History Series / Becker

* ActorAllusion: Several ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' alumni turned up on this show. When they do, the roles Ted Danson and the actor had on that series are usually reversed.

** Frances Sternhagen, who played Esther Clavin, turns up in the episode "Subway Story" as a woman who has gotten lost trying to get to the World Trade Center site by subway.
** In the episode "The Ex Files," Becker's friends find out he sang "Goodnight Sweetheart" in a barbershop quartet in college. He sang the same song barbershop style in Film/ThreeMenAndABaby.
%% * TheAllegedCar: Becker's car.

%% * BlindBlackGuy: Jake.
* TheBrainlessBeauty: Linda is a CloudCuckoolander who is ditzy and incompetent on the job, although she has [[SmartBall moments of brilliance]], however fleeting.

* BreakfastClub: With one exception, the characters are a band of misfits. Becker is an opinionated, perpetually angry DrJerk who rants about everything. Reggie is a depressed JadedWashout ex-model who is stuck with a run-down GreasySpoon. Jake is a blind StepfordSnarker who owns a small, unsuccessful newsstand. Linda is a CloudCuckooLander of epic proportions. Bob is a SmugSnake who regularly goes through HumiliationCongas and becomes the biggest loser of the group. [[OnlySaneMan Margaret]] is the only person who has a relatively stable and happy life, and even she has to take care of her uncaring {{Manchild}} husband.

* TheCameo: In the episode "Drive, They Said," Becker encounters Ray Barone (''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond''), Doug Heffernan (''Series/TheKingOfQueens''), and Hilton Lucas (''Series/{{Cosby}}'') sitting silently in his waiting room. All three shows were current CBS sitcoms of the time. (The scene was cut from syndicated and DVD episodes of the show.)
* {{Catchphrase}}: Linda invariably says "Okay, here's the thing" right before she explains a screw up she has committed.
* CelebrityParadox: In season 5 episode "The Grand Gesture," Becker berates himself for being pretentious by trying to seduce Chris using cheese and wine. He then compares himself to ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', who originally was from ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' and had Ted Danson as a guest star for one episode.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Bob is universally despised by the rest of the characters in the first two seasons. By Season 4, he graduates to being TheFriendNobodyLikes and is at least tolerated by the gang at the diner. By Season 5, his personality is pretty much stripped of the more revolting qualities that defined his character in the earlier seasons; by now, he is able to maintain a reasonable friendship with Jake and Chris.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: In a significantly delayed example of this trope, Bob vanishes from the show after Season 5. After a passing remark was made in the Season 6 premiere that he had gone “on vacation,” the character was never seen or mentioned again. Somewhat justified in that Bob was never particularly liked in-universe, but it's still a bit jarring given that he was totally forgotten about after spending every day at the diner for several seasons.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The first episode in its entirety for Becker presents most all his salient traits. It shows off his love of complaining, his refusal to compromise, his distrust for people, his VitriolicBestBuds relationship with Jake, his BelligerentSexualTension with Reggie, and his insulting attitudes towards patients who won't help themselves. It also shows [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold him giving up his new car to pay for experimental treatment for an HIV-positive seven year old]].

* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Maybe more “annoying” than “bad”, but for whatever his other faults, Bob is shown to love his mother, and she seems to love him back. Becker gets a little of this too.

* {{Forgiveness}}: The episode "Blind Curve" shows Jake reunited with Chris, the former friend who was driving the car the night he lost his eyesight in a crash. Eventually Jake declares that he can't forgive him, but does take the weight off his guilt by pointing out that he was just as drunk that night, didn't have to get into the car, and could easily have been in the opposite position. That is, he can't forgive Chris any more than he can forgive ''himself''.
* ForgotTheDisability: At times, the characters treat Jake as if he weren't blind. In the episode "Barter Sauce," he angrily calls out Becker for not telling him the antihistamines he prescribed may cause drowsiness. Becker retorts, "It was printed in giant letters on the label, you mor - oh."

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Bob is despised by every character on the show. Despite this, Reggie lets him hang around her diner all day and he gets invited to every social function within the group.

** {{Averted}}. Despite being a private practice doctor, Becker still lives in a modest apartment. He also mentions that his car is "held together with duct tape." Though it's mentioned several times that Becker's practice is in a poor neighborhood and his patients are frequently short of cash and are unable to fully pay. It's also implied in The Pilot that he's quite charitable to his poorer patients.
** Linda, Dr. Becker's brain-dead bimbo nurse, lives in a spacious and lavishly furnished apartment overlooking Central Park. However, this is because her parents, who are extremely rich, pay for it.
* {{Gasp}}: When Becker is sued for malpractice by a patient who suffered a heart attack while exercising under his advice, the plaintiff's lawyer asks him to identify Becker. When Vinny points at Becker, the jury gasps, to his astonishment.

* GreasySpoon: Reggie's diner is a grubby, cheap eatery, and Reggie herself is a terrible cook.

* GreyAndGreyMorality: In one episode, a twin brother of one of Becker's patients uses his brother's insurance to get cancer treatment. Becker spends the episode debating giving him the treatment (resulting in insurance fraud and possibly risking his license) or denying him the treatment (condemning a sick man to die because he is uninsured). Ultimately, Becker decides against committing fraud because he's the only practice in a poor neighborhood, so [[TheNeedsOfTheMany more people would die if he got caught]].

* HollywoodLaw: It's hardly believable that the malpractice suit at the end of Season 3 would have ever seen the inside of a courtroom. First off, Vinny's poor shape and lifestyle made him a heart attack waiting to happen regardless of whether he got on the treadmill or not. In addition, Becker didn't force Vinny to start exercising...he did it of his own free will, and it's standard procedure at most gyms to sign a waiver that absolves anybody else from responsibility should a health issue occur. To add insult to injury, the plaintiff's attorney framed his case against Becker as a character assassination, which had no bearing on the suit and would have been quieted by any reasonable judge. On top of everything else, the defense attorney sleeping with one of the character witnesses was totally unethical, and it's hardly plausible that Becker would've held onto her counsel after that. Granted, the denouement of the arc ended in a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome in which Becker lampshaded most of these things, but the premise of the story was extremely unrealistic.

* JadeColoredGlasses: It's all but outright stated that Becker was once a lot more idealistic before adopting his viewpoint of HumansAreMorons.

** As much of a jerk as Becker is to Linda et al., he truly seems to care for most of his patients. That is, the ones that aren't stupid.
** He's got a surprising amount of patience even with some of the stupid ones. Such as the woman who asked -- after being told to only drink clear fluids until she got better -- whether orange juice and milk would be okay. And then asked if vodka would be good for her, being a clear fluid.

** Becker also frequently accepts gifts such as baked goods and sports tickets instead of money as many people don't have much.

%% * LocalHangout: Reggie's Diner.
* LongBusTrip: At the start of Season 5, Reggie leaves a note saying she's abandoning the diner and heading to Europe. Worse, at the start of Season 6, Bob was said to be on vacation. Apparently he never came back, as that was the last we ever heard of him.

* MistakenForRacist: Becker in "PC World", when a journalist in the diner overhears his rantings about rap music and an Asian taxi driver and smears him as a racist in the paper (leaving out the context that the music was being broadcast into the street and the driver had just crashed into Becker's car), losing Becker at least one patient. Becker later confronts him during a radio interview and seemingly manages to clear himself by exposing the journalists' own prejudices.
* MoodSwinger: The episode "Barter Sauce" has Julie, a woman who keeps calling Becker's office by mistake and getting the answering machine because no one wants to tell her she's got the wrong number. Her messages for Phil keep shifting back and forth between angry at him for not answering (to the point of death threats) to loving and apologetic. When Becker finally breaks it to her, it's implied Phil gave her the wrong number on purpose, probably for this reason. She then starts repeatedly calling Becker on purpose, with the same mood swings.

** Another occurs in "Atlas Shirked," when John attends a funeral in his building (hoping to investigate whether the apartment will be available soon), for what turns out to be the resident's beloved pet cat. The mood turns solemn briefly when John realizes the cat had come in his window and kept him company a number of times, but turns [[BlackComedy darkly]] hilarious again when the woman reveals what killed the cat: he was lying by the door and ended up being hit by a heavy package coming through the mail slot -- which turns out to be an atlas John had ordered, hadn't received, and spent most of the episode chasing up, believing he'd been ripped off. The episode ends with John asking Mrs. Bernstein if she still has it.

* NayTheist: While Becker identifies as an atheist, it seems he does believe in a supreme being but he is angry that it allows so many terrible things to go on in the world.
* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: Reggie's last words with her father were an argument, which she always regretted.
* NeverHeardThatOneBefore: The judge in Becker's malpractice suit loses patience with him when he starts quoting ''Film/AndJusticeForAll''. "You have no idea how much I hate that damn movie!" It's also implied in her expression in the following episode when Becker belatedly notices that her last name is Reinhold.
* NewhartPhoneCall: Occasionally with either Margaret or Linda in Becker's office. There's a running gag in "The Buddy System" where Linda talks to her parents about their failing marriage in two scenes and Margaret getting involved in a third, and each time one of them brings up something Linda's father had done and then adding "Okay, I did not know you didn't know about that." The final scene reverses when Linda's father calls the office, Becker answers the phone and brings up the affair his wife was having with a tennis instructor, likewise not knowing that he didn't know about that.
* NoNameGiven: Linda and Bob's last names were never revealed.

* PersecutedIntellectuals: Becker is called to jury duty in "One Angry Man" but keeps getting rejected. He believes that lawyers don't want him because they believe as a doctor he is too intelligent. At one point he almost gets accepted on a jury by talking only about daytime TV shows until he mentions he was reading a book. Meanwhile his ditzy assistant Linda is quickly put on a jury and made forewoman.

* NotMeThisTime: In "Subway Story", Linda and Margaret spend the episode trying to recover a file that Linda had seemingly deleted by accident. In the end, they find out the file actually went missing at a time when Linda wasn't even in the office, forcing Margaret to apologise.
* ObfuscatingDisability: In "The Film Critic" Reggie tells Jake's literal blind date that he only pretends to be blind to get girls into bed [[DisproportionateRetribution out of revenge for him bailing on giving her the last spot left in the register for an art class (as he was blind he could cut in line) and instead letting his date have it]].

* PlayingCyrano: Becker finds out that one of his patients is dating Reggie and starts giving him romantic advice, intending to disprove Reggie's claim that he knows nothing about women. The advice works at first, but right when Becker is about to reveal his involvement, Reggie tell him that she broke up with him after getting annoyed with his gestures. She later tells Jake that she was lying and has no intention of giving Becker that satisfaction. However, he overhears.

%% * PuttingTheMedicInComedic: A comedy about a doctor qualifies for this.

* ShipTease: Becker and Reggie. It's set up in the Pilot, where Reggie puts on a hot dress and pretends that she has a date in order to get Becker's attention, and Becker seems to be enjoy the sight of it even if he doesn't say anything. Reggie's also frustrated when Becker doesn't seem to respond. Throughout the show, they bicker LikeAnOldMarriedCouple and she even pretends to be his wife in "Shovel Off To Buffalo"!

* WhamLine: "Subway Story," the second to last episode of the series, has Becker guiding an old woman names Naomi through the subway system to her destination. When they arrive, he sees her sit down instead of heading upstairs and becomes frustrated until Naomi explains that her son would have been forty that day.

* SideEffectsInclude: The side-effects list was used as the main reason why a split-personality patient didn't take his drugs-the "nice" personality was deathly afraid of the side effects.
-->'''Becker''': It also says it causes irregular periods. Are you afraid of that too?
-->'''Jim''': Now I am!
* SmokingHotSex: Referenced when Becker tries to quit smoking by having sex every time he gets the urge:

* SomebodyDoesntLoveRaymond: One episode has Margaret realizing that a patient she visits at home, who has always been strangely cold and crotchetty to her, gets along well with both Linda and Becker (and has done so for years, in the latter case). Rather than go through the usual plot of trying and failing to make her like her by changing her behavior, Margaret straight-up asks for an explanation. She doesn't get one.
-->'''Margaret''': [[DrJerk John's the one no one likes!]] [[CloudCuckooLander Linda's the one no one understands!]] [[NiceGuy I'm the likable one!]]

* ToiletHumor: In "One Angry Man," Jake receives a seeing eye dog. However, he has to give the pooch up because it has a significant farting issue. The problem is so bad that the dog manages to clear Reggie's diner the one day she has a restaurant full of customers.

* UnknownRival: In "Picture Perfect", an article Becker wrote for a medical journal is published with an incorrect photo of an ugly overweight man, embarrassing Becker to his friends and peers. When Becker goes to the magazine to get it corrected, he meets the man responsible (Creator/WayneKnight), who reveals that he has a grudge against him for unwittingly throwing off his concentration during his entrance exam to medical school.

* WhamLine: "Subway Story," he second to last episode of the series, has Becker guiding an old woman through the subway system to a destination. When they arrive, he sees her sit down and approaches, frustrated, until she explains that her son would have been forty that day.
-->'''Woman''': It was funny. He got to work early that morning, and called me just to chat. About dinner, that weekend, the trip he was planning... [[TalkAboutTheWeather the weather]]. [[spoiler: It was such a beautiful [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror September day]].]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Becker's father was never seen or mentioned again after his appearance in Season 1. It's fair to assume he didn't have long to live after that episode (explaining his desire to finally make amends with his son), but the situation was never addressed on screen.
* WillTheyOrWontThey: Becker and Reggie go back and forth on whether to act on their mutual attration. [[spoiler:When they finally do, Reggie is so consumed with regret and humiliation that she leaves the city (conveniently, the actress was fired from the show).]]
* WorldOfSnark: Every one of the main cast members on the show is a DeadpanSnarker or a {{Ditz}}, and they are frequently seen engaging in snarky banter.

* SustainedMisunderstanding:

* TakeAThirdOption: When Reggie gets two tickets to a hockey game she ultimately ends up letting John and Jake decide who should get the extra ticket, instead of picking one over the other. In that same vein when confronted with this new scenario John and Jake take their own third option by giving the extra ticket to Bob.

%% * ThirdPersonPerson: Bob.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Megan, Becker's college girlfriend, was a friendly albeit snarky woman who truly loved him in her first appearance. She becomes a [[ConsummateLiar lying]] [[ManipulativeBastard manipulative]], [[GoldDigger gold digging]] [[TheSociopath sociopath]] in her second appearance.
* UltimateJobSecurity: Linda. Becker owes her dad a favor and has no choice but to keep her employed. In one of the last episodes, she does make a half-decent argument for how she does contribute to the office, by drawing pictures with the little kids when they're scared, talking with older patients when they're lonely and attracting a lot of young male patients.

* HiddenDepths: Airhead Linda is extremely well-loved by the patients (especially kids), speaks Mandarin and Portuguese, and (despite her constant mooching) is the child of very wealthy parents who bought her a penthouse apartment overlooking Central Park.

* OnlySaneMan: Margaret. She's the one keeping the office running due to Becker's abrasiveness and Linda's laziness. She also seems to be the only one on the show to have a happy and well adjusted life.

* PersecutedIntellectuals: Becker is called to jury duty but keeps getting rejected. He believes that lawyers don't want him because they believe as a doctor he is too intelligent. At one point he almost gets accepted on a jury by talking only about daytime TV shows, until he mentions he was reading a book. Meanwhile his ditzy assistant Linda is quickly put on a jury and made forewoman.
* PersonaNonGrata: Offscreen, Becker was banned from Thriftymart after getting into an argument with a man in a wheelchair who cut in front of him, that somehow resulted in Becker pushing the man out the door and down a hill. The incident made the local news, and Bob is shocked when he finds out that it was Becker.
* PetTheDog: Bob, of all people, gets one of these in "Piece Talks." When his friend Lenny makes an unwelcome sexual advance toward Reggie, Bob stepped in and firmly told Lenny that he was way out of line. Bob then apologized to Reggie on behalf of Lenny, and Reggie showed genuine appreciation. It was the only genuine moment of friendship between the two in the entire series, but it does establish that they have an OddFriendship underneath the many layers of sarcasm and vitriol.

* ProperlyParanoid: Becker's conspiracy theory that "Chico, California" is just a code word that the phone company uses to put fake charges on people's phone bills. In universe at least, he's ''right'', as the charge in question was added by an phone company employee with a grudge against Becker (from the Thriftymart incident above), and his co-worker specifically asks him "Did you 'Chico' him?" after Becker walks out.

** Linda frequently talks about her active love life with Margaret, and a few of her many short-term boyfriends appear on the show.

* DatedHistory: One episode mentions that there are nine planets. This was prior to 2006 when Pluto lost planet status.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Bob is despised by every character on the show, but despite this, Reggie lets him hang around her diner all day and he gets invited to every social function within the group.

* HomemadeSweaterFromHell: In one episode, Margaret wears a "[[{{portmanteau}} swest]]" that her husband, Lewis, made; it's hilariously bad. Linda feigns a compliment on it, and ends up getting her own "swest" from Lewis.
* HustlingTheMark: In the episode "Another Tricky Day," Jake convinces Bob to play Scrabble for money. It turns out Jake is a former National Championship winner, but he doesn't tell Bob beforehand, and the latter gets trounced soundly.
* {{Hypochondria}}: One patient had it and kept going to different doctors who kept giving him prescriptions. Ironically, all the medication he was taking was actually giving him actual medical problems, which other doctors would solve just by giving him more medication. Becker eventually straightens it all out.

* FoodSlap: The scene where Chris accuses Becker of dating her on the rebound after Reggie left has her throwing four glasses of water and one glass of white wine in his face, as he digs himself deeper and deeper.

* ForgotTheDisability: At times, the characters treat Jake as if he weren't blind. In one case, he angrily calls out Becker for not telling him the antihistamines he prescribed may cause drowsiness. Becker retorts, "It was printed in giant letters on the label, you mor - oh."

** After Becker's friends encourage him to change his routine by eating at a different restaurant, chaos ensues resulting in Margaret getting food poisoning, Becker having to stay late at the office, missing a hockey game, and Reggie and Jake being scammed at said hockey game when they can't access Becker's tickets. The next day, Becker delights in pointing this out to the others, who then urge him back to his routine.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Bob is despised by every character on the show, but Reggie lets him hang around her diner all day and he is invited to every social function within the group.
* FriendToAllChildren: One of the reasons Linda still has a job. When kids come into the office she's actually good with them, whereas Margaret is brusque and businesslike and Becker is Becker.

** Linda the brain dead bimbo nurse of Dr. Becker lives in a spacious and lavishly furnished apartment overlooking Central Park that Becker is completely envious of. Though this is because her parents, who are extremely rich, pay for it. Becker himself has told her that he has the desire to murder her and live there, played for laughs.
* {{Gasp}}: When Becker is sued for malpractice by a patient who suffered a heart attack while exercising under his advice, the plaintiff's lawyer asks him to identify Becker. When Vinny points at Becker, the jury gasps, to his confusion. "Oh, come on! Who didn't know that already?"
* TheGhost: Margaret's husband, Lewis is never onscreen, even when he's in the same apartment as everyone else.
* GreasySpoon: Reggie's diner.

* HiddenDepths: Airhead Linda is extremely well-loved by the patients, especially kids, speaks Mandarin and Portugese, and despite her constant mooching, and is the child of very wealthy parents who bought her a penthouse apartment overlooking Central Park.

* ItsThePrincipleOfTheThing: Becker's usual attitude towards most every annoyance, with Margaret futilely telling him to let whatever it is go. Sometimes it seems to work -- see his confrontation with the journalist who mistook him for a racist in "PC World" -- but more often it gets him in further trouble, such as when he got banned from Thriftymart.

** A number of episodes take an unexpected serious turn with few if any laughs in the final scenes. A standout is "Subway Story", which ends with the elderly woman who has been pestering Becker for directions all episode [[spoiler:turning out to have lost her son on 9/11, and had been traveling to Ground Zero that day but can't bring herself to walk up the steps.]]
** Another standout is when John attends a funeral in his building (hoping to investigate whether the apartment will be available soon), for what turns out to be the resident's beloved pet cat. The mood turns solemn briefly when John realizes the cat had come in his window and kept him company a number of times, but turns [[BlackComedy darkly]] hilarious again when the woman reveals what killed the cat: he was lying by the door and ended up being hit by a heavy package coming through the mail slot - which turns out to be an atlas John had ordered, hadn't received and spent most of the episode chasing up, believing he'd been ripped off. The episode ends with John asking Mrs Bernstein if she still has it.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: In "Nightmare on Becker Street," John regrets helping an elderly neighbor when she becomes his infatuated stalker.
%% * AccentuateTheNegative: Becker's personality.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: In a significantly delayed example of this trope, Bob vanishes after Season 5. After a passing remark was made in the Season 6 premiere that he had gone “on vacation,” the character was never seen or mentioned again. Somewhat justified in that the character was never particularly liked in-universe, but still a bit jarring given that he was totally forgotten about after spending every day at the diner for several seasons.

* CoolLoser: Reggie is gorgeous, funny, and runs her own business, but is pretty much considered a total failure who can't get her life together or make a relationship work.
* CrapsackWorld: The primary settings for the show are an underfunded medical office and a GreasySpoon (emphasis on greasy) diner. To top it off, most of the characters are either miserable, disreputable, or both.

* DeadpanSnarker: Every character contributes heavily to the show's overall WorldOfSnark, with Becker being a prime instigator.

* HypocriticalHumor: It's a RunningGag to have Becker decry things in the diner for being dirty, disgusting, and unhealthy right before buying a pack of cigarettes. Linda is also guilty of this, often complaining about people getting paid for doing nothing when she

* InadvertentEntranceCue: When Becker learns that Julie (see MoodSwinger below) is obsessed with him, he asks "Why do lonely pathetic women always glom onto me?" Reggie enters behind him and says "Becker, I need you!" (Though it's immediately pretty clear she has a cold and needs him as a doctor.)
* InformedFlaw: Becker is considered to be a miserable human being by everyone who knows him, but he's really just a cynical DeadpanSnarker most of the time. He also treats his patients with the utmost professionalism and bestows UltimateJobSecurity on Linda, despite her being totally incompetent.
* TheInternetIsForPorn: After Bob said that he was looking up something online, guess who replied, "Yeah, it must have been shocking to discover the internet wasn't just porn."
-->"One crisis at a time."
* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: One segment has Linda pronouncing "UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome" as "ass burgers". Margaret starts correcting her on it, but later in the episode starts giggling about "ass burgers" herself.
* ItsThePrincipleOfTheThing: Becker's usual attitude, with Margaret futilely telling him to let whatever it is go. Sometimes it seems to work -- see his confrontation with the journalist who mistook him for a racist in "PC World" -- but more often it gets him in further trouble, such as when he got banned from Thriftymart.

** He's got a surprising amount of patience even with some of the stupid ones. Such as the woman who asked--after being told to only drink clear fluids until she got better--whether orange juice and milk would be okay. And then asked if vodka would be good for her, being a clear fluid.
** One episode states that the reason why Becker's office is in such a bad location is so that he can help people that otherwise wouldn't have access to medical help.
** He also frequently accepts gifts such as baked goods and sports tickets instead of money as many people don't have much.
** He uses his own pocket money to finance treatments for patients who were otherwise unable to afford it, such as the HIV-positive child from the pilot episode, which is one of the reasons why he keeps [[TheAllegedCar his beaten down car]].
** ''Subway Story'' has his patience tested when he guides an old lady to where she wants to go, before he starts to figure out that she was going to Ground Zero. When she explains the reason why she can't the realization hits Becker hard, and he stays with her as she talks about her son who died on September 11th.
* LastNameBasis: Everyone but Margaret, Chris, and sometimes Jake call him Becker.

* LongBusTrip: At the start of Season 5, Reggie left a note saying she was leaving town for Europe. Worse, at the start of Season 6, Bob was said to be on vacation. Apparently he never came back, as that was the last we ever heard of him.

* ForgotTheDisability: A few times when characters talk with Jake. In one case, he angrily calls out Becker for not telling him the antihistamines he prescribed may cause drowsiness. Becker retorts, "It was printed in giant letters on the label, you mor - oh."

* HypocriticalHumor: It's a RunningGag to have Becker decry things in the diner for being dirty, disgusting, and unhealthy right before buying a pack of cigarettes. Linda also gets in the action as well such as when she complains about people getting paid for doing nothing.

* ReallyGetsAround: Linda frequently talks about her active love life with Margaret, and a few of her short-term boyfriends appear on the show.

* ScrabbleBabble: {{Subverted}} when Jake plays 'Xebec'.
-->'''Bob:''' I still say that's not a word.
-->'''Jake:''' Bob, I told you, it's an antiquated, tri-masted Mediterranean sailing vessel.
-->'''Bob:''' ''None'' of those are words!
** Earlier in the same game, Bob complains about his useless letters - "J! A! C! K! A! S! S!" - and has them exchanged. Reggie tells him, "You had a word! 'Jackass'!" Bob [[ComicallyMissingThePoint replies]], "Hey, I'm doing the best I can, moron!"

** Becker indirectly kills his neighbor's cat with a book, then asks the woman to give the book back during the funeral.
** Reggie lies to Jake's girlfriend about him not being blind.

* DeadpanSnarker: Becker, oh ''yes.''

* DrivesLikeCrazy: Becker, which is surprising, considering his car is about one crash away from falling apart.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The first episode in its entirety for Becker. It shows off his love of complaining, his refusal to compromise, his distrust for people, his VitriolicBestBuds relationship with Jake, his BelligerentSexualTension with Reggie and his insulting attitudes towards patients who won't help themselves. It also shows him giving up his new car to pay for experimental treatment for an HIV-positive seven year old.

* {{Expy}}: It doesn’t take a genius to see a boatload of similarities between Chris and Diane Chambers of Series/{{Cheers}}. Both were blonde, perky, worked as waitresses, and had the polar opposite personality of Ted Danson’s character while engaging in a WillTheyOrWontThey plot with him.
* {{Flanderization}}: After a while, Becker was either an unbelievable jerk or a kind but ridiculously put-upon chap, never a balance of both.
* FoodSlap: The scene where Chris accuses Becker of dating her on the rebound after Reggie left has her throwing five glasses of water in his face, as he digs himself deeper and deeper.
* {{Forgiveness}}: The episode where Jake is reunited with Chris, the former friend who was driving the car the night he lost his eyesight in a crash. Eventually Jake declares that he can't forgive him, but does take the weight off his guilt by pointing out that he was just as drunk that night, didn't have to get into the car and could easily have been in the opposite position. That is, he can't forgive Chris any more than he can forgive ''himself''.

** In "What Indifference a Day Makes", Becker talks about the events of the episode "Drive, They Said."

* CelebrityParadox: In season 5 episode "The Grand Gesture," Becker berates himself for being pretentious for trying to seduce Chris using cheese and wine. He then compares himself to ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', who originally was from ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' and had Ted Danson as a guest star for one episode.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: In one of the most delayed examples of this trope in TV history, Bob succumbs to this after Season 5. After a passing remark was made in the Season 6 premiere that he had gone “on vacation,” the character was never seen or mentioned again. Somewhat justified in that the character was never particularly liked in-universe, but still a bit jarring given that he was totally forgotten about after spending every day at the diner for the previous five years.
* CloudCuckoolander: Linda, and a lot of Becker's more irritating patients. Mrs. Recinos is a standout - in addition to the joke about clear fluids below, she comes back to the office after Becker advises her to get a second opinion, not realizing that he meant from ''another'' doctor.
* ComedicSociopathy: While the entire gang are kind in their own way, their insensitivities and callousness can be both funny and cruel. Examples are Becker indirectly killing his neighbor's cat with a book and then asking her to give the book back during the funeral, Reggie lying to Jake's girlfriend about him not being blind, Linda manipulating a patient into believing that she has a mental problem just to cover up her own mistakes, Jake tricking a woman into not moving in with him and Bob's hobby of stalking women.

* CrapsackWorld: The primary settings for the show are an underfunded medical office and a GreasySpoon (emphasis on greasy) diner. To top it off, most of the characters are either somewhat miserable or somewhat disreputable.
* CrossingTheBurntBridge: One of Becker's patients is faced with this after finding out that the lab made a mistake on a test and he's not dying after all - not only had he spent a lot of his money in the last two weeks, but he quit his job and set fire to his boss's BMW. The scene where Becker calls him back after getting the test redone is [[JustTheIntroductionToTheOpposites played as if he actually was dying and was desperate for a cure]].

* ActorAllusion: Several ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' alumni turned up on this show. When they do, the roles Ted Danson and the actor had on that series are reversed.

* WhamLine: The second to last episode of the series has Becker guiding an old woman through the subway system to a destination. When they arrive, he sees her sit down and approaches, frustrated, until she explains that her son would have been forty that day.

* WillTheyOrWontThey: Becker and Reggie. [[spoiler:When they finally do, Reggie is so consumed with regret and humiliation that she leaves the city (since the actress wanted to leave the show).]]

* BuffySpeak: An example of "Quit hovering over me like... help me out, what hovers?" -- which is surprisingly said by Becker himself in the episode "A Pain in the Asprin."

** In "Trials and Defibrilations", Becker's meeting with Anita from "Panic on the 86th" is mentioned.
** Whenever Detective Borkow shows up, he always mentions that Becker was shot at a gay bar during the events of "Stumble In The Bronx". He was actually shot while walking ''past'' a gay bar and was brought inside to wait for the ambulance, but Borkow always ignores this distinction and acts as if Becker is gay himself.
* {{Catchphrase}}: "Okay, here's the thing," right before Linda explains some kind of screw up.

* CharacterFilibuster: Becker rants about anything and everything, so it can be safe to assume that he's voicing out the writer's opinions.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Bob was universally despised by the entire cast in the first two seasons. By Season 4, he is TheFriendNobodyLikes and is at least tolerated by the gang at the diner. By Season 5, his personality is pretty much stripped of the revolting qualities that defined his character in the earlier seasons, and he is shown to maintain friendships with Jake and Chris.

* BreakfastClub: Becker is an opinionated DrJerk who rants about everything. Reggie is a depressed JadedWashout ex-model who is stuck with a run-down GreasySpoon. Jake is a blind StepfordSnarker who runs an unsuccessful newsstand. Linda is a CloudCuckooLander of epic proportions. Bob is a SmugSnake who goes through a HumiliationConga and becomes the biggest loser of the group. [[OnlySaneMan Margaret]] seems to be the only one who has a stable and happy life, and even she has to take care of her uncaring {{Manchild}} husband.
* BrickJoke: In one episode, everyone questions Becker why he's carrying around an air horn. After the joke is abandoned for the rest of the episode, he uses it at the very end to blare it into the phone after a telemarketer calls.
* BuffySpeak: "Quit hovering over me like... help me out, what hovers?"

* ActorAllusion:
** In one episode, Creator/GeorgeWendt stars as a bartender at an airport bar patronized by Becker.
** Creator/KelseyGrammer appears as an old friend of Becker's and a former alcoholic who is apologizing to those he wronged in the past.
** Creator/RheaPerlman appears as Becker's court ordered therapist who is trying to help Becker with his anger problem, reversing a dynamic from ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' when Sam would help Carla through her anger.

* ArmorPiercingResponse: The episode where Becker is reunited with a friend from high school who has since come out as transgender and had a sex-change. John doesn't handle it at all well (in part due to being attracted to her) and his reactions are ignorant to say the least, at one point asking if she has any idea how confusing this is for him. She fires back, "Imagine what it was like for an eighth-grader," shutting him up.
* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: The professional variant with John and Margaret. While they typically have a sarcastic realtionship, John admits on more than one occasion that he would be nothing without Margaret. Margaret in turn admits that she does love working for John despite his abrasive personality.
* BelligerentSexualTension: Becker and Chris, highlighted in the Season 6 premiere, which ends with an argument that reads like a ShoutOut to the iconic SlapSlapKiss between [[Series/{{Cheers}} Sam and Diane]]:

* TheBrainlessBeauty: Linda, although she has [[SmartBall moments of brilliance]], however fleeting.

* ActorAllusion: In one episode, George Wendt stars as a bartender at an airport bar patronized by Becker.

** Rhea Perlman appears as Becker's court ordered therapist who is trying to help Becker with his anger problem, reversing a dynamic from ''Series/{{Cheers}}'' when Sam would help Carla through her anger.

At work, head nurse Margaret (Creator/HattieWinston) was in charge, and the practice was assisted by Linda (Creator/ShawneeSmith), who could be TheDitz but was very popular with the patients. Becker spent most of his time at Reggie's Diner, owned by ex-model Reggie Kostas (Creator/TerryFarrell, who also had a pre-existing relationship with Paramount, having starred on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' prior to this series). Other characters included blind newspaper seller Jake Malinack (Creator/AlexDesert) and Bob (Creator/SaverioGuerra), an annoying old schoolfriend of Reggie's who [[ThirdPersonPerson referred to himself in the third person]].

''Becker'' was a SitCom which ran on Creator/{{CBS}} from 1998–2004, about an [[DrJerk angry, loud, opinionated doctor]] named John Becker (played by Creator/TedDanson) with a small practice in the Bronx and a loose group of petty, self-centered "friends", who seemed to be the only people who could actually stand Becker for more than a few moments. Nevertheless he seemed popular with his patients, despite the fact that Becker generally hated people.

At work, head nurse Margaret (Creator/HattieWinston) was in charge, and the practice was assisted by Linda (Creator/ShawneeSmith), who could be TheDitz but was very popular with the patients. Becker spent most of his time at Reggie's Diner, owned by ex-model Reggie Kostas (Creator/TerryFarrell). Other characters included blind newspaper seller Jake Malinack (Creator/AlexDesert) and Bob (Creator/SaverioGuerra), an annoying old schoolfriend of Reggie's who [[ThirdPersonPerson referred to himself in the third person]].

-->'''Woman''': It was funny. He got to work early that morning, and called me just to chat. About dinner, that weekend, the trip he was planning... [[TalkAboutTheWeather the weather]]. [[spoiler: It was such a beautiful [[TheWarOnTerror September day]].]]

At work, head nurse Margaret (Hattie Winston) was in charge, and the practice was assisted by Linda (Creator/ShawneeSmith), who could be TheDitz but was very popular with the patients. Becker spent most of his time at Reggie's Diner, owned by ex-model Reggie Kostas (Creator/TerryFarrell). Other characters included blind newspaper seller Jake Malinack (Creator/AlexDesert) and Bob (Saverio Guerra), an annoying old schoolfriend of Reggie's who [[ThirdPersonPerson referred to himself in the third person]].

After Season 4, Reggie was suddenly written out of the show after Farrell was fired, and new character Chris Connor (Nancy Travis) took over for the final 2 seasons. Bob left in Season 6 and was replaced by Hector (Jorge Garcia).

* MoodSwinger: The episode "Barter Sauce" has Julie, a woman who keeps calling Becker's office by mistake and getting the answering machine because no one wants to tell her she's got the wrong number. Her messages for Phil keep shifting back and forth between angry at him for not answering (to the point of death threats) to loving and apologetic. When Becker finally breaks it to her, it's implied Phil gave her the wrong number on purpose, probably for this reason.