was Reverend Jim written to replace / fill in for the almost never there Latka
Christopher Lloyd is just as funny and we can assume a far more professional working actor than Kauffman
Jim and Louie are the best characters!
shareAs I understand it, Reverend Jim was originally a one-shot character who was so popular they decided to bring him back. Part of what makes the show great is that they *didn't* take an either/or attitude, they *didn't* say "well, we've got one off-the-wall character, we don't need another one." The variety of characters and ensemble nature of the show are a big part of what makes it work.
shareIt is like Larry, Darryl and Darryl, no?
shareLatka ( Andy Kaufman) didn't really like episodic network television and did his best to get thrown off the set.
shareI'd have to go with Reverend Jim. I liked Latka but Jim's spaced out behaviour was hilarious and he was an immensely endearing character! For me he was the funniest character in the series.
shareI find the Jim character *much* more entertaining than Latka. The more I watch Taxi, the more tired I get of the Latka character, and I actually find him tied with John as the least enjoyable character of the series.
It should be against the law to use 'LOL'; unless you really did LOL!
Jim is far more entertaining than Latka. Latka was just irritating with his stupid gibberish supposed to be taken as his mother tongue. Jim wins it. Easily.
Rab: "Take a man's faimly away and whit's he got?"
Jamesie: "Nothing but money and freedom!"
Jim was, for all intents and purposes, a replacement for the John Burns character.
shareWell, Latka is inherently selfish and repetitive, and a bit simple-minded, even if sometimes unpredictable. He was a fish out of the water, trying to adjust his weird customs to the American lifestyle, and often failing.
Jim offered way more interesting and deep scenarios, as his drugged-out brain could be extended to end up in almost any kind of situation.
Interestingly, Jim seemed more 'stable' than Latka, which was always a little bit quirky even to the extent of 'becoming someone else', which never really lead anywhere in the end, but gave Kaufman the opportunity to show off his acting skills and personality in a bit wider range.
Jim is definitely likable - after all, we all know the actor from and love the actor in Back to the Future as the eccentric 'Doc' Emmett Brown.
It seems Jim is sincere, honest, and has a genuine good will, but he's just always a bit confused and misinterprets situations a lot, and tends to forget things. So we feel he's more of a victim.
Latka doesn't have those problems, so he doesn't have as much of a 'victim appeal', and he comes off as a bit irritating and selfish, and the 'foreign language' doesn't really give the viewer anything much.
He also doesn't always have funny lines. The most funny situations tend to be when he wins against DeVito's character.
It's still pretty entertaining stuff, so both actors can be fun to watch. Andy Kaufman, though, wasn't really at his best in Taxi, but in his other performances and public stunts.
I heard the staff didn't really like Andy that much.
shareThey dropped John at the end of Season One because the character was a dud.
They had an open slot and hired another actor to fill that slot.
Love Latka, but reverend Jim is much better