The BEST episodes written by Glen Charles
#1 - Of Mice and Tony
Taxi - Season 4 - Episode 9
Tony becomes the manager of a promising young heavyweight boxer at his gym, but after the boxer wins a major fight, the "syndicate" (which turns out to be some doctors looking for an investment, rather than the mob) makes Tony an offer he can't refuse and takes over the boxer's management.
Watch Now:Amazon#2 - I Wanna Be Around
Taxi - Season 4 - Episode 11
Louie becomes scared of nuclear war after hearing someone talk on Donahue, and he sets up a bomb shelter in the garage. He schedules a weekend drill with Jeff and Tony in tow, but finds he's too "soft" to survive if war really broke out, since he is unwilling to throw Jim (who has stowed away in a radiation suit) out of the shelter.
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV#5 - Mary and the Sexagenarian
The Mary Tyler Moore Show - Season 7 - Episode 19
Mary happily accepts a date from a charming older man without realizing that he's Murray's father, but everyone else has difficulty coming to terms with the difference in their ages.
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV#6 - Latka's Cookies
Taxi - Season 3 - Episode 8
When Latka's grandmother dies, he is pleased that she has left him her famous cookie recipe, complete with a supply of the secret ingredients. He bakes up some for the cabbies to enjoy, but the cabbies don't enjoy them. Nonetheless, Latka begins his own cookie business. In the days to come, the cabbies find that they are indeed starting to inexplicably like the cookies, and are also unusually happy and energetic. When Jim samples one, he determines that the secret ingredient is cocaine—which accounts for why everyone's behavior. Upon learning this, Alex visits Latka (busy baking cookies to fill supermarket orders) to tell him the bad news. Latka is noticeably high from the cookies, and hallucinates that Famous Amos tells him to do whatever it takes to be successful. Although Latka can no longer sell the drugged cookies, he is excited at the taste of capitalism because it means he's now a true American.
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV#7 - Reverend Jim: A Space Odyssey
Taxi - Season 2 - Episode 3
At Mario's, the cabbies run into the spaced-out derelict minister, Reverend Jim, who officiated at Latka's wedding. Charmed by him, yet taking pity on him, they make it their mission to get him a job as a cabbie. Louie is adverse to this at first, but Jim seems to slip a sedative into Louie's coffee and he then changes his tune. The next hurdle is getting Jim a driver's license, which is a challenge as he not only has trouble with his written exam, but his application, as well. Nonetheless, he gets the license and begins work at the garage.
Watch Now:Amazon#9 - Latka the Playboy
Taxi - Season 3 - Episode 20
After Latka is rejected by a snobbish, but beautiful woman at Mario's, he decides to change his image by taking some time off and studying Playboy magazines and English language tapes. When Latka reemerges from his sabbatical, he has lost his accent and now is a lounge lizard who goes by the name, Vic Ferrarri. He soon easily picks up on the woman who had rebuffed him earlier. Although amused, the cabbies become concerned about the changes Latka has gone through, since he has now lost all of his nice qualities and is constantly hitting on Elaine. Alex tells Latka/Vic off, and later Latka appears at Alex's apartment, saying that he's sorry and doesn't want to be Vic anymore. Alex works with Latka and manages to get the old Latka back, although there is a twinge in Latka's eye that suggests Vic isn't gone forever..
Watch Now:Amazon#10 - Art Work
Taxi - Season 2 - Episode 22
The cabbies are faring poorly at various gambling schemes, but Elaine alerts the gang about a moneymaking tip for an art auction. It seems a terminally ill artist's painting is up for auction, and when an artist dies, the value of his paintings goes up considerably. She estimates that they need to pool $2,000 to win the auction and the gang, including Louie, barely scrapes up enough. At the auction, Louie attempts various dirty tricks to ensure a successful bid, but the bidding quickly goes above $2,000 and another bidder snares the painting. It is then announced that the artist has passed away, which rubs salt in the wounds of the already dejected cabbies.
Watch Now:Amazon#11 - Going Home
Taxi - Season 3 - Episode 5
Jim is sought out by a detective, hired by his wealthy father to locate him and give him plane tickets to come visit him in Boston. Jim explains to the gang that he has been estranged from his family after dropping out of Harvard in the 1960's and changed his name from Caldwell to Ignatowski. Jim agrees to go to visit his father and brings Alex with him, who is curious about what Jim's family must be like. At his father's mansion, Jim's oddness upsets his father and they get into an argument during dinner. Jim is asked to leave, but Alex speaks to Jim's father privately to try to smooth things over. It turns out Jim's father still thinks of Jim as his favorite child, but it hurts him to see him wasting his life when he had so much potential. Jim comes in and convinces his father that he's got a happy life and doesn't need his father's money and they share a moment before Jim leaves.
Watch Now:Amazon#12 - Bob's Change of Life
The Bob Newhart Show - Season 6 - Episode 1
Bob's well-ordered life turns topsy-turvy when he and Emily move to a new Chicago residence.
Watch Now:Amazon#14 - Zen and the Art of Cab Driving
Taxi - Season 3 - Episode 13
Jim picks up two men in his cab and overhear them talking about the secret to success: dynamic perfectionism. Jim takes it to heart and decides to use the technique to reach his goal, which he won't reveal to the cabbies. Soon, Jim becomes the perfect cab driver, setting company records on every shift. After a few weeks, Jim gives up, announcing that he's reached his goal and can no longer stand to work so hard. He invites the gang over to his apartment to reveal what he's been working so hard for. Upon arrival, they see that his goal was a room full of televisions, with satellites, cable, VCRs, and video games - his ticket to the global village. The gang is unimpressed at first, until each of them gets sucked into watching exciting things on the various televisions.
Watch Now:Amazon#17 - Bobby Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Taxi - Season 4 - Episode 12
Bobby, who has moved to Hollywood, comes back to the garage for a visit and announces that he's filmed a pilot for a new prime-time soap opera. During his visit, he learns that the pilot has been picked up as a series and Bobby throws a party at the Plaza Hotel to celebrate. He soon learns that although the series is a go, they no longer want Bobby to appear in it. Bobby is upset and entertains the idea of moving back to New York, until Alex convinces him to follow his dream in Hollywood.
Watch Now:Amazon#18 - Give Me a Ring Sometime
Cheers - Season 1 - Episode 1
Cheers is a small bar in Boston, MA. As owner Sam Malone opens up, a couple enter the bar. Professor Sumner Sloane and his fiance Diane Chambers are to go to Barbados to be married, but Sumner's ex-wife still has the wedding ring. Sumner asks Sam to keep an eye on Diane for him whilst he goes and fetches it. Sam tries chatting up Diane but she's not interested. The other employees at Cheers arrive for work - waitress and single mom Carla Tortelli, and bartender Ernie "Coach" Pantusso, who was Sam's baseball coach back in the days when Sam was a relief pitcher for the Red Sox. As the bar gets busier and more people wonder who she is, Diane hopes Sumner will return eventually. Sumner comes back a few hours later and says he hasn't got the ring, but then his ex-wife calls and says she's got it, so he once again leaves Diane in Cheers whilst he goes to fetch it. He asks Diane to call the airport and put their flight back a bit. Once again he is gone a long time, and Diane starts to worry t
Watch Now:Apple TV#22 - Honor Thy Father
Taxi - Season 2 - Episode 2
Alex's sister, Charlotte, comes to the garage and leaves a message that their father is ill in the hospital. When Alex finds out, he appears uninterested, and explains that his father ran out on their family and they haven't spoken in almost thirty years. Eventually, Charlotte prevails upon Alex to visit their father and Alex is shocked to see a very frail old man in the hospital. Alex loses his composure and breaks down, telling his father how much he means to him. All of a sudden, Alex realizes he's been baring his soul to the wrong man when his real, healthy-looking father emerges from the bathroom. Alex then again realizes he has nothing really to say to his father and leaves after uttering hardly a word.
Watch Now:Amazon#24 - Latka's Revolting
Taxi - Season 2 - Episode 11
Latka is listening to a radio station that broadcasts in his native language and learns that revolution has broken out in his country. Panicking, he is visited by his friend, Baschi, who emigrated to the States with him, and who has come to fetch Latka to go home to fight in the revolution (it turns out Latka has somehow reached the rank of general in his country's army). A farewell party is thrown for Latka at Mario's, and before they have to leave for the airport, Elaine asks Baschi to draw a map of their country, in an effort to learn more about where they will be fighting. Through Baschi's drawing of where the enemy troops will be situated, it becomes clear that the revolutionaries have an impossible task ahead of them, and Latka thinks better of leaving (as do the rest of his fellow countrymen).
Watch Now:Amazon#26 - Who Was That Masked Man?
The Bob Newhart Show - Season 6 - Episode 4
Bob is puzzled when his henpecked patient, Mr. Petersen, asserts himself with far-reaching consequences.
#28 - The Late Captain Pierce
M*A*S*H - Season 4 - Episode 4
When Hawkeye's father is notified that he's dead, he finds it's no easy matter either to get word to him or to establish otherwise.
#29 - Happy Trails to You
The Bob Newhart Show - Season 6 - Episode 22
Bob gives up his psychological practice in Chicago to become a professor at a small college in Oregon.
#30 - Elaine and the Lame Duck
Taxi - Season 1 - Episode 17
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.
#32 - Hollywood Calling
Taxi - Season 1 - Episode 21
The cabbies fall victim to a Hollywood-style roller coaster ride when a production company visits to do a film on taxi drivers.