“Fathers of the Bride”
Not available for streaming on Hulu or CBS All Access; there are some pretty good deals on DVD copies of the third season on Amazon.
What kind of show hires Louise Lasser, one of the great weird TV stars of all time, just to make a bunch of jokes about her weight? As Alex’s ex-wife, who’s only been hinted at throughout the show, Lasser gives one of the best guest performances on the show thus far, but this episode doesn’t feel like much more than a wasted opportunity. It has a great sitcom set-up: Alex’s daughter (the one from the pilot) is getting married, and Alex didn’t receive an invitation. Elaine convinces him to crash the wedding party (and bring her along), where he runs into Phyllis, his ex-wife who he hasn’t seen in 18 years. (Phyllis’s new husband barely factors into the episode, calling into question the title, but that might be thinking too hard.)
There are many genuine human moments throughout the episode, particularly between Judd Hirsch and Lasser, but every so often, a joke about Phyllis’s weight will be dropped, a jarring reminder of both the era this show is in (the episode aired in 1980) and, upon reflection, how little progression there has been in sitcoms since then.
“Elaine’s Strange Triangle”
https://dailymotion.com/video/xwh1qd
Not available for streaming on Hulu or CBS All Access; there are some pretty good deals on DVD copies of the third season on Amazon.
Taxi can be infuriatingly inconsistent; sometimes we’ll get an episode like “Fathers of the Bride,” which is coarse and largely unnecessary, and sometimes we’ll get an episode like this, which both humane and extremely funny. Tony sets up Elaine with Kirk, who they met at the local bar together, and things apparently go well. But Kirk comes to the garage one day and tells Tony that it wasn’t Elaine he was after–it was him. (This is actually entirely believable and understandable because young Tony Danza is adorable and always wearing tight jeans). As opposed to the macho gay panic that lots of other shows would and have resorted to, Tony’s reaction is more confused than anything, and concerned for Elaine–admittedly a strange response to see in 2016, but again, something that’s believable and understandable for Tony, the dumbest character on the show.
Tony ropes Alex—who rants about not wanting to be involved in other peoples’ problems, which he’d never complained about on the show before—into telling Kirk that he needs to tell Elaine the truth. Alex and Kirk meet at a gay bar, where Alex almost gets gay panicky. Almost–he ends the episode dancing on top of the bar and being carried down. Tony shows up right at that moment: “Elaine’s getting her heart broken and you’re having a great time dancing!” That Alex, portrayed as a guy’s guy throughout the show, is indeed allowed to have a great time dancing at a gay bar on this show is refreshing. Look at how poorly Friends handled this sort of plotline a full 15 years later.