History Trivia / Taxi

* DoingItForTheArt: While quite commonplace nowadays, when JCW Productions pitched the show to HBO in 1982 (after being cancelled by ABC), no cable network had aired a sitcom (mostly because almost ''no one'' had cable back then) thus being considered a very daring (and risky) move at the time. However, Paramount decided to have ''Taxi'' on either CBS or NBC, the latter of both ended up running the show for a year.

* [[HeyItsThatGuy Hey, it's that guy]]: Creator/MarionCotillard; in the first film [[Film/InglouriousBasterds Sgt. Rachtman]] is the leader of the Mercedes gang.

* AdoredByTheNetwork: While being one of the "bottom 10" shows of the 1981-1982 television season, somehow NBC saw a worthy product on it and UnCancelled the show after ABC dropped it. Unfortunately, it "[[AWorldwidePunomenon fared]]" no better with viewers on its new network and NBC was forced to cancel it (neither ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' nor ''Series/FamilyTies'' got better numbers, but were spared by their numerous Emmy nominations; both wound up running much longer than ''Taxi'').

** Nick @ Nite and later TV Land kept ''Taxi'' on reruns for around a decade, building [[PeripheryDemographic a large new fandom]] for the show. It helped that the show had a rather shiny picture of NY, making it look like it wasn't made in TheSeventies.

* AdoredByTheNetwork: While being one of the "bottom 10" shows of the 1981-1982 television season, somehow NBC saw a worthy product on it and UnCancelled the show. Though it didn't fare better with viewers and NBC was forced to cancel it (neither ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' nor ''Series/FamilyTies'' got better numbers, but were spared by their numerous Emmy nominations and both ran much longer than ''Taxi'').

* ActorAllusion: There were a number of in-joke references to Creator/AndyKaufman's stand-up act, including having his alter ego Vic Ferrari sing the "MightyMouse" theme.

** Averted with Christopher and writer David Lloyd, with both being unrelated. Ironically, David is the father of another (also unrelated) [[Series/{{Frasier}} Christopher]] [[Series/[ModernFamily Lloyd]].

** Averted with Christopher and writer David Lloyd, with both being unrelated. Ironically, David is the father of another (also unrelated) [[Series/{{Frasier}} Christopher]] [Series/[ModernFamily Lloyd]].

** Creator/RobinWilliams was supposed to play Bobby, but he had to decline when ''MorkAndMindy''got picked up.

* [[HeyItsThatGuy Hey, it's that guy]]: MarionCotillard; in the first film [[Film/InglouriousBasterds Sgt. Rachtman]] is the leader of the Mercedes gang.

* SimilarlyNamedWorks: It can get pretty confusing if you're looking for the Music/QueenLatifah [[Film/{{Taxi}} movie]] and get [[Series/{{Taxi}} Judd Hirsch]] instead. Or looking up the [[Pinball/{{Taxi}} pinball machine]] and wondering how to pick up Creator/AndyKaufman as a passenger...

** Creator/RobinWilliams was supposed to play Bobby, but he had to decline when ''MorkAndMindy''got picked up.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: An unintentional example. To boost the show's ratings, ABC placed ''Taxi'' for its' third season on Wednesday, opposite NBC's hit show, ''Series/DiffrentStrokes''. To be short, ratings dipped considerably (but not to the exent of ''{{Soap}}'', which by competing with ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'' it hit rock bottom and was swiftly canned).

* NamesTheSame: It can get pretty confusing if you're looking for the Music/QueenLatifah [[Film/{{Taxi}} movie]] and get [[Series/{{Taxi}} Judd Hirsch]] instead. Or looking up the [[Pinball/{{Taxi}} pinball machine]] and wondering how to pick up Creator/AndyKaufman as a passenger...

** Creator/RobinWilliams was supposed to play Bobby, but he had to decline when ''MorkAndMindy''got picked up.

** Creator/RobinWilliams was supposed to play Bobby, but he had to decline when ''MorkAndMindy''got picked up.

* AdoredByTheNetwork: While being one of the "bottom 10" shows of the 1981-1982 television season, somehow NBC saw a worthy product on it and UnCancelled the show. Though it didn't fare better with viewers and NBC was forced to cancel it (neither ''{{Cheers}}'' nor ''FamilyTies'' got better numbers, but were spared by their numerous Emmy nominations and both ran much longer than ''Taxi'').

** That ''BosomBuddies'' guy as one of Jim's college peers! Whatever happened to [[TomHanks that guy]]?
** Rhea Perlman as Zena, Louis' girlfriend (and [=DeVito's=] RealLife partner.) When Perlman starred on ''{{Cheers}}'', [=DeVito=] was going to play Nick Tortelli, but then he became a hot movie property.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: An unintentional example. To boost the show's ratings, ABC placed ''Taxi'' for its' third season on Wednesday, opposite NBC's hit show, ''DiffrentStrokes''. To be short, ratings dipped considerably (but not to the exent of ''{{Soap}}'', which by competing with ''TheFactsOfLife'' it hit rock bottom and was swiftly canned).

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The Season 1 episode "A Full House for Christmas" was supposed to guest star [[Main/AndyKaufman Tony]] [[Main/AlterEgoActing Clifton]] as Louie's brother, but Clifton's behavior on the set was so awful that he was fired; he wound up being escorted off of the Paramount lot.

** Robin Williams was supposed to play Bobby, but he had to decline when ''MorkAndMindy''got picked up.

** Nick @ Nite and later TV Land kept ''Taxi'' on reruns for around a decade, building [[PeripheryDemographic a large new fandom]] for the show.
* DoingItForTheArt: While quite commonplace nowadays, when JCW Productions pitched the show to HBO in 1982 (after being cancelled by ABC), no cable network had aired a sitcom (mostly because almost ''no one'' had cable back then) thus being considered a very daring (and risky) move at the time. However, Paramount decided to have ''Taxi'' on either CBS or NBC, the latter of both ended up running the show for a year.

** Originally [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou1fgO3b-X0 "Touchdown"]] by Bob James was going to be the title theme but the producers liked James' slower music for the episode "Angela" and chose it instead.

* AdoredByTheNetwork: While being one of the "bottom 10" shows of the 1981-1982 television season, somehow NBC saw a worthy product on it and UnCancelled the show. Though it didn't fare better with viewers and NBC was forced to cancel it (neither ''{{Cheers}}'' nor ''{{FamilyTies}}'' got better numbers, but were spared by their numerous Emmy nominations).

* AdoredByTheNetwork: While being one of the "bottom 10" shows of the 1981-1982 television season, somehow NBC saw a worthy product on it and UnCancelled the show. Though it didn't fare better with viewers and NBC was forced to cancel it (''{{Cheers}}'' didn't get better numbers, but it was spared by its' numerous Emmy nominations).

* HeyItsThatGuy: Ted Danson, in a role VERY different from Sam Malone.
** That ''BosomBuddies'' guy as one of Jim's college peers! Whatever happenend to [[TomHanks that guy]]?

** Rhea Perlman as Zena, Louis' girlfriend (and [=DeVito's=] RealLife partner.) When Perlman starred on ''{{Cheers}}'', [=DeVito=] was going to play Nick Tortelli, but then he became a hot movie property.

** That ''BosomBuddies'' guy as one of Jim's college peers! Whatever happenend to [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TomHanks that guy]]?