Sunshine Cab Co. Passengers: An Untapped Storyline Resource?

Given the subject of Taxi--cabbies who work for the Sunshine Cab Company--you'd think that a natural way to introduce guest stars and storylines would be via the cabbies' passengers. This technique is definitely used from time to time in the 114 episodes of Taxi. In Episode 1, for example, John Burns is Alex's fare. In episodes 2-10, however, none of the main characters or storylines are related to cab driving or the cabbies' customers.

This pattern is repeated throughout Taxi's five-year run. Most of the storylines seem to be about people the cabbies know from somewhere other than the garage (e.g., Elaine's art gallery friends, Tony's boxing friends), the cabbies' relatives (Bobby is the only cabby who did not have a family member in an episode), and people the cabbies meet at Mario's.

It is interesting that more people from Mario's have prominent roles in Taxi episodes than do cabbies in the garage. Other than Don Reavy (episode #33), are there any other drivers who are featured in any storylines, or who even have speaking parts? It almost seems as though the writers tried from the very beginning to write about things other than cab driving, and only created taxicab driver or passenger-related storylines when they didn't have any other ideas.

Cheers, which features several Taxi alumni, used this same procedure, only occasionally using bar patrons in their storylines. As with Taxi, Cheers occasionally used what I refer to as the "small world" technique, whereby people from a character's past show up by accident or at random in the character's place of work (see, for example, Taxi episode 58, Elaine's Old Friend, and Cheers episode 68, The Belles of St. Clete's.

Contrast Taxi's use of customers in storylines with that of shows like Barney Miller and Night Court, where "customers" (people who had been arrested on Barney Miller, litigants on Night Court) were both more common and used to a much larger extent in the shows' storylines.

Where Can I Get Taxi Stuff?

I've received several queries about Taxi merchandise lately. Here are some links to places on the Web where you can get Taxi stuff:

Taxi on Video: eight episodes of Taxi (two on each videotape) are available on VHS tape (search by Title, and enter "Taxi").

Taxi Poster: An 8x10 color photo from season one.

Another Poster: A cheesy 8x10 photo from season five.

Hailing Taxi: A book by Frank Lovece about the series.

Andy Kaufman Videos: several Andy Kaufman movies are available on VHS.

Theme From Taxi: The author of the Taxi theme is Bob James. He originally wrote the song "Angela's Theme" for Episode 2. It ended up becoming the theme song for the series. The Album version is longer than the TV theme, and contains verses not heard on the show. Listen to a sample of the theme from Barnes&Noble.com (requires Real Player).


One word of caution: You are likely to encounter lots of popup and pop-under windows when visiting these highly commercial sites...

Is anyone else aware of other videos or merchandise available on the Web?