Taxi (TV series)/Trivia

• Actor Allusion: There were a number of in-joke references to Andy Kaufman's stand-up act, including having his alter ego Vic Ferrari sing the "Mighty Mouse" theme.
• Channel Hop: From ABC to NBC in its last season. Ironically, the show which beat it in the ratings during the third season on NBC, Diff'rent Strokes, moved to ABC during its eighth and final season.
• The Danza: Tony Danza played Tony (Trope Namer Ur Example, since this was Danza's first role).
  • Jeff was played J. Alan Thomas; the "J" is for Jeffrey.
• Directed by Cast Member: Danny DeVito (3 episodes).
• Doing It for the Art: While quite commonplace nowadays, when JCW Productions pitched the show to HBO in 1982 (after being cancelled by ABC), no cable network had aired a sitcom (mostly because almost no one had cable back then) thus being considered a very daring (and risky) move at the time. However, Paramount decided to have Taxi on either CBS or NBC, the latter of both ended up running the show for a year.
• Enforced Method Acting: One episode called for Louie DePalma to whisper something to Elaine Nardo, and for her to respond by slapping him and saying "That's disgusting!". Danny DeVito whispered such sweet things to Marilu Henner during rehearsals that she was genuinely shocked when he started whispering not-so-nice things, and she blew several takes because of it (to DeVito's delight).
  • When Carol Kane joined the cast as Latka's girlfriend Simka, Andy Kaufman taught her their country's "language" by inviting her to dinner and refusing to speak English or let her do so.
  • In one episode, guest star and real-life boxer Carlos Palomino accidentally delivered a real left hook to Tony's face. You can see Palomino pull his hand towards his mouth in horror for a second on realizing what he did before getting back in character and turning around to exit.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: Ted Danson, in a role VERY different from Sam Malone.
  • That Bosom Buddies guy as one of Jim's college peers! Whatever happened to that guy?
  • Rhea Perlman as Zena, Louis' girlfriend (and DeVito's Real Life partner.) When Perlman starred on Cheers, DeVito was going to play Nick Tortelli, but then he became a hot movie property.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: A stand-up comic did a vocal imitations routine in which he imagined Star Trek: The Original Series with different actors — including Christopher Lloyd (being very much "Reverend" Jim). Then came Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, and look who's playing a major character....
• Reality Subtext: Andy Kaufman's character develops multiple identities? You don't say!
• Screwed by the Network: An unintentional example. To boost the show's ratings, ABC placed Taxi for its third season on Wednesday, opposite NBC's hit show, Diff'rent Strokes. To be short, ratings dipped considerably (but not to the extent of Soap, which by competing with The Facts of Life it hit rock bottom and was swiftly canned).
• Star-Making Role: For Hirsch, DeVito, Danza, Kaufman and Lloyd.
• Throw It In: While going through his dead father's possessions, Jim places his Dad's coat over the back of a recliner chair. After a few seconds this caused the chair to open up into the reclining position almost as if his Dad was sitting in it. According to Christopher Lloyd, this was completely an accident and his shocked reaction is genuine.
• Troubled Production: Andy Kaufman never took the show seriously and often made ludicrous demands, most notably his showing up to the set in-character as Tony Clifton and causing utter chaos. To a lesser extent, Jeff Conaway suffered from a heroin addiction that kept leaving him unable to work for long periods, until he was fired.
• Uncanceled: The show was abruptly cancelled by ABC after its fourth season, but it was picked by NBC for another year before being cancelled for good.
• What Could Have Been: The Season 1 episode "A Full House for Christmas" was supposed to guest star Tony Clifton as Louie's brother, but Clifton's behavior on the set was so awful that he was fired; he wound up being escorted off of the Paramount lot.
  • Originally "Touchdown" by Bob James was going to be the title theme but the producers liked James' slower music for the episode "Angela" and chose it instead.
  • Robin Williams was supposed to play Bobby, but he had to decline when Mork and Mindy got picked up.
    • Mandy Patinkin was offered the role, but didn't want to move to L.A.

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