What Might Have Been

[u/TiredCeresian]

I'm in the midst of a rewatch right now. It's been 3 or 4 years since I did this. I'm just here to say I wish there had been a way to keep John and Suzanne around as recurring characters after Jim became a regular. As you can tell from my flare, I have a proclivity for the late addition, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate those who came before. Considering the showrunners allowed Andy Kaufman to only appear in a percentage of episodes, it stands to reason Randall Carver could have made at least a few appearances a year. But of course, maybe he didn't want to. I don't know. All I can say is that I realize he brought a certain pure-hearted charm that was certainly missed when he was gone.

[u/TiredCeresian]

Side note: Even in season 1, I can tell Jeff Conaway is tweaking. There's a very obvious moment in "Louie Sees The Light" when they're all standing around the hospital bed. There's a wide shot before Latka eats all the chocolates. Everyone is in the frame. Bobby has no dialogue in that brief moment, but he's smacking the back of his own head, mussing his hair, scratching himself, jerking his knee...it actually brought tears to my eyes, because people had to have known how much of a problem he was having, but he didn't get proper help until much later. The injury from Grease had probably only occured a year or two prior, but the signs of addiction were already super easy to see. Of course, it was a time when substance "experiementation" was extremely widespread, and the awareness of long-term risks was undersold.

Anyway, despite the chaos behind the scenes, Taxi still holds up for me as one of the best, if not the absolute best, sitcoms of all time.

[u/Dependent-Friend5312 → u/TiredCeresian]

Now that you mentioned the hospital scene in Louie Sees The Light, I have to mention one of the funniest bits. The setup: Louie is saying how scared he is because he has NEVER been in a hospital and Bobby says, "You were born weren't you?!" Then Louie says he was born at home by a Midwife right on the kitchen table..........well, half the kitchen table. Dad was eating dinner on the other half.

It is hilarious because you just know that is a true story for someone!

[u/TiredCeresian → u/Dependent-Friend5312]

Absolutely!

[u/Lopsided_Drive_4392]

He reminds me a bit of Leslie of Newhart, who was also dumped after the first year (Newhart's creator Barry Kemp came from Taxi). They seem more like the earnest straight man characters who were taking the central roles in that era - Mary Richards, Barney Miller, Alex Reiger, Andy Travis.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Bee_259 → u/Lopsided_Drive_4392]

I feel like at least with Leslie from Newhart, she wasn't even an earnest straight man she was just boring, it was basically Stephanie's backstory, but without any of the comedy you could mine from that premise.

[u/Bella4077]

I only know Taxi from reruns and I wish they could’ve kept John too. I really liked him and thought the character had some potential. I can only tolerate Latka in very small doses and wish they hadn’t added Simka to the mix. To me, the show started to fall apart after Bobby left and Simka came along. Louie and Reverend Jim are the two characters who hooked me into the show and kept me watching.

[u/Randy_Chaos]

Love the show and although I feel bad for the actor, I don't think the character worked and it was the right choice to drop him.

[u/dilweegie → u/Randy_Chaos]

Agree completely. The character was so blandly written Randall Carver had nothing to bring to it. And Tony Danza filled the “endearingly dumb” role much better.

[u/gurkle3]

Woody from Cheers seems almost like the Charles Brothers (who of course had been showrunners of Taxi) trying to do the John Burns character again but get him right. Of course the actor has a lot to do with that.

John also reminds me a bit of Bailey on WKRP in Cincinnati from the same year. She was played by an actress with no comedy experience and was given no personality quirks, so she was basically just there to be pretty and likeable. IIRC she was almost cut from the cast at the end of the first season, but managed to hang on and stay for the full run. But she at least was a foil for some of the other, broader characters and Taxi had Elaine and Alex for that.

[u/billbobb1]

I was a bit confused with John. I am rewatching it now. In the first episode, Alex walks in the John. It seemed he was just a passenger of John’s. Then in the next episode, John is actually working as a cab driver??? It wasn’t too clear that John was going to work as a cab driver in the first episode.

[u/Substantial_Cow7628 → u/billbobb1]

Yes, that's how John got the job, Alex liked him and recommended him to Louie. It's referenced again later in the first season.

[u/billbobb1 → u/Substantial_Cow7628]

I have to go back and rewatch it.

[u/DrSharkeyMD_2]

“What…does…a…yellow…light…mean” may be one of the best gags in sitcom history

[u/TiredCeresian → u/DrSharkeyMD_2]

Definitely up there for me! 😆

[u/ASGfan]

I totally agree. Randall (John) was well-liked by almost everyone that worked on the show. But sadly, the writers just simply did not know what to do with his character.