Although Alex and Elaine flirted with romance during Taxi’s long run, it was the courtship of Latka Gravas and Simka Dahblitz that was the series’s great love story. “Simka Returns,” a fourth-season gem, features Carol Kane in her Emmy Award-winning performance as Simka, who returns to New York from-of all places-Omaha (turns out it was not all the songs said it would be). It falls upon Alex (Judd Hirsch) to tell Simka that Latka suffers from multiple personalities, or as Louis DePalma (Danny DeVito) so delicately puts it, “He’s become the three faces of weird,” or as Simka herself calls it, “Kookyputz.” Love and self-basting warthog are in the air, until Latka’s alter ego, Vic Ferrari, rears his ugly head and sweeps Simka off her feet. Listen to Latka’s choice of mood music: an “ibida” rendition of “Love Me Tender” warbled by Andy Kaufman himself. The second episode on this video, “The Wedding of Latka and Simka,” also from the fourth season, relies a bit too much on “pointless rituals” shtick, but Simka looks so charming in her wedding suit, as does Latka in his wedding dress. Let “the dance of the plummets” begin! In an amusing cameo, Latka produces Dr.Joyce Brothers to attest that he is cured of multiple personalities. Goodbye, Vic Ferrari; you will be missed. -Donald Liebenson

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