IN THESE TIMES JAN. 24-30,1979 23 TELEVISION Taxi mkes comedy and drama orking-class sitcom _ By Albert Auste? "If you wanted to end the war made some significant adjust- in Vietnam all you had to do was ments to that old formula. For When The Mary Tyler Moors put it on ABC and it would be instance, they shifted the empha- Show was in its heyday a reporter cancelled in 13 weeks." sis of the old MTM format away asked Ed Asner (Leu Grant) if Some of Taxi's success comes from the contrast between the he ever got tired of his role, As- from its being conveniently ham- good sense and cooperation of rier answered, "We. never get mocked between two other ABC some of the workers (Mary, Mur- bored around here;. The scripts hits—Three's Company and Star- ray, Lou) against the uncooper- are too good/' The reason was sky and Hutch. It has other ative, egotistical, or misguided the two electronic Neil Simons things going for it, like concen- worker (Ted, SueAnne) to the co- who wrote the show; James 1. trating . on people rather than operation and even feelings of Brooks and Alan Burns. They punchlines and even nudging the solidarity of the cabbies as op- not only created interesting char- workplace family format pio- posed to the alienation and iso- acters (Mary, Loo, Ted Baxter) neered by Brooks at MTM along lation of their noisy and hostile but also wrote some great lines: the road to a video version of loudmouth boss, Louis DePalma Mary: "I think you're asking a working class solidarity. (Danny DeVito). lot of personal questions you have Robert De Niro would never De Palma is a runty Italian no right to ask!" Lou: "You recognize the characters that pop- boss-dispatcher who sits above know, you've got spunk. I hsie ulate the Sunshine Taxicab gar- the drivers in a caged perch shout- spunk." age (a play on Amos'n'Andy's ing out Scrooge-like commands MTM Enterprises has fallen on Fresh-Air Taxicab, Inc.). For in- like, "Don't pick up cripples," or evil, days recently and ail its old stance, there is a woman, Elaine making single entendre jokes and standbys have either retired (The (Marilu Henner); a Rocky-type passes at Elaine. So far Louis , Judd Hirsch as Alex picks up elderly passenger Ruth Gordon, MTM Show, The Bob Newhart pug (Tony Danza); a Midwest- hasn't been touched by TV's- a "Sugar Mama" who likes to take expensive taxi rides. Show), been cancelled (Rhods, ern naif John (Randall Carver); heart-of-gold syndrome, and un- Phyllis), or are barely hanging an aspiring actor whose last try- less the show gets a bout of the on some interesting themes. For oped. Part of the credit here goes on (The Lou Grant Show, The out was for the horse's part in cutes he may continue to be some- example, in one episode John and to Hirsch. He had already starred White Shadow). This fail from Equus (Jeff Conaway); and an one you can actually dislike. In- his wife Suzanne (Ellen Regan)— in an ill-fated NBC series (Del- grace may have something to do immigrant garage mechanic (An- deed, for the moment the cabbies a woman he married on impulse vecchio), and could have dom- with the departure last year of dy Kaufman), who speaks a dia- either ignore or barely tolerate after one of the drivers told the inated the other younger and less Brooks and some other members lect half Spanish-half Polish, and him. shy John that a good line for experienced players. However, of the MTM shop (Stan Daniels, all nebbish ("Tanks you vebby Nevertheless, Taxi is not Odets. picking up women was "Why by constantly underplaying, David Davis and Ed Weinberger) mooch"). As a matter of fact, it most near- waste time on preliminaries—let's Hirsch has allowed an ensemble to • form their own production The elder statesman of the ly resembles O'Neill in focusing get married"—have their first effort to grow. This is a welcome company. group is Emmy Award winner on the characters' pipedrearns of fight over who should quit work change in a season where all the The first venture of the Brooks Judd Hirsch (The Law), who love, championship, stardom, and let the other support them applause and hoopla have gone group, the sitcom Taxi, is one of plays Alex Reiger. Alex is of some and success rather than any of through college. Of course Alex to Mark and Mindy and its star the few hits of the new TV sea- indeterminate—although, since their political or economic prob- saved the day with a loan so they Robin Williams, whom the New son. Taxi has consistently rated he's played by Hirsch, Semitic- lems (nobody mentions leasing can continue. By then the show York Times recently called "the among the top ten shows since the origin. While he is supposed to be or defective cabs here). However, had made the point that they comedian for the narcissistic late very beginning of the season. Taxi the group's center of stability, and it hasn't always played things couldn't go on because inflation '70s." Hopefully, Brooks and Co. also returns Brooks to the urban even likes his job (only heaven only for laughs, either. For in- had made it impossible Tor Suz- will continue producing the kind milieu he first used to such good knows why), sometimes the zani- stance, on the very first show of anne's parents to subsidize them of shows that support the very advantage in his late '60s Emmy ness catches his good sense off- the season the cabbies got togeth- as they had in the past. And both opposite of Mark. If they do, Award winning program, Room duty. er to drive Alex to a Miami re- John and Suzanne were equally someone ought to start thinking 222. An anthology series about a All of this sounds as if Taxi is union with a daughter he hadn't adamant about staying in school. about giving them their own net- black schooltcacher (Lloyd the Mary Tyler Moore Show gone seen since she was born. The show has not produced a work. Bl Ilaines), Room 222 was a hit on cruising among the working class. This warmedy (comedy-drama) Travolta or Winkler type star, Albert Auster is an editor of ABC when the industry joke was However, Brooks and Co. have approach has sometimes touched and a sense of a group has devel- Cineaste. MUSIC Disco swamps radio audience . Clenott continues: "Whenever BC finished a distant second with pop is at its peak.of social con- a 7.1 share, certainly no slouclj as Disco now dominates the fierce- sciousness, as in the time of El- major market ratings go. But mir- ly competitive airwaves in the na- vis, the_Beatles and Woodstock, aculously, disco WKTU managed tion's largest city. Disco records something was very offensive to to tip all the givens of the ratings on the RSO label alone held the some sectors, threatening the ex- system in its very first "book." number one spot in the Record isting order. The people who get All of the city's Top 40, AOR World album sales charts for 39 into it really like it. Now that's (album-oriented rock), black, weeks last year. "Disco fashion" happening with disco, which is country and news/talk stations has become a volatile commodity clearly more than a go-go. It's a looked sickly in comparison. in the department stores and shop- social phenomenon." What is important about WK- ping malls. And disco has gained Apparently so, if WKTU's lat- TU's sweep is the broad social acceptability on 'television that est Arbitron listenership rating is range of its new listeners. On the rock'n'roll never attained in 20 any indication. The station, owned quarter-hour, the station reaches WKTU-FM program director Clenott discusses disco with market- years. by SJR Communications, a divi- an audience that is 63 percent ing consultant Wanda Ramos. Matthew Clenott, program di- sion of the San Juan Racing As- core city and 37 percent subur- from critics. But few feel the need ger's raspy sexuality or Spring- •ector of New York's top-rated; sociation, switched to disco from ban; 40 percent black, 34 per- to defend its merit. Theirs is steen's dramatic street sensibil- ,/KTU, an FM station playing what the broadcast industry calls cent white and 26 percent Latin. sales-proven "party music" and ity. Rock and disco have not ex- *':co music around the clock, "beautiful music" last July 24. The format attracts men and discos are temples for relieving actly proven the best of neigh- 'lys, "When pop is at a peak psr- Market researchers predicted women almost equally, dominat- "the week's tensions. Of course bors on the charts, especially now od, the artist is at the forefront, the station would secure a 5 or 6 ing certain segments of 18-34 disco is that, but rock fans claim that disco has claimed as many as '.n disco, unlike the dominant percent share of the New York males and females at different their music cures the same ills, seven spots on Billboard maga- periods of rock, the producer is radio audience, healthy even when times, though the age range of and that their "release" entails zine's Top 10 in an average week, :hestar," he says.