For nearly three decades, actor Judd Hirsch carried a secret about one of the most beloved sitcoms in television history. Fans of *Taxi* long assumed the cast behind the Emmy-winning classic was as tight-knit as the characters they played. But in a 2023 interview, Hirsch broke his silence and admitted something that stunned viewers and colleagues alike: “I never really enjoyed filming it. Not the way people think I did.
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The confession came during a film press tour, decades after the show ended. Hirsch, who played Alex Rieger, the grounded moral compass of the cab garage, explained that his feelings had nothing to do with the writing or the cast’s talent. Instead, he described a quiet sense of isolation and the heavy burden of being the show’s emotional anchor. , the series premiered in 1978 to little fanfare, but quickly built a reputation for character-driven storytelling rarely seen in sitcoms.
Created by powerhouse producers James L. Brooks, Ed Weinberger, Stan Daniels, and David Davis, the same minds behind *The Mary Tyler Moore Show*, the series followed a dysfunctional crew of New York City cabbies. It won 18 Emmy Awards over five seasons, including three straight wins for Outstanding Comedy Series, and launched the careers of Danny DeVito, Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd, Marilu Henner, and Andy Kaufman. Before the fame, however, Hirsch almost turned the role down entirely.
At the time, he was building a reputation as a serious stage actor on Broadway. “I wasn’t interested in doing TV,”,he later recalled. He wanted to concentrate on theater, but something in the writing pulled him toward the character of Alex Rieger, a layered, empathetic, quietly heartbroken figure rather than a typical sitcom sidekick. After some coaxing, he agreed, but the decision came with difficulties once filming began.
. With Kaufman’s unpredictable off-screen behavior and his abrasive alter ego, lounge singer Tony Clifton,o, disrupting shoots uninvited, o, Hirsch found the environment draining. “You never knew what Andy would do,”,he once said,“and that made it hard to stay grounded as an actor. ”
Other tensions simmered as well.
Tony Danza pushed for more serious storylines for his character, while DeVito occasionally lost his temper over last-minute script changes. Hirsch often acted as an unofficial mediator, working to keep both the energy and the storytelling grounded while suppressing his own instincts as a performer. “They leaned on me to anchor everything,”,he said. “I was the guy who had to react to everyone else’s madness and keep the show real.
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The pressure took a toll, but he never let it affect his work. His performance earned him two Emmy Awards. Throughout the show’s run, the network’s constant uncertainty hung over the production, culminating in a sudden cancellation that shocked the industry. Despite the success, Hirsch noted he often felt like an outsider.
*“People saw a family on screen, but off camera, it was different,”,he said. Older than most of the cast and more serious in temperament, he focused on making the show believable“but it didn’t always feel like I belonged. ”
By 2024, his tone had softened. At a surprise reunion, Hirsch embraced his co-stars and acknowledged,“We made something that mattered.
”,The applause that followed was long and heartfelt, markinga moment of closure not just for him, but for the legacy of *Taxi*. The years of tension and distance seemed to fade, leaving only the shared pride of what they had created together. .
