Taxi – The Final Season (aka Season
Five/1982 – 1983/CBS DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: C+
After
losing one network, only to get another and great ratings, Taxi called its quits after five seasons. Remarkably, we have covered the first three
and found the show to be better than remembered as you’ll see at these links:
One
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1539/Taxi+-+The+Complete+First+Season
Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1902/Taxi+-+The+Complete+Second+Seaso
Three
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2704/Taxi+-+The+Complete+Third+Season
Note that
it took the later season a while to hit DVD, in part because the TV shows moved
to the CBS division of Viacom, but they are all here now. After going through this final season, they
quit while they were ahead. All the
loose ends are wrapped up as expected and the episodes this time include:
1)
Love Un-American Style
2)
Jim’s Inheritance
3)
Scenskees From A Marriage (two
part-episode)
4)
Crime & Punishment
5)
Alex The Gofer
6)
Louie’s Revenge
7)
Travels With My Dad
8)
Elaine & The Monk
9)
Zena’s Honeymoon
10) Get Me Through The Holidays
11) Louis Moves Uptown
12) Alex’s Old Buddy
13) Sugar Ray Nardo
14) A Taxi Celebration (two part
compilation of highlights)
15) Alex Gets Burned By An Old
Flame
16) Louie & The Blind Girl
17) Arnie Meets The Kids
18) Tony’s Baby
19) Jim’s Mario’s
20) A Grand Gesture
21) Simka’s Monthlies
#14 is
the kind of show (or shows) series used to make prior to home video to promote
the series and get old and new fans (re-)interested in the show as it would be
in syndication. It is sad to see Carol
Kane and Andy Kaufman here as they are both gone and that is hard to believe
sometimes as you watch. It is also a
sitcom that could not be made today because the cast would be different (more
immigrants drive cabs now than then) and of course, the gas-guzzling Checker
Cab has long been retired, has been long out of production and is now a
collectible.
Versus
the awful sitcoms that were soon to follow, Taxi helps mark the end of an era of filmed sitcoms and though
never my favorite show, but it has aged better than even I would have
imagined. For fans, the whole show
finally on DVD will make them happy. For
all interested, it was expected. Only
Danny DeVito, Judd Hirsch and Christopher Lloyd saw greater success afterwards,
but all did some of their best work here and that is not faint praise.
The 1.33
X 1 image and Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono are the same as the previous sets in
quality. More work could be done and one
day, we expect this to be offered on Blu-ray.
The only extras are episodic promos made for syndication with very dated
digital video bumpers.
- Nicholas Sheffo
