"You see that guy over there? Now, he's an actor. The guy on the phone? He's a prizefighter. The lady over here? She's a beautician. The man behind her? He's a writer. Me? I'm a cabdriver. I'm the only cabdriver in this place."

Welcome to The Sunshine Cab Company, where the career aspirations of the taxi-driving employees sit as idle as a yellow cab parked along a deserted curb on a slow night, just hoping to be noticed. And through their trials and tribulations, their triumphs, and more often, their failures, this collection of cab driver delivered some of the most memorable and hilarious moments in the history of television sitcoms.

Debuting on ABC in 1978, Taxi was the creation of James L. Brooks (The Simpsons) and Stan and David Daniels, who got the idea for the show from a non-fiction article in New York magazine about the lives of various NYC cab drivers. They assembled an ensemble cast of epic proportions that included Judd Hirsch, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Tony Danza, Marilu Henner, Jeff Conaway and Carol Kane and placed them in some of the craziest, yet often equally thought-provoking, situations that television audiences had ever seen.

Alex Reager (Hirsch,) the only real cab driver in the mix was everyone’s confidant at the Sunshine Cab Company. A reserved and intelligent soul, he was a disillusioned soul who probably should have taken some of his own advise. His complete opposite was his supervisor, Louie DePalma (DeVito,) perhaps the most immoral, loud-mouthed and despised boss that has ever lived. Louie’s seeming purpose in life was to attack everyone within earshot and remind each on a daily basis of how worthless they were. He had plenty of targets to fire his verbal arsenal too – from Elaine, the dancer (Henner) to Tony, the boxer (Danza,) from Jeff, the actor (Conaway) to recent immigrant Latka Gravis (Kaufman) Perhaps the strangest inhabitant of the garage, however, was the severely drug-addled, but immensely lovable Reverend Jim (Lloyd) who was in a world of his own. In later seasons, Latka found the love of his life, a charming fellow immigrant named Simka, who shared Latka’s native language as well as an assortment of strange quirks from the old country.

There is an endless supply of magical comical moments from the series, but a few stand-out above the rest. One of the most memorable (and one that got one of the biggest laughs ever on television) was when Reverend Jim went to get his driver’s license. The whole gang takes him to the DMV and stands off to the side as he attempts to take the written portion of the test. When he gets stumped on the question asking “what does a yellow light mean?” he asks his buddies for help. As nonchalantly as possible, they reply, “Slow down.” To which Jim responds, “Whhhaaaat Doooeees aaaa yelllllllow liiiight mean?” They give him the same response each time, and each time he asks the question slower and slower. Much hilarity ensues.

Other memorable occasions found Latka marketing his own brand of cookies “just like de Famous Amos.” They are enormously popular, mainly because their secret ingredient is cocaine. Latka and Simka’s bizarre marriage also provided plenty of comedy gold, as did the episode where Louie has a dream which tells him the outrageous circumstances in which Alex is about to meet his demise. Other episodes were more touching, such as when Jim accidentally destroys Louie’s apartment, thanks to an accidental fire and when Alex was reunited with his estranged young daughter.

Always funny, sometimes poignant, Taxi was a ratings success in its first two years, owed in part to the exposure it got in a timeslot that had it following Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley and Three’s Company. When it was moved from that dream slot into other more competitive slots, its ratings started to fall. After four seasons, Taxi was cancelled by ABC – and almost immediately picked up by NBC for its fifth and final season. The network placed it right behind their own hit series, Cheers, but that wasn’t enough to save the show. Still, while it may have been underappreciated by the networks, it found plenty of industry recognition, winning 18 of the 31 Emmy Awards it was nominated for, as well as winning 4 of 25 Golden Globe nominations.

Over the years, Taxi has won over plenty of new converts, thanks to syndication. And looking back, it is clear that it was one of the best-written sitcoms ever, with an amazing cast that, for the most part at least, was able to propel their career to amazing heights following its demise. Taxi will be remembered for years to come as a reminder of just how funny the medium of television can truly be when you put the right people on stage together. Chemistry is what made Taxi truly special.