Jim was an endless treasure trove of eccentricities, most of which could be traced to after-effects of his 1960s drug intake. He lived in a condemned building; bought a racehorse he renamed Gary (to erase his "slave name") and kept him in his living room; spent a considerable period of time trying to become the "perfect" cabbie only to spend all his earnings on a wall of TVs; and dismantled his van to build a castle for Elaine Nardo (played by Marilu Henner). He screamed in his sleep, and thought weekends were nine days long because "we switched to the metric system." His drug expertise also allowed him to identify the coca leaves (from which cocaine is made) in Latka's cookies—"Southern Peru, '74, before the rains"—much like a sommelier describing a vintage. His heroes were St. Thomas Aquinas, Mahatma Gandhi, Alan Alda, and Louie De Palma (played by Danny DeVito), who treated him quite poorly and took advantage of him at every opportunity. Jim also admitted to being a fan of the original "Star Trek" series, although he strongly believed that the leader of the Romulans was portrayed incorrectly. His dream date, arranged by his co-worker Latka and Latka's wife Simka, was with Marcia Wallace. Jim was obsessed with her role on "The Bob Newhart Show", so much so that he wrote lyrics for the opening theme that started "Here comes Bob and Carol..." Jim's favorite movie was E.T. He saw it multiple times. In later episodes he wore an "E.T." button on his denim jacket.