Taxi: Season 2

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Season Details & Credits

ABC | Season Premiere Date: September 11, 1979

Starring: Jeff Conaway, Judd Hirsch, Danny DeVito

Summary: Taxi's television history is filled with contradictions. Produced by some of television comedy's most well-regarded talent, the show was canceled by two different networks. Despite winning fourteen Emmy Awards in only five seasons, the program's ratings were rock-bottom for its final seasons. Although it thrives in syndication and is stillTaxi's television history is filled with contradictions. Produced by some of television comedy's most well-regarded talent, the show was canceled by two different networks. Despite winning fourteen Emmy Awards in only five seasons, the program's ratings were rock-bottom for its final seasons. Although it thrives in syndication and is still well-loved by many viewers, Taxi will be best remembered as the ancestral bridge between two of the most successful sit-coms of all time: The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Cheers.
In the mid-1970s, MTM Productions had achieved huge success with both popularity and critical appraisal. So it was an unexpected move when four of the company's finest writers and producers, James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels, David Davis, and Ed. Weinberger, jumped off the stable ship of MTM in 1978 to form their own production company, John Charles Walters Company. To launch their new venture, they looked back to an idea that Brooks and Davis had previously considered with MTM: the daily life of a New York City taxi company. From MTM head Grant Tinker they purchased the rights to the newspaper article that had initiated the concept and began producing this new show at Paramount for ABC. They brought a few other MTM veterans along for the ride, including director James Burrows and writer/producers Glen and Les Charles.
Although Taxi certainly bore many of the trademark signs of "quality television" as exemplified by MTM, other changes in style and focus distinguished this from an MTM product. After working on the middle-class female-centered worlds of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, and Phyllis for years, the group at John Charles Walters wanted to create a program focusing on blue-collar male experience. MTM programs all had clearly defined settings, but Taxi's creators wanted a show that was firmly rooted in a city's identity--Taxi's situations and mood were distinctly New York. Despite MTM Productions innovations in creating ensemble character comedy, there was always one central star around which the ensemble revolved. In Taxi Judd Hirsch's Alex Reiger was a main character, but his importance seemed secondary to the centrality of the ensemble and the Sunshine Cab Company itself. While The Mary Tyler Moore Show proudly proclaimed that "you're going to make it on your own," the destitute drivers of Taxi were doomed to perpetual failure; the closest any of them came to happiness was Reiger's content acceptance of his lot in life--to be a cabby.
Taxi debuted on 12 September 1978, amidst a strong ABC Tuesday night line-up. It followed Three's Company, a wildly-successful example of the type of show MTM "quality" sit-coms reacted against. Taxi used this strong position to end the season ninth in the ratings and garner its first of three straight Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series. The show's success was due to its excellent writing, Burrows's award-winning directing using his innovative four-camera technique, and its largely unknown but talented cast. Danny DeVito's Louie DePalma soon became one of the most despised men on television--possibly the most unredeemable and worthless louse of a character ever to reside on the small screen. Andy Kaufman's foreign mechanic Latka Gravas provided over-the-top comedy within an ensemble emphasizing subtle character humor. But Kaufman sometimes also brought a demonic edge to the character, an echo of his infamous appearances on Saturday Night Live as a macho wrestler of women and Mighty Mouse lip-syncher. In the second season Christopher Lloyd's Reverend Jim Ignatowski was added to the group as television's first drugged-out '60s burn-out character. But Lloyd's Emmy-winning performance created in Jim more than just a storehouse of fried brain cells; he established a deep, complex humanity that moved far beyond mere caricature. The program launched successful movie careers for DeVito and Lloyd, as well as the fairly-notable television careers of Tony Danza and Marilu Henner; Kaufman's controversial career would certainly have continued had he not died of cancer in 1984.

In its third season ABC moved Taxi from beneath Three's Company's protective wing to a more competitive Wednesday night slot; the ratings plummeted and Taxi finished the next two years in 53rd place. ABC canceled the show in early 1982 as part of a larger network push away from "quality" and toward the Aaron Spelling-produced popular fare of Dynasty and The Love Boat. HBO bid for the show, looking for it to become the first ongoing sitcom for the pay channel, but lost out to NBC, which scheduled the series for the 1982-83 season. Ironically, this reunited the show's executive producers with their former boss Tinker, who had taken over NBC. Tinker's reign at NBC was focused, not surprisingly, on "quality" programming which he hoped would attract viewers to the perennially last-place network. Taxi was partnered with a very compatible show on Thursday night--Cheers, created by Taxi veterans Charles, Burrows, and Charles. Although this line-up featured some of the great programs in television history--the comedies were sandwiched by dramas Fame and Hill St. Blues--the ratings were dreadful and Taxi finished the season in 73rd place. NBC was willing to stick by Cheers for another chance, but felt Taxi had run its course and canceled it at the end of the season. Had Taxi been given another year or two, it would have been part of one of the most successful nights on television, featuring The Cosby Show (co-created by Taxi creator Weinberger), Family Ties, Hill St. Blues, L.A. Law, and eventual powerhouse Cheers.
Taxi lives on in syndication, but its most significant place in television history is as the middle generation between The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Cheers. It served as a transition between the star-driven middle-class character comedy of MTM programs and the location-centered ensemble comedy inhabited by the losers of Cheers and Taxi. Considered one of the great sit-coms of its era, Taxi stands as a prime example of the constant tension in television programming between standards of "quality" and reliance on high ratings to determine success.
--Jason Mittel
The Museum of Broadcast Communications… Expand

Genre(s): Comedy

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Season 2 Episodes

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S2:E26. Wherefore Art Thou, Bobby?
Air Date: March 18, 2011
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S2:E24. Fantasy Borough (2)
Air Date: May 13, 1980
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S2:E23. Fantasy Borough (1)
Air Date: May 6, 1980

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Seasons & Episodes

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Series Overview
Season 16

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- Season 16 Overview
  Air Date: September 12, 1978
Season 6

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- Season 6 Overview
  Air Date: September 12, 1978
Season 5

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- Season 5 Overview
  Air Date: September 30, 1982
Season 4

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- Season 4 Overview
  Air Date: October 8, 1981
Season 3

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- Season 3 Overview
  Air Date: November 19, 1980
Season 2

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- Season 2 Overview
  Air Date: September 11, 1979
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  S2:E26. Wherefore Art Thou, Bobby?
  Air Date: March 18, 2011
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  S2:E24. Fantasy Borough (2)
  Air Date: May 13, 1980
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  S2:E23. Fantasy Borough (1)
  Air Date: May 6, 1980
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  S2:E22. Art Work
  Air Date: March 4, 1980
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  S2:E21. Alex Jumps out of an Airplane
  Air Date: February 26, 1980
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  S2:E20. Shut It Down (2)
  Air Date: February 5, 1980
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  S2:E19. Shut It Down (1)
  Air Date: January 29, 1980
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  S2:E18. What Price Bobby?
  Air Date: January 22, 1980
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  S2:E17. Guess Who's Coming for Brefnish
  Air Date: January 15, 1980
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  S2:E16. Tony and Brian
  Air Date: January 8, 1980
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  S2:E15. The Reluctant Fighter
  Air Date: December 25, 1979
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  S2:E14. Jim Gets a Pet
  Air Date: December 18, 1979
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  S2:E13. Louie Meets the Folks
  Air Date: December 11, 1979
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  S2:E12. Elaine's Secret Admirer
  Air Date: December 4, 1979
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  S2:E11. Latka's Revolting
  Air Date: November 27, 1979
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  S2:E10. Alex's Romance
  Air Date: November 20, 1979
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  S2:E9. The Apartment
  Air Date: November 13, 1979
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  S2:E8. The Great Race
  Air Date: November 6, 1979
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  S2:E7. A Woman Between Friends
  Air Date: October 30, 1979
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  S2:E6. The Lighter Side of Angela Matusa
  Air Date: October 23, 1979
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  S2:E5. Wherefore Art Thou, Bobby?
  Air Date: October 16, 1979
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  S2:E5. The Reluctant Fighter
  Air Date: October 9, 1979
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  S2:E4. Nardo Loses Her Marbles
  Air Date: October 2, 1979
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  S2:E3. Reverend Jim: a Space Odyssey
  Air Date: September 25, 1979
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  S2:E2. Honor Thy Father
  Air Date: September 18, 1979
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  S2:E1. Louie and the Nice Girl
  Air Date: September 11, 1979
Season 1

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- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: September 12, 1978