Taxi Moves To NBC - 1982 TV Promo

[AresCassell]

One of the funniest sitcoms

[shobielim]

The promo seen recorded off on KRON-TV Channel 4 in Bay Area.

[woohooboy]

"TaxI" was on the air for five years. The first four was on ABC (1978-1982) and the last was on NBC (1982-1983) For the first two years the show was a ratings hit. It finished it's first season in 10th place with 18.5 million viewers. The second season saw the show drop slightly in ratings, but it was still a strong peformer in 13th place with 17 million viewers

Then ABC moved the show and the ratings fell BIG TIME. The last two years it was on ABC "Taxi" bombed and the move to NBC didn't help

[BIG7THHEAVENFAN]

Perhaps ABC decided to drop TAXI.

[zymaymyn]

The May before this commercial aired, DeVito hosted SNL. He was sitting on his cab, with a detonator, and blew up the ABC building.

[retroguy1976]

i didnt know taxi was on nbc i thought it ran the whole time on abc

[pooka5472]

NBC did not cancel "Mama's Family" to make room for "Taxi." "Mama's Family" was first canceled in 1984, long after "Taxi" left the airwaves.

[VaultMasterDBT]

Taxi moved to NBC in September 1982. Mama's Family didn't premiere until January 1983.

[pooka5472]

@VaultMasterDBT Exactly what I was saying.

[jriley1992]

Taxi ranked 73rd out 77th in Nielsen ratings for the 1982-1983 season. When it was on ABC, it ranked in 53rd place. So NBC was not a "better station".

[pooka5472]

Well, Danny DeVito couldn't have predicted that.

[jriley1992]

Yeah, that's true. I didn't think of it that way.

[WhatsAYak]

Brooks and Marsh's "Complete Directory to Primetime and Cable TV Shows" goofs on DeVito's line, claiming it was "same time, better NETWORK"...having never seen the promo until now, that's what I spent about 15 years thinking it was! LOL

[mrceleb2006]

"Same time, better station."

[AarHan3]

@mrceleb2006 Not exactly! :^X

[mrceleb2006]

@AarHan3 Well, the network change did not help "Taxi"'s ratings, it was cancelled after only one season on NBC following a successful four-season run on ABC.

R.I.P. Jeff Conaway (10/5/1950-5/27/2011)

[masternate61]

i love devito this is hilarious. takin a punch at abc

[rrunner81sg]

Taxi won Best Sitcom Emmies in 1978-1979 through 1980-1981. It was only a major hit in the Nielsens when it was on ABC's monsterous Tuesday night lineup (it followed Three's Company). Then it got moved to Wednesday and go slaugthered by NBC's Diff'rent Strokes (which ran on NBC for years and got moved to ABC).

[mdumas43073]

The irony is that "Taxi" was canceled just at the threshold of NBC's Thursday night lineup becoming a ratings powerhouse. Had the show survived for a couple more seasons it almost surely would have gotten a big bump from having "The Cosby Show", "Family Ties", and "Cheers" ahead of it.

[DaColt88]

lol DeVito is awesome, epically cause my Dad looks just like him

[DaColt88]

lol DeVito is awesome, epically cause my Dad looks just like him

[foppa123]

excellent show

[megamanj2007]

And unfortunately for "Taxi," it was done for good by 1983. Plus, it's really saggy ratings by this point also nearly cancelled "Cheers" (also produced by James Burrows) in its first season.