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Category:    Home > Reviews > TV Situation Comedy > Taxi – The Final Season (aka Season Five/1982 – 1983/CBS DVD)

Taxi – The Final Season (aka Season Five/1982 – 1983/CBS DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Episodes: C+

 

 

After losing one network, only to get another and great ratings, Taxi called its quits after five seasons.  Remarkably, we have covered the first three and found the show to be better than remembered as you’ll see at these links:

 

One

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1539/Taxi+-+The+Complete+First+Season

 

Two

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1902/Taxi+-+The+Complete+Second+Seaso

 

Three

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2704/Taxi+-+The+Complete+Third+Season

 

 

Note that it took the later season a while to hit DVD, in part because the TV shows moved to the CBS division of Viacom, but they are all here now.  After going through this final season, they quit while they were ahead.  All the loose ends are wrapped up as expected and the episodes this time include:

 

 

1)     Love Un-American Style

2)     Jim’s Inheritance

3)     Scenskees From A Marriage (two part-episode)

4)     Crime & Punishment

5)     Alex The Gofer

6)     Louie’s Revenge

7)     Travels With My Dad

8)     Elaine & The Monk

9)     Zena’s Honeymoon

10)  Get Me Through The Holidays

11)  Louis Moves Uptown

12)  Alex’s Old Buddy

13)  Sugar Ray Nardo

14)  A Taxi Celebration (two part compilation of highlights)

15)  Alex Gets Burned By An Old Flame

16)  Louie & The Blind Girl

17)  Arnie Meets The Kids

18)  Tony’s Baby

19)  Jim’s Mario’s

20)  A Grand Gesture

21)  Simka’s Monthlies

 

 

#14 is the kind of show (or shows) series used to make prior to home video to promote the series and get old and new fans (re-)interested in the show as it would be in syndication.  It is sad to see Carol Kane and Andy Kaufman here as they are both gone and that is hard to believe sometimes as you watch.  It is also a sitcom that could not be made today because the cast would be different (more immigrants drive cabs now than then) and of course, the gas-guzzling Checker Cab has long been retired, has been long out of production and is now a collectible.

 

Versus the awful sitcoms that were soon to follow, Taxi helps mark the end of an era of filmed sitcoms and though never my favorite show, but it has aged better than even I would have imagined.  For fans, the whole show finally on DVD will make them happy.  For all interested, it was expected.  Only Danny DeVito, Judd Hirsch and Christopher Lloyd saw greater success afterwards, but all did some of their best work here and that is not faint praise.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image and Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono are the same as the previous sets in quality.  More work could be done and one day, we expect this to be offered on Blu-ray.  The only extras are episodic promos made for syndication with very dated digital video bumpers.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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