Producers of "Taxicab Confessions"

HBO presents

March 25, 2001

HBO.com invites you to read our chat with Joe and Harry Gantz, producers of the hit series, "Taxicab Confessions." What's the wildest ride they've ever been on? How do they choose the cab drivers for the show? Does anything still shock them? All this and more from two guys who really have seen it all.

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HBO: Hello and welcome to hbo.com's chat with the producers of the landmark television series Taxicab Confessions. Over the course of seven specials, taxicab passengers in New York and Las Vegas have shared some rather intimate moments with HBO viewers - thanks to Joe and Harry Gantz. Tonight we turn the tables to get up close and personal with the men behind the lipstick-size cameras. Ladies and Gentlemen, Joe and Harry Gantz.

Harry: We'd like to thank all of our hard-core fans for tuning in tonight and passing up the choice of 800 million other viewers worldwide by watching Taxicab Confessions instead of re-runs of the Oscars.

Joe: I'd like to say that Harry and I have been doing Taxicab Confessions now for 6 years, 7 if you include the pilot, and we are always following the cabs in a vehicle and we can see and hear everything going on in the cabs and see and talk into the cab driver's ear. We often feel we have heard every story one can imagine and then there is another amazing story told. So there is never a dull moment when following the Taxicab Confessions cabs.

Mann: How do you choose a taxicab confession?

Joe: For each show, we are following the cab for about 6 weeks all night, 6 nights a week and we get 400 to 500 rides to choose the 10 or so for the show. There are no real criteria, except that it has to be the complete story. Sometimes you get part of a story because you never know how long your cab ride is going to be. But we just choose rides that are moving and amazing, and that we've never heard before.

Symmetry: How do you get all these people to talk about their sex lives with strangers--the cab drivers?

Joe: Well, we just talk with them about what is on their minds. When we start a ride, it's just trying to find whatever is going on with that person for that time and it being night time, love, relationships and sex is on people's minds and we just talk to them.

Harry: And we have found after hearing so many incredible stories sexual and otherwise that people have almost an inherent need to get things off their chests.

Rich: Did either one of you drive a cab during the taping?

Joe: I drove a cab in college but we are in the follow vehicle during the taping. There is always my brother or myself in the follow vehicle plus the driver who is like a Taxicab consultant because he knows about the city, plus someone taking notes, plus a technical person who checks the tapes every night.

Saboria: On Taxicab Confessions, don't passengers choose whether they want to air what has been taped?

Harry: The answer is yes. At the end of the ride, the cab driver tells the passengers that they have been taped for the show and asks their permission to use it on the show and we only put on rides in which people have given us permission and signed a release or waiver.

Joe: Everybody has to sign a release so if there are 3 or 4 people in the cab, we can't use it unless everyone signs the release.

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