric episode, But it's a three yellow light episode because what works in the episode works so well that I have to give it up. Wow, And you know what, I take the reveal of John Burns as the central antagonist of the series here to be a positive in this. It is worthy of three yellow lights.

I'm going with three. I'm kind of Shocked. I actually gave it two yellow lights, which is granted, it's not a far cry from what you're saying. It should have been one yellow light. It should have been, but some of the comedy and the performances save it for me from being a total waste of time.

You know, my reasoning is slightly different, but I'm giving it two yellow lights. I see what you're saying, but I just I can't ignore the fact that this episode may be crazy with all of the bad choices and the wrongheadedness of the character that if I'm going to go back and rewatch a taxi episode, this is going to be towards the bottom of a list right below Angela. So that's going to do it for this episode of night Mister Walters fallom alone. When you're not spending time with our favorite cabbies, what are you up to? You can find me hanging around the Night Gallery in midnight viewing the Night Gallery podcast I do over at weirding Way Media.

All of my podcasts can be found there. All of my other sort of esoteric nonsense can be found at fatherom Alone dot com. You can check out either fantastic check that out. And as for me, I'm found in many of the same corners of the Internet. I'm also proud to be on the weirding Way Network.

You can hear me not only here, but you can hear me on the Wolf and Raisin Bannitchek podcast. You can hear me doing a podcast called Noise Junkies, which is a music podcast with myself, Father Malone, and the wonderful Heather Drain. Please check that out. And you can also hear me here and there on Dark Destinations, which is Father Malone's audio drama podcast. Please check that out as well.

You can hear everything I'm associated with because he does the music for everything, including the music you hear for the Bumpers for weirding Way Media. So there you go. Indispensable is the HP. Thank you Father alone, for myself and for Father alone. Thank you so much for listening and we will catch you next time.

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