Becker, Ted Danson's comeback vehicle, doesn't qualify as "Classic TV", even though it ran for six seasons (1998-2004). It flew under the radar until it went into syndication, which is when I ran across it for the first time.
Danson's John Becker is a psychologist who's got anger issues of his own. His office manager, Margaret (Hattie Winston, ex-The Electric Company) may have been the only one to keep him under control, outside of his girlfriends. Yes, it's in plural, because over the course of the six seasons, Becker had two. The first, Reggie (Terry Farrell, ex-Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), left after the 3rd season. Nancy Travis joined the show for the rest of the run, and part of the reason Farrell was let go was because Paramount suits were afraid of reprising the Sam-Diane dynamic between Danson & Shelley Long from Cheers in the 80's. Those same suits were responsible for Farrell leaving ST:DS9 because they wanted her on Becker in the first place.
Alex Desert (ex-The Flash, circa 1990) co-starred as a blind newsstand owner who was Becker's best friend and confidant.
Let's take a look at a sample episode.
"Of Recent Vintage" is our newest feature, and will cover more shows from the last 10-20 years that don't fall into any of our other categories.
Rating: B.
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