Taxi: Season 04 on AllMovie

Taxi remained a succès d'estime for ABC as it entered its fourth season, gathering scores of industry awards and garnering the love of its most loyal fans and the respect of Hollywood insiders, while still continuing to post lukewarm ratings. The series hadn't cracked the "Top 25" shows throughout the 1980-1981 season and failed to do so during 1981-1982 as well. ABC had seriously considered dropping the program after its third season, but the uproar of protest from its devotees moved the network to give the property another chance -- albeit in a new time slot on Thursday evening opposite NBC's Gimme a Break and CBS' Knots Landing. Two major developments marked the progression of events on season four. The first was the defection of Jeff Conaway in the role of part-time cabbie and would-be actor Bobby Wheeler, though Conaway would return for a guest appearance in the episode "Bobby Doesn't Live Here Any More." The second was the marriage between mild-mannered immigrant taxi mechanic Latka Gravas (Andy Kaufman) and his countrywoman Simka Dahblitz (Carol Kane in an Emmy-winning characterization) -- though the nuptials were postponed until Latka was able to divest himself of his slimy, womanizing "alter ego" Vic Ferrari (also played by Kaufman, who insisted that the series' producers sign "Vic Ferrari" to a separate contract!) As in previous seasons, Taxi offered a two-part episode in which the cabbies were forced to put their lives in perspective. On this occasion, the episode was the season finale "The Road Not Taken," wherein Elaine (Marilu Henner) mulled over the opportunity to leave New York for a new out-of-town job, prompting her fellow cabbies to reflect upon the various pivotal moments in their own lives. With the ratings continuing to sag, ABC reluctantly concluded that Taxi was expendable, and the series was canceled. For a while, it looked as if the property would be revived by the cable service HBO; but in the end, it was NBC that came to the rescue, picking up Taxi for its fifth (and as it turned out, its final) season.