Ménage Á Pop is a three times a week intimate discussion between two people and a piece of pop culture.

Sitcoms gave us the characters that we wanted to be like. As cool as Mike on Growing Pains. As free as Blossom on Blosson. As whatever Wesley was on Mr. Belvedere. But turn that dial just one number to the right and you might encounter an ensemble that, while hilariously entertaining, were more morose than you aimed to be. This was the introduction to adulthood that tv writer Brian Stampnitsky (STILL STAR-CROSSED) gained from reruns of his pre-teen’s favorite existential dilemma, TAXI.

BRIAN STAMPNITSKY is a writer for television whose credits include the 2017 ABC drama STILL STAR-CROSSED. Follow him on INSTAGRAM @bstampy and marvel at a full month of his outerwear @30days30shirts.

POP NOTES

Taxi originally premiered Tuesday September 12 1978 on ABC. It ran for five seasons consisting of 114 episodes.
Series creators James L. Brooks and David Davis found early inspiration for the series in a 1975 EW YORK MAGAZINE article by Marc Jacobson entitled “Night-shifting For The Hip Fleet.”
During auditions, actor Judd Hirsch found it difficult to relate to the stalwart elements of the character named, at that time, Alex Taylor. He began suggesting character traits to the producers, to the character, including a last name change to Rieger, based upon a friend of his from high school. These alterations allowed him to find the character as eventually broadcast.
As portrayed by Tony Danza, the character of Tony Banta was the first series regular on television to be depicted as a Vietnam Vet.
The series continued to be ground-breaking in depicting the fall out of the ‘60s with the inclusion of drugged out hippy Jim Ignatowski, portrayed by Christopher Lloyd. Introduced as a one-off guest character, he proved quite popular and was promoted to series regular in season two.
ABC cancelled the sitcom at the end of its 4th season. By chance, co-star Danny Devito was hosting rival network NBC’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIGHT the weekend after the announcement. During the live broadcast he brought most of the cast from Taxi out on stage for a propepr curtain call. The resulting goodwill inspired NBC to buy the program and produced a final season. This fifth season of Taxi premiered Thursday, September 30th 1982, following the freshman premiere of then unknown sitcom Cheers.
During a 1982 guest hosting stint on THE MERV GRIFFIN SHOW, actor and film auteur Orson Welles (THE TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE) expressed his affection for Taxi during the introduction for guest Andy Kaufman by stating that he it was one of the few programs that has “kept television from being a criminal felony.”
The memorable and morose opening theme song to Tax was a piece entitled “ANGELA“ composed by jazz keyboardist Bob James. A diffrent composition by James entitled entitled “TOUCHDOWN” was initially intended to be the series opening theme. However, after including the ”ANGELA” in an early cut of show’s third episode, the producers quickly reassigned it as the proper series theme.

Tune back Friday when Brain Stampnitsky dances with the devil in the marquee light of 1989’s BATMAN.

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MUSIC FEATURED IN TODAY’S EPISODE:

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