EDITORIAL ROUTTNG 7-5-94

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'Taxi' driven

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Marilu Henner has enioyed the ride

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mouth. And she has both a prodigious memory and remarkable generosity, from doing multitudes of TV publicservice announcements to writing the

Henner was born and raised in Chicago, the third of six kids in a raucous and loving Greek-Polish family. After winning an Outsbanding Americans Youth Foundation scholarship

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but Marilu Henner is forever.

"Evening Shade" may be no

starting on Nick at Nite in November, and a "Taxi" prime-time special set for CBS next season, the comely comedian is as televised (and telegenic) as ever. She's also, at 42, a

her CBS sitcom in reruns throughout the summer, her classic series "Taxi"

With

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copy- and voluntarily of "Hailing editing the manuscript Taxi: The Official Book of the Show"

for being Illinois' "Outstanding

Teenager" of 1970, she entered the University of Chicago as a politicalscience major. Local and college theater productions led to her leaving school to join the first national touring company of the musical "Grease"; she eventually reprised her role on

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(Prentice Hall/Simon & Schuster,

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son Nicholas Morgan on_yl,v_]2:_. A few weeks earlier, sitting over breakfast coffee in a Manhattan hotel,

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ercise, and I feel better than, I mean, my blood count is more like I'm in - better such good shape! I'm in much

fleW. EVerybOdyrS Oplnron WaS ",P'",*";g:iq appreciated and ff3fii'i"l1;:ffi br.99ze Joi me," shb says excitsdly, enBOUfaged. lt WaS :X*5'lilr:Ti,t"lifr'tf:ff;i':f iust a labor or love,
shape than I was when I was 201" It's easy to believe. Henner was

Broadway.

After a small but solid career in theater, film (starting with 1977's "Between the Lines") and TV (inciuding 28 commercials for Playtex
bras, Ponderosa Steak House, Joy then, she's done movies, including "Hammett" (1983), where she met her first (brie0 husband, actor Freddishwashing liquid and other goods), she landed "Taxi" (1978-83). Since

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and we were iust crazy about each

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doing aerobics even before they

called

mother's dance studio; her 1993 exercise video, "Dancerobics," prompted Redbook magazine to gush that "she shows off the toned, shapely
body of a 2S-year-old." Eschewing the

it that, as a child in her

And clearly, her five years as cabbie and fledgling art curator Elaine Nardo on "Taxi" remain
Brooks (the series co-creator and later the writer-director of 'Terms of
Endearment,' 'Broadcast News' and among the fondest of her life. "Jim

the first of several projects with Reynolds, who Henner says

(1984),

eric Forrest; and "Cannonball Run

II"

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specifically invited her to do "Evening

"Channel 99" (l9BB), starring as the programmer of a local TV statibn. A

Shade." She shot

1991 NBC

a sitcom pilot,

chemically treated produce at grocery stores, she buys organic fruits and veggies at natural-food stores of which offers her the side-benefit avoiding the tabloid newspapers that have had a field day with the antics

other films) was a genius," Henner gushes. "He's truly the most brilliant person I've ever worked with. He just had a way of mobilizing the best in

pilot, "The Star Light," loosely based on her mother Loretscript stage.
Not to fret has other op- Henner portunities besides "Evening Shade." With Lieberman (executive producer

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ta's dance studio, got stynied at the

people, bringing

and indiscretions of her "Evening Shade" co-star, Burt Reynolds.

"I'm always shocked when

people

say, 'Oh, supposedly you said this or that, or this happened on the set.' I'm saying, 'Wh,at? When?' I'm just not

completely different when jrou're living it than when you're reading about it." She needn't worry. From Evening

seeing any of this!" She laughs. "I don't shof in anything but health food stores, so I'm not in regular supermarkets where they have these (tabloids). And I'll tell you, it's just

and wife/mom Ava Newton) to

Gotham City (as various voices on

Shade, Ark., (as prosecuting attorney

appreciated and encouraged. It was just a labor of love, and we were just crazy about each other." Next season's "Taxi" retrospective postponed from last November collects old clips and new interviews featuring Henner, Judd Hirsch, Tony Danza, Danny DeVito, Carol Kane, Christopher Lloyd and the rest of the

you kidding? This was my training, this is how I grew up!' "On'Taxi,'the ideas flew," she says warmly. "Everybody's opinion was

where we just kind of shout out ideas, and people are always shocked when they visit the set. And I'd say, 'Are

'Evening Shade,'I started this thing

it

out. Now on

of the series "Gabriel's Fire" and

"Harts of the West"), she has a production deal with Warner Bros. to develop TV movies and series. Yet no matter what lies ahead, she'll always have "Taxi."

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"Sometimes people think I'm still doing it," Henner says, chuckling. "I mean, they're even showing it on airplanes now!"
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surviving cast. (Andy Kaufman

Fox's "Batman: The Animated

Series"), it's hard to find anyone with anything bad to say about her. Her sense of humor on talk shows is legendary; she's been known to demon-

passed away in 19B4.) The interviewers "would ask us about our favorite moments, or how did we feel about this person, or tell us what happened that day. And most of the (old cast) would go, 'Ask Marilu!"'

FRANK LOVECE