Real cabbies take their 'Hacks' -- Philly series does get some things right, they say

By ELLEN GRAY
elgray@phillynews.com

HACK. 9 tomorrow night, Channel 3.

JORGE LAMBRAKIS knows a New York taxicab when he sees one.

Before he started taking fares in Philadelphia in 1992, the United driver spent 19 years working the streets of the Big Apple, and to him, that P-2626 atop the cab used in CBS' Philadelphia-based drama "Hack" is a dead giveaway.

Philadelphia cabs, it seems, aren't numbered beyond 1600.

"Besides, that's a New York light on his cab," added Lambrakis' fellow driver, Bob Orr, who also drives for United.

"The average viewer would never know," sighed David Boccella, who's been driving a cab since 1956.

He's right, of course.

Doctors and lawyers probably don't watch "ER" and "The Practice" quite the way the rest of us do, and when it comes to "Hack," it's not surprising that local cabbies would greet a show about a former cop-turned-cabdriver with a healthy dose of skepticism - and an eagle eye for the details.

Friday nights being a big night in the taxi trade, Lambrakis and the others came to the Daily News last week to screen an episode of the show, which stars Philadelphia-based actor David Morse as fledgling cabbie Mike Olshansky.

We also talked to Shawn Wells, a former teacher and ad salesman who drives for Olde City Taxi and who'd managed to catch at least one episode of "Hack" on his own.

The portrayal of Olshansky as someone who fights crime from behind the wheel of a cab particularly irked Lambrakis, president of the Reformed Taxi Movement, a local advocacy group whose 865 members represent more than one-fifth of the city's drivers.

Cabdrivers, he argued, aren't crime fighters, they're crime victims, something Lambrakis was reminded of as recently as Oct. 8, when he had a .38 pressed to his neck by a passenger who robbed him at 23rd and Montgomery.

Though he flagged down a police car that happened to be in the area at the time, the suspect escaped, he said.

A Police Department spokeswoman was unable to confirm Lambrakis' claim that crime against cabbies has increased dramatically in recent months - the department, she said, doesn't track robbery figures involving taxi drivers separately - but the drivers we talked to agreed that robbery is always a concern.

"Whether you're a Domino's pizza guy or a cabbie, they know you're driving around with cash," Wells said.

In Olshansky's case, he's also driving around with a baseball bat, something he wielded pretty threateningly against some would-be muggers in the show's Sept. 27 pilot.

Our drivers weren't buying it.

"This guy going around beating up people with a baseball bat - " said Orr.

" - That doesn't happen," chimed in Boccella.

"I have a baseball bat," said Orr, adding that if he used it on a criminal, he'd probably end up as the one being charged.

Some things about "Hack" did ring true, however.

Starting with the Visine.

"He [Olshansky] went to the Visine a lot for his eyes," Wells noticed. "There's a tremendous grind to this job...for the better part of 12 hours, I'm out there hustling."

"He's doing exactly what I do after 2 o'clock at night!" exclaimed Lambrakis when he saw Morse's character pull out the eyedrops.

"At least he has a collar shirt on, guys," pointed out Orr, noting that cabdrivers are required to wear shirts with collars, long pants and shoes or sneakers - no sandals - or face a fine from the state's Public Utility Commission.

But following the dress code won't be enough for Olshansky to hack it.

"That cabdriver has plenty of time to mess around and no time to make some money," Boccella remarked at one point as Olshansky met with one of his fares in a hotel room to discuss the search for the passenger's missing daughter.

"I'd like to know how he's making his lease," he said.

"You rent a cab for a shift" of 12 hours, Wells said. "You really need to work to make your money. You don't have time to be a good Samaritan."

Wells, though, isn't worried that "Hack" viewers will start expecting more than he can deliver.

"I offer more than door-to-door transportation. I don't do what Michael Olshansky does, but if you're in my cab and I pick you up at the Pathmark, I'm going to help you with your groceries," he said.

You can reach Ellen Gray by e-mail at elgray@phillynews.com, by fax at 215-854-5852 or by mail at the Philadelphia Daily News, Box 7788, Philadelphia, PA 19101.