Taxi and The Tony Danza Show


Taxi (1978-1983)
The Tony Danza Show (1997)
Type: Crossover

   Say, does anyone remember that hit of the 1997 season the Tony Danza Show? No? Then you were clearly alive in 1997 because nobody alive that year watched the show (sorry Tony). There are only two things of note about the show, the first being a crossover.

   Tony Danza starred as a sportswriter raising two daughters on his own. He was afraid both of his computer and of learning to date after separating from his wife. That's all you need to know. Any more and you might fall asleep.

   But the last episode that aired before the show got the ax featured Tony's character, Tony, getting a lift from an oddly familiar looking cabby. It was Carol Kane reprising her role of Simka Gravas from the classic show Taxi. Why? Well because Tony Danza got his big break starring on Taxi as a boxer named, uh, Tony. He then went on to further success in the show Whose The Boss playing a male housekeeper named... Tony. He also had a short lived series named Hudson Street where he played a cop. And unlike his other roles THIS cop was named... okay he was named Tony too. He did play the voice of a baby in Baby Talk and the voice of an alligator in a show called The Mighty Jungle and neither of them were named Tony! So there!

   Sorry. Off track there. On Taxi Simka had been the wife of foreign mechanic Latka Gravas, a character invented and played by super comic Andy Kaufman. Things must have changed since the days of Taxi. Simka had not been a cabby on the show. I guess times had gotten a little tough financially for her.

   I did say there were two things of note about the show didn't I? I guess I should mention the second. It had a sappy crappy theme song that sticks to your brain like peanut butter to the roof of your mouth. A couple of Los Angeles radio talk show hosts taped the thing and to this day, some three years after the show went belly up, still occasionally play the song on the air as a goof. The authors of The Complete Directory To Prime Time Network And Cable TV Shows (the bible of TV geeks everywhere) even felt the need to mention it in there piece on the show. For God's sake these guys didn't even mention classic theme songs when talking about shows like Gilligan's Island! That is how intense this song's impact is.

"We got love! Every day, we got love!"

"Me got sick! Too much sugary crud. Me got sick!"


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