Taxi (TV series)

Premise and themes

Cast and characters

Main

• Alex Reiger – Alex is the main protagonist in the sitcom, the compassionate, level-headed core of the show; the one everyone else turns to for advice. At one point, he reveals his anxiety with this unwanted burden. He once worked in an office, with a good chance of advancement, but lost this job owing to his refusal to follow the company line. He was married to Phyllis Bornstein, and when she divorced him because of his lack of ambition she sought sole custody of their baby daughter, Cathy. He gave in rather than fight it. He is estranged from his lothario father, Joe, but has a closer relationship with his sister, Charlotte. Alex is a recovered compulsive gambler, although he relapses in one episode. A deadpan cynic, he has resigned himself to driving a cab for the rest of his life.
• Robert L. "Bobby" Wheeler – Bobby is a vain, struggling actor who is Louie's favorite target for scorn and abuse. Robin Williams was considered for the role, but he was already committed to Mork & Mindy. Success as an actor eludes Bobby. He is signed by a famous manager, but it turns out she only wants him as a lover, not a client. Later he is cast in the pilot for a soap opera, but his part is recast when the series goes into production. Conaway left the show at the beginning of season 4, returning for a guest appearance in which his character leaves the taxi company for good. Writer Sam Simon explained later that when Conaway was absent for an episode, his dialogue was successfully reassigned to other cast members, which made the producers realize that he was expendable.
• Louie De Palma – Louie is the main antagonist of the sitcom. The head dispatcher of the Sunshine Cab Company and supervisor to the cab drivers, Louie spends his time holding court inside the caged-in dispatch office at the garage, arguing with, belittling and bullying the drivers. He not only lacks morals, he is openly proud of his misdemeanors and outright crimes. Louie will do anything to benefit himself, from taking advantage of a drunken friend of his on-again, off-again girlfriend Zena Sherman, to gambling with a young boy, to stealing from the company, to spying on Elaine while she is changing. He lives with his mother. On some occasions he helps his workers, as in the episode in which a cruel hairstylist gives Elaine a garish makeover just before a very important event, it is Louie who bolsters her confidence to confront him. Louie is very superstitious, in one episode exhibiting great concern when Jim has a premonition that Alex is going to die later that night. In 1999, TV Guide ranked De Palma first on its list of the 50 greatest TV characters of all time. DeVito told AARP: The Magazine he won the role after asking the creators in his audition “Who wrote this shit?” then throwing the script on the table. “They fell on the floor,” recalled DeVito. “Louie walked into their lives.”
• Elaine O'Connor Nardo – Elaine is a divorced mother of two, struggling to cope while trying to realize her ambitions in the field of fine art. Elaine works as a part time cab driver as a moonlighting job while she works as a receptionist in an art gallery. Also Louie's object of lust, she is attracted to characters played by actors ranging from Tom Selleck to Wallace Shawn. The last name for the character was taken from Patricia Nardo, a scriptwriter, former secretary, and close friend of Taxi co-creator James L. Brooks.
• Anthony Mark "Tony" Banta – The kind-hearted, slow-witted Vietnam veteran and boxer has little success in the sport. In fact, Louie makes a lot of money betting against him. Finally, the boxing commission takes away his license because he has been knocked out one too many times.Tony got his boxing license reinstated. In the final season, Tony is introduced to new girlfriend Vicki by Simka. He and Vicki have a falling out after she becomes pregnant by him, but reconcile and get married. The last name for the character was taken from Gloria Banta, a scriptwriter and close friend of Taxi co-creator James L. Brooks.
• Reverend Jim Ignatowski – A washed-up figure of the 1960s, Jim lives in a world of his own. He was once a diligent, mature student at Harvard University, with an extremely wealthy father, but one bite of a drug-laden brownie was enough to get him hooked and send him into a downward spiral. His real last name had been Caldwell; he changed it to Ignatowski, thinking that the backward pronunciation of that name was "Star Child". In a particularly memorable episode, “Reverend Jim: A Space Odyssey”, the cabbies help him pass a written exam to become one of them. He occasionally exhibits unexpected talents, such as the ability to play the piano masterfully. TV Guide placed Ignatowski 32nd on its list of the 50 greatest TV characters.
• Latka Gravas – Latka is an immigrant from a strange foreign land, often speaking in his foreign tongue, but when speaking English he speaks with a very heavy accent. He works as a mechanic, fixing the taxis. Latka was an adaptation of Kaufman's "Foreign Man" character, which he originated in his stage act. In this act, "Foreign Man" claimed to be from the fictional island of Caspiar in the Caspian Sea. Kaufman, feeling that he had lost creative control over the character he had created, eventually grew tired of the gag, leading the writers to give Latka multiple personality disorder. This allowed Kaufman to play other characters, the most frequent being a repellent, smooth-talking lounge-lizard persona calling himself Vic Ferrari. In one episode, Latka becomes Alex, with profound insights into "his" life. Just as he is about to reveal to the real Alex the perfect solution for all his problems, he reverts to Latka.
• Simka Dahblitz-Gravas – She is from the same country as Latka. They belong to different ethnic groups which traditionally detest each other, but they fall in love and eventually marry. She is much more assertive than her husband, often standing up to Louie on his behalf.
• John Burns – The naive young man works as a cabbie to pay for college, where he is working towards a degree in forestry. According to Carver, "the characters of John Burns and Tony Banta were too similar... some of the lines were almost interchangeable", so he was dropped after the first season without explanation. The premiere episode, "Like Father, Like Daughter", established that John started working for the cab company after he was a passenger in Alex's cab. John did not have change, so he had to ride with Alex to the garage to pay him. Once there, he started hanging around and eventually applied for a job. In the episode "The Great Line", he spontaneously marries a complete stranger named Suzanne.

  Recurring

• Jeff Bennett, Sunshine Cab's assistant dispatcher, he shares the "cage" with Louie but rarely speaks or interacts with the other characters. A quiet African-American man with an afro, Jeff appears throughout the show's run, initially as a bit part player and/or background performer. As the series progressed, Jeff gradually became more of a featured supporting player; his evolution culminated in a storyline in the season 5 episode "Crime and Punishment", in which Louie falsely accuses Jeff of stealing car parts from the company and selling them on the black market—a crime which Louie himself committed. Thomas appeared as himself in the 1999 film Man on the Moon.
• Tommy Jeffries, the bartender and waiter at Mario's, the restaurant where the group often hangs out. Tommy is pretty friendly with the whole gang, taking an interest in their personal lives.
• Joe Reiger , Alex's father, from whom he is estranged. In his first appearance, he suffers a heart attack and Alex is convinced by his sister Charlotte to visit him in the hospital. Alex and Joe had not spoken in 30 years, and Alex mistakes another patient for Joe.
• Zena Sherman . She has a romantic relationship with Louie, but marries someone else after they break up.
• Greta Gravas , Latka's mother. She has a short fling with Alex, which causes friction with Latka.
• Phyllis Bornstein-Consuelos , Alex's ex-wife, with whom he had a daughter. Phyllis became fed up with his lack of ambition and remarried, but they remain strongly attracted to each other. She once goes out on a date with Louie, just to irritate Alex.
• Cathy , Phyllis and Alex's daughter. In the first episode of the series, Alex finds out that Cathy, who was a baby when he and Phyllis divorced, is making a stopover in Miami on her way to attend college in Portugal. He drives to Miami to meet her for the first time since then. In a later episode, he attends Cathy's wedding.
• Brian Sims. In his first appearance, Tony fights a former boxing champ whose best days are behind him. He becomes troubled when he realizes that the champ is dedicating the fight to wheelchair user Brian. In a next-season episode, Tony seeks to adopt him.