Taxi : Synopsis, Pictures, Photos, Trivia, Filming Locations

Taxi follows the New York's Sunshine Cab Company team, a New York taxi company. Being a taxi driver can be funny, but it was just a job for team members. Most of them only worked part -time as drivers while waiting to break into another area. The only full -time taxi driver was laughing, the most experienced and the most conservative. The rest of the team is made up of Bobby Wheeler, a frustrated actor who is waiting to be successful; Elaine Nardo, receptionist of an art gallery, Tony Banta, a boxer who has never won a match; And John Burns, a rather lost student who does not yet know what to do in his life. Finally, we find Latka Gravas, the company's mechanic, who speaks only a few scraps of English, and Louie de Palma, the one who organizes the journeys with tyranny. In the second season, they were all joined by the eccentric "Reverend Jim" Ignatowski, a former hyppy.

Taxi was a comic American television series which was broadcast on ABC from 1978 to 1982, then on NBC from 1982 to 1983. The series was created by James L. Brooks and Stan Daniels, and featured a group of talented actors , notably Judd Hirsch, Danny Devito, Tony Danza, Marilu Henner, Andy Kaufman, Christopher Lloyd and Jeff Conaway.

The story of Taxi took place in a taxi garage in New York, where a group of independent drivers worked together to face the daily challenges of life in the city. Each episode followed the adventures and misadventures of the characters, often hilarious, while they were sailing in the animated streets of New York.

The main character in the series was Alex Rieger, interpreted by Judd Hirsch, a cranky and cynical taxi driver who had a gold heart. Alex was often in conflict with Louie de Palma, the tyrannical and greedy manager of the garage, played by Danny Devito. The other characters included Tony Banta, a failed boxer played by Tony Danza, Elaine Nardo, an ambitious secretary played by Marilu Henner, and John Burns, a Vietnam veteran played by Jeff Conaway.

The series was welcomed by criticism for its intelligent comedy and its realistic representation of life in New York, and won several prizes, including a Primetime Emmy Award for the best actor in a comic series for Judd Hirsch. Although the series ended in 1983, it remains one of the most popular and loved comedies in the history of American television.

The person driving the taxicab in the opening credits was Tony Danza. The name of the cab company was the Sunshine Cab Company.

Before closing their doors for good in 1982, the Checker Motors Corporation of Kalamazoo Michigan supplied cars to the series.

Judd Hirsch was often late to rehearsals because he was conducting business in his office.

After the third season, director James Burrows and writers Glen Charles and Les Charles quit the series to create "Cheers" (1982)

In an episode during the first season, Danny DeVito's character plays violin in one scene. A photo taken during rehearsals of that episode ran in a tabloid magazine along with a story describing how De Vito is "giving up" acting to play violin. De Vito's relatives called him out of concern believing the story was true.

When ABC canceled the series in 1982, the cable network HBO considered purchasing the show, only to lose out to NBC.

When NBC acquired the series for its 1982 fall schedule, the network ran promotional ads that stated, "Same time, better network".

Reverend Jim's real name was James Caldwell. After eating some "funny brownies", he changed his name to Ignatowski, believing it was "star child" spelled backwards.

The theme song's full title was "Angela (Theme from 'Taxi')", was written/performed by Bob James and was from his 1978 album "Touchdown". The title track "Touchdown" was the song Bob had actually written for the theme, but Taxi's producers liked the short cue Bob had written/recorded for one brief scene with Alex (Judd Hirsch) and a young woman, Angela, and used that instead.

In the opening credits the cab is driving along New York's 59th Street Bridge, popularly known as the Queensboro. The buildings in the background keep reappearing in the same place. The segment was shot once in the middle of the 1.4-mile bridge and then repeated several times to run throughout the entire credits.

Andy Kaufman had invented the persona for his character in his comedy act prior to working on the show, including the famous line "tank-you-veddy-much". It was the show's writers that came up with the name of Latka Gravas.

Andy Kaufman created the language that Latka speaks. Before Carol Kane first appeared as Simka, Kaufman taught her the language. In fact, he invited her to dinner and refused to let her speak English.

Filming locations:

• Creation date: 2008/09/08 by villain
• Last Update: 2008/11/30 by villain