The BEST episodes of Taxi season 1
Every episode of Taxi season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Taxi season 1!
Taxi's success was due to its excellent writing, Burrows's award-winning directing using his innovative four-camera technique, and its largely unknown but talented cast. Danny DeVito's Louie DePalma soon became one of the most despised men on television--possibly the most unredeemable and worthless louse of a character ever to reside on the small screen. Andy Kaufman's foreign mechanic Latka Gravas provided over-the-top comedy within an ensemble emphasizing subtle character humor.
#1 - Substitute Father
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 5/15/1979
With Elaine going out of town to visit her sick aunt, the guys at the garage takes turns watching over her son so that he can compete in a spelling bee.
#2 - Sugar Mama
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/16/1979
Alex befriends a wealthy elderly lady who pays him to take her around the city.
#3 - Men Are Such Beasts
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/21/1978
The taxi gang scrambles to come up with a scheme aimed at ending a one sided romance when a determined, pretty cabbie sets her cap for Tony and joins the Sunshine Cab Co. to be near him.
#4 - Memories of Cab 804 (1)
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/28/1978
When John crashes Cab 804, the cabbies are shocked into a period of mourning, as they reminisce about the wild and memorable events that occurred when they were driving the legendary cab.
#5 - Alex Tastes Death and Finds a Nice Restaurant
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/6/1979
When Alex's ear is nearly shot off in a holdup attempt in his cab, he stuns his fellow cabbies by quitting and exchanging his driving clothes for a waiter's tuxedo at a snobbish French restaurant.
#6 - Blind Date
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/26/1978
Alex's romantic instincts are triggered by the sexy voice at the answering service. Her alluring manner prompts him to arrange a dinner date that turns into a big surprise.
#7 - High School Reunion
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/24/1978
Louie, an outcast in high school, dreads the idea of his class reunion. Wanna-be actor Bobby Wheeler comes up with a scheme to help Louie get even with his peers.
#8 - Mama Gravas
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/27/1979
Mechanic Latka Gravas' youthful and attractive mother makes her first visit to America, and after she and Alex meet and have an evening love affair, Latka assumes that he will soon be getting a new daddy.
#9 - Memories of Cab 804 (2)
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/5/1978
Mechanic Latka Gravas frantically works to save the cracked-up Cab 804 as the cabbies fondly recall times in the legendary auto when Alex delivered a baby, Louie beat a rich brat out of a wad of money, and Elaine met the perfect man.
#10 - One-Punch Banta
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/19/1978
Tony gets a chance to spar with a world champion. And when he knocks the man down, he gets a bout with a ranked fighter. Everyone but Louie supports him. But before the fight he learns what really happened between him and the champ.
#11 - Like Father, Like Daughter
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/12/1978
The cabbies embark on a frantic race against time when they team up in a wild nonstop drive from New York to Miami so that Alex can see his long-lost daughter on her twenty minute layover at the airport
#12 - Bobby's Acting Career
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/5/1978
The high-spirited taxi gang helps a jittery Bobby fight potential disappointment when he decides that he will end his stage career if he doesn't get an acting job before midnight.
#13 - Come as You Aren't
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/10/1978
Elaine fears the worst when the cabbies invite themselves to her party for her highbrow art world friends who have no clue that she moonlights as a cab driver.
#14 - Friends
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/30/1979
Tony's friendship with Bobby is tested when he leaves town and Bobby mistakenly kills his goldfish.
#15 - Money Troubles
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/14/1978
John and his new wife, Suzanne, reach a crisis point in their marriage when one of them must drop out of college due to financial woes.
#16 - Louie Sees the Light
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/6/1979
After an operation, Louie, the sharp-tongued dispatcher, panics when he has to keep a promise that he made to God during surgery to turn over a new leaf.
#17 - The Great Line
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/17/1978
A pretty girl has John in a whirl, and his determination to meet her prompts the taxi gang to come up with a surefire line that would unfreeze any woman on earth.
#18 - Elaine and the Lame Duck
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/13/1979
Alex feels sympathy for a fare who's a real loser with the women and arranges a date for the man with Elaine, who later discovers that her klutzy companion for the evening is a U.S. Congressman.
#19 - Bobby's Big Break
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/15/1979
Bobby's career dreams come true when he lands a role in a soap opera, prompting him to throw his torn-up cabbie's license at Louie, but the dispatcher vows to take revenge if Bobby ever comes crawling back.
#20 - Paper Marriage
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/31/1978
Mechanic Latka Gravas faces deportation unless he marries an U.S. citizen. The taxi gang comes to his rescue by pitching in and hiring a local "working girl" to be his bride.
#21 - Hollywood Calling
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/8/1979
The cabbies fall victim to a Hollywood-style roller coaster ride when a production company visits to do a film on taxi drivers.
#22 - A Full House for Christmas
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/12/1978
A Christmas party at the garage is interrupted when Louie, the dispatcher, teams up with Alex in a game of high stakes poker against his cardshark brother Nick.