Editing Taxi (TV series) (section)

==Premise and themes==
The show focuses on the employees who work the night shift at the fictional Sunshine Cab Company, and its principal setting is the company's fleet garage in [[Manhattan]]. Among the drivers, only Alex Reiger, who is disillusioned with life, considers cab driving his profession. The others view it as a temporary/part time/side job.

Elaine Nardo is a single mother working as a receptionist at an art gallery. Tony Banta is a boxer with a losing record. Bobby Wheeler is a struggling actor. John Burns (written out of the show after the first season) is working his way through college. All take pity on "Reverend Jim" Ignatowski, an aging hippie minister who is burnt out from drugs, so they help him become a cabbie. The characters also include Latka Gravas, their innocent, wide-eyed mechanic from an unnamed foreign country, and Louie De Palma, the despotic dispatcher.

A number of episodes involve a character having an opportunity to realize their dream to move up in the world, only to see it yanked away. Otherwise, the cabbies deal on a daily basis with their unsatisfying lives and with Louie's abusive behavior and contempt (despite being a former cab driver himself). Louie's assistant, Jeff Bennett, is rarely heard from at first, but his role increased in later seasons.

Despite the humor of the show, ''Taxi'' often tackles such dramatic life issues as [[presenteeism]], [[victimization]], [[adultery]], pre-marital [[pregnancy]], [[addiction|drug addiction]], [[single parent]]hood, [[Visual Impairment|blindness]], [[obesity]], [[dissociative identity disorder]], [[animal abuse]], [[homosexuality]], [[racism]], teenage [[Runaway child|runaways]], [[divorce]], [[nuclear war]], [[sexual harassment]], [[PMDD|premenstrual mood disorders]], [[Problem gambling|gambling addiction]], and [[grief]].<!-- What was then known as PMS is now known as PMDD; "PMS" has become the name of something much more common and less traumatic. -->