Speaker 1: Weird Way media. Ni misters.
Speaker 2: Is see that guy with it now He's an actor
Speaker 2: and the only camp driver in his place. Good evening
Speaker 2: and welcome tonight, mister Walters a taxi podcast. I'm hp
Speaker 2: your co host and with me as always is the
Speaker 2: other co host, Father Malone. Father Malone. How are you
Speaker 2: this evening?
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm good. I'm looking forward to a riger centric
Speaker 1: episode Romantic Riga Town.
Speaker 2: This episode is all about Riager, as we'll discover as
Speaker 2: we dig into it. This is Taxi Season two, episode twelve,
Speaker 2: Alex's Romance. This was written by Ian Praser and Howard Gerwitz.
Speaker 2: And here's the first big shocker of the episode, Father Malone.
Speaker 2: It is not directed by James Burrows. It's directed by
Speaker 2: Ed Weinberger. Madness, what's happened? I'll tell you what happened?
Speaker 1: Ye, please tell me what happened? Ruins his perfect record.
Speaker 2: It does going back to my favorite resource, the official
Speaker 2: Taxi Fan Guide by Frank Lovey's. According to Love's, this
Speaker 2: episode was the only one of the first fifty six
Speaker 2: that Burrows didn't direct. Burrows was busy that week trying
Speaker 2: to get another John Charles Walter's show off the ground.
Speaker 2: Do you know what show that is? So that was no,
Speaker 2: it was the short lived The Associates. Now we'll get
Speaker 2: to The Associates in a moment, but what I want
Speaker 2: to say is, and this is a spoiler alert, according
Speaker 2: to d Wallace, that we're gonna see as the guest
Speaker 2: star in this episode. She's quoted as saying they were
Speaker 2: having trouble on the other show, The Associates, because someone
Speaker 2: had been ill or something, and poor Ed had the
Speaker 2: weight of the world on his shoulders and he told me,
Speaker 2: d just get me through this week. So I think
Speaker 2: this fledgling show The Associates had some issues. They brought
Speaker 2: in the big guns, James Burrows to come and try
Speaker 2: to straighten things out. Didn't really pan out because the
Speaker 2: show didn't last that long. But let's talk a little
Speaker 2: bit about The Associates. Are you familiar with The Associates,
Speaker 2: Father Malone?
Speaker 1: I am not, but I'm assuming it is a legal comedy.
Speaker 2: The Associates was the first show that featured an impossibly
Speaker 2: young Martin Short in a starring role.
Speaker 1: Oh, I now vaguely remember this.
Speaker 2: You remember this. The thing that my mind keeps going
Speaker 2: back to is there is one particular set where the
Speaker 2: lawyers are in this giant legal library in the finest
Speaker 2: tradition of set decoration. This thing was amazing. It just
Speaker 2: seemed to go on forever. There was a giant spiral
Speaker 2: staircase I think in the middle, and there's all kinds
Speaker 2: of lawyers doing their thing books everywhere. It was wonderful.
Speaker 2: You're right. It centered on a group of junior lawyers
Speaker 2: working in a firm on Wall Street, and other actors
Speaker 2: in this show that went on to bigger and better
Speaker 2: things are near Dark's Tim Thomerson. Oh, he was in it. Uh,
Speaker 2: Joe Regel Butto do you know who Joe Regel Butto is.
Speaker 1: Of course he's the one. He's the man who beat Mork.
Speaker 2: That was he on Mork and Mindy.
Speaker 1: He showed up as a rival alien who exposed Mark
Speaker 1: to the world.
Speaker 2: I knew him from Murphy Brown. He was a co
Speaker 2: star and Murphy Brown.
Speaker 1: Wasn't he on one of these like Automan or Street Hawk,
Speaker 1: one of these mid range actioners.
Speaker 2: He might have been.
Speaker 1: It's the right I'm featuring a man and his vehicle
Speaker 1: as the as the co Leades And then like Joe Regor,
Speaker 1: Butto is the guy who pushes buttons and goes, well,
Speaker 1: why you're pushing it so hard?
Speaker 2: I really hope you're right. I'd love to watch that show.
Speaker 2: So he was in it. And also Ali Mills. Do
Speaker 2: you know who Ali Mills is?
Speaker 1: I know the name, but I could not tell you what.
Speaker 2: She would go on to be the mother in the
Speaker 2: Wonder Years. You probably can see her in your mind's
Speaker 2: eye now. The show was critically acclaimed, but it suffered
Speaker 2: from getting its time shifted around too much. It was
Speaker 2: on this day, then, it was on this time, and
Speaker 2: it never really found an audience. The show was produced
Speaker 2: by Brooks, Daniels and Weinberger and featured a lot of
Speaker 2: the writers from the John Charles Walters stable, including ones
Speaker 2: that we've already heard from like Michael Leeson and Earl Pomerance.
Speaker 2: The Associates even got several Emmy nominations in nineteen eighty
Speaker 2: for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series. Here's the final
Speaker 2: my favorite tidbit from the Associates of this is going
Speaker 2: to be it. The theme song was a song called
Speaker 2: Wall Street Blues. It's a blues number performed by the
Speaker 2: great BB King Wow whoever it was co written? Get
Speaker 2: this by none other than Albert Brooks. Yes, Albert Brooks,
Speaker 2: the comedian. He co wrote this blues I mean, you
Speaker 2: listen to it and it's bb King. It's a blues song.
Speaker 2: In fact, he did all of the interstitial music, much
Speaker 2: the way Bob James was the house composer for Taxi,
Speaker 2: BB King was the house composer slash musician for the Associates.
Speaker 2: But BB King isn't that weird.
Speaker 1: Weirder is how Albert Brooks got involved with writing a
Speaker 1: blues song with BB King for as the title track
Speaker 1: for a sitcom.
Speaker 2: Albert Brooks did an album, a comedy album. I think
Speaker 2: just around this time, call the Star is Bot. It's fantastic.
Speaker 2: If you haven't heard it, you've got to hear it.
Speaker 2: They collaborated on a track, a blues track where BB
Speaker 2: King is playing the blues and Albert Brooks is doing
Speaker 2: some comedy behind him. It's very funny. Having said that,
Speaker 2: I don't know how they initially got themselves together, let
Speaker 2: alone how they wrote a blue song. Because it's a
Speaker 2: blue song. It's not like Albert Brooks doing shtick. It's
Speaker 2: just BB King. But I thought that was fascinating. What
Speaker 2: an amazing little tidbit so anyway, enough about the associates. Reminder,
Speaker 2: we're doing these shows in broadcast order and not in
Speaker 2: order of filming. We open on a new b roll
Speaker 2: of the exterior of Marios. Among a line of cabs
Speaker 2: parked outside. We see, I don't know if you noticed this.
Speaker 2: We see a blonde guy dressed exactly like the Fawns
Speaker 2: entering Marios with a buddy. Did you see him?
Speaker 1: No? No, I'm so over the Marios exterior as the bureau.
Speaker 2: But this was so weird. He's got the leather jacket,
Speaker 2: he's got the white shirt, the blue jeans. He's a
Speaker 2: perfect match for the Fawns, save for the fact that
Speaker 2: he's just this blonde guy. I just thought it was bared.
Speaker 1: And he also sounds like he could be in like
Speaker 1: a cigarette ad and the back of GQ pretty much.
Speaker 2: But it was just this guy the Fawns and his
Speaker 2: buddy going in the Marios. I don't know. I thought
Speaker 2: it was kind of funny.
Speaker 1: Blonde fawn the Blonsie.
Speaker 2: We cut inside Marios and Bobby is sitting at a
Speaker 2: table trying to console a crying blonde woman. Father Malone.
Speaker 2: The Joe Dante connection continues.
Speaker 1: Steve Wallace. Oh my god, so de.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's young and beautiful. She's obviously best known for
Speaker 2: parts like Karen White in Joe Dante's The Howling.
Speaker 1: Right around las time, right like this is like nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty eighty one, right here, so around the same time
Speaker 1: she's starting there.
Speaker 2: Unless I'm mistaken, I think The Howling came right after
Speaker 2: a taxi. Most people will know her as Elliott's mom
Speaker 2: and et. She was also the mother in Kujo, and
Speaker 2: I'm sure she had many other mom roles.
Speaker 1: Of Halloween that Rob Zombie, that Rob Zombie, Halloween remank
Speaker 1: she was the mom and that she was I never
Speaker 1: saw it. Yeah, she's goodn't it. She gets killed. It's terrible,
Speaker 1: you feel awful.
Speaker 2: I didn't know she was still acting even now. That's
Speaker 2: pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's great Man Safforlet.
Speaker 2: She's very very good in this spoiler over Night.
Speaker 1: She's like a serious Goldie Han.
Speaker 2: That's actually a really good comparison. I hadn't thought of
Speaker 2: her in those terms.
Speaker 1: She's got a bubbliness to her that that is really charming.
Speaker 1: But she's also like a heavy hitter dramatically.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and a lot she's called upon to do to
Speaker 2: put a lot of that on display in this episode,
Speaker 2: as we'll discuss. From the conversation Bobby's having with this woman,
Speaker 2: it sounds like her name is Joyce. It sounds like
Speaker 2: Joyce and Bobby have both been dropped from a soap opera.
Speaker 2: Turns out, Bobby, I guess, got called back to for
Speaker 2: better for Worse, which she was acting on as well,
Speaker 2: and they were both fired. And all of Bobby's efforts
Speaker 2: to console Joyce or just making it worse, and she's
Speaker 2: openly sobbing, and they even I think people in the
Speaker 2: restaurant are looking at them funny and oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And there's a woman over Bobby's his left shoulder
Speaker 1: on the right side of the screen of the top.
Speaker 1: She's locked onto them the entire time. This woman does
Speaker 1: not look away from the drama going on at this table.
Speaker 1: You know what, can't blame her?
Speaker 2: Well, do you think it's she's just doing her best
Speaker 2: to act like a real person in the restaurant or
Speaker 2: do you think she's like going above and beyond making
Speaker 2: herself known, beyond her obligation.
Speaker 1: Yes, both, I think it's both. Yeah, I think all
Speaker 1: the extras and I noticed this later in the next
Speaker 1: episode as well. Anytime the extra, anytime there's like a
Speaker 1: spectacle going on and the extras are called to watch,
Speaker 1: they're very excited.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter if you're in the garage or you're
Speaker 2: in Marios or wherever. They always pack the set full
Speaker 2: of wonderful extras and background players that add a lot
Speaker 2: of texture to the scene. Alex arrives at Marios and
Speaker 2: goes right over to the bar in orders a beer. Bobby,
Speaker 2: sensing his opportunity to get out of this awkward situation.
Speaker 2: Of course, Bobby being pretty shallow and not wanting to
Speaker 2: deal with this, sobbing actress hustles over to talk to Alex.
Speaker 2: Now a side note, Alex is wearing the heaviest cardigan
Speaker 2: sweater I've ever seen, with another coordinated sweater underneath it.
Speaker 2: He looks like a cross between a Nordic fisherman and
Speaker 2: a sensitive psychiatrist. Surely you notice this.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, he's all sweat. It's just like a
Speaker 1: layer of perspiration underneath his like seventeen layers of clothes.
Speaker 1: I think we're supposed to believe that we're moving into winter,
Speaker 1: and the next episode that will definitely be the case.
Speaker 1: So maybe this is fall now. But this is the
Speaker 1: only hint that its fall, because ever, you know, Wheeler
Speaker 1: is in his customary shirt open to his navel without
Speaker 1: his jacket. But obviously Rigo just came from outdoors. But
Speaker 1: it's not like he makes any motion to remove a
Speaker 1: layer at any point.
Speaker 2: What you're saying tracks, because you're right. The following episode
Speaker 2: we do see some snow covered streets, and in fact,
Speaker 2: eventually when Joyce gets up and leaves the restaurant we
Speaker 2: see her later she's wearing a very heavy fur coat,
Speaker 2: much like what Elaine wore in the last episode or
Speaker 2: two episodes ago. So yeah, I guess you're right. It
Speaker 2: makes sense that it's wintertime is coming and they need
Speaker 2: to bundle up. But boy, Alex really has a penchant
Speaker 2: for those heavy cardigans. He wears them a lot.
Speaker 1: It's not like they telegraph to the audience that the
Speaker 1: seasons have changed either. It's like we just had so
Speaker 1: many fucking glowing sunset shots of the garage for the
Speaker 1: entire run up until now that it seems like it's
Speaker 1: been summer this whole time. But I guess summer has
Speaker 1: ended while Romance is blooming. Also shout out to Wheeler
Speaker 1: for being Wheeler and just going like he's with this girl.
Speaker 1: He figures out, I don't have a chance, whether she's
Speaker 1: just upset. Let me farther off on Rigger and then
Speaker 1: get out of here.
Speaker 2: Speaking of Bobby, Bobby offers to introduce Alex to Joyce.
Speaker 2: Well you can literally it's not the camera's not even
Speaker 2: focused on her, but you can literally hear her sobbing
Speaker 2: loudly in the background, and Alex being Alex, thanks but
Speaker 2: no thanks, since apparently a previous introduction that Bobby made
Speaker 2: went pretty bad. But Bobby, being Bobby again, won't take
Speaker 2: no for an answer, and he basically shoves Alex over
Speaker 2: to the table for to make introductions. But despite his apprehension,
Speaker 2: Alex tries to crack a joke or two. Bobby sees
Speaker 2: his opportunity in skidaddles, he's out of there. That's we
Speaker 2: don't really see a whole lot of Bobby, or a
Speaker 2: lot of any cabbies for that matter. Seeing Joyce once
Speaker 2: again sobbing really loudly, Alex's chivalrous nature gets the best
Speaker 2: of them, and he sits with Joyce and he makes
Speaker 2: another joke, and finally things seem to be warming up.
Speaker 2: He's breaking the ice a little bit, and Joyce goes
Speaker 2: on to explain that she's played the villainous Blanche Bane
Speaker 2: on for Better for Worse. I was right that it
Speaker 2: was for Better for Worse? But then this again, this
Speaker 2: begs the question, are there no other soap operas?
Speaker 1: HP? Excuse me for a second. Yeah, did you just
Speaker 1: say that this name of the show is for better
Speaker 1: for worse? Right?
Speaker 2: For better for worse? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Right? And and then you said you were right.
Speaker 2: I was right that I suspected they were dealing with
Speaker 2: for Better for Worse as their soap opera jobs. We
Speaker 2: hadn't heard that up to this point. I didn't make
Speaker 2: that clear.
Speaker 1: No, because you're right. No, there is no other There
Speaker 1: is no other soap opera being shot in New York
Speaker 1: at this time, they'd all moved to Los Angeles. You
Speaker 1: don't know that. You didn't hear about that? The last
Speaker 1: seven A great soap opera Purge.
Speaker 2: The Great Migration, and the Correct She played this soap
Speaker 2: opera villain for for eight years, and she was even
Speaker 2: voted the most despised woman on Daytime TV three years
Speaker 2: in a row. Five I'm alone, but in a blatant
Speaker 2: display of agism. The producers suddenly decided she was too
Speaker 2: old to play the part. By the way, Dee Wallace
Speaker 2: was thirty two at the time.
Speaker 1: So is she playing older here?
Speaker 2: No, I think I don't think she's playing older making.
Speaker 1: It they're making a comment on the fact that thirty
Speaker 1: two is now an old man, because of course television roles.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm making that comment because they're not calling it out,
Speaker 2: but I'm suggesting, like, how could she that means that
Speaker 2: if she's been on there eight years in a row.
Speaker 2: She started on this show when she was twenty four
Speaker 2: years old, which is like super young. Thirty two is
Speaker 2: still super young. I don't know. I guess things work
Speaker 2: differently in soap operas. I don't know. Alex continues to
Speaker 2: make corn any jokes, and Joyce is flip flopping between
Speaker 2: laughter and crying and back to laughter, and finally Alex
Speaker 2: tells her that she has two choices. She can continue
Speaker 2: to feel sorry for herself or and I love this part.
Speaker 2: He pounds the table and shouts I'm not gonna let
Speaker 2: this get me down, and this everybody in the restaurant.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you notice that it's like if Hutton,
Speaker 2: everybody turns because he shouts very theatrical.
Speaker 1: You would turn, so would I, And then I go
Speaker 1: this guy's fucking problem, and then I go back to
Speaker 1: my food, unlike everyone in the restaurant who continues to
Speaker 1: stare right.
Speaker 2: So he says, you have these choices, or you can
Speaker 2: at least have dinner with me. And it's in this
Speaker 2: moment I think that you see Alex go from being
Speaker 2: annoyed frankly that at being saddled with Joyce to maybe
Speaker 2: just maybe being a little in interested in her because
Speaker 2: he really is kind of falling over himself to make
Speaker 2: her laugh and cheer her up. It's kind of sweet
Speaker 2: to see him try and make the best of the situation.
Speaker 2: It's like you see Alex impulsively deciding to go for
Speaker 2: it and being genuinely surprised at both his reaction and
Speaker 2: her agreeing to go to dinner because she does agree
Speaker 2: to go to dinner with her with.
Speaker 1: Him, it's sweet, but did you get a look at
Speaker 1: her well, of course he's falling, falling all over himself
Speaker 1: to like make her happy, like if Angela Matusa had
Speaker 1: been sitting at that table and crying Rigo to one,
Speaker 1: oh no, no no, and would have liked back as
Speaker 1: soon as we started to stay on them over there
Speaker 1: and be like, I don't want any pride of us.
Speaker 2: Once she accepts his dinner invitation, Alex insists they get
Speaker 2: dinner elsewhere. Once again, we have a cabby talking about
Speaker 2: how bad the food is in Marios. Again, I ask you,
Speaker 2: fallom alone, why do the cabbys continue to frequent.
Speaker 1: Marios to dive inyah beer?
Speaker 2: That's it? Then? Why? But I don't know. There's other places,
Speaker 2: surely restaurants we get beer and a.
Speaker 1: It's around the corner from the garage. Who wants food
Speaker 1: when you're gonna have beer?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I can't see it, but whatever.
Speaker 1: Plus, it's just another cheap shot, like Riga just wanted
Speaker 1: to get out of there.
Speaker 2: That's true. He just wanted to get out of there
Speaker 2: and go somewhere more romantic. Probably, So we fade out
Speaker 2: and then we fade back in. It's a city street
Speaker 2: b roll in the evening. The camera cranes over to
Speaker 2: a second floor apartment window, which I believe we're led
Speaker 2: to understand is Rigu's apartment because we cut into the
Speaker 2: apartment as Alex and Joyce walk in. The lights are
Speaker 2: off and he's turning on the lights.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Another side note, they're walking in through what will later
Speaker 2: be known as Alex's bedroom door. It bugs me when
Speaker 2: they do stuff like this. We'll see this a couple
Speaker 2: of times in Alex's apartment, but it's weird. They're coming
Speaker 2: in through this back and even like just in terms
Speaker 2: of blocking, it's odd because they're coming from far off,
Speaker 2: like in the background. And yeah, you know, I thought,
Speaker 2: what did you think of that? I thought it was
Speaker 2: a weird choice.
Speaker 1: It was a weird choice. The thing is, I can't
Speaker 1: specifically remember the layout of Riger's place when we had
Speaker 1: the kid in the wheelchair episode.
Speaker 2: No, it was the one where Elaine's.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's where the spelling bee won. Right, Well, we.
Speaker 2: Never saw We only saw his bedroom. We didn't see
Speaker 2: anything more.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, yeah, no, that okay. I was weirded out
Speaker 1: by the layout of his apartment. The way that that
Speaker 1: door is means that he has the apartment at the
Speaker 1: end of the hall, right. It's not on the left
Speaker 1: of the right. You just walk straight down the hallway
Speaker 1: and there's a door and that's Rigger's apartment.
Speaker 2: I would say so yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: So he's got a bit more space than the rest
Speaker 1: of the tenants on that floor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a we'll get into the apartment in the
Speaker 2: design of it shortly, but but yeah, this is the
Speaker 2: first really good look we're getting of Alex's apartment, and
Speaker 2: we'll see it a few more times in the course
Speaker 2: of the series. You're right. The last time we saw
Speaker 2: it was during the spelling Bee episode with Elaine's son,
Speaker 2: but that was only the bedroom. But what I love
Speaker 2: is the apartment is chalk full of dense detail. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of books, there's a little eating nook in
Speaker 2: the corner, there's a comfy couch or fridge off to
Speaker 2: the side. I just I love these like little.
Speaker 1: Details, gigantic painting of a chair.
Speaker 2: Is it like a like a marite? Like what I
Speaker 2: don't remember this?
Speaker 1: What is it? It's just like puer one imports bullshit.
Speaker 1: It's like, what, Yeah, that looks good, throw that up
Speaker 1: on the wall. So there's some culture for rigor, very low.
Speaker 2: Very low culture. He does make the comment as he's
Speaker 2: ushering Joyce in it was apartment that he decorated it himself,
Speaker 2: So that also makes sense that it would be some
Speaker 2: peer one imports rap that he put on the wall.
Speaker 2: Alex and Joyce make very I thought it was very believable,
Speaker 2: awkward back and forth conversation, which which really befitting Alex
Speaker 2: trying to make a good impression on Joyce and her
Speaker 2: carefree attitude, sort of shading into romantic interest. At one point,
Speaker 2: Joyce impulsively loses herself in the moment and hugs Alex,
Speaker 2: but when he leans in for a smooch, she retreats
Speaker 2: from him. She warns Alex, she says, don't get involved
Speaker 2: with me. She says she's a basket case. And Alex
Speaker 2: makes light of this morning, insisting that he's a stable influence.
Speaker 2: But Joyce isn't so easily convinced. She tells him they
Speaker 2: should make an agreement that they won't get involved, and
Speaker 2: Alex plays along. Now we know where this is going,
Speaker 2: because they're not going to just leave it at that.
Speaker 2: We know things are going to get hot and heavy
Speaker 2: with Alex and Joyce, But thus far, what do you
Speaker 2: make of their interaction? Were you as charmed by it
Speaker 2: as I was?
Speaker 1: Father Blone, Yeah, because it's rare we get to see
Speaker 1: Rieger doing physical comedy and all of the back and
Speaker 1: forth with the I'm going to be kissed, no, I'm
Speaker 1: not falling over kind of stuff is really really good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, plus it's good to see that kind
Speaker 1: of we shouldn't, oh, we should have done well.
Speaker 2: You know, they clearly have feelings for each other, but
Speaker 2: it's almost like a magnet that kind of attracts and
Speaker 2: then repels and attracts and repels. I think a lot
Speaker 2: of us can relate.
Speaker 1: This is also an example of something that I really
Speaker 1: like in any kind of a romantic situation where one
Speaker 1: of the characters lets the other character know straight up
Speaker 1: how this is gonna go, and the other character's like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's fine. So when she says, let's make this agreement,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna do anything, she actually means that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because that movie Five Hundred Days of Summer was basically
Speaker 1: all about this idea, the I'm not going to change.
Speaker 1: You're eventually going to be sick of this kind of
Speaker 1: a thing, you know. I like that that.
Speaker 2: Alex has a very preconceived notion of who Joyce is
Speaker 2: and who he is and how he can make her
Speaker 2: quote unquote better. But that's not really that. That's not
Speaker 2: good for Joyce. That's not being fair to Joyce. And
Speaker 2: we'll see this and that's very similar to what the
Speaker 2: character is in five Hundred Days of a Summer go Through.
Speaker 2: Like the Joseph Gordon Levitt character has a there's that
Speaker 2: great scene at the end where he goes to see
Speaker 2: her and he has in his mind how things are
Speaker 2: going to go, and they're very different from reality. And
Speaker 2: I think Alex is heading down a similar path as
Speaker 2: we'll see with Joyce. Alex's humor is really winning Joyce over,
Speaker 2: and finally she loses a bit of control and she
Speaker 2: asks Alex to kiss her again, but just like Lucy
Speaker 2: pulling the football away from Charlie Brown, she switches back
Speaker 2: to defense mode and spins away as he's leaning in
Speaker 2: for a kiss. And Alex at that point, he just said,
Speaker 2: he insists they're just going to drink some wine and
Speaker 2: they're gonna talk. That's it.
Speaker 1: Sure, Yeah, that's that's the line, that's the move, it's Alex.
Speaker 2: He proceeds to pull a bottle from his fridge that
Speaker 2: looks like a bottle of Scope mouth wash. It's such
Speaker 2: a weird looking did you notice this weird wine?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, it's like a mescato. It's like a dessert wine.
Speaker 1: That's why he keeps it chilled. But yes, no, what
Speaker 1: I thought was funny is he says, I've got to
Speaker 1: go to the wine in the cellar, and then he
Speaker 1: went to the refrigerator. I thought that was a good bit.
Speaker 1: But then, yes, I was also confused by him going
Speaker 1: to the refrigerator first of all to get the wine,
Speaker 1: and then second of all pulling out this weird fucking
Speaker 1: decanter from the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or something.
Speaker 2: You know, it was like a bottle of Sorry and
Speaker 2: brandy or something. It was bizarre. That's for you. Sorry,
Speaker 2: Star trek nerds out there. Joyce and Alex continue this
Speaker 2: back and forth, but eventually Alex's good humor wins out
Speaker 2: and she lets him kiss her. I really really loved
Speaker 2: the scene father alone. I found Alex's eagerness to get
Speaker 2: romantic with Joyce. It was very believable because, as you
Speaker 2: pointed out, who wouldn't what man wouldn't be charmed by
Speaker 2: thirty two year old Dee Wallace Right. Wallace makes this
Speaker 2: character charming and vulnerable, even as she's flip flopping cartoonishly
Speaker 2: between wanting to kiss Alex and pushing him away. So
Speaker 2: I think the scene works beautifully.
Speaker 1: She's remarkable here, and she's remarkable in the first team
Speaker 1: because she's doing what is kind of a trope, which
Speaker 1: is the laughing hysterically becomes crying and back again, but
Speaker 1: she doesn't really effortlessly.
Speaker 2: As they kiss, we cut to the garage and Alex
Speaker 2: positively bounds in. He's like skipping into the garage basically
Speaker 2: to get his signed from Louis. He's in the best mood.
Speaker 2: He's saying hi to everybody. He's acting cheery. Clearly, I
Speaker 2: think we all know that if we're reading into this,
Speaker 2: we think Alex is probably you know, he's probably getting
Speaker 2: some from Joyce. He's not to be crass about. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's probably laying pipe. So Elaine notices his his cheery,
Speaker 2: his cheeriness, and Alex gush's some more about how happy
Speaker 2: he is. The Cabby's all ask if it's Joyce, and
Speaker 2: Alex admits to them that they've been getting along really well.
Speaker 2: By Alex's description, they've been dating for a total of
Speaker 2: two weeks, which Alex says have been the most interesting
Speaker 2: two weeks of his life. He says, Joyce goes full out.
Speaker 2: When she's happy, she's the happiest person, and when she's sad,
Speaker 2: she'll break your heart.
Speaker 1: Yeah sounds manic, but okay.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what I wrote down here. I said, nowadays
Speaker 2: Joyce would be considered manic depressive, but back in nineteen eighty,
Speaker 2: she's just overly emotional. So that shows you an actress. Well,
Speaker 2: you've known more than your share of actresses, so you
Speaker 2: can speak to that more than I could.
Speaker 1: Jeez, now that I think about it, how many of
Speaker 1: them were just manic? Could be a good seventy five percent?
Speaker 2: When they were happy, were they the happiest person? And
Speaker 2: when they were sad did they break your heart? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yes, jeez, man, Next plus talent equals Meryl Streep.
Speaker 2: Joyce, at this point runs into the garage. Like I said,
Speaker 2: she's got the biggest fur coat you've ever seen, and
Speaker 2: she happily greets Alex and the rest of the Cavies.
Speaker 2: She even gets introduced to Louis, who curiously doesn't seem
Speaker 2: affected by her father. Malone correct me if I'm wrong,
Speaker 2: but didn't he previously cop to never missing an episode
Speaker 2: of For Better for Worse? Do you remember this.
Speaker 1: That's right. He should have been fucking delighted when she
Speaker 1: walked in. He should have been like telling her off
Speaker 1: or some misdeeds she had done, or encouraging her, or
Speaker 1: saying like I'm glad you're gone, or I wish you
Speaker 1: were back something. You're right.
Speaker 2: He doesn't notice her really that much. I thought was odd.
Speaker 2: Joyce is positively bursting with the news that she might
Speaker 2: have a new job, the lead in a TV series,
Speaker 2: But unfortunately, as often happens in sitcoms, she'll have to
Speaker 2: relocate to La. Alex can't help but register his disappointment.
Speaker 2: He wants to be happy for her because he knows
Speaker 2: how much this means to her, but you can tell
Speaker 2: that selfishly he's very let down by this news.
Speaker 1: Yes, and he's massively good here.
Speaker 2: Without doing a whole lot, he does a ton. She
Speaker 2: says to Alex she'd prefer to stay in New York,
Speaker 2: but really she doesn't have any choice about relocating if
Speaker 2: the show's in LA. What can she do? She leaves
Speaker 2: as the Caves are all rather subdued. They've watched this
Speaker 2: play out in front of them, watching Alex's reaction, Alex
Speaker 2: is pretty much speechless in his sadness and is being
Speaker 2: taken aback by this news because he just got through
Speaker 2: telling the Cabby's that this has been like the best
Speaker 2: two weeks of his life and now he's seeing this
Speaker 2: all get sent off to la for another job. Each
Speaker 2: Cabby in turn, tries to make him feel better. Bobby
Speaker 2: apologizes for how flaky Joyce is. Elaine says she didn't
Speaker 2: think they were right for each other, and Tony says, oh,
Speaker 2: she wouldn't get great anyways. Bobby tells Alex just forget
Speaker 2: about her, but seized by an impulse, Alex says he
Speaker 2: has a better idea. He's going to go ask Joyce
Speaker 2: to marry him, and then literally runs out of the garage,
Speaker 2: to the Cabby's disapproval. They all start murmuring, lie, you know,
Speaker 2: blah blah blah. Once again, we're seeing this impulsiveness of
Speaker 2: Alex take hold, and I think it's very much in character.
Speaker 2: And now he's after two weeks, he's going to ask
Speaker 2: this woman to marry him. It's crazy, but we're you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, riager, no, do not engage in a desperation proposal.
Speaker 2: It makes me feel a little bit, Uh, I don't know,
Speaker 2: embarrassed for him a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, I agree with you. This isn't a case
Speaker 1: of him acting out of character. This is a case
Speaker 1: of we the audience watching a train slowly wreck.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So we fade into Alex's apartment, where he's arranged
Speaker 2: a very romantic setting. He's got candles, there's champagne chilling
Speaker 2: on the coffee table. He's got a spiffy dark beige
Speaker 2: suit which looks great, and he.
Speaker 1: Even looked great. I'm sorry, did you just that look
Speaker 1: great on him?
Speaker 2: It looked great? Sure?
Speaker 1: God man, he looked like a science teacher at a
Speaker 1: not so great school.
Speaker 2: It's fair enough, that's okay for him that it's the
Speaker 2: height of dressing up.
Speaker 1: You know, just agree. He looked better in his many
Speaker 1: layers of sweaters. Do you think he has? I he
Speaker 1: has like pants made of that sweater material as well,
Speaker 1: like some sort of bizarre Canadian tuxedo. Just all sweater, sweater, underpants,
Speaker 1: sweater pants, sweater vests, sweater shirt.
Speaker 2: Big cardigan, cardigan material, tie made out of it, pants, socks,
Speaker 2: the whole bit. He even pulls out a suspiciously ring
Speaker 2: box shaped parcel from his pocket. But he's really doing.
Speaker 1: This sweater bottles. It's a yarn in there.
Speaker 2: It's a ball of yarn with a ring tucked into
Speaker 2: the middle of it, like a cat toy. So just
Speaker 2: then Joyce enters the apartment. She starts walking towards Alex.
Speaker 2: Now another side note. I don't know if you notice this,
Speaker 2: the angle towards the dining table, we can see what
Speaker 2: appears to be an old fashioned barbershop chair. Did you
Speaker 2: notice this fall alone?
Speaker 1: I did. I locked right onto it because that's like
Speaker 1: everyone thinks that that's like a bachelor's dream to have
Speaker 1: a barber chair, like as if it was the most
Speaker 1: comfortable chair of all time or something. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I never understood it. I've sat in my fair share
Speaker 1: of barber chairs, but I've never thought, like, jeez, I
Speaker 1: need this gigantic contraption in my home.
Speaker 2: It just looks so out of place in this comfy apartment.
Speaker 2: I mean, such as it is, it's not exactly like
Speaker 2: the height of home decoration, but this thing stuck out
Speaker 2: like the proverbial sore thumb. I couldn't figure it out.
Speaker 2: It just looked like if I'm putting myself, if I
Speaker 2: were a woman going into this guy's apartment, and I
Speaker 2: saw this thing. I don't know what I would think.
Speaker 2: It's just bizarre looking, this big lumpy chair, red with
Speaker 2: white piping, and it's got like the attachments and stuff
Speaker 2: like the thing to make the hype go up and down.
Speaker 1: You think someone's gonna work and think it's like a
Speaker 1: scene from Star eighty, you know, like Alex, are these restraints?
Speaker 1: Oh no, just just this is just a comfy chair, everybody.
Speaker 2: Joyce's comments on the apartment says it looks really nice
Speaker 2: and asks what the occasion is. Evidently, Alex's apartment is
Speaker 2: looking nicer than usual, cleaner than usual. So Alex plays coy,
Speaker 2: which leads Joyce to jump to the conclusion that he's
Speaker 2: celebrating her new job.
Speaker 1: I love that her initial reaction is, oh, this is
Speaker 1: a celebratory dinner, because she's right, it should be. It
Speaker 1: should be whether or not he's doing this bullsh to
Speaker 1: propose a lot of sheer desperation to lock her down
Speaker 1: and keep her in New York. Oh, such a bad idea.
Speaker 1: But I love how I mean, we'll get to it.
Speaker 1: But I love how fast she figures out what he's
Speaker 1: actually up to.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the irony is the flighty one, the one
Speaker 2: who's supposed to be ping ponging between happiness and sadness,
Speaker 2: is really the one who's thinking most logically, he should
Speaker 2: be happy for her. He saw how upset she was
Speaker 2: at losing the for Better for Worse gig, so yeah,
Speaker 2: he should be really happy for her. Alex keeps insisting
Speaker 2: that there's no special reason for all this hubbub. Joyce
Speaker 2: isn't having it. She's too perceptive for this. And finally
Speaker 2: Alex comes clean and gives Joyce this flowery speech about
Speaker 2: how great the two weeks have been and she's the
Speaker 2: light of his life and all this stuff that it's
Speaker 2: really kind of cringey because again, they've known each other
Speaker 2: for two weeks, and sinsing the train that's down the
Speaker 2: track at her choice just comes out, and she says
Speaker 2: that she hopes Alex isn't proposing to her. Alex keeps
Speaker 2: trying to disarm her with humor, but she keeps trying
Speaker 2: to circle back to the matter at hand. I just
Speaker 2: I love this kind of wrestling back and forth that
Speaker 2: they keep doing, because he wants to propose, but he
Speaker 2: can see how unhappy she is at the prospect of
Speaker 2: him proposing, So he keeps trying to play it off
Speaker 2: like he's not proposing, but she keeps trying to get
Speaker 2: it back to what she recognizes as the real purpose
Speaker 2: of this whole rigamarole.
Speaker 1: You know she's right through him. It's not a back
Speaker 1: and forth at all. It's a don't propose to me. Well,
Speaker 1: let me just say, don't propose to me. I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about don't propose to me.
Speaker 2: It is and she's wonderful, Like I keep saying, it's
Speaker 2: TAXI continues to get the best guest stars, like these
Speaker 2: guest stars, in this case Dee Wallace. She could have
Speaker 2: very easily slotted in as a semi full member of
Speaker 2: the cast. She's great.
Speaker 1: This is now the second romantic interest for Rieger, who
Speaker 1: could have easily joined the cast. Joanna Cassidy last season
Speaker 1: could have been another Cabby without any break in the action.
Speaker 1: You know d Wallace too. She would have been great
Speaker 1: on this show. Yeah, she is great on this show.
Speaker 2: She's awesome. Joyce says to Alex she'd make a terrible wife,
Speaker 2: But Alex keeps grasping at the chance of marrying her.
Speaker 2: And as we've already been saying, it's hard not to
Speaker 2: feel bad for Alex despite his insistence of being a
Speaker 2: solid rock of support. We've talked about this a little bit.
Speaker 2: He's shown a very impulsive side. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: the same guy who in the first episode drove all
Speaker 2: the way down to Miami from New York just for
Speaker 2: the chance to have a ten minute conversation with his daughter.
Speaker 2: Despite the fact that Alex is primarily known as being
Speaker 2: the rock of the Cabby's the sensible one, this impulsive
Speaker 2: streak keeps running through his character, and we'll see this
Speaker 2: through every season of Taxis.
Speaker 1: I also like that the sort of back and forth
Speaker 1: here that they get together because she's flaky and he's stable.
Speaker 1: Like this, they're playing off the idea that opposite. It's
Speaker 1: a tract in a relationship, right, But the other part
Speaker 1: of a relationship is when one person starts to fumble
Speaker 1: and be weird, the other person has to step up,
Speaker 1: and I think that's we get We actually get a
Speaker 1: little bit of that during her rebuffing of riger when
Speaker 1: she becomes rational insane, and now he's the flaky and
Speaker 1: weird one. So if she were to stick around, I
Speaker 1: think they actually would have been perfect for each other,
Speaker 1: the fact that this has been two weeks. Really, if
Speaker 1: she were going to be a working actress in New York,
Speaker 1: wouldn't matter as far as them getting married the fact.
Speaker 1: But the problem is she is leaving. She did say
Speaker 1: that this wasn't going to last. And this is a
Speaker 1: proposal based not on his heart. It's based on possession
Speaker 1: or something, you know, it's based on fear.
Speaker 2: He says at one point that he knows that he's
Speaker 2: going to be good for her. That's obviously not a
Speaker 2: good basis to propose to somebody because that's not taking
Speaker 2: into account the other person's feelings, the other person's take
Speaker 2: on the whole relationship. His whole thing is this has
Speaker 2: all been a rollercoaster, and I can see how up
Speaker 2: and down you are emotionally. But I think I'm stable
Speaker 2: enough that, for lack of a better phrase, I could
Speaker 2: be good for you. I could fix that part of you.
Speaker 2: I could settle that down, I could calm you down.
Speaker 2: But that just gets back to what you're saying about
Speaker 2: this really being about possession and about what he can
Speaker 2: do for her, as opposed to how they can come
Speaker 2: together to have a relationship mutually, a mutual respect.
Speaker 1: If he's being captain savea hoo, then that's a problem.
Speaker 1: But if I when when he's asked like why, in
Speaker 1: his response is I could be good for her. I
Speaker 1: actually thought that was an admirable answer, because the selfish
Speaker 1: answer is because she makes me happy and I don't
Speaker 1: want to lose. Like at least he's thinking about her,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Like I don't know it just it feels like possession
Speaker 2: by another name.
Speaker 1: He needs to be coming at it from a partnership
Speaker 1: point of view and not one thing or another.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if he had said we would be good for
Speaker 2: each other, that might have been enough of a twist
Speaker 2: on his original statement to make me believe, well, maybe
Speaker 2: he has the right intent, but he's just looking at
Speaker 2: it as to what he can do for her as
Speaker 2: opposed to how they could make this relationship work for
Speaker 2: the two of them. Finally, Joyce asks what he sees
Speaker 2: in her, and that's when Alex to the crux of
Speaker 2: his feelings. That's when he says this thing about how
Speaker 2: he thinks he'll be good for her, and I wrote
Speaker 2: down here, boy, he really stepped into it here, because
Speaker 2: rightfully so. That sets Joyce off and she even turns
Speaker 2: it around on Alex. He's supposed to be the stable one,
Speaker 2: yet he's the one who's proposing marriage after only knowing
Speaker 2: her for two weeks. To Shay Joyce, as she's mocking Alex,
Speaker 2: she picks up this is bell that's on the coffee
Speaker 2: table that he's put there during his preparations.
Speaker 1: This is great, Yeah, because they this is a payoff,
Speaker 1: because she mentions it Earlier's like, don't touch that bell,
Speaker 1: that's right now.
Speaker 2: So it's like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: Wedding bells? And she just starts ringing it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well it's Chekhov's bell. You don't introduce a bell
Speaker 2: at the ending of the scene if you're not going
Speaker 2: to use it. So yeah, she picks up the bell
Speaker 2: and she go wedding bells. She rings it, and at
Speaker 2: that point on Q three, violinists parade through the apartment
Speaker 2: playing as time goes by, which cracks up Joyce. She's
Speaker 2: Alex is rightfully embarrassed, but she's she just thinks it's
Speaker 2: the funniest thing, which is so sweet.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, she's not mad. This isn't there's no rancor here.
Speaker 1: This isn't an acrimonious breakup. But if it is awkward
Speaker 1: and weird because it is happening, and it's happening under
Speaker 1: the circumstances, but the circumstances are so extreme, the only
Speaker 1: thing that would have just seen better HP is as
Speaker 1: if that door burst open into mariachi band came came out.
Speaker 2: I kind of thought it was going to be because
Speaker 2: I hadn't remembered this part with the big sombrero. It
Speaker 2: be great, the guitars, Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like this is the celebratory thing. Like, man, it
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, you're getting married, that's what the bell
Speaker 1: was for.
Speaker 2: This cracks her up, and the humor of that moment,
Speaker 2: I think, finally breaks the tension between the two of them,
Speaker 2: and finally they both agree to say goodbye when it's
Speaker 2: time for her to go. At this point, Alex let's
Speaker 2: oh of this fantasy that he's going to marry her
Speaker 2: after two weeks. They agree to enjoy the time they
Speaker 2: have left together, which is only a couple of days.
Speaker 2: And this is I love this little button. I just
Speaker 2: I don't know, it just made kind of chuckle a
Speaker 2: little bit suggestively. She starts leading Alex by the hand,
Speaker 2: and presumably they're gonna take he's gonna take him to
Speaker 2: the bedroom to fuck the sadness away. That's what I
Speaker 2: wrote down. I just love this image of her, like,
Speaker 2: all right, let's just get let's get on with it.
Speaker 1: They got two days. No, I don't think she's like
Speaker 1: doing him a favor. She's going to get something out
Speaker 1: of it too. You know, she's gonna miss him as well,
Speaker 1: like she It's a it's a mutually pleasurable two day
Speaker 1: orgasm before she's jetting off to the coast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just it's so the whole thing ends up
Speaker 2: so sweet because you can still see that Alex is
Speaker 2: a bit dumbfounded by everything that's transpired, and he's sad
Speaker 2: about it, but he's resolved to make the best of
Speaker 2: the next couple of days with her and make it
Speaker 2: as beautiful as possible for the two of them.
Speaker 1: No, we cut to a year later in Malibu and
Speaker 1: it's Joyce and another actress and the dialogue is a
Speaker 1: cab driver. Yeah, I was really, I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: just kind of just kind of lost after I lost
Speaker 1: that job. I was there for eight years. Eight years, yeah,
Speaker 1: eight years. Crazy, but he was sweet. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Cab drivers and It turns out when I got to La,
Speaker 2: I went to a doctor, I wasn't feeling well, and
Speaker 2: you know what, he diagnosed me as being manic depressive,
Speaker 2: and then he put me on this medication. And I've
Speaker 2: never thought more clearly in my life. Boy, I dodged
Speaker 2: a bullet with that Cabby.
Speaker 1: Do you know he proposed get out of here? He did.
Speaker 1: I actually considered it.
Speaker 2: As she's leading him to the bedroom in this very
Speaker 2: you know, beautiful fashion, there's a large there's a loud
Speaker 2: bang that catches Joyce's attention coming from what in this
Speaker 2: scene is the closet, but later we'll find out is
Speaker 2: actually the door to the hallway. But for some reason
Speaker 2: it's a little different. This is like a multiverse Alex's department,
Speaker 2: and they've passed the closet and Alex is this is
Speaker 2: just like the bell. Don't open it, don't open it,
Speaker 2: and she opens it. An avalanche of balloons. There's more
Speaker 2: balloons that come out of, let's face it, more balloons
Speaker 2: come out of the closet than could actually physically fit.
Speaker 2: They must have had behind the facade.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that room stretches on and on back there
Speaker 1: where we can't see so they got a hallway with balloons, and.
Speaker 2: They must have turned on a fan, because not only
Speaker 2: do the balloons start spilling out, but they start like
Speaker 2: rushing out as if propelled by a fan, which I
Speaker 2: think is what's happening here, and that cracks the both
Speaker 2: of them up, and they kiss and it's it's a
Speaker 2: very nice little button to the scene, and we fade out.
Speaker 2: We cut back to the garage now and we see
Speaker 2: Alex morose. Alex is sitting by the coffee machine, and
Speaker 2: where we understand now that this is probably, you know,
Speaker 2: Joyce's left. The Lane comes in and she asks Alex
Speaker 2: if he wants to talk about Joyce leaving that day.
Speaker 2: I guess it was that day that she left, and Alex,
Speaker 2: as he does, plays it off, and the rest of
Speaker 2: the cave has expressed concern about him. Now, this is
Speaker 2: the funny thing. I just want to break in for
Speaker 2: a minute. The funny thing is my memory of this
Speaker 2: episode ended with him sitting morosely at the coffee machine.
Speaker 2: I totally forgot about this whole additional bit. So this
Speaker 2: was an added to light. What happens is Jim is
Speaker 2: the one who offers to help Alex talk to Alex
Speaker 2: about what he's going through, and they all kind of
Speaker 2: scoff at him, and Jim reminds them that he's a
Speaker 2: man of the cloth. Don't forget he married Latka and
Speaker 2: the prostitute in the paper marriage episode from season one,
Speaker 2: so it makes a lot of sense that he would
Speaker 2: be the one to try to offer comfort to a
Speaker 2: member of his flock, so to speak. For some odd reason,
Speaker 2: he takes Loca with him to talk to Alex.
Speaker 1: This is so bizarre, and well, no, it's more bizarre
Speaker 1: than that, because he's like, I'm gonna go talk to him,
Speaker 1: and they're like, are you sure you can handle it?
Speaker 1: And as if he needs backup, he brings Loka Like
Speaker 1: it was the weirdesty, Like, look, what we end up
Speaker 1: getting is sitting on a bench a sandwich of riger
Speaker 1: with bread of Laka and Reverend Jim. So it's pretty great,
Speaker 1: But what a weird contrivance to get us there. How
Speaker 1: about they just both walk over to talk to Alex.
Speaker 1: Why do we have Why do we have to be
Speaker 1: talked into this? It's weird.
Speaker 2: It gets weirder though, so Loca for privacy, Loaca offers
Speaker 2: to go with the two of them to the toolroom
Speaker 2: to talk. And this is the same we've seen this toolroom,
Speaker 2: but the episode where Alex had sex with lock his mother,
Speaker 2: this is where he goes to basically fuck off and
Speaker 2: drink his native wine from his country and whatever a
Speaker 2: fall asleep. Who knows, so sniff. So they they so
Speaker 2: they go into this, uh, this tool room, and it's
Speaker 2: being configured.
Speaker 1: By the way, was.
Speaker 2: It really be confided? I didn't notice too much.
Speaker 1: The same idiot. No, my god. They come in from
Speaker 1: where the lockers used to be. If you remember that
Speaker 1: it was on the other side of the room and
Speaker 1: next to the door. Was that was the poster, the
Speaker 1: like the the Ewajima poster now the Ewagma posters over
Speaker 1: here where they walk in through the door. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that was that was unusual.
Speaker 2: You're right because they I think they came in like
Speaker 2: stage left before and now they're coming into the very
Speaker 2: This is so we're in a multi verse of madness
Speaker 2: in the Sunshine Cab Company. Not only is Alex his
Speaker 2: apartment totally reconfigured, but so's the toolroom.
Speaker 1: Burns. I blame Burns.
Speaker 2: It's a final bewitchment, enchantment he put over the cabvies.
Speaker 2: So what I love about the way the scene is
Speaker 2: blocked is Jim goes behind a tool chest and he
Speaker 2: starts to oorate like a preacher behind a pulpit. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but it's but it's like a snap on tool chest.
Speaker 2: It's you know, it's about that height though, And Jim
Speaker 2: is offering stilted metaphors like life is like an ice
Speaker 2: cream cone, while all the while Loaca is testifying like hallelujah,
Speaker 2: it's really funny, and Alex Alex is just watching in silence.
Speaker 2: He doesn't know what to make of any of this,
Speaker 2: and Loca is so moved by Jim's sermon, and it
Speaker 2: becomes clear that not only did Jim think he was
Speaker 2: helping Loka, but he's mixed up all of the Cabby's
Speaker 2: attributes into Loca. He calls Loca Bobby and thinks he's
Speaker 2: a boxer raising two kids all on his own. So
Speaker 2: he's combined all of this Cabbies into one amorphos creation.
Speaker 2: But actually Jim's confusion seems to cheer Alex up, or
Speaker 2: at least take his mind off of his troubles, And
Speaker 2: this is the best part. It even leads to what
Speaker 2: might be the first time Jim ever says the word
Speaker 2: ALKI donk.
Speaker 1: Did you notice that I did?
Speaker 2: Actually, because that becomes one of his trademarks, right, But
Speaker 2: he does say that as he's leaving the tool room,
Speaker 2: and finally Jim leaves Alex alone in the room, and
Speaker 2: all Alex can do at this point is just laugh
Speaker 2: at the absurdity of it all. And we see him
Speaker 2: finally a little cheered up from the events of the day,
Speaker 2: and that's it. We fade the black and that is
Speaker 2: that's Alex's romance. Now let's talk yellow lights. What does
Speaker 2: he know light mean? Reminder, we score on a scale
Speaker 2: of one yellow light to fire. I've one yellow light
Speaker 2: is the worst. Taxi Episode five is the best, and
Speaker 2: as is also our custom, We're gonna throw it over
Speaker 2: to you, father alone. What do you give? How many
Speaker 2: yellow lights do you give Alex's romance?
Speaker 1: Four yellow lights?
Speaker 2: Four yellow lights? Really? Yeah, Wow, that's surprising. I didn't
Speaker 2: think I gave it three yellow lights?
Speaker 1: Wow, you're long for once.
Speaker 2: Well, no, here's the thing. My reasoning is, I look,
Speaker 2: I really really enjoyed this episode, despite the fact that
Speaker 2: it's not necessarily one that I would rewatch all that often.
Speaker 2: As evidenced by the fact that I forgot all about
Speaker 2: this bit with Jim and Laca at the end. D
Speaker 2: Wallace is fantastic in her performance. You can see why
Speaker 2: Alex would be so bewitched by this woman. And as
Speaker 2: for Alex, even though it might seem unbelievable, like I
Speaker 2: keep saying, his behavior is very consistent with his past
Speaker 2: and future behavior. There's not much input from the rest
Speaker 2: of the cabvies, which is negative, but the final scene
Speaker 2: with Jim is charming. Once again. He hasn't become the
Speaker 2: full on drug casualty that we'll see in later seasons,
Speaker 2: but I mean, three yellow Lights is still above average
Speaker 2: in my book, put it above and beyond for you.
Speaker 1: The series tends to do group episodes and then individual episodes.
Speaker 1: The individual episodes for me, for the most part, have
Speaker 1: been the most disappointing part of the show because the
Speaker 1: first season was riddled with aspirational episodes. I'm going to
Speaker 1: get out of this I've got my dream job, I'm
Speaker 1: getting out of this lifestyle going away, which sort of
Speaker 1: paints everyone with the same brush and makes everyone's life
Speaker 1: only about their occupations. So the next step up that
Speaker 1: rung up that ladder is. Of course there romantic lives.
Speaker 1: But this is the second episode with Rieger. We've had
Speaker 1: three altogether sort of romantic episodes. We've had Angela, we
Speaker 1: had the Joanna Cassidy episode. Now we've had this episode.
Speaker 1: And Riger's romantic episodes always come from an odd angle.
Speaker 1: It seem I really liked this one. Not only do
Speaker 1: I like the characters here, do not only do I
Speaker 1: like that everyone's behaving like an adult. There's no need
Speaker 1: to stretch reality or contrive something to make this or
Speaker 1: that happen other than this the basic sitcom contrivance of hey,
Speaker 1: I've got a job and I've got to move away.
Speaker 1: What I particularly like is any other sitcom the last
Speaker 1: shot the fade out would have been the door opening
Speaker 1: and all of the balloons coming out, you know. But
Speaker 1: but here we get this coda where characters try to
Speaker 1: cheer up Rieger accomplish nothing at all other than just say,
Speaker 1: and now you're stuck with us fucking weirdos. It's an
Speaker 1: odd and to what is a charming and exceedingly economical episode.
Speaker 1: The fact that the third the I mean it's is
Speaker 1: it would you consider that end part like more of
Speaker 1: a bumper, like an extended bumper the stuff with Jim, And.
Speaker 2: I don't think so, because aren't usually the bumpers don't
Speaker 2: they usually have more to do with the B plot.
Speaker 2: Or maybe I'm just making that up in my mind,
Speaker 2: but I that's what I always assumed or thought of
Speaker 2: as a bumper.
Speaker 1: You're right, that's yeah, the bumpers usually wrap up the
Speaker 1: B plot. Yeah, there is no B plot. This is
Speaker 1: just more so I don't know. Maybe maybe they combine
Speaker 1: a plot and B plot wrapping up into this final
Speaker 1: bumper here, So it became twice as long because it's
Speaker 1: not a full act. You can't call it that.
Speaker 2: Right, right, you know what You've You've convinced me for blone,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm gonna bump this up a light. I'm
Speaker 2: going to go to four yellow lights on this because
Speaker 2: I'm also thinking more about how there's there's a maturity
Speaker 2: about an episode that's focusing on this, you know, not
Speaker 2: that Alex is at this point like an old man,
Speaker 2: let's say, or but he's a mature adult. He's caught
Speaker 2: up in the rush of this sort of infatuation, this relationship,
Speaker 2: and I love the way it plays out. I love
Speaker 2: the fact that he ends up really playing the fool,
Speaker 2: and the woman that you think is scattered and overly
Speaker 2: emotional for lack of a better phrase, is actually the
Speaker 2: mature one and she turns it around on him. But
Speaker 2: despite that, she's not She doesn't run from Alex, despite
Speaker 2: all of this weirdness he throws at her and the
Speaker 2: proposal scene, it's just the word I can keep coming
Speaker 2: back to his charming for that reason. You know what,
Speaker 2: it's worth an extra yellow light, so I'll give it
Speaker 2: four yellow lights too. This might be a first. This
Speaker 2: might be the first time you've convinced me to bump
Speaker 2: up a yellow light bottom alone, So.
Speaker 1: I think I've conditioned to went away before.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's true. But no, you're right, I can't. Yes,
Speaker 2: this isn't one that I would necessarily pick out of
Speaker 2: the available grouping to watch if I wanted a quick
Speaker 2: you know, a quick watch. But it's a good one.
Speaker 2: It's well written, economical, as you said, and it's fun
Speaker 2: and it does all of this without James Burrows at
Speaker 2: the helm. So bravo at Weinberger. He did a great job.
Speaker 1: He really did.
Speaker 2: He did wonderful. So that's going to do it for
Speaker 2: this episode of night Mister Walters, Father Alone. Where can
Speaker 2: people find you when you're not clocked into the garage?
Speaker 1: Check me out over at Weirdingwaymedia dot com. I have
Speaker 1: a show called Midnight Viewing. It's on twice a week.
Speaker 1: Mondays is a wrap up show, a weekly wrap up show,
Speaker 1: and Friday's alternates between the Horror Anthology Podcast where we're
Speaker 1: taking a look at town from the dark side and
Speaker 1: Anthology's Attack where we take a look at anthology movies
Speaker 1: of every genre. And oh, I have a Patreon if
Speaker 1: you want to go subscribe there, you can do that.
Speaker 1: That is a Patreon dot com slash fatherm Alone. You
Speaker 1: can get all those episodes early and commercial free, and
Speaker 1: got a few bonus episodes. And I'm actually started a
Speaker 1: I'm starting I'm doing a sort of deep dive expose
Speaker 1: a kind of thing on Penny Dreadful, the Showtime series
Speaker 1: from a decade ago, going episode by episode on that'll
Speaker 1: be part of the Patreon, So you can check me
Speaker 1: out over there there.
Speaker 2: It's a maybe a cliche, but I'm going to go
Speaker 2: ahead and say that Father them Alone is the hardest
Speaker 2: working man in podcasting. No One puts out more quality
Speaker 2: content in his podcasts than Fallo them alone. He works
Speaker 2: really hard at it, and I would encourage you. Any
Speaker 2: one of these podcasts is surely worth your time to
Speaker 2: check it out, so please do so. As for myself,
Speaker 2: when I'm not co hosting this fine podcast, you can
Speaker 2: find me and other spots in the weirding Way Network.
Speaker 2: I'm an occasional guest on the Culture Cast with Christashu.
Speaker 2: And speaking of Father Malone's other podcasts, you can hear
Speaker 2: some of my work soundtrack wise and other things on
Speaker 2: his Dark Destinations podcast. If you love good storytelling, good
Speaker 2: radio drama, please check that out. I also have a
Speaker 2: bandcampsite hpmusicplace dot bandcamp dot com. Please check that out.
Speaker 2: But again, thank you so much for listening. Please feel
Speaker 2: free to subscribe to the podcast to write a review
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Speaker 2: way you see fit so for myself and for Father Malone,
Speaker 2: thanks again and we'll see you all next time.