Why Did John Burns Disappear From ‘Taxi’?
From 1978 to 1983, Taxi reigned as one of TV’s most beloved and critically acclaimed sitcoms. A true ensemble comedy, which aired its final episode on June 15, 1983, the show depicted the lives of a group of New York City cab drivers that included Danny Devito as slimeball dispatcher Louie De Palma, Judd Hirsch as veteran driver Alex Reiger, and Christopher Lloyd, who created some of the show’s most memorable moments as good-hearted burnout Jim Ignatowski.
From the very first episode, Taxi did a great job of balancing the show’s large cast of characters, which also included Andy Kaufman‘s fan-favorite foreigner Latka Gravas and boxer-turned-actor Tony Danza‘s portrayal of… well, a boxer named Tony. Unfortunately, one character from the first season of the show didn’t just get an unlucky break — they got booted from the series entirely: rookie taxi driver John Burns, played by Randall Carver.
Who the Heck was John Burns?
Paramount Television/Courtesy: Everett Collection
Debuting in the show’s very first episode, “Like Father, Like Daughter,” Burns enters the lives of the Sunshine Cab Company crew as a passenger in Alex’s cab, who has accompanied his driver back to the garage to get the change he needed to pay his fare. A recent transplant from the Midwest, Burns reveals that he’s moved to NYC to attend college (pursuing a degree in forestry, of course) and is very unfamiliar with his surroundings. Good-hearted yet naïve, he decides to take a job as a cab driver by the end of the episode.
While most of the show’s characters naturally fell into storylines centered around their respective dreams, goals, and personal lives, John Carver always felt like a tough character to write for. His lone high-profile storyline during his time on the show revolved around a woman named Suzanne, whom he spontaneously met and married. While almost everyone at work thought his decision was insane, the newlyweds decided to give their marriage a try instead of getting it annulled, and we never heard much about it again.
Why Was the John Burns Character Cut from Taxi?
As the first season progressed, both Carver and the writers began to realize that the Jon Burns character was not adding much value to the show. His naïveté often felt too similar to Tony Banta’s simple-mindedness, making the characters’ dialogue often feel interchangeable or, even worse, redundant. One of them simply had to go, and the decision was both mutual and amicable: it was time for Randall Carver to say goodbye to Taxi.
Whatever Happened to Randall Carver?
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
After his role on Taxi came to an end, Randall Carver continued to work steadily in film and television. In 1980, he guest-starred on The Love Boat, appearing alongside fellow guests Donny Osmond and Rich Little, in a role as the fiancé of Loni Anderson (a role plenty of her fans would have killed for!). That same year, he portrayed a killer in the made-for-TV thriller Detour to Terror. Carver also took on the role of Lieutenant Vaughn Beuhler, the somewhat dim-witted program director at a TV station in wartime Saigon, in the short-lived 1980 sitcom The Six O’Clock Follies.
In later years, Carver’s phone continued to ring, opening the door for guest appearances on popular TV comedies such as The Norm Show and Malcolm in the Middle during the late 1990s and early 2000s. He even had a role in the 2007 critically acclaimed film There Will Be Blood, playing Mr. Bankside.
When it came to Taxi, did Randall Carver get the short end of the stick? Maybe, but think of it this way: If the ultimate dream that our favorite folks from the Sunshine Cab Company chased was to escape their cab-driving careers and find success pursuing the work they love, one might say that Randall Carver was the ultimate Taxi success story!
1970s Fall TV
September 2023
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