Wanting something a little...well...shorter than last night's show, I popped in a holiday classics DVD I'd received for free and watched the first Christmas episode for Taxi.
In this ep, Louie's little brother comes to town and Louie plans to get him to visit their ma and then Nicky takes her back to Vegas for a little vacation. When Nicky, professional gambler, refuses to take her, Louie backs Alex in a poker game, where it all comes down a pot of $4300, an airline ticket, a watch, Tony's shoes, 3 weeks vacation for ma, six meals, a fancy floor show and daily hugs and kisses. Not going to tell you how it ends, but one guy wins and the other loses.
This ends up being like a lot of the others I've watched. There's a loose connection to Christmas, but this story would have been perfectly acceptable in any setting. I did enjoy DeVito playing a sympathetic slime ball, a difficult role I'm sure. It's a good ep. Nothing great, nothing too special. The holiday ties are the only reason one would seek this ep out, and even that's questionable.
I couldn't help but notice there was NO Latka in this ep. Not sure where he would have fit in, but nobody else had anything major going on so he could have blended into the background with the rest of the cast. Anyway, I did a little research and this is the show that Tony Clifton was supposed to guest star in. Evidently, the regulars resented having to wait for a guest star they'd never heard of. Some even took exception to him bringing hookers on the set and trying to make up lines for them. Remember that scene from Man on the Moon? This is where it really happened.
And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, watch Man on the Moon or read an Andy Kaufman biography. He was either brilliant or insane, but either way he was always entertaining.
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