Television series

Taxi

Name: Taxi
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Released: 1978
Cast: Judd Hirsch, Tony Danza, Danny DeVito, Marilu Henner, Christopher Lloyd

A half-hour ensemble comedy set in a New York cab garage full of people whose real plans stalled out — the actor, the boxer, the single mother — all clocking in under a tyrannical dispatcher's cage. Multi-camera and gag-dense, but softer than the insults suggest: real tenderness sits underneath the slapstick about people whose lives didn't go as promised. Funny, generous, occasionally quietly devastating.

TVMaze rating

7.5

If you liked this

Cheers1982

Same barroom logic as Taxi's garage — banter, longing underdogs, a boss-shaped anchor — with James Burrows again shaping the rhythm, so the jokes and the quiet heartbreak underneath them feel instantly familiar.

But The Sam-and-Diane romance runs longer and softer than Taxi's ensemble sprawl; if you want group chaos over a central couple, it can feel narrower.

Barney Miller1975

Another New York workplace sitcom built on a beleaguered boss holding together oddballs — here it's a police precinct — with the same patient, character-first comedy and low-key humanism.

But Almost entirely confined to one room and dialogue-heavy; if Taxi's garage-and-city texture appealed to you, this can feel static.

The Mary Tyler Moore Show1970

The MTM studio that made Taxi possible, with the same warm, adult ensemble comedy about work becoming family — Lou Grant is basically Louie's kinder cousin.

But Gentler and less absurd, with none of Taxi's Jim Ignatowski-style anarchy; it can feel tame if you came for the weirder swings.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Night on Earth1991

Both use the cab as a confession booth where strangers briefly reveal themselves; Night on Earth takes Taxi's idea of found intimacy between driver and passenger and turns it into a quiet, international meditation on chance encounters.

Five taxi rides across five cities in one night, each a small, aching story about strangers colliding in the back of a cab — Jarmusch's deadpan humor and loneliness feel like Taxi's soul stretched into cinema.

But No ensemble, no running jokes, no laugh track — it's slow, partly subtitled, and asks for patience instead of delivering punchlines.

WKRP in Cincinnati1978

Same year, same workplace-family template, dopey management, scrappy underdogs — radio station chaos scratches the exact itch Taxi does.

But Broader and sillier throughout, with less of Taxi's melancholy undertow; the emotional depth doesn't run quite as deep.

NewsRadio1995

A modern descendant — tight ensemble, an oddball boss, a newsroom instead of a garage, and the same generous eye for its strangest characters.

But Faster, more manic pacing and less sentimentality; if you loved Taxi's quiet character beats, this trades them for pure joke density.

Night Court1984no page yet

Another late-night NYC institution stuffed with lovable weirdos and a big soft heart under the gags — Taxi's rowdier younger sibling.

But Broader slapstick, more sitcom artifice; Taxi's naturalism and melancholy are mostly traded away for pure farce.

Superstore2015

A modern retail workplace comedy with the same found-family structure, class-conscious humor, and a cast of specific, lived-in weirdos you slowly fall for.

But Single-camera mockumentary style is a different rhythm entirely; Taxi's multi-cam warmth isn't really replicated here.

30 Rock2006

A workplace ensemble orbiting a chaotic boss figure, cranked into surreal, joke-a-second absurdity that still owes something to Taxi's format.

But Much faster and more referential, with little emotional grounding; Taxi's quieter, sadder moments have no real equivalent here.

Community2009

Another group of misfits forced together — study group instead of cab company — who become an unlikely family, with genre-bending swings that echo Jim's oddball energy.

But Far more meta and parody-driven; the grounded realism of Taxi's world is largely absent.

The Apartment1960

Taxi's trick was letting laughs sit right next to loneliness and failed dreams; The Apartment did that first, proving a comedy could break your heart without ever losing its jokes.

A bittersweet workplace story about a lonely office drone lending out his flat to climbing executives — Billy Wilder's mix of sharp wit and real heartbreak is the tonal blueprint Taxi quietly inherited.

But Black-and-white, decades older, and its office-politics satire moves at a more deliberate, dialogue-heavy pace than a half-hour sitcom.

Taxi Driver1976

Same city, same yellow cab, same idea that driving strangers around is a window into urban loneliness — Taxi turns that ache into warmth and community, Taxi Driver lets it curdle into isolation and rage.

The other great New York cab movie — Scorsese's psychological descent into isolation and simmering violence, seen through a driver who can't connect to the city around him.

But There's no comfort here, no jokes, no family — just dread building toward real, upsetting violence; a total tonal reversal of Sunshine Cab.