Taxi: Season 4

Seasons four and five are without question Taxi's best two seasons. Thus, the long wait since the season 3 box set release has been interminable. But better late than never.Season four is particularly notable as the first season in which Jeff Conaway is no longer a member of the cast (although he does make one last appearance in the series for the episode "Bobby Doesn't Live Here Anymore" and one other episode in which he appears, "Fledgling," was shot during season 3 but not aired until season 4). While the Bobby character was an important part of the show during the first three episodes, his departure actually allowed the cast to get even tighter and the writers to explore the relationships between the characters even deeper.The fourth season also contains the hilarious Emmy award winning episode "Jim the Psychic," which deservingly won the award for best writing. Another highlight is "Elegant Iggy," which the authors of the book Hailing Taxi, a comprehensive look at the series, cite as their favorite episode of the entire series' five-year run.As for this DVD set, I'm so happy to see this season released. But it's not without compromises. The first, while probably relatively subtle to most buyers, is that the entire set was squeezed onto only 3 DVDs, which means they had to compress the video with a slightly lower bitrate than we'd normally see with professionally released DVDs. As a result, if you have a high-end display, you might notice more MPEG-2 compression artifacts than normal.The other is the removal of all Billy Joel "Vienna Waits" audio clips in the episode of the same name. This is a shame, but not a huge surprise. A box set like this is only going to make a modest amount of money and the cost of licensing music by a well-known artist is incredibly high. Using a known recording on a TV show requires a specific synchronization license, a mechanical use license, AND a master user license. What surprised me, though, was not the deleted Billy Joel clips, but that even the performance by the actor playing guitar on the airplane had to be cut, which wouldn't require the master use license. But again, this is a compromise we'd have to deal with in order to see any of this season's content out on DVD.Along the lines of the above, there is at least one other music-related edit that really surprised me. At the end of the episode "Tony's Lady" as originally broadcast, Jim leaves the garage singing the old standard "Got a Date with an Angel." But on this DVD, it's abruptly cut out. I'd be surprised this song is still in copyright. But even if it is, it's hard to image that the synchronization and mechanical use license for that 15 seconds would cost very much at all--especially at the expense of a wonderfully funny moment.But in all, it's still wonderful to see this season finally coming out and here's hoping season five (my favorite of all the seasons) will follow shortly thereafter.

Just announced today! TAXI SEASON 5th and Final Season is tentatively being released near Christmas! Now our collections will be complete for all Taxi fans out there.Frankly, it's a mystery why this classic series has taken so long to complete. At least Paramount has done a great job of finishing up what they started, which is rare for many dvd companies, even if there are slight music alterations. (Mary Tyler Moore being the perfect example of another long wait)Season Four continued to stretch our understanding of the gang. This was the year we saw far more in-depth coverage of all of them. What I found so profound about TAXI was how some of the episodes ended on a sad, poignant note. It understood that with comedy comes pain, and never shied away from human flaws and sadness. Watching Taxi was like watching 24 minute theatrical well written plays. You got the laughs, but you never left an episode without the writers and producers sharing a new revelation about Elaine, Alex, Jim, and even Louie.It is such a shame we never see Taxi episodes in repeats any longer. I always felt it was because of how "deep" Taxi got. I think this is why the series has not had it's due in the syndication afterlife. Taxi is not about a string of insults or quick comebacks, as most sitcoms and comedies rely on. (Think Will and Grace, or anything else that has cartoon-like characters) A laugh was never cheap; it was always immediately followed up with something discomforting, and forced the viewer to really think.

Wow... FINALLY! I have been waiting four years for Season 4 to be released. Back in the fall of 2005 I had heard a rumor that Season 4 was going to be released in November of that year, so I told my boyfriend-at-the-time that I wanted it for Xmas. He got Season 3 instead, which I already had. Well, okay, no problem. But upon returning to Amazon.com, I found out that Season 4's release had been put on hiatus, likely due to the production company having trouble getting the rights to include some song in one of the episodes. That made no sense to me since they had obviously gotten the rights to use it in the first place, but what the hell do I know about copyright law? Then I started hearing rumors about poor sales being the reason for the delay (and possible termination of plans to release any further seasons). Well, I am glad that I came here on a whim to check the status of Season 4; and I'm glad that Season 4 is on its way to me; and I sincerely hope Season 5 will be released in December like Amazon says it will be.Now, if we can only convince them to release Season 3 of "Night Court"...

Four years of frustration (and bitterness towards Paramount Home Video) were lifted when I learned Season 4 of Taxi is being released next September 22. My daily routine of checking for any sign of Taxi on [...] will finally have to come to an end.At last we'll be able to watch such classic episodes as the one where Louie's mother marries the Japanese guy (Louie: "she'll never adjust !"); the one where Elaine pokes Louie's eye for spying her while changing (Elaine: "why are you crying only on that one eye ?" Louie: "It's not the end of the world "); the one where Louie takes revenge on Ted Danson for ruining Elaines hair (Alex: "you're better than that Elaine", Louie: "She may be better than that, I'm not"). And how about Latka's wedding, Jim forecasting the TV ratings, etc., etc., etc.?I have to think Season 5 won't be that far off, at least not until 2013 or something like that. That's the season Taxi switched from ABC to NBC and for whatever reason I never got to see a single episode.Plenty to look forward to, that' for sure.

Great Series.Awesome talent.Thank you.Fast shipping +++AAA*** God BlessDon.

If you love taxi buy it. Classic thoughtful comedy from start to end. Get your dvd changed to multi region if you live in the UK (just google for the "cheats" to change your model of DVD player). Or buy a second hand one from the USA. use your computer to play it etc etc. Do not be put off by the region 1. Just buy it!

If you are into comedy and slapstick, this is a series not to be missed. Great acting and story lines.

just as good as all the rest!