Marilu Henner Says Taxi Had TV’s Hottest Cast, Shades Cheers, Tips Hat to Friends
On the Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan podcast, Marilu Henner declared that Taxi’s cast had more on-screen heat than most sitcoms, sparing only a cautious “maybe” for Friends. I am Avery Sinclair, here to slice through the nostalgia fog and deliver the receipts.
Another day, another heat ranking. Let’s dive in.
Henner, 73, who starred on Taxi from 1978 to 1983, did not tiptoe around it. With what can only be described as confident energy, she told host Billy Corgan that the Taxi ensemble was the hotter lineup compared with other TV darlings. Her exact hierarchy: Taxi on top, Cheers behind it, and Friends as the lone contender that might give her cabbies a run for their money. The woman is not hedging.
Her basis is delightfully on brand. In her family, Henner says, there is a metric called PF, which she frames as the sexual quotient of people and places. PF, she explained, stands for what she called the p-word factor and penis factor. Translation: the vibe, the magnetism, the indisputable you-know-it-when-you-see-it charge. By that admittedly subjective scorecard, Henner insists the Taxi crew brought the most PF. “Forget about Cheers,” she quipped, then tossed a nod to mid-90s Manhattan with “except for maybe Friends.” The sound bite landed on the podcast, while the rest of us reached for our pop culture scorecards.
Taxi ran for five seasons on ABC and NBC, chronicling a ragtag fleet of New York cabbies with a cast that aged into legend: Danny DeVito, Judd Hirsch, Carol Kane, Tony Danza, Jeff Conaway, Christopher Lloyd, Randall Carver, Andy Kaufman, and Jack Gilford. The show’s legacy is both comedic and bittersweet. Kaufman died in 1984 from lung cancer at 35. Gilford died in 1990 from stomach cancer at 81. Conaway died in 2011 at 60 after a long battle with addiction, according to multiple reports at the time. That history carries real weight whenever the gang reunites.
About those reunions, the proof is in the photos. In March, Henner, Danza, Hirsch, Kane, and Lloyd turned up to honor DeVito, 80, when he received the Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre. Comedian Rachel Dratch posted the group shot with a gushy note about how friendly they were, which tracks if you have followed this crew’s long arc of post-sitcom loyalty. In May 2023, Danza shared a lunch photo with Lloyd, Hirsch, and Kane and captioned it with an affectionate “Love this crew of old friends so much.” And last summer, Kane told People that the bonds have held for decades and described the group as close and loving. That is not fan fiction. That is corroborated history that would make most ensembles jealous.
Henner’s cheeky ding at Cheers lands with extra sting because the Boston bar icon had an 11-season run from 1982 to 1993 and minted stars like Ted Danson, Shelley Long, Rhea Perlman, John Ratzenberger, Woody Harrelson, Kelsey Grammer, and Kirstie Alley. Alley died in 2022 at 71 from colon cancer, a loss that fans still feel. Hotness debates aside, Cheers is a television titan. Henner knows that, which is why her PF boast hits like a playful elbow to the ribs rather than a full-on brawl.
As for Friends, the 1994 to 2004 juggernaut is the one ensemble Henner is willing to concede might rival Taxi’s PF. Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and the late Matthew Perry defined 90s TV cool. Perry’s 2023 death at 54 reverberated far beyond the series and reignited conversations about the cast’s legacy and the intensity of that show’s cultural crush.
If you want another slice of Taxi lore that supports Henner’s swagger, cue DeVito’s origin story as Louie De Palma. In an interview with AARP, DeVito recalled walking into his Taxi audition, dropping the script on the table, and asking who wrote the material with mock outrage. It was a gutsy move that sent the room into hysterics and became the moment Louie “walked into their lives.” That is textbook PF energy, if you buy Henner’s metric. And a nice bit of corroboration from a first-hand source outside the podcast bubble.
So does the PF index hold up under scrutiny, or is this just a veteran star having a little fun with a podcast host? The receipts are tidy. The body of work is there, the camaraderie is documented on Instagram, the quotes are on the record via People and AARP, and the legacy speaks for itself. If we are measuring heat, Taxi delivered quirky charisma that graduated into enduring star power. Cheers had longevity and a stack of Emmys. Friends became a cultural monolith with a global nostalgia economy. Pick your poison.
My no-BS verdict: Henner’s claim is bold but not baseless. Taxi had lightning-in-a-bottle performers who went on to dominate movies, theater, and television. PF might be subjective, but chemistry is not, and Taxi had it in spades. Now the only question is whether a certain Boston barkeep or a certain Central Perk regular will clap back. Waiting for Ted Danson or Jennifer Aniston to weigh in would be a ratings smash all by itself.
File this under sitcom heat checks to watch. If a cross-generational cast roast materializes, I will bring popcorn, a stopwatch, and yes, an updated PF chart. Nothing shocking here, folks. Let’s all act surprised.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and New York Post, Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan podcast, People Magazine, AARP, Instagram
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