At the Sunshine Cab Company on the television series Taxi (1978-1983), everyone comes off a little angry for putting in long hours at an unrewarding job while yearning for something better. Everyone that is except for Alex Reiger (Judd Hirsch), the only practical thinker in the entire garage who declares in the initial episode, "Me? I'm a cab driver. I'm the only cab driver in this place." Like Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners, each week the characters of Taxi would take a new chance at success only to return to the garage defeated but still hopeful about the future.

Taxi was not only one of the best situation comedies of the latter 1970s, it was also one of the most awarded and critically acclaimed. It won 18 Emmys in its five year run (winning the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy the first three of those years), and helped to launch...