Danny DeVito and the ‘Taxi’ Cast Partied with Michael Jackson: ‘Loved Our Show’

Danny DeVito has some incredible memories of his time on the hit series Taxi.

DeVito, 80, opened up about some of his time on the hit sitcom in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Aug. 20. The actor played Louie De Palma, head dispatcher of the Sunshine Cab Company and supervisor to the cab drivers, on the show. He was a four-time Emmy nominee for the series, winning once, in 1981.

In the interview, DeVito was asked about the possibility of his current sitcom, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, ending after one more season. Though he joined the series during the second season in 2006, the star said his concern is that they “have a good ending.”

“It would be hard to let go, but if it’s right and the audience is happy with it, then I think it’s a good thing to do,” he said. Then DeVito compared the show to what happened with Taxi. The series ran from 1978 to 1982 on ABC and was then cancelled. NBC picked the show up for a fifth season.  

“We did 22 shows that year, but prior to that, we didn’t know,” the Matilda star remembered. “In fact, we’d all won Golden Globes and Emmys.” When the show was cancelled the first time, DeVito was “all set” to host Saturday Night Live when he got the call; his first hosting gig aired May 15, 1982. 

“[Co-creator] Jim Brooks called us up, and we were devastated. We all got together and got drunk. I brought everybody on the show,” the actor said. “Lorne Michaels was nice enough to let us on.” When NBC saved the show, he said, “We knew that that was going to be the last season, so we all had it in our bones that we were doing the last episode.”

But they still threw a huge part at the end of the series, and DeVito said the cast, which included Carol Kane, Judd Hirsch, Tony Danza, Marilu Henner, Christopher Lloyd, the late Jeff Conaway and Andy Kaufman, were “party animals.”

“Every Friday night we had a big party. It was really wild. For five years on Taxi, we worked from Monday to Friday. We did the show on Friday night, and then we had a party and everybody came to that party, from people who were on the sets of all the other shows, like Laverne & Shirley, Happy days — Henry Winkler used to come,” he said. “We had people like John Belushi play at our wrap party.” 

Even more unexpectedly, he remembered, “Michael Jackson was there. Michael loved our show. He used to come and watch in the booth up in the top where the technicians were.” DeVito also remembered that Robin Williams was a big fan of the show, too. 

In the over 40 years since Taxi ended, the show’s living castmates have stayed good friends, often reuniting. Kane — who also starred alongside DeVito in an episode of It’s Always Sunny this season — told PEOPLE in 2024, “The fact is that we have kept each other’s company in a close and loving way for all these years since Taxi.” 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the group would often get together to talk on Zoom. Kane added that it also helps that a lot of the surviving cast have settled in New York. “Tony lives very near to me, so we hang out a lot,” Kane said. “And for a while I seduced Chris Lloyd and his wife Lisa into getting an apartment in my very own building, so I got to see them all the time.”