Tony Clifton (Andy Kaufman) "Taxi" Incident (Unreleased 1978 Tony Danza Home Movie)

In 1978, Performance artist comedian Andy Kaufman reluctantly signed on to the sitcom "Taxi" to play a variation of his "Foreign Man" character re-named "Latka Gravas". Among Kaufman's numerous stipulations was that his alter-ego character, Tony Clifton, an obnoxious, abusive lounge singer, would be guaranteed a certain amount of guest appearances. So, what was meant to be Clifton's debut episode "A Full House For Christmas" was written, with Tony playing Nick DePalma, the gambler brother of Danny Devito's character, Louie.

Clifton was miserable to work with, he brought two prostitutes with him (and declared that he had re-written the script to include them) he couldn't act, and angered everyone present. The decision was then made to fire Clifton and replace him with another actor. On the day this was to take place, cast member Tony Danza brought his Super 8mm camera to the set to document it. Ed Weinberger, the producer announced to Clifton that he was fired. Clifton went on a tirade and he Weinberger and cast member Judd Hirsch got into a wrestling match on the floor. Danza filmed this as it was happening. Clifton was then removed from the studio by Paramount security. Several days later, Danza screened the film for his co-stars, Andy, back as himself, walked into the room and watched the film as well. He remarked that Clifton was "an asshole".

Danza's footage of the incident hasn't ever been seen by the public and it's uknown if the footage still exists to this day. The only remnant of that event is a couple of still photos taken by Andy co-writer Bob Zmuda of Kaufman as Clifton being removed from the lot by security guards. The film was recreated in the 1999 Kaufman biopic, "Man on the Moon".