WEBVTT

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We're being way media think mister Walders, go with it. He's an actor.

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Rise by the driver, I only
can't driver in his Hello and welcome

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back to night, mister Walters a
taxi podcast. I am HP and with

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me as always is my co host, Father Beloge. Hello, Father Belogne.

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Hey, I found two thousand dollars
in a cap. I just wanted

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to that. I don't know what
to do with it yet. Just don't

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tell Louie, because it's just gonna
be a thing. You know, Louie's

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gonna want the money, and there's
gonna be something. Maybe I shouldn't have

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told you either. Now I must
kill you. No, you gotta Yeah,

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let's let's keep it between us.
As Father Malone alluded, this is

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one of the subplots to the episode
that we will be discussing this episode.

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The episode is called Blind Date.
It was written by Michael Leeson and it's

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directed by our old friend James Burrows. This is really this is a rig

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centric episode. In fact, one
could make the case that this is ultimately

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a two hander between Reager and the
person will be discussing right now. So

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the basic we'll give a little bit
of a synopsis of the show this particular

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episode, so Bobby being a cool
actor guy and this being a time before

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voicemail and before cell phones, the
whole bit. Bobby has an answering service

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and there's a woman on the answering
start. One of the operators is named

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Angela, and all the cabbies love
talking to Angela. She has a great

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voice, she holds great conversations with
them, and she's just very pleasant.

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Alex comes in, he's had a
great conversation with Angela, and Elaine encourages

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him to ask Angela out. So
he gets on the phone and he asks

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her out, and all the other
cavies are very interested in this because,

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like I said, they've all had
good conversations with her and they're really interested

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to see how it goes. So
Alex goes to her apartment and he discovers,

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unexpectedly for him, that she is
overweight, and he's immediately uncomfortable,

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and she's completely hostile and really venomous
and just keeps coming at him with invective.

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Judd Hirsch plays it so well because
you can tell how apprehensive he is,

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but yet Alex being Alex and wanting
to do the right thing, he

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still wants to go forward with the
date, even knowing I mean, there's

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a part of him, I'm sure
that is disappointed because she doesn't live up

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to his fantasy of what she would
actually look like. But despite that,

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and despite the fact that she's being
openly hostile to him, he continues to

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try. I mean, she's giving
him all of these opportunities to leave the

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date and just call the quits,
but he kind of prods her to continue

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with the date, and they end
up going to Marios and things aren't any

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better there. She won't take off
her coat, and she's really keeps goading

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him to end the date. She's
just not a happy person. And the

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rest of the cabbies show up and
they give Alex kind of a hard time,

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even Lacta, who kind of pokes
funded her and his native language.

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Eventually, she throms off and leaves
Alex there kind of alone in the restaurant.

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The next day, everybody's still giving
Alex a hard time about the date,

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but he confides to Elane. Alex
confides to Elane that he really can't

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stop thinking about Angela and the dichotomy
between their phone conversations, which went so

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well and the in person experience,
and the thing that he says at one

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point is, I'm I feel like
I'm walking away from a car wreck with

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a person trapped inside. So Alex
being Alex, being the sensitive alan Alda,

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another in the long line of sensitive
males of the time, he just

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can't leave it, you know,
he can't get her out of his mind.

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So he decides to go buy her
apartment. And there's a funny bit

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where he flips a coin to decide
whether he's going to go in, and

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I think he says, like,
all right, best of thirteen. So

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clearly he's very nervous about seeing her
again and wants to kind of give himself

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an out to leave anyway. She
opens the door, she again she's confronting

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Alex, and she's coming at him
with all of this sort of you know,

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this negativity, and Alex finally wants
you can tell Alex wants to really

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break through her defenses and really try
to get to the core of what her

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deal is and really get to know
her a little bit, and eventually she

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saw offense to him. Ultimately they
kind of share a tearful hug and a

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commitment to be friends after all a
said and done. But it's I mean,

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I'm sure changing the conversation a little
bit because it's clear that she's been

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hurt many many times in the past, and her whole the hostility is just

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her defense mechanism to keep people at
arm's length so she won't be hurt again.

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So Alex really kind of gives her
permission to be vulnerable again and breaks

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through her sort of armor of invective. And it's really kind of a beautiful

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thing to observe. And at the
end of the day, it's not as

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if they're deciding that they're going to
give themselves another shot at romance. But

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all they're doing is he just promises
that he'll be there for her as a

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friend, be that shoulder that she
can cry on if they're you know,

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if she wants to just talk or
what have you, which is beautiful.

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This is ultimately just Alex and Angela's
story. I just thought it was a

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really beautiful sort of feature for Alex
and his his patented brand of sensitivity.

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You know, I applaud him.
He had every opportunity to just sort of

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say this, this I shouldn't be
here. This woman is that she's got

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problems and I should just leave it
be, but he can't. There's something

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into him that wants to be there
for her and and and you know,

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be be her friend. So I
think that's kind of a wonderful thing.

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What were your impressions of the episode. I hated this episode. I hated

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it, seriously, I hate I
hated this episode. Okay, all right,

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let's get into this. What did
you hate about it? I refute

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everything you just said. Okay,
I think this is the most modeling,

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treakily, fucking wistful, bullshit seventies
sensitive writing ever. This is every sitcoms

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take on dealing with a fat person. You know it's that this here's the

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thing. Yes, we know it's
a defense mechanism. We know she's been

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hurt. We can see her,
and we more than that, we can

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see the way the background characters even
just look at her. When when the

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gang invades Marios to to let let
Rieger know that he's going to have to

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hold the money. That's the ostensible
reason, but really they've just come to

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see what Angela looks like. Watch
Tony Danz's expression when Angela looks away and

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he knows that she's no longer looking
at him. The eye roll. Uh

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says it all. So we know
that Angela's whole venom brigade, her NonStop

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assault a potential suitor um is based
on prior experience. I would say,

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like, why go through the charade
of of of of pure just unadultrated like

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Scorched Earth policy with with a person
who's taking you out for a fucking sandwich

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or a salad at a fucking bar. None of that made sense to me.

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And then okay, let me interrupt
you for a minute. So it

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needs to be said viewed through a
modern lens. I agree there there's a

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danger here that the plot and the
characterization could be viewed as insensitive and un

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unenlightened. Okay, but let's let's
understand. Let's you know, this is

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the late seventies. Okay, everyone
wants to right Marty, Everyone wants to

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have their own Martin. Here's this
whoever wrote this episode, here's their Marty.

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That's what I have to say.
Two things I have to mention to

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you, and they probably, knowing
you father alone, they won't make a

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single liquid difference, but I feel
like I have to mention them. Number

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one is this episode was nominated for
an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy

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Series. That's one number two.
This episode also earned a Humanitas Award,

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which is given to writers whose work
explores the human condition in a nuanced and

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meaningful way. So, at least
of the time, this episode was considered

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very progressive. So I just want
to put that out there again, knowing

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that this will make no difference.
That makes absolutely no difference to me whatsoever.

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You know what way to go,
Emmy voters, you could you sure

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can recogniz you know what what is
overtly um award bait. As far as

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I'm concerned, I'm going to go
out on a limb here, and I'm

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gonna say that this is one of
the more for better or for worse,

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more of a quintessential Taxi episode,
because yes, it may be looked on

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under especially under a modern lens,
of being treakily and maudlin. But for

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me, I think for me,
it's funny and bitter, sweet and equal

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measure. Okay, for me,
that's that's the mark of a good episode

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of Taxi. You can call it
maudlin. For me, the best episodes

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of Taxi are the ones about the
small victories in the character's lives and how

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they roll with the punches that life
sends their way, like you could have

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if you had the episode where you
know, Alex goes to her apartment.

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She's mean and just bitter towards him, and then he just walks away and

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says, I think this was a
mistake. There's no episode there. I

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think this is so in character for
reader, I agree with you. All

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the taxi stuff is definitely like in
keeping with the taxi stuff. It's this

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outside element that they've brought in that
that's faulty. The thing is, they

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spend the entire first part of the
first act telling us how charming and wonderful

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this girl is. Everybody says in
the actor saying it, the boxer is

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saying it, that our lead guys
saying it, like just doctor her hours.

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At any point in the rest of
the episode, do you get even

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a scintilla an iota of charm from
this person? And by the way,

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stop saying that, I'm looking at
it to a modern lens. This is

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treakily modeling nonsense. In seventy nine, in sixty nine, in fifty nine,

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in twenty nineteen, this is treatily
nonsense that one of Veritas Award and

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was nominated for an Emmy. Oh
my god, well it must be it

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must be good. Then they only
give awards to really good things. How

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often do they give awards to really
terrible modeling overwrot things that don't deserve Evidently

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all the time if they're giving it
to this. But let me let me

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back up for a minute. O
here, Okay, So if i'm if

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I'm putting myself in Angela's choose,
I'm going to say that. So,

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yeah, she can have all the
confidence in the world when she's on the

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phone and she's talking to these people. They have no idea what she looks

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like. In vice versa, we
have to take their word for it.

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It's my point, we never get
to see it in action. She might

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have made this date in the heat
of the moment of this conversation, right,

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but then the last thing maybe she
expected was that this guy was going

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to call her on her bluff.
So now there's this date that she's had

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dates before that went horribly wrong.
So I think it's it's very realistic for

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her to like say, well this, I know this is going to go

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well, So I'm going to own
the awfulness of this date before my date

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has a chance to hurt me even
more. So I'm going to be the

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one who's going to be the bully
in this situation. I'm going to try

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to take the power away from this
other individual and make it easier for them

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to walk away because I can't go
through with this in the first place.

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Oh yes, no, it all
makes perfect psychological sense. It's just really

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barring television for sitcom about people in
this garage. I want to know about

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them and their lives, not this
after school special masquerading as an episode of

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Taxi. But you learned so much
about Alex that's exactly what this episode is

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about. We knew that an episode
one entirely about him racing to meet his

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daughter for just for ten seconds Stamo
connect him with her. If that doesn't

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sum up Rigor, I don't need
a reinforcement that he would continue on this

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date with this horrible herod and of
a human who is you know. I

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don't care what or motivation is,
but it's really boring and it doesn't make

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for good television. And I don't
know that reminder of what a good guy

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Rigor is in one punch Banta,
He's there with the fucking robe for Banta.

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He like, he breaks up that
fight that Champ is going to kill

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Tony Banta in that episode, and
Rigor jumps in and even says like,

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I've never been so scared. So
it doesn't make this episode better for me

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that it reinforces what a good dude
Rigor is. You raise some good points,

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I guess. But but if that's
the case, if we already know

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what a good guy Rigor is,
then why have him featured in any of

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these stories at all? If it's
just going to reinforce what we already understand

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about the character, It makes no
sense. You have to, you know,

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see him in different situations to know
how to see how he's going to

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react. And I think his reaction
here and the way it's played beautifully by

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Jed Hirsh, is so believable because
it's so clear from the beginning when he

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arrives. You know, he shows
up the apartment and the number falls off

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of her door and he goes to
pick it up, and then he looks

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up and there she is. You
see everything play across Jed Hirsh's face.

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Oh my god, I didn't realize
that. I thought she was this beautiful,

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sexy woman, and here's somebody who
doesn't fit that ideal version of her

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that I've had in my head.
What do I do? Okay, I

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think I'm gonna try and be tactful
and move forward with this and be as

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nice about it as I can possibly
be. But every step of the way,

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you see every bit of apprehension,
every bit of uncertainty about what he

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should be doing or what he wants
to do, and what's maybe going to

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hurt this woman versus what's you know, what does he do? If that's

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not brilliant acting, I don't know
what is am? I am I beating

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up on Judd Hirsch's performance. Absolutely
not, I'm beating up on the the

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episode that was written around that performance, which I still believe it's not very

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very good. I think it's award
bait. It's not good. It's very

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obvious in its conclusions, and it's
virtue signaling nineteen seventies style, like tick,

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a topic that is usually not really
discussed, which is like an overweight

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person, and like how they're treated, and the treatment is always the same,

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like the writing of that character.
It's either like a crazily hostile or

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crazily hostile and yes, wonderful that
they've give us the reason why that might

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be. But that's all that character
ends up being in this episode, I

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see and I disagree. In it, they talk about this charming person who

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never materializes even at the end,
by the way, why is she breaking

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down? And like this sort of
super modlin like speaking of Rod Serling this

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like you know, theater from the
nineteen radio drama from the nineteen thirties,

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like would it be okay if we
call it j other you know, just

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from a friend, Like that's sort
of like street ragamuffin kind of dialogue that

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is passing for nineteen seventy nine,
Like, uh, I don't know again,

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I hear you. I understand,
Yeah, where at one at any

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point other than her going from like
total aggression to total like like a basket

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case, Like where was the charm
in that character at all? I don't

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know. The idea that that we
understand why she's being a fucking asshole,

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like does not make up for any
of the other poor writing that we never

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see this character as anything other than
the harridan or the sort of baby.

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Where's the human being in any of
that? I don't know. I didn't

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see it myself. And if you're
going to hang the whole episode on,

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aren't we being sensitive and tackling the
sensitive subject, then you have to give

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us a real character other than the
psychological underpinnings of why they're a prick for

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me, or do an episode that
reinforces what a good guy Rieger is with

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an interesting, well thought out plot
that doesn't offend me to my car.

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Everything is in service to telling us
more about Rieger. Yes, we already

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had an idea that he was a
good guy. Yeah, we see him

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rushed to his daughter in episode one, and we see him trying to help

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out Banta in episode two. But
I still think I liked seeing It's for

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me it's worth it to be able
to observe Judd Hirsch's performance because I think

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it is so complex. This won't
be the last time we see him romantically

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involved with somebody who is either out
of his league or there's some other overarching

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concern that he has to deal with. So but again, for me,

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I, while I can recognize that
this the plot of this episode, or

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at least some of the characterizations are
dated, again, let's remind ourselves this

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is the late seventies. We've come
a long way towards understanding and being more

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sensitive towards topics like this. Okay, it's for me in this case,

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it's worth it to be able to
experience Jed Hirsch's performance. I think he's

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I think he's awesome. I think
this is just a This is another good

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example of why he is ostensibly the
star of Taxi, because I don't know,

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there's something about his ambivalence and his
steadfast sort of a desire to,

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you know, in the face of
everything, saying to him, stay away

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from this person because she's just going
to just gonna make it. She's gonna

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make you not want to spend time
with her. But you know, there's

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something in Alex that can't let it
be. And I just and that seems

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to your point to be virtue signaling, but damn it, Jed Hirsch makes

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me believe it and makes me love
the character even more. Well. I

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appreciate your appreciation of this. I
clearly yeah, this this is a low

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point. I did not and generally
watching it the first time or rewatching it

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several times in preparation for this.
The good part of this episode to me

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is that now I never have to
watch it again. Can I tell you

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what I liked about the episode.
I've been kicking this shit out of this

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episode. I like as silly as
the we found the money and we don't

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know what to do with it.
Like the slow sort of mirroring of Treasure

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of the Sierra Madre where nobody like
like trust each other in the garage.

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Like if that had been the A
plot and Angela had been the B plot,

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I might have liked this episode a
lot better. See, ultimately,

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I just want to hang out with
these people in this situation, and it's

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too early and the writers haven't figured
out that that's what's going to continue to

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buoy the season or the series in
general. So here's to the future.

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We are in for a lot more
of that. And I even if we

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disagree on this particular episode, we
do agree. I love it when these

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the episodes where they get together as
an ensemble and they're working together through the

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plot. I love that because these
actors are so funny, and when you

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get them all in one room doing
funny things, bouncing off of each other,

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that's where you get to me,
that's the real magic. The stuff

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with the money the two thousand dollars
that lack your fines, even if ultimately

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they didn't do much with that sort
of plot at all. They find the

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money, they give the money to
Alex to safe keep because they're not they

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don't want it, they're afraid someone
they're gonna steal it, and then they

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decide to give it to Laka,
and that's basically it, right, So

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not much else happens there, but
it's you know, it's kind of funny

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in all the while, Angela hammering, hammering, hammering on poor Rieger,

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enjoy your salad. No, I
hate salad and I hate you. Well,

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did you catch the Mets game?
The metsa death and you'll be dead.

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Now it's your chance to run,
Alex, Now it was you a

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chance to run. In your mind, this has become some sort of you

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know, Edward Albion drama where they're
sitting across from each other and say,

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that's what it is. What I
didn't imagine this. This is happening on

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screen. You can see it yourself. It's rare that we can come at

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something from two diametrically opposed points of
view. Well startling when it happens,

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it's great and it makes the review
that much more intriguing to hear your because,

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like I said, I'm watching this
and it could be my history with

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the show, and I've seen this
episode a million times. I fell over

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when you launched into your sort of
diatribe against Angela, and by extension,

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this particular episode not good. I
don't recommend it. Yes, guess what,

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Guess how many lights I'm giving this
one? Well, hold on,

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So let's let's take a moment here
before we get to our rating of this

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episode. I would be really remiss
if I didn't mention the fact that,

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so the character's name is Angela.
In fact, the theme of Taxi by

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Bob James is the name of the
name of the song is Angela theme from

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Taxi. And the reason for that
is this song was originally composed with the

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character in mind. This was supposed
to run during this particular episode, and

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I think we talked about this in
episode one of the podcast. The original

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song slated for the theme of Taxi
was going to be a song called Touchdown

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off of the album of the same
name, but as things turned out,

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Angela was a much more suitable theme
for the show, and it's stuck and

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now it's iconic. So I just
wanted to mention that that this is where

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the iconic theme from Taxi really comes
from, which I think is another interesting

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bit of trivia there. Okay,
so there are two good things about this

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episode. That I don't have to
watch it again, and that the actual

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theme for the TV series Taxi came
from this episode and it is a great

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theme, and we did sort of
discuss it at nauseum in the first episode.

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Just to remind our audience, we
are going to grade this episode or

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grade our episodes on how many yellow
lights? What does he know? Light?

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Thank you again, Jim big Natowski. One yellow light is the worst

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rating. Five yellow lights are the
best rating. And we are not going

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by half lights. It's either one, two, three, four or five.

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I think I already know what rating
you're you're going to give this father

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alone, But why don't you go
ahead and enlighten us? How many yellow

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I can't give half lights? No? And I can't give negative light?

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Can I? Well, because here's
the thing. Can I give it a

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broken light? I give it like
a lightly malfunctioning and therefore a little bit

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atmospheric light. No, because because
for you to if you were going to

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give this a grade of a negative
yellow light, let's say, would I

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would push back on that because I
think that means that there is absolutely nothing

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to redeem this episode at all.
And I refused even the worst taxi episode,

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as I said in the last episode
of the podcast, there is something.

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It's still better than your average mediocre
sitcom. So with that mine,

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how many yellow lights do you get? One? Obviously one. I did

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not enjoy this. I don't want
to watch it again. I do not

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00:26:12.839 --> 00:26:19.039
recommend this one. I actively tell
people to avoid it. Now, for

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00:26:19.200 --> 00:26:23.680
my part, I'm giving this episode
five na I'm kidding, I'm giving it

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three yellow lights. I'm focusing more
on Alex and Judd Hirsch's performance as the

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character and how he how he acts
and reacts throughout the episode, And for

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me, that's enough to give the
episode three yellow lights, because I think

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he's so good in it, and
there's a few funny supporting bits that that

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kind of helped bring the show along. Because because if this was just limited

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to Alex and Angela's sort of back
and forth, I may not be so

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charitable with my review, but I
do think overall, I think it's slightly

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better than average. Let's put it
that way. Okay, be more better

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00:27:06.920 --> 00:27:14.400
episodes to come going forward, but
this is it's decent. But the good

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00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:17.640
news for you, father Malone,
is that there are It can only go

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up from here. So looking forward
to the next episode, I think the

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00:27:19.720 --> 00:27:27.160
worst is yet to come because we
still have many many We have more John

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episodes and some regrettably John focused episodes
of Taxi to come, and who knows,

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maybe you and I will have a
difference of opinion when those come along

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too. I'm gonna love those just
to be just to be a contrary,

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00:27:42.839 --> 00:27:48.440
I want more Randall Carver where is
he? If we agreed one hundred percent

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00:27:48.640 --> 00:27:52.000
on each and every aspect of these
reviews, this would be a very boring

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00:27:52.079 --> 00:27:57.079
review show. So I like that
we're coming at this from two totally different

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00:27:57.119 --> 00:28:03.160
viewpoints and we can agree to disagree, and it makes for a more lively

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00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:06.480
discussion, I think, So I
appreciate it. I would expect nothing less

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than your unvarnished, honest opinion.
Say it again, how many? How

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00:28:10.680 --> 00:28:15.759
many Yellow Life? Just one?
One light? Only one? And again,

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00:28:18.599 --> 00:28:21.240
ll thank you for once again having
me on, And I'd like to

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00:28:21.279 --> 00:28:23.599
say one light don't want us this
episode, well, I appreciate it and

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00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:29.720
as always I love talking taxi with
you follow alone. So the next episode

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we will be discussing Bobby's acting career. This is the first Bobby Wheeler centered

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episode, not the last, but
we'll get to know our would be acting

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00:28:41.079 --> 00:28:47.000
cavvy a little bit better. Until
then, I m HP and this has

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00:28:47.039 --> 00:28:51.160
follow alone and we thank you once
again for listening to Night Mister Walters a

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Taxi podcast. We'll see you next
time. Thank you very much. Nine mister Balders