Taxi (TV Series) The Great Line (1978) User Reviews

2 'Dear John'' Letters For Randall Carver

[ccthemovieman-1 · 5/10 · 4 March 2010]

I can see why "John" didn't last on "Taxi.," although the show's bosses could have at least told the actor (Randall Carver) why, instead of just letting him go at the end of this first season. In later years, Carver maintained his character on "Taxi" was too similar to Tony Danza's and they just decided to keep Tony instead.

The character, "John Burns," played by Carver, just isn't funny to watch or as appealing as Danza's, even if it was similar. The other regulars are on this show are much funnier. (Yes, one could say Marilu Henner's characters wasn't funny, either, Marilu's looks in an- otherwise-all male show, drew no complaints.)

Anyway, "John" is featured on this episode, but it's a lame story with very few laughs and almost none provided by Carver's character. I can't blame the actor; he didn't write the script (s).. In fact, the writers - who are normally terrific - really didn't do much for poor "John," who gets a "Dear John" letter in this show and then one for real after the season.

Anyways, this story involves John spotting a pretty lady sitting at a nearby table at the gang's local hangout. He's smitten with her and, before you know it, they are married in Maryland (I'm skipping a lot of the story, but it is mostly dumb anyway, and Carver comes across as flat and unbelievable.)

The ending with the two at the female's house with her parents and "Alex" has some good lines but the most fun part of the show doesn't involve any of the regulars but some guy who can down a glass of beer in about one second!

Can a "great" pick-up line really work??

[TxMike · 21 July 2008]

"Taxi" is one of my all-time favorite TV series, and I have been watching TV for about 55 years. I am now re-watching all episodes on DVD, each is about 24 minutes.

This episode starts with all usual cabbies having drinks at their local favorite bar. Humor starts early when Tony challenges another patron to beer guzzling -- $50 to the winner. Well Tony starts in earnest but the other man watches for 1 second then in one quick motion swallows the whole contents of a mug of beer. The man in real life is Bill Foster who billed himself as "the fastest beer drinker in the world." He really was amazing to see.

Anyway, to the story, the guys see 3 attractive girls at a table and discuss how to get their attention. They convince new cabbie Randall Carver as John Burns to use the line, "Let's just skip everything and get married." Well, it works, sort of. Ellen Regan as Suzanne Caruthers is the girl and she and John spend the whole night talking at their own table. A fun episode, to see where it will take us.

(As an aside, later in the show Louie decides to challenge the beer guzzler, and everyone was expecting him to lose. But right before they drank Louie asked the bartender, "Did you ever find the other half of that rat in the beer barrel?" Louie proceeded to drink while the guzzler just stood there with a puzzled look. Louie won the money.)

SPOILERS: John gets back to work and everyone wants to know what happened. He explained that they got married. Each one of them expected the other to stop it, but neither did. (Sort of like the 'Going to Abilene' story.) In the end after they first decided they should get the marriage annulled, they instead decided to give it a chance to work.

I knew that the character of John was boring . . .

[johandav · 3/10 · 19 July 2018]

. . . but the writers on the show didn't have to give us 'The Great Line' just to prove me right. I watched this series when it was first on in the late 70s - early 80s and decided to watch it again now on. I was tempted to skip the first season since it only had Christopher Lloyd in one episode, and I remembered the character of John as being pretty bland. Boy, did this episode prove my point. Not a funny story, and very few of the few laughs provided by John, who's the focal point of this story.