Series Description

The Becker TV show was a 30 minute comedy series on CBS about a doctor who ran a medical clinic located in New York City. He's about the most negative person on Earth! He hated his world and the people he was forced to share it with. The storylines typically centered around his interactions with his patients, clinic staff, and the characters who hung out at the diner he frequents.

Becker Cast

Ted Danson .... John Becker
Terry Farrell .... Regina "Reggie" Kostas
Alex Desert .... Jake Malinak
Shawnee Smith .... Linda
Hattie Winston .... Margaret
Saverio Guerra .... Bob
Nancy Travis .... Chris Connor (2002-2004)

Becker Trivia:

Three of Ted Danson's fellow "Cheers" stars appeared on the Becker TV show and "traded roles" with Danson. Rhea Perlman played a happy-go-lucky therapist to Danson's grouchy doctor. On Cheers, Danson was the happy guy to Perlman's grumpy waitress. George Wendt guest-starred as a bartender who served Becker and on Cheers, Danson played the bartender who served Wendt. Kelsey Grammer played an alcoholic to Danson's role as a Harvard graduate doctor and on Cheers Danson played a recovering alcoholic to Grammer's role as a Harvard graduated doctor of psycology!

The phone number at Becker's clinic was 555-0199. TV show phone numbers typically start with "555" because there are no real phone numbers that begin with "555". There is no "555" area code either. Before shows used those numbers, unfortunate people with the phone number used on the air would get thousands of phone calls!

Saverio Guerra quit the Becker TV show after the fifth season ended. Since there had been no episode filmed with him that explained why his character (Bob) would be leaving, they simply said that Bob had gone on vacation. They didn't worry too much about the audience wondering why he wasn't returning. They simply never mentioned his name again!

In the first couple of episodes of Becker, Linda (played by Shawnee Smith) is the only one in the clinic wearing a long lab coat. That was due to the fact that Shawnee was pregnant at the time but her character wasn't.

In keeping with a Cheers tradition where Norm's wife Vera was never seen, Margaret's husband Lewis was never seen on Becker. On Cheers spin-off series, "Frasier", Niles' wife Maris was never seen either!

Nancy Travis was not intended to become a regular cast member. She was hired to appear on just four episodes as Chris Connor and then Becker would choose Reggie Kostas (played by Terry Farrell) over her and Chris would just vanish from the show. The way that Becker and Connor interacted was so great, however, that the producers decided to fire Terry Farrell and make Nancy Travis a regular cast member instead!