Becker - season two

Well, do you know Becker? It is one of the few sit-coms that actually makes me roll on the floor laughing out loud! No, seriously, I really roll on the floor. It is that funny. Why? Because Ted Danson’s character, doctor John Becker, is an ill-tempered, sarcastic misanthrope, just like me. His view on religion? “Just another dumb-ass system created by the tiny minded to deal with the complexities of human life, because rather than think for themselves, it’s easier to believe that our fate is controlled by some great apocalyptic voodoo monkey in the sky.” Hilarious! He runs a small practice in the Bronx, and despite his permanent exasperation, you quickly learn to respect him because he genuinely cares about his patents’ well-being – not to mention he is bluntly honesty.

In one of her rare moments of clarity, his vacuous assistant Linda quits. That’s when Becker and his office manager Margaret realize just how invaluable she is, because she is so good with the patients. Becker visits her to give her another chance – and we learn that she is living in a penthouse on Central Park, next to the Danish ambassador, and owns a genuine Monet. Her wealthy parents have long ago given up on her, but are willing to pay for her house to keep her out of trouble. The job at Becker’s office is the only thing that makes her feel good about herself. Then that sleazebag Bob is thrown out his mother’s retirement home and needs a place to stay. Linda offers. Margaret tries to warn her. Help the needy, Linda reminds her, and Bob is needy, very needy. “Isn’t that what Christianity is all about?” “Christ never met Bob,” Margaret retorts. Somehow Linda and Bob manage to make it work, but only God knows how.

But obviously the show is mostly about Becker. He has about as much charm as an uncouth bear. He usually barges into Reggie’s diner every morning complaining about some incident on the way from his home. When Reggie is wearing a stunning red dress, Becker’s kind of complement is, “You’re not exactly the worst looking woman in this place, but I’d rather go with that one over there.” But when he meets Reggie’s best friend Amanda who used to be a model like her, they have a brief affair. “Sex with a model!” his assistant Margaret scoffs in disbelief. Then Reggie’s dating this guy she doesn’t know is one of Becker’s patients – and he is giving him advice to prove indirectly that he knows women better than Reggie; and she falls for it (initially at least). Later, Reggie’s high school flame is back in town and she can’t wait to go out with him – until he ends up in jail and wants her to post bail. Then Becker gets a call from a friend of his best buddy in high school. They hit it off famously, having dinner, going to a game, drinking beer. He tells her she must be the perfect woman, but she has something to tell of her own: she is his high school buddy – except she had a sex change.

At one point Becker gets shot when picking up his blind friend Jake who got lost in Brooklyn. The doctor, Liz, at the hospital can’t stand him, but refuses to let him go home until he is fit to. Between the abrasive sarcasm, something grows between them. They are, in fact, just like each other: arrogant, opinionated control freaks, stubborn, infuriating pains in the ass, with nothing going on in their private lives. Once he’s released, she drops by to tell him how unpleasant it was having him as her patient, so much so she wanted to strangle him, but doesn’t entirely miss that feeling. He replies he never thought of her thinking of him that way, and that he noticed she was sort of intelligent and not unattractive. He invites her for dinner at his place, she tells him he didn’t have to go through all that trouble – and he tells her neither did she, “I mean, I didn’t expect you to look so good.” “This isn’t nearly as horrible as I thought it would be,” she tells him. Meanwhile, his neighbor across the hallway notices Reggie stopping by, Liz frequenting, the upstairs neighbor complaining she won’t just have sex when it’s convenient for him, the next door neighbor complaining he’s responsible for her crying baby, you know the lady is thinking he got prostitutes coming in all day. “You wanted to get to know me, this is me, you know,” he offers Liz. “I can’t pretend to be somebody else, just for the sake of a relationship.” She leans in to kiss him. “You must really be screwed up.” The relationship lasts for much of the second half of the season, until she gets a job offer in Chicago and he encourages her to go because it’s a great career opportunity – even though he will miss her. Please do yourself a favor and watch this show whichever way you can!

Becker - season one

Long before your cricket started chirping, Becker was one of my all-time favorite sitcoms. They are showing reruns on Dutch TV that reminded me how funny this show was. I don’t even know why they cancelled it. Did no one ever watch it? If you did, you know why I like Ted Danson’s character: John Becker is a mean, grumpy son of a bitch with a mouth that never stops (so egotistical he thinks the whole universe is conspiring against him), but somewhere underneath all the biting sarcasm and misanthropy there’s a real lovable son of a gun with a heart of gold. He may call his patients names, but all he wants is for them to enjoy a healthy life. (Interestingly enough, one of his patients is the actor who’s playing Roger Sterling on Mad Men now.) There’s a kid who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion, and Becker is at his affable best around him, answering questions about life and even paying for his medical treatment because his single mother cannot afford it herself or letting the kid sleep over his house. Becker is a loner, with two failed marriages, and a long line of women who refuse to talk to him. His ex-wife used to call him “angry man.” “Oh, yeah, what was your name for her?” “Castrating bitch from hell.” One day a colleague thinks he’s giving her a booty call, but when she comes to his place, all he can do is talk about one of his patients. His blind date from hell happens when one of his patients sets him up with her niece, mind you, a gorgeous blonde. She comes late, because her country-and-western line-dancing class ran late, she is into aroma therapy, considers herself a romantic person, saw Titanic fifty-three times, and suggests they go to a karaoke bar after dinner. He tells her, “Now, Kelly, if we were the last two people on this earth, that would be the only thing we have in common.”

The supporting cast is terrific, too. At Becker’s office there’s Margaret. You never know why she doesn’t quit, but somehow she appreciates him. She berates him when he’s spouting mean-spirited comments, but she always trusts his medical opinion. And perhaps my favorite character is Linda, a pretty airhead who never stops talking gibberish. You never know why she isn’t fired, but you gotta love that gal. She even sells cosmetics on the sly in the waiting room. Still, one day Becker cannot figure out why one of his patients has been suffering from fatigue, because all the test results come out normal. Then Linda points out how strange it is that he still has a tan, even though he’s been back from Bermuda for six weeks and he works in a bank. It’s the one clue Becker missed: hyperpigmentation is a symptom of Addison’s disease. Then there’s the diner where Becker hangs out, run by Reggie, who rather chats than serve her customers. She’s always looking for a date, which is strange, because she is adorable. Secretly, she grows into liking Becker, connecting over failed dates, their mutual hatred of Valentines Day, and appreciating his blunt honesty. Among the regulars, there’s Jake, who supposedly works at the newsstand inside the diner, but you hardly ever see him work. On one of these mornings that Becker is telling him off, Jake replies, “John, I’m blind, I’m poor and I’m running a newsstand in the Bronx. God gave me the finger long before you ever did.” Bob, that slick perv who never scores and talks about himself in the third person, first shows up halfway through the season scolding Reggie for ignoring him in high school, and now it’s his turn to scoff at her for running her recently deceased father’s diner. He knows he’s dreaming the impossible, but with him doing better and her doing worse, he feels he is that much closer to the moon. When a customer leaves her two tickets to a hockey game, Jake and Becker both beg her to take her. In the end, she lets them decide who will join her – and to tease her, they actually give Bob the ticket! There are also the fuzzy outdoor shots. I know it’s the Bronx, but it’s New York, and it makes me feel like home!