The Best of "Taxicab Confessions." - video recording reviews

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Sept, 1997 by Robert S. Rothenberg

"Candid Camera" and "America's Funniest Home Videos" have demonstrated that people are good-natured about exposing their foibles to a national audience. Television talk shows amply have shown that there is little compunction over baring even the most unseemly aspects of one's life. Cable is pushing the envelope still further into the R-rated range with its own versions of cinema verite, a prime example being "Taxicab Confessions."

Cruising around New York in a cab rigged with a lipstick-sized camera and hidden microphones, the driver lets passengers spew out a wide range of opinions, ramblings about life and society, and unabashed confessions, primarily sexual. Then, he reveals to them that they have been filmed and recorded and asks them to sign a release allowing the program to telecast the segment. One would be hard put to decide which is more amazing -- to reveal one's private life so intimately to a total stranger (the pseudocabdriver) or to agree blithely to allow this outpouring to be shown to an audience.

Still, there obviously are enough exhibitionists out there to pander to the insatiable cravings of voyeuristic viewers. At times, watching these clips can leave you shaking your head at people's behavior; at others, you feel the same morbid fascination you might at peering at an automobile wreck. Then there is the inevitable question: If these people are the best of such confessions, what must the worst be like? Nevertheless, there probably is enough Peeping Tom in all of us to enjoy the guilty pleasure at eavesdropping on others.