We're being way media think mister Walters is that guy with it. He's an actor Phone Rise by them can drive, I only can't drivers. Hello and welcome back to night mister Walters. A taxi podcast with us as always is father Malone, Father Malone, How are you? I'm great for a good time called Melody on the Wall by the phone and it plays in go ahead, it's great. No, no, well we'll get into that. I of course I'm your co host hp uh. Looking forward to digging into some
taxi tonight. Tonight's episode that we are going and I want to remind everybody that we are doing this in broadcast order and not in order of filming. We are going over episode four, which is Bobby's acting career. It was written by Ed Weinberger and Stan Daniels, and it was directed by James Burrows. Let's get into a little bit of what you know. This is as good a jumping off point as any. You were talking about the telephone in
the garage. What's going on with the telephone in this episode. It's very it's kind of key to the a story in this episode, at least initially. Once again, a plot revolves around the pay telephone. Yes, bygone era of a bygone era. This is a relic of the past. Bobby's waiting for the call. It's an aspirational episode, is what it is. It's Bobby wanting to get out of the Cabby life and the only way that's going to happen is if everyone stays off the goddamn pay phone call from superstardom
arrives and he gets to be in an off broadwaye play. This is another of these episodes where he's reaching for the brass ring. In this case, Bobby apparently has had a self imposed deadline on making it as an actor in New York. He gave himself three years, and that three years is up. The time is almost uff. I think he has like a day. I think he's got like a day or two to meet his goal, or that's it. He's got to quit acting forever, which, let's be honest,
would not be any great loss to acting. But that's cold. He's a fine performer, Bobby Liar. He's hammy, There's no question. He's hammy. And we'll get to that. Absolutely perfect for any soap opera or orthopedic shoe ad that might be available or in this case the commercial that he tries out for, which we'll talk about the A plot, like I said, like we've been saying, is he's he's desperately waiting by this relic of a bygone era, the pay phone, for his agent to call him and
give him a job. He's desperate. He because he believes his dream is going to be over. And that's you know, it is what it is of all people. Alex the pragmatist says to him, if you want a job, you stand in line. This is a bit that he throws at Bobby to give him this, you know, the gumption to go out instead of sitting here like like an idiot waiting for a college, Get out there
and get a job, Bobby. That's what Alex does. So Bobby goes out and starts, you know, beating the pavement trying to find a job. He gets an this is another relative a bygone era. He gets a commercial audition and it's Hutton. And when if Hutton talks pause, everyone listens. This is I think ef Hutton is still around as a as a business. But I didn't advertise at all anymore. You know. The thing is,
maybe we'll get to it well, we'll get to it. I suppose this commercial, but it's supposed to be like humiliating, Like it's not humiliating enough that he's having to audition for commercial, but he's just one face and a crowd of people. But I would say that's actually a benefit, because you don't want to be seen in a commercial as your first commercial or sort
of your first acting outing. Oddly enough that this was my favorite. This is I'm damning it with faint praise, but this was my favorite part of the show is when he goes in for this audition, because it's just like sort of build up and you see all of the actors waiting for the for the audition like kind of like turning their heads in this very sort of unique
fashion, and you don't know why they're what they're auditioning for. And then it turns out it was sort of a funny reveal and the fact that Iff Hutton doesn't they're not an advertising presence anymore. I thought it was kind of funny. While this is all happening, we'll talk about the B plot, which is equally as inconsequential, but it involves Alec and he's clearly he's a he's a good guy. He's a dog lover. As we'll see, he rescues a great Dane in his cab from an abusive owner who won him in
a poker game. This guy gets in the cab and he asked he's trying to show off his dog Hamlet because he's a great Dane. There's a joke about that in the show. No wait, a joke before it where he says, do you know why I named him? That? He says, because he lives in a small German town. That was a really good it was, But I any plot that involves a reager, no matter how inconsequential,
is at least worth the price of admission. So yeah, any chance Judhurst gets just spout off a few lines from Shakespeare, which he does immediately. Yet, yeah, everyone, remember I'm a trained actor. Never let it be said that I'm not the number one draw for this show. In this episode about an actor who can't make it just reminders that the man in
the cab that the episode is quite an actor. Proceed The guy who owns the dog tries to get the dog to do a trick and the dog doesn't respond, and off screen you see him whipping the dog with his leash and he's he's being very cruel to the dog. So Rieger, being the good guy that he is, he kicks the guy out of the cab and holds onto the dog and throughout the rest of the episode that this this abuser, this this you know, this animal abuser tries to get the dog back.
First, he goes back there and demands that they give him back the dog, and somewhere or somehow they they get locked up to talk to the guy in his uh, you know, his foreign language, and they walk off and it's haha, he's being confused by the language or whatever, which is fine. And then just to wrap it all up, if we're going to
wrap up each plot separately, then the guy comes back again. This time he's brought a cop played by I believe his name is Tarian Black from Black from Hill Street Blues who later went on to be in Hill Street Lose as another cop. So that was kind of cool. So he comes back asks that they return the dog. They argue, Bobby has this brilliant like Solomon like idea, too, Well, why don't you stand on opposite sides, put the dog in the middle. You both call the dog and whoever the
dog goes to is the rightful owner. Somehow, the cop, ignoring all all you know, possession is nine tenths of the log and what have you, says, well, that's a good idea. So they separate. They both call the dog. The dog goes to the bad owner, and you initially think, oh, why why did you go with that owner? And then all of a sudden you hear a very bad dubbed in and the dog is now biting the owner, and the owner again a bad dub is saying, take the dog back. I don't know what the dog and it's ha
ha, very funny. The dog gives the guys come up and are we talking about that moment right now? Because I'll talk about that moment because it's absolutely awful. Where it's basically the dog. It's like a guy sort of twisting a little with a dog, and they've dubbed in this sound and it's and after what we've seen this guy due to the dog and the way he's been pursuing the dog for no other reason than to continue to brutalize it. I wanted them to cut to this man's head flying through the air in a
big jet of blood. The overdubbing was bad. They like they clearly they had to get They probably put like some a treat in the guy's pockets so the dog would sit there and nuzzle him as if he was biting him. But whatever, it wasn't it wasn't that effective. I think we're supposed to get the idea that the dog was biting him in the ass ha ha. It played a little too slapsticky. And the scene before the cop frisks each of them, it's a meat frisk. He's got to make sure has any
meat on them. In the sway of the Don's opinion, why didn't they take their own advice to put meat on this guy and have him run out in this great day and chase him out immediate comic gold, I would, I would think so to be fair, I found the whole thing rather embarrassing. This part of that B plot, it just was it was unbelievable, unrealistic, and it was just embarrassing to watch. So that's the B plot from beginning to end. Talking about Bobby's bit again, he's given himself,
he's given himself a self imposed deadline to try and get a job. The time comes he has a party in his apartment. This is the first time you get to see his apartment, by the way, you see it a few more times in the show. And another one of the good parts about this episode that I will say is I love the set decoration for his apartment. I think we've talked about the sets and how wonderful they are, but I think they did an especially good job with his because it looks very lived
in. I have an entire page of notes on Bobby's thing because I have not seen this episode since I was a child, and as soon as I saw again, I thought I had an immediate memory of thinking, as a child, I want to live there when I grow up. Obviously Fawnsi's apartment would have been good, but then you got to live above the Cunningham's fuck that I want to live in Bobby Wheeler's apartment, And so I wrote down
pretty much to everything I could see on the walls. You know, there's a lot of texture to it. There's there's a few clearly either these are shows that he has acted in or as a fan of the playbills. I think there's a pair of ice skates on the wall, kind of hanging there. There's a Mets banner, a poster that says feed lot, feed Lot. There's another poster I couldn't make much of, but something's going on at
eleven pm. There's this paper mache mask. If you notice on his shelves a lot of Chef Boy Our Day, the oversized can of lasagna, but the spaghetti and meatballs as well some spinach. This is perfect. This is exactly what you would expect to see in the Starving Actors apartment. Right, It's all this like crap, instant food, canned food or whatever. It feels lived in. It feels authentic. There's a lot to see. There's a lot of little bibbs and bobs to look at it. And this isn't
the last time we'll see the apartment. But I love it's like this sort of down. It's like it's a walkdown. So through his windows you can see just the lower halves of people going back, and it's not as extreme where it's like Laverne and surely like you're just seeing feet walking through the that's actually spooky and a little weird. This is kind of cool. It's you know, what it reminds me of actually was the apartment that Michael Caine has
in dressed to kill as the psychiatrist. That little you walk down and you know, I didn't note this down as much as you did, but I really should have because that it goes without saying that. That's one of my favorite parts of this particular episode, which isn't saying much but credit where credit is due. The set decorators are on point as always, so his apartment
looks great. He has everybody over because he still believes as midnight as approach, it's like something out of like New Year's Eve or something, something is going to happen. He's gonna get a call from an agent, his agent, and he's going to get a job no matter what. And if the time comes passes and he gets no call, Rieger, who's the eternal pragmatist, realist, if you will, he says, basically says to Bobby, well, you know, Bobby, you gave it a shot, but maybe
you're just not that good. I think I'm not sure if those are exact his exact words. That's in essence, he's just saying, look, you know, maybe it's just not your thing, man, Maybe it's just not going to happen. You gave it three years. You gave it your best shot. It's time to move on and maybe pick yourself up and do something else. And Bobby goes ape. Shit. It becomes a monologue where he kind of throws it back into Riager's face. I think he says, like,
you're not my friend anymore. I don't want to see you anymore, man, I don't even want to know you anymore, and is kicking him out, and Hirsch plays this perfectly. He just he has this look like, oh, I guess I've done it. I have no choice but to leave. And as he's leaving, Bobby kind of puts his arm around him and says, you still think I'm a bad actor, And baha, it was just improving that. Yes, I do have what it takes, which is just stupid. Let's just be honest. It's it's a good scene and
it works. I don't think so. I think I think reader is part of it works. I don't. I think Bobby is Hamhock big time. I half agree with you. I think what's wrong is it's so overwritten. It's obvious it's a monologue. You know as soon as he opens his mouth that this is an act that he's pulling on Reager and if you cut, if you whatever they filmed there, if you cut that down to like three
sentences, then his performance would be as good as Judd Hersh's. They gave him too much rope to hang himself, and that's exactly what Jeff Conaway will do. I could not agree more. And that's a that's a very good point about and that's something I maybe should have kept in mind, which is
it is very the dialogue is very overcooked and overwritten. Had he done that in three sentences, like oh my god, I thought everyone but you would be behind me and this hurts the most and do the sad thing and then launch into the anger and throw open the door, it'd be like whoa. But it's this, Like oh, it's like this, and it's not you know, it's the time and it's the medium and whatever. But it is
so telegraphed that it we're just kind of wasting time watching. Unless it is more would have been the perfect Ye're absolutely right, following the unless it is more would have been appropriate. But subtlety is never going was never going to be Bobby Wheeler's wheelhouse, so to speak, nor is it ever possibly going to be Jeff Conaway's wheelhouse. I found it, like I said, very
handy, very overdone, and to your point, very over overwritten. So they kind of share a look and it's like whatever, and Paul never comes. So then what does he do after the time passes and everybody's looking at him with concern and worried about what he's gonna do. He he just shrugs and says, hey, I'll give it another three years. Hey, what he's what he's essentially done is take And this is again a cardinal sin of
storytelling. Is he's taken what is transpired in the past, the previous twenty two minutes, and made it irrelevant, just crumpled it up into a big ball and threw it at you as an audience member, and said, you know what, you shouldn't care. Because Bobby didn't care. Bobby just kind of shrugged and said, so what, I'll give myself another three years? Well, why should I care? Could everyone come over to my place tonight so I can just have a big dramatic meltdown and you can all witness it
and it'll be meaningless in the end. Yeah, we'll be there, Bobby. They're gonna be I'd like to make a segue if I might a and I'm gonna use the thing clumsy voice so over technique they used in this episode to get us to the third act, where instead of just filming a scene where characters sort of ladle out what what the next bit of information we need, they just have Bobby read this endless bit of exposition over b roll. Yeah, but downtown New York. I've never which I'm never sad to see
the b roll. The b roll in this episode is particularly good in that opening scene with Rieger in the in the dog. Now we get some outside shots in that cab, like pushing in us it's driving down the street. Fantastic, I want to make I just want to mention a couple of little things that occurred to me while watching the episode. Do you know how much it is per mile there for for a cab ran? How much per mile? Uh? Interesting, I don't know. Fifteen cents a mile, that's
my guess. Seventy five cents for the first seventh of a mile, and then ten cents for each seventh of a mile. Is that printed on the machine on the wall. It's on the wall. Oh, in the cab. I've never that's so interesting. I've never actually i've tents a mile is effectively with seventy five cents for the first one seventh of a mile. It's interesting. I've seen that a million times, but I don't think I've ever
actually like thought it through. Now in the B plot in this episode HB the Dog Party, Hamlet, Hamlet, when we get back to the garage for the first time and we're easing our way into the A plot via the B plot, uh, for for no good reason, we get to see Tony dance and lift his shirt to show his six pack, his pre Brad Pitt Hollywood six pack, right, yeah, yeah, it's a big joke because Bobby has to punch something and punch me, and then he punches a
man. He crumples over like a like a sack of wet towels, like a sack of potatoes. But the observation I want to say, we get to see how effectively fierce he is, even if he was unprepared to take that punch from Bobby Wheler. We know Tony Denza or Tony Banta is a formidable character, right when this guy who we know to have beaten the dog comes back looking for his dog for the first time, we have this big
wall of solidarity where like we don't see this dog. This I am Spartaca's scene instead of should have actually happened on this nineteen seventy set television series where sometimes morality is a bit questionable. On the show, Tony Banta walk up and punch that guy square in the face and say it's our dog. Now. If you come back, I'll kill you. That's kind of should have happened during that moment. Anyone in that fucking garage should have walked up with
a ranch and said, did you hit this dog? You know what I do to people who hit dogs, and then like grab his wallet and go, I know where you live now, man. Part of it might be, and I hate to say this, but maybe people weren't as plugged into animal rights as they are now. They weren't because it's a goofy b plot. And even when the police show up and Rieger's like, this is my dog. This is a crazy man that police. That police officer should have
said, well it is with them. I mean, isn't possession nine tenths of the law or so the myth goes like, so you can't just walk into somebody's places business ago that thing's mine. I'm here with a police officer and I'm going to take that you. Now, everyone here in this garage knows this is Reager's dog. Where's the where's your papers on the dog?
Sir? And then the guy leaves. That would be the episode which we can't help but thinking about it, because the episode of this lighthearted romp of frivolity, because ultimately there are no consequences in the episode at all, begins with a man whipping a dog in the backseat of a cat. It's awful because it ratchets up in intensity because he starts to do it, and riger says, you know, he's he's because the dog won't perform, and Rieger's just like, you know, it's okay, I don't want to see.
And then he keeps hitting the dog and Rieger's like, hey, hey, hey, stop hitting the dog, and the guy doesn't stop, and he just keeps hitting and hitting and hitting hiuntil finally he's like, get out of my cat, get on my like it. It just feels like it went from being kind of a joke to like, wow, this guy is not nice. Like this is bad for the dog. Here's where the ba plants should have begun an end in the opening scene, gets out and punches the
guy full in the face and then drives away with the dog. I think Rieger could have physically beaten the guy up, but I don't think I think Rieger's moral compass would prevent him from wanting to be physical with somebody like that. He just wouldn't do it. He just doesn't believe in the violence. I think again, this, this tale of animal abuse is played mostly for laughs. Yeah. Wait, but okay, so Bobby when he starts his speech, right, I'm kind of defending Jeff Conaway because, as I said,
you can fix anything in editing. Buttt, this is a right television to writers medium. They wrote the words, they're on the set, they're effectively producing it, so he's going to say everything they said. Right. But unfortunately, watching this some forty years after it's original airing, my mind
went to that Tenacious D sketch they did. They did one of their hurts, the Death of a Dream, where they're they're listening like the different stages of the Death of your Dream because they can no longer be musicians and I like, that's what I'm thinking of. Well, Bob is just you know, about anger and denial and then of course door to door rocking. Let's break it down here, So let's talk about the good and the bad here,
not that we haven't already kind of gotten into it. I would say for me, there's only really two, maybe three good things about this episode. I thought the EF Hutton commercial bit it was kind of funny. Hamlet the dog is adorable. He's a giant, lovable great Dane, clearly well trained, and jud Harsh is just great to watch perform as reader as always. Other than that, I get nothing else. Oh, in set, decoration for Wheeler's apartment is spot on, But that's all I got. What
do you what do you have bought them? Alone? To that, I would add previously mentioned the meat frisk that was I think that was a good thing in the episode. I think at Dan's as ams as also previously mentioned our thing of beauty. He's like a rock Jesus Christ. He's very fit. You know what time day shift starts at the cab company or is this another sign on the wall that I mess? I didn't know what when does the day shifts start? Like five in the morning or something. Hey,
am, sir eight am. Oh, I guess that makes sense. You know a night shift began midnight. No, it's absolute insanity. What I'm about to say? Okay, three pm? Three pm? Where's the where's graveyard? Graveyard doesn't get a graveyard doesn't get a sign because we've seen who works graveyard, Travis. Is there a possible world where Travis Bickle existed and
at some point work for Sunshine Cap Company. I mean he would predate Reverend Jim obviously, but rigould probably be there right trying get Travis advice like Wizard did, and Travis just like I don't, I don't want to talk to you. Where it gets interesting is Louie would have been a cabby at that. Oh my god, it would have been. It would have been kind
of buddies right. Well, that's thank you. That's the other thing I did want to mention that was good in this episode, which is, uh, they ain't call Louie down from the cage to help in their solidarity wall that they're not giving this dog back, and Louie answers a question. Effect. It's the It's the equivalent of saying, well does a bear shit in the woods, and he says, do old ladies get mugged? Like like they The answer is obvious, do old ladies get mugged? Of course they
do. How can we not mention that as probably the best thing in this particular episode? I agree, but that see that brings up that brings me to my bad list? Actually hows this for a segue? One of my bad things is that Louis hardly features into this episode at all. The story amounts to absolutely nothing. Any tension that's built up with Bobby's big decision is wasted when he just kind of ignores the stakes and shrugs at the end and
says, well, whatever, I'll give myself three more years. When you do that, like you're you're basically saying to the audience, we don't care about the stakes, We don't care about what's happening with these characters. So why should you why should you invest your time and attention for the previous thirty minutes if it all comes to not if it's this decision that Bobby has to make, And he just shrugs and smiles rakishly and says, oh whatever,
Oh that's not cool. Yeah, we did not mention Randall Carver in this episode because he's a sinkhole of charisma. There's not much going on with this really not much to recommend this particular episode. This is the point of the program when we talk about how many yellow lights this episode gets. What does a yellow light me? Thank you, Reverend Jim. I'm gonna go ahead and just tick this off. There should be a surprise to nobody based on
the tone of this review. This was one yellow light for me. It was minor and inconsequential. How about yourself, Father Malone, what do you give this episode? I'll give it a two. That's generous. I think the line to old ladies get mugged, it's worth two yellow lights. I think the delivery is I think that the I think there's a there's enough to recommend this episode. Two. I don't know negated. I went back and forth. Is this a two yellow light? Is this a one? But
the but so? I originally, frankly, I had two yellow lights written here in my notes. But the more we talked about it, and the more or we just got into, like what what I hated about this episode? I couldn't pretend that this to me was worth an extra yellow light. Okay, let me let me tryan sway you. The set decoration, as previously mentioned, it was thorough and fantastic. The performances across the board were
consistent. It is overwritten. I think that's the problem with it, and it is two rooted in sixties sitcom tradition as far as what the plots were. But surely, my friend, the set decoration alone should merit its own yellow light. It's close, But I'm going to remind you that this episode was written by Ed Weinberger and Stan Daniels. If this was written by some writer that maybe was didn't do many episodes, or maybe this was a spec
script that they made into an episode. Fine, but these these are industry veterans who have won Emmy's and all sorts of accolades. This is this is not worthy of their their abilities. I'm gonna stick with one yellow light. They can't all be gems. Some episodes are better than others. This was not one of them. Thank you very much everybody for joining us on this episode of Night Mister Walters a Taxi podcast, Father Belone, Where can people
find your other proclivity activity things? Father Malone dot com? For all of my nonsense. All for all of my audio nonsense, go to Weirdingwaymedia dot com. That's all of my shows and an entire galaxy of podcast stars. As for myself, HP weirding Way Media. You can hear this podcast as well as the Bandacheck podcast, Wolf Wolf and Raisin Get a Little Noise Junkies
happening Somewhere. That's that's also in weirding Way Media. And you might hear my music and my not so excellent acting abilities on some episodes of Dark Destinations, So listen for that. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you guys next time. Thank you very much. Thank mister Brothers.