# Taxi: Actors and Credits **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 30, 2012, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxi-actors-and-credits/639289 "2012-10-30T02:40:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxi-actors-and-credits/639289/62 "2016-11-02T05:47:04Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > (typing very slowly) This is considered insulting toward another poster, so don’t do it again. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxi-actors-and-credits/639289/63 "2016-11-02T12:04:22Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Kaufman was so unknown at the time that Foreign Man once went on the [Dating Game](http://dangerousminds.net/comments/andy_kaufman_punks_the_dating_game_1978) (and never broke character). Maybe unknown with the squares. That was 3 years after he started his multiple appearances on Saturday Night Live including a performance on the 1st episode. As with everything Kaufman it is hard to find out how much of it was him pulling one over on people and how much of it was a joke performed with other people. I find it hard to believe no one on the set knew who he was and that it was a joke. By the time Taxi came on a few years later the credits read “and with Andy Kaufman…” The second most prestigious position in the credits is after the “and.” ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxi-actors-and-credits/639289/64 "2016-11-02T15:56:18Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > That may not be the whole back story, though. There was a different episode where Jim’s father tracked him down, and the gang all went to visit him at the Caldwell family mansion (Ignatowski was a nom de guerre of sorts). His father remarks to Jim that his room was just as he left it, “with the exception of the airplane glue.” But that probably meant that they removed the glue from his room because he’s a druggie now, not that he sniffed it when he was a kid. Believe it or not, some of us used airplane glue for its intended purpose of gluing models together. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxi-actors-and-credits/639289/65 "2016-11-02T17:29:23Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > Are you misinterpreting my reply to RivkahChaya? Because I listed some of the many reasons it is a standout[…] That’s not - > [@](#): > > That probably has more to do with the fact that the entire series was only released a year or 2 ago, compounded with the pent up demand for a version that used the real music, as God intended. - what your comment said; you list exactly ONE reason other than it being recent. Quite a few series have had widely stated “pent up demand” for some reason and sold very poorly. That this one series, of all the 80s staples, has sold so extremely well makes it a special standout. The snippets of 80’s pop are not the make or break on this, IMHO, although I agree that watching reruns with generic noise dubbed in was less than satisfying. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxi-actors-and-credits/639289/66 "2016-11-02T17:31:26Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > It’s always bugged me… How did Judd Hirsch get top billling in the opening credits for the show “Taxi”? Why not Andy Kaufmann? At least he was a name! (Was Judd Hirsch even known?) Not sure Danny Devito was established yet, but maybe. Andy Kaufman is probably as popular now as he ever was alive. When Taxi started he was certainly known to many people, but wouldn’t have been anyone you thought was a star. He was maybe the eighth most famous person on Saturday Night Live. If you think about it, it’s probably more common than not that sitcoms start out with casts made up largely of people with limited stardoms. Nobody on “The Big Bang Theory” was particularly well known prior to the show; Kaley Cuoco had a supporting role on another show so I guess she was the big star. The biggest star on “Family Ties” going in was Meredith Baxter-Birney, and you can be forgiven for not remembering what she was famous for before that; she was swiftly eclipsed by Michael J. Fox. One of the women who played his girlfriend on that show was, of course, Courteney Cox, whose biggest claim to fame prior to that was being the lady who dances onstage with Bruce Springsteen in the “Dancing In The Dark” video. She wasn’t a household name or anything, but was probably the best known person in a little show you might have heard of called “Friends.” One could go on and on; in particular a great many shows have as their star a comedian who’s well known in standup but had few film credits. Hell, I don’t think a lot of people knew who the hell Jerry Seinfeld was before he was in that show, I forget what it was called… the most well known name there was probably Julia Louis-Dreyfus, by virtue of her having been a by-then largely forgotten SNL cast member. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxi-actors-and-credits/639289/67 "2016-11-02T18:18:26Z")
There’s been a trend of late to give stars of previous well known sitcoms their own new sitcoms, with mixed results. Kevin James, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and Tim Allen have all been given new shows within the past few years, James and LeBlanc just this year. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2016, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxi-actors-and-credits/639289/68 "2016-11-02T20:03:33Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > what your comment said; you list exactly ONE reason other than it being recent. Quite a few series have had widely stated “pent up demand” for some reason and sold very poorly. That this one series, of all the 80s staples, has sold so extremely well makes it a special standout. The snippets of 80’s pop are not the make or break on this, IMHO, although I agree that watching reruns with generic noise dubbed in was less than satisfying. I replied it probably sold well due to 1. the entire series, 2. being released recently, 3. with the original music. Again, what are you arguing here? Because you seem to be belaboring the “a lot of series have never made it past a stripped season one or two release” point which is neither here nor there. Is your contention simply that you mistakenly thought I didn’t list enough reasons because it’s your personal belief that the music had nothing to do with it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taxi-actors-and-credits/639289.md?page=3)