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