I like sit-coms, as you've probably gathered. I've mentioned several of my favorites in previous posts: The Big Bang Theory, Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond.
But I've never actually mentioned my favorite of all sit-coms, and that is the 1998-2004 CBS series Becker.
Becker and friends.
(It's an unusual picture of Becker: he's smiling.)
Before Dr. Gregory House, there was Becker. A brilliant Harvard Med School graduate who was a rising star in the world of medical research, John Becker gave it all up to open a small family practice in the Bronx. His office is run by Margaret, a good-humored and no-nonsense registered nurse, and Linda, an office assistant whose airhead nature is, fortunately, offset by her big heart.
Aside from the doctor's office, Becker spends plenty of time at a nearby diner. There, we meet Jake, Becker's best buddy, who lost his sight in a car accident when he was a teenager, and Reggie, who serves as both the diner's owner and staff. There's other supporting cast members, too: the patients, the customers, and the people of the neighborhood -- all who, as often as not, end up on the receiving end of one of Becker's tirades.
Because oh, are there tirades. While we're never exactly certain what made Becker turn his back on his rising career in the big leagues for the smaller prospects of an obscure family practice, we can at least be sure his fellow researchers weren't sorry to see him go. If there's one thing you can say about Becker, it's that he is, to put it kindly, an opinionated soul:
"The world is full of idiots, and someone needs to point it out to them or they will never know."
"The [New York City] Marathon just gets my hopes up. At first it seems like 20,000 idiots are leaving the city, but then they just make a big loop and come right back."
"What is the matter with you people?! This is a movie! You're here to listen to the actors talk! That's why the seats face the screen, and not each other!"
"Romance is like the cheese in the mousetrap -- it baits you into position so the cold, metal bar of reality can come down and snap your neck."
"I never told you to shut up."
"You hung up on me once!"
"So I didn't have to tell you to shut up."
"I have this friend -- well, we aren't really friends. We just share custody of an ex-wife."
"If you and I were the only people on the face of the Earth, that would be the only thing we'd have in common."
"That's the problem with the world! Everybody says, 'Everybody does it,' so everybody does it!"
"Someday you'll look back on this and laugh!"
"Maybe I will. But before then, I will kill you. And then I'll use my powers as a physician to bring you back to life. And then, I will kill you again."
Like Dr. House, it's an almost cathartic experience to watch Becker rant and rave about life's little indignities, which are unfailingly hilarious and utterly relatable. But if there was no more to Becker than frustrated outbursts and angry tirades, I doubt the show would've hooked me. What really made Becker special to me is that our title character has a far bigger heart than his gruff exterior would lead one to believe.
For all his anger, Becker is a guy who genuinely cares -- not just for his patients, but for the friends he's managed to find who can tolerate his rather abrasive personality. (Reggie and Company are all pretty adept at simply ignoring him, which is generally the best tactic for dealing with Becker when he's in full-rant mode.) Many episodes give us an example of Becker acting out of genuine compassion: baby-sitting a neighbor's kids for the evening when she's got nowhere else to turn, quietly paying for a patient's specialist care out of his own pocket, lending a gruff but sympathetic ear to his friends as they navigate through their own struggles. Becker may be an opinionated soul -- but his friends find him worth the rough edges.
Becker himself was not the only engaging character. My personal favorite was Reggie, a former model who's back in New York after inheriting her dad's diner -- and, with it, her dad's most faithful customer: Becker himself. Reggie is a smart, independent thirtysomething who is also confronting the reality of her life not quite turning out the way she had expected it to, and we see her struggle to decide what she really wants for herself and her future.
Real depth of character extended to the rest of the cast and storylines, and such real-world issues as poverty, the AIDs epidemic, race, ableism, and political correctness were tackled throughout the show's six-season run. With its ability to balance the serious with the satirical, the weightiest of issues with the simplest of day-to-day routine, the result was a unique blend of philosophy and fun that I've rarely encountered in other sit-coms.
Besides, we've all got a little bit of Becker in us.
"Just when I think God couldn't screw me any further, He gets out the old Black & Decker and twists a little harder!"
"Interesting. You're being persecuted by a God you don't believe in."
"That's why He's after me, Margaret."
Request the first season of Becker from the Catalog
-- Post by Ms. B
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