What car are we talking about? Drive shaft should come out easily, just take off the four screws attaching it to the differential yoke. Put a screwdriver betewwn the yoke and the U-joint and carefully lever the shaft out. Be very careful to keep hold of the U-joint bearing cups, they like to fly apart when freed and send your needle bearings everywhere
Once the rear end of the drive shaft is lose you just pull it out of the trans. Actually there's nothing there it can catch on.
And yes, do unbolt the TC when you take out the trans, most cars don't have enough space to bull the trans back straight far enough to get the turbine shaft out of the oil pump bearing. Just makes the trans heavier to lift but unbolts fairly uncomplicatedly.
Did it work?
Max