Taxi - The Complete First Season
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: D Episodes: B-
Though the show is not that old, beginning its successful
run in 1978, Taxi has become nostalgia more quickly than anyone could
have expected. If the events of 9/11/01
are not enough of a distancer, just the opening of the show with it cycle of
the same cut of an glorious gas-guzzling Checker Cab over and over again is now
as a reminder of environmental issues as it is the simple luxuries that keep
slipping away. It was also a time the sitcom was still
respectable.
The first season of the show introduced the now-familiar
characters played by Judd Hirsch, Jeff Conway, Marilu Henner, Tony Danza, Danny
DeVito, Randall Carver, Andy Kaufman and even Christopher Lloyd. Though the show was a hit, it may have
gotten there in part by being less political and some would say a bit more
populist than the better shows of the era.
With that said, I was surprised how many of the shows I did remember,
though I never thought it was the best TV like many fans tend to. The episodes include:
1) Like
Father, Like Daughter
2) One-Punch
Banta
3) Blind
Date
4) Bobby’s
Acting Career
5) Come As
You Aren’t
6) The
Great Line
7) High
School Reunion
8) Paper
Marriage
9) Money
Troubles
10) Men Are Such Beasts
11) A Full House For Christmas
12) Sugar Mama (with guest star Ruth
Gordon)
13) Friends
14) Louis Sees The Light
15) Elaine And The Lame Duck (with
guest star Jeffrey Tambor)
16) Bobby’s Big Break
17) Mama Gravas
18) Alex Tastes Death And Finds A Nice Restaurant
19) Hollywood Calling (with
guest star Martin Mull)
20) Substitute Father
21) Memories Of Cab 804
(two-parts; guest stars Many Patinkin, Tom Sellick)
One of the funny things about many episodic TV series is
that they have titles, but they are not broadcast on all the actual shows. Here, with the box sets, it does not
matter. That is one of the greatest
gains in respect TV has received from DVD after the boom that took the industry
by surprise. In Taxi, it helps
to flush out the smarter side of the show a bit better. In the long run, had the series been more
socially conscious, it would endure better, but it actually plays a bit better
than I remembered it overall. With the
situation comedy dead and Taxi being one of the last relatively mature
such shows, it turns out to mark the waning years of the forum until Frazier
turned out to be the end of an era that went back to The Odd Couple, All
In The Family and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Thus was the situation comedy’s last golden
age.
The full frame 1.33 X 1 image fares better than recent TV
boxes from Paramount like Mork & Mindy, but is not as colorful,
sharp or clear as Happy Days or Laverne & Shirley (all
reviewed elsewhere on this site) that were also all shot on film. The colors are not as rich as one would want
and it was always the case that the key lighting might have been a shade too
bright for the series in the first place, but that is the look of the
show. Fans will be happy to know that
this is the best the show has looked to date.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is reproducing the monophonic sound the show
was always broadcast in and was produced in as decent a way as possible, give
or take Dolby’s compression. Sadly,
fans will not be happy to hear that despite the cast’s availability and who
knows what is in the archive, there are no extras here.
Finally, a note about the cast. It is with some irony that it was Danny DeVito who went on to be
the biggest star, but additionally went on to be a major Hollywood film
producer and eventually and interesting feature film director. Danza became a bigger TV star and Kaufmann
went down his wild path of controversy before his early death. Taxi definitely is a key work of Pop
culture and now rare look at working class people. This DVD set will only keep it in the spotlight longer.
- Nicholas Sheffo
