‘Taxi’ Launched a Million Careers When It Debuted 40 Years Ago

Every TV show’s credits tell a story. They detail beginnings and ends of careers, all part of the never-ending middle of the larger story of television. Forty years ago today, one particular opening credits sequence first appeared, kicking off a lot of meta pop culture storylines that are still paying off today. That opening credits sequence belonged to Taxi, a show that debuted on this date in 1978.

We don’t really talk about Taxi all that much, which is frankly bonkers considering just how massive of an impact the show’s had. Just look at the names behind the camera: the show comes from four of the driving forces behind The Mary Tyler Moore Show (James L. Brooks, Stan Daniels, David Davis, and Ed. Weinberger). And oh yeah–that’s the same James L. Brooks that co-created The Simpsons. Not only that, Taxi would see Glen and Les Charles take charge just like they did on The Bob Newhart Show a few years earlier; the Charles brothers would create Cheers right after wrapping Taxi.

The Simpsons, Cheers, Mary Tyler Moore–Taxi has an impressive pedigree behind the scenes. But just look at the people in front of the camera, too! This one show launched the careers of some of the biggest names in comedy, TV, and movies–plenty of them still working and still relevant today.

Christopher Lloyd was primarily known as a Broadway star when he landed a guest star gig on a Season 1 episode of Taxi. That guest spot turned into a full-fledged starring role starting a third of the way into Season 2, when you see the cabbies (and really the show itself) bend over backwards to get this spaced-out ex-hippie a driver’s license. Lloyd won back-to-back Emmys for the role of Reverend Jim Ignatowski, and then became arguably the most prolific comedic actor of the ’80s and early ’90s. The Back to the Future trilogy, the Addams Family films, Clue, Who Framed Roger Rabbit–the guy was everywhere.

Marilu Henner’s five seasons on Taxi earned her five Golden Globe nominations and propelled her from a Broadway mainstay to a TV one. Since the end of Taxi, Henner had her own sitcom (Evening Shade) and done guest spots on Cybill, The Comeback, ER, Party Down and, more recently, a recurring role on Brooklyn Nine-Nine and a stint competing on Dancing with the Stars.

As the lead of the ensemble, Judd Hirsch held this ragtag group together–a tall order that he was more than able to fill. He won two Emmys for playing Alex Reiger, the only cab driver that wanted to be a cab driver. He got an Academy Award nomination for Ordinary People during Taxi’s run, and reached a massive audience 16 years later when he appeared in the blockbuster sci-fi movie Independence Day. What’s he been up to lately? Still knocking out performances in acclaimed and/or blockbuster movies (The Meyerowitz Stories and Independence Day: Resurgence), and he just had another sitcom finish a run (Superior Donuts).

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Of all his cast mates, Tony Danza turned his success as boxer/cabbie Tony Banta into instant TV superstardom by jumping straight from Taxi to the even more successful Who’s the Boss? That right there makes him one of the most recognizable names and faces in TV history, and then you add his stint as a talk show host and recent appearances on Broad City and you got a guy that your grandma and nieces all know. Now he’s starring in an upcoming Netflix comedy with Josh Groban called The Good Cop. You can’t stop Tony!

When Taxi started, Jeff Conaway was most likely the most recognizable of the entire cast thanks to his role in the smash hit musical Grease. Conaway played struggling actor Bobby Wheeler, and the two’s fates seemed intertwined in retrospect. Like Bobby, Conaway actually had a lot of trouble maintaining steady work; he even left Taxi halfway through the show’s run, partly due to his bad drug habit. Still, Conaway did find that later-in-life comeback in a truly wild place: he played Zack Allan on the sci-fi series Babylon 5 for four seasons.

Andy Kaufman is such a cultural icon, known for doing so much wacky stuff, that it is frankly baffling to think of him as a sitcom guy. But he was, the surreal performance artists provocateur comedian fulfilled Taxi’s “goofy weirdo” quota by playing Latka Gravas. The show took Kaufman, previously an underground comedy sensation, and introduced him to the mainstream. For plenty of comedy fans and TV historians, Latka is the gateway into the world of Kaufman–a world that is still being explored via docs like Netflix’s Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond.

Carol Kane was maybe the only actor kooky enough and committed enough to her craft to go toe-to-toe with a bizarre performer like Kaufman, and she did just that as his wife Simka. Kane was already an acclaimed actress before Taxi, appearing in Dog Day Afternoon, Annie Hall, and Hester Street (which got her an Oscar nom). Like her co-star Christopher Lloyd, Kane spent the ’80s and ’90s popping up in hit comedies like The Princess Bride, Scrooged, and Addams Family Values. In the 21st century, she’s found even more fame by appearing in Wicked and on Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

It shows just how stacked Taxi’s cast was that I’m now at Danny DeVito and wondering if he’s the biggest star it produced. Christopher Lloyd, Andy Kaufman, Tony Danza, Danny DeVito–hard to tell! Taxi took DeVito, originally a Broadway actor that gained some recognition in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (which also starred a pre-Taxi Lloyd, BTW), and made him a star. Everyone wanted more of this foul-mouthed maniac, and DeVito translated his small screen success into roles in movie hits like Terms of Endearment, Romancing the Stone, Throw Momma from the Train, Batman Returns, Get Shorty–I could keep going. DeVito rejuvenated his career, reaching a whole new generation and turning into a living meme generator, with his role as the depraved Frank Reynolds on the still running It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (a show that now has more episodes than Taxi).

Even Rhea Perlman got her start on Taxi, playing Louie DePalma’s love interest Zena for 5 episodes. That gig led to her getting Cheers, and Perlman was far from the only Cheers member to step foot in the Taxi garage. Ted Danson and George Wendt also appeared on the show too.

Sitcoms never have this stacked of a cast, seriously, and the years have only made Taxi’s aggressive, offbeat ensemble even more legendary. Four decades have passed and these characters, these actors, are still making us laugh.

Stream Taxi on Hulu