B-Team Sequel: Luc Besson still wrote and produced Taxi 5, but no director nor main actor from the first batch of films (bar two supporting roles, Bernard Farcy and Edouard Montoute) returned.
Fake Nationality: Petra is German. The actress who played her, Emma Sjöberg-Wiklund, is Swedish.
Fatal Method Acting: On Taxi 2, a Peugeot 406 was supposed to land in a pile of cardboard after a stunt, but missed and hit several crew. Cameraman Alain Dutartre later died of internal injuries while his assistant Jean-Michel Bar broke both legs.
Troubled Production: Production on Taxi 2 in 1999 was halted for a full week when a camera operator was killed when filming the Ramp Jump scene.
Underage Casting: General Bertineau mentions that he fought in the Algerian War, which ended in 1962. Actor Jean-Christophe Bouvet was born in 1947 — that war ended a few days short of his 15th birthday, which is under the minimum age of military service back then (19).
What Could Have Been: Franck Gastambide wrote, directed and played in Taxi 5. He wanted Daniel (Samy Naceri), the badass taxi driver protagonist of the previous films, to appear in it with an important role to play in the climax. Luc Bessonrefused. Gastambide then asked Naceri about a short cameo. Naceri refused the cameo, stating "I was expecting a little more respect after 30 years in the movie business".
For the television series:
Ability over Appearance: Elaine was originally going to be a middle aged woman of about 40; who was supposed to be a mother of a 16 year old. But then Marilu Henner, who was only 25, was so great in the audition they changed it to a young woman in her late 20s with two small children, for her.
Actor-Inspired Element: Louie's story in "Louie Goes Too Far" (relating his humiliation and vulnerability in having to buy boys' "husky" sizes) was based on improv Danny DeVito had done before with Brooks and Weinberger, about how he'd hated going clothes shopping with his mother because he couldn't buy off the rack and always had to have regular-sized suits tailored down to fit him.
Adored by the Network: While Taxi was one of the "bottom 10" shows of the 1981-1982 television season, NBC (who was run at the time by Grant Tinker, who previously worked with the show's creators on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show while he was president of MTM Enterprises) still saw a worthy product in it and Un-Cancelled the show after ABC dropped it. Unfortunately, it "fared" no better with viewers on its new network and NBC was forced to cancel it (neither Cheers nor Family Ties got better numbers, but were spared by their numerous Emmy nominations; both wound up running much longer than Taxi).
Nick at Nite and later TV Land kept Taxi on reruns for around a decade, building 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 The '70s.
California Doubling: The show was mostly filmed at Hollywood, but a few scenes were shot in NY.
Cancellation: The series was cancelled twice - by ABC in 1982 and by NBC in 1983.
Cast the Runner-Up: The producers originally wanted an African-American actor to play Bobby. Cleavon Little was a finalist for the part. Jeff Conaway was originally considered to play John, but asked to audition for Bobby. Conaway was the only white actor who was considered for the role. Casting director Joel Thurm later said that he thought Cleavon would have been a better fit to play the character.
The Cast Showoff: Kaufman was able to perform dead-on impersonations of both Judd Hirsch and Tony Danza at some point during the series' run, in addition to creating the Vic Ferrari persona.
Channel Hop: From ABC to NBC in its last season. Ironically, the show which beat it in the ratings during the third season on NBC, Diff'rent Strokes, moved to ABC during its eighth and final season. HBO also made a bid to pick the show up. At the time, no cable network had even aired a sitcom before (mostly because almost no one had cable back then), which would have made for a very daring (and risky) move.
The Character Died with Him: Victor Buono played Jim Ignatowski's father in one episode. When he died, they killed off the character as well.
Creator Backlash: Jeff Conaway admitted that he came to find the role of Bobby rather monotonous to play. He identified with the character but felt Bobby to be underwritten compared to other, more defined characters like Louie or Jim.
Creator's Pest: Some of the writers apparently felt that Simka was this when she became a regular in the final season (with a more abrasive personality than she had in her guest appearances). According to an interview with writer-producers Glen and Les Charles, some writers simply refused to write for Simka.
Enforced Method Acting: One episode called for Louie DePalma to whisper something to Elaine Nardo, and for her to respond by slapping him and saying "That's disgusting!". Danny DeVito whispered such sweet things to Marilu Henner during rehearsals that she was genuinely shocked when he started whispering not-so-nice things, and she blew several takes because of it (to DeVito's delight).
When Carol Kane joined the cast as Latka's girlfriend Simka, Andy Kaufman taught her their country's "language" by inviting her to dinner and refusing to speak English or let her do so.
In one episode, guest star and real-life boxer Carlos Palomino accidentally delivered a real left hook to Tony's face. You can see Palomino pull his hand towards his mouth in horror for a second on realizing what he did before getting back in character and turning around to exit.
Hostility on the Set: "A Full House for Christmas" in Season One was supposed to feature Tony Clifton — Andy Kaufman's Alter-Ego Acting persona — as Louie's brother. However, Clifton's behavior was so obnoxious that it got to the point where everyone banded together and threatened to revolt if Kaufman wasn't fired immediately (he didn't know it, but they had been tipped off as who Clifton really was). The producers managed to come up with a compromise where they called Tony Clifton into a cast meeting, fired him, and had security guards physically throw him off the lot. This ensured that Kaufman couldn't bring the Clifton persona back onto the show, satisfied the rest of the cast enough to keep on working with Kaufman, and Kaufman himself had the satisfaction of furthering the conceit that he and Clifton were two different people.
Conversely, Tony Danza has stated that Andy himself wasn't rude or hostile while working, despite his distaste for the show, but he sometimes rubbed people the wrong way with his complete detachment; even with his two-days-a-week stipulation, his absence forced the crew to often use a stand-in because he could never make rehearsal on time, and he'd stay separate from the other actors and meditate in the parking lot before filming. At one point Danza lost his patience, pulled a fire extinguisher off the wall and sprayed him with foam just to get some kind of reaction — and Andy calmly stared at him as he did it.
At the Golden Globes, Jeff Conaway punched Kaufman in the face believing Andy thought he was better than the rest of his co-stars. After that, Kaufman never participated in any of the other cast-and-crew get-togethers ever again. Though according to Conaway, he and Kaufman at least buried the hatchet on the Golden Globes incident and even hung out a few times outside of work. People in Andy's inner circle heavily implied that since Andy liked to keep the cast and crew at arm's length anyway, the fight with Conaway provided him with an easy out.
Out of Order: A mostly unintentional example (because of the SAG strike in the summer of 1980). Two episodes ("Jim the Psychic" and "Fledging", the last featuring Jeff Conaway as a regular) were filmed in late '80 for the third season, but they aired in September and December 1981 (during the fourth season), respectively.
Danny DeVito's own mother Julia appeared as Louie's mom in a few episodes.
Tony Danza's son Marc Anthony appeared in two episodes of the second season, appearing in one as the kid Tony wanted to adopt.
Averted with Christopher and writer David Lloyd, with both being unrelated. Ironically, David is the father of another (also unrelated) ChristopherLloyd.
Michele Conaway, Jeff Conaway's sister, guest-starred as an actress in the episode "Bobby's Big Break". Her character and Bobby were supposed to kiss as part of a scene for a soap opera Bobby was appearing on, but the producers decided against it, thinking it would be creepy to have a real-life brother and sister kissing on-screen.
Role-Ending Misdemeanor: Jeff Conaway's drug problems led to him leaving the show after three seasons. One time, he was so strung out that he couldn't perform, so Bobby's lines were given to the other characters. It was then that the producers realized that Conway was expendable.
Screwed by the Network: An unintentional example. To boost the show's ratings, ABC placed Taxi for its third season on Wednesday, opposite NBC's hit show, Diff'rent Strokes. To be short, ratings dipped considerably (but not to the extent of Soap, which, by competing with The Facts of Life, hit rock bottom and was swiftly canned).
Surprisingly Lenient Censor: Shots of Jim sniffing the paint as the gang get together to paint Elaine's apartment. Director Jim Burrows said he was surprised ABC let him keep it in.
Throw It In!: While going through his dead father's possessions, Jim places his Dad's coat over the back of a recliner chair. After a few seconds this caused the chair to open up into the reclining position almost as if his Dad was sitting in it. According to Christopher Lloyd this was completely an accident and his shocked reaction is genuine.
Troubled Production: Andy Kaufman never took the show seriously and often made ludicrous demands, most notably his showing up as Tony Clifton for one episode and causing utter chaos. To a lesser extent, Jeff Conaway suffered from a heroin addiction that kept leaving him unable to work for long periods, until he was fired.
Un-Cancelled: The show was abruptly cancelled by ABC after its fourth season, but it was picked by NBC for another year before being cancelled for good. Ads for the NBC season read "Same Time, Better Station"◊
Underage Casting: Victor Buono appeared on one episode as Mr. Caldwell, Jim's estranged father. Buono and Christopher Lloyd were born in the same year.
Vindicated by Cable: As mentioned above, the show's wacky humor set it apart from the rest of the sitcoms made at the time, becoming a victim of low ratings which led to its early ending after five seasons (Diff'rent Strokes lasted eight seasons (the last ironically on ABC), the same amount as Who's the Boss? and The Cosby Show, while both Cheers and The Jeffersons lasted eleven seasons, and All in the Family combined with Archie Bunker's Place aired for thirteen years). During The '90s it was heavily re-run on Nick @ Nite.
Wag the Director: Andy Kaufman didn't want to do the series due to his dislike of sitcoms and had several conditions for doing so - that he only had to be on the set two days a week, fourteen episodes per season (and this was negotiated down in later years), and that Tony Clifton make guest appearances.
The Season 1 episode "A Full House for Christmas" was supposed to guest star TonyClifton 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.
Originally "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.
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