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Becker
The cast of Becker's sixth season </small>
Genre	Sitcom
Running time	30 minutes (including commercials)
Creator(s)	Dave Hackel
Starring	Ted Danson Terry Farrell Hattie Winston Shawnee Smith Alex Désert Saverio Guerra Nancy Travis Jorge Garcia
Country of origin	Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
Original channel	CBS
Original run	November 2, 1998–January 28, 2004
No. of episodes	129

Becker was a CBS sitcom starring Ted Danson as the title character, John Becker. Although a good physician, Becker finds annoyance with his patients, his co-workers, his friends, and practically everything and everyone else in his world; yet Becker's temper belies a more complex character, and his rants are often his way of keeping the world from seeing who he really is — a compassionate idealist afraid to appear emotionally vulnerable.

As a result of his outspokenness, Becker is generally inaccessible to people that do not know him. His patients and friends are nonetheless loyal, because Becker does sometimes display a kind-hearted side that shows that, despite his cantankerous personality, he really does care about them.

Contents 1 Characters 1.1 New characters after Season 4 2 Plot 3 Reception 4 Terry Farrell's dismissal 5 Cast 6 Trivia 7 International Broadcaster and Syndication 8 See also

[edit] Characters

For the first four seasons, the main characters were as follows:

• John Becker — Ted Danson

Becker attended Harvard Medical School and currently runs a medical practice in The Bronx, New York. Becker is easily annoyed by things such as a flickering street lamp outside his window, his noisy neighbors, the couple having very loud sex in the apartment above him, or his own numerous failed attempts to quit smoking. Becker has a personal superstition that "All midgets are bad luck, whenever I see one, something bad happens to me". He has been married and divorced twice and does not like spending money if he can help it. He likes Chinese food, especially when he gets free coupons for it. He holds liberal views on many political issues but holds no respect for political correctness, and due to his cynical nature, he does not seem to be enthusiastic about any political party. He especially hates Richard Nixon.

Becker also appears to be an atheist; in one episode he states that "God is a concept of man" and that people use religion as a justification for immoral activity. He also openly states that "there is no Larry" (Larry being "God's first name", according to one of Becker's patients). When asked what he believes in, Becker states that he believes in science. Despite this, there are episodes where he claims God is out to get him. His nurse Margaret, who is a Christian, enjoys pointing out this incongruity.

• Margaret Wyborn — Hattie Winston

Becker's office manager, and one of the few people who can tolerate Becker and his ways, Margaret is a motherly-like figure to Becker and Linda. She is married to the often mentioned but never seen Lewis. She once thought about becoming a singer instead of a nurse. Margaret is a Christian and often quotes the Bible. Margaret is often the most level-headed of them all.

• Linda — Shawnee Smith

A dim-witted girl whose surname is never revealed, she works at the doctor's office to establish independence from her wealthy parents, although her help is often of questionable value. Her mother is an alcoholic. She has been out with lots of men, including her on-again/off-again ex-boyfriend Gil, who is frequently mentioned (often in a negative context). Linda is popular with some of the patients, sometimes due to her outfits and her optimistic attitude; mostly kids enjoy her being around when it comes to take shots. She respects John a great deal, often calling him "Doctor" no matter where she is, and has even stuck up for him at a parent/teacher meeting she attended with John to straighten out the "sex talk" he gave to a classroom of little kids. She admires him, and does get along with him when he's having one his few good days. She did grow serious about her career and started reading a few of his text books and found herself being a total know-it-all. She also respects Margaret and is often helped out of a lot of tough situations. She has a soft spot for small animals and loves to go shopping, clubbing, and dating a new guy every week. One of her ex-boyfriends taught her some Mandarin (see the episode "Activate Your Choices").

• Regina "Reggie" Kostas — Terry Farrell

The owner and operator of a diner she inherited from her late father, Reggie is a former model and is unhappy being stuck running a diner. When Becker is away from the office or needs to eat, he can usually be found at her diner. Reggie is torn over her feelings for Becker — she loves him but also hates him at the same time.

• Jake Malinak — Alex Désert

Becker's best friend (actually, one of his only friends), Jake also works at the diner selling newspapers and miscellaneous items such as candy, magazines, cigarettes, gum, etc. Jake is blind following a car accident several years before. He lived with his grandmother as a youngster and was close to her before she died. Jake married a woman, Amanda (played by Lindsay Price), 24 hours after they met but they got the marriage annulled, deciding to live together instead. Amanda left Jake after 2 and a half years, taking all his possessions with her.

• Bob — Saverio Guerra

Bob loiters at the diner and is of Italian descent. He is an old high school classmate of Reggie's who is short, annoying, and refers to himself in the third person. Bob is a sex addict who also desperately wants to have sex with Reggie. Bob becomes the superintendent of Becker's apartment building in the third season, although he tries to do as little work as he can. As with Linda, Bob's last name is never revealed, although we do discover his middle name is Benito. Bob was a recurring character for the first two seasons, and was made a main character for Seasons 3 through 5.

[edit] New characters after Season 4

• Chris Connor — Nancy Travis joined the show as the new neighbor who moves to the Bronx after traveling the world. Chris, originally supposed to be in the show for only 4 episodes, joined the show at the end of Season 4 and became a regular cast member in Season 5 after the producers of the show decided to replace Reggie with Chris. Chris takes over the diner and begins a love-hate relationship with Becker. She is his opposite — always nice and cheerful, but they eventually got together by the end of the series.

• Hector Lopez — Jorge Garcia is a friend of Jake. He was a cast member only during the sixth season and served as a replacement of sorts for Bob (Saverio Guerra did not renew his contract for the final season).

[edit] Plot

The theme was Becker and the things that annoyed him, although the supporting characters also had their moments. The relationships between Becker/Reggie and later Becker/Chris formed the key plots of many episodes.

The show was not afraid to tackle more serious issues as well, such as race, homosexuality, AIDS, Cerebral AVM, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and politically correct views.

[edit] Reception

Though a failure among television critics, the show performed well for its first four seasons, piggybacking off the ratings of its phenomenally popular Monday lead-in, Everybody Loves Raymond. However, CBS moved it to Sunday in 2002, and its ratings deteriorated quickly, eventually forcing the network to put it on hiatus. CBS had planned to cancel it after this disastrous fifth season, but gave it a last-minute reprieve because of a dearth of promising comedy pilots. Becker's sixth season was to be as a midseason replacement for the 2003-2004 season, and thus only 13 episodes were ordered. Despite this, CBS' weak comedy lineup forced them to move Becker's debut to the fall, where the show was moved to Wednesday and paired up with another former Monday-night comedy The King of Queens. Ratings remained low, and the show finished out its run in January 2004, after 129 episodes.

[edit] Terry Farrell's dismissal

Nancy Travis was originally signed only to do four episodes for a story arc at the end of season four. She became a series regular, however, when Terry Farrell was inexplicably fired between the fourth and fifth seasons. The reason for Farrell's dismissal remains unclear. In interviews, Farrell has said that it came as a complete shock to her, and that she is unsure of exactly why it happened, although she reportedly led a strike among the show's cast. Some fans think that Ted Danson could have stepped in because not only was he the star of the show, he was also a producer.

[edit] Cast

• Ted Danson - Dr. John Becker
• Terry Farrell - Regina 'Reggie' Kostas (1998-2002)
• Hattie Winston - Margaret Wyborn
• Shawnee Smith - Linda
• Alex Désert - Jake Malinak
• Saverio Guerra - Bob (1998-2003)
• Nancy Travis - Chris Connor (2002-2004)
• Jorge Garcia - Hector Lopez (2003-2004)

[edit] Trivia

In the final episode Margaret tells Becker that "Mr. Neilson is in room one." To which he replies, "I don't see what the problem is, these numbers aren't that bad." A reference to the Nielsen Ratings of the show resulting in its cancellation. Also, Becker gets into a brief argument with a patient regarding whether or not she had actually met the Roosevelts. Becker ends the conversation by saying "I pity the poor bastard who's married to her." The joke here is that Mary Steenburgen, the woman he argues with, is an actress that starred in the 1981 movie "Ragtime" about the election of President Theodore Roosevelt. Also, Mary Steenburgen is actually Ted Danson's wife.

[edit] International Broadcaster and Syndication

• Australia - Network ten
• Sweden - Kanal 5
• United Kingdom - Five/Paramount Comedy 1
• United States - TBS, My Network TV (formely UPN)

[edit] See also

• List of Becker episodesde:Becker (Fernsehserie)