I was first introduced into the somewhat twisted world of Dave Barry in 1986 when I moved to Florida. The Tampa paper carried his Sunday column, and all I can remember is that it had something to do with dinosaurs on the beach and that I couldn’t stop laughing. For years afterward both my wife and I made the column regular Sunday reading. As years went on other things fill one’s life, and I only occasionally read the material until he disappeared almost completely from the Central Florida scene, keeping more to himself some 250 miles to our south. He’s since spent a lot of time playing in a writer’s band with the likes of Stephen King. So I was pretty eager when Dave’s World first came to television in 1993. To say I was disappointed wouldn’t exactly be fair. The show was pretty funny, but Harry Anderson was so ingrained in my mind from his Night Court role that I never did accept him as Dave Barry. Once I was able to separate the character from the writer, the show was a little better going for me.

Anderson supplies narration to the show in a voice much like that of his column so that we’re placed into that world. It was a nice touch. Dave (Anderson) worked from home. He had a wife (Matthews) who was a teacher. He also had two young children. Most of the show dealt with Dave’s childlike look at the world around him. He found life to border on the ridiculous, and that’s what he wrote about. His world was also populated by the typical guy friends that have become staple in shows like King Of Queens and Everybody Loves Raymond.

Who says no one likes a guy who’s negative all the time? Becker has got to be one of the most cynical, grumpy, and negative characters to grace our sit-com screens. He’s a guy you probably love to hate, and he’s also hilarious. Ted Danson spent over a decade behind the bar at Cheers and could have easily called it a career. You know, stop while you’re ahead. Instead he climbed right back into the television saddle and reemerged as Dr. Becker. This time he’s a medical doctor who hates everything and everyone around him. Refusing to display that little bit of a heart we all know he has, Becker spends most of his life complaining about everything. Never before has it been so much fun to watch a guy moan and groan for twenty minutes at a time. Fortunately for him, Becker is truly a dedicated doctor, and while he’s likely to complain about it the whole time, he’ll go to any extreme to help a patient.

The secret to Becker’s genius is characters. Like Cheers before it, Becker is populated with wonderfully distinctive characters played by actors carefully cast for the roles. To start with there’s his office nurse, Margaret, played skillfully by Hattie Winston. Margaret runs things for Becker in his doctor’s office. She’s pretty much his mother and the brains behind the outfit. She’s one of those straight talking ladies that don’t take any guff, and that means not even from Becker. The office assistant is Linda, played by Saw star Shawnee Smith. Linda’s used to getting by on her looks, which is fortunate because she’s naive and a little short on the intelligence front. How she got the job and holds it is anyone’s guess, but her blundering makes for some classic comedy. Becker spends much of his off time at a café owned by Reggie. Reggie is portrayed by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s resident Trill, Terry Farrell. There’s a hint of a romantic interest here. Reggie is more interested talking about her own pitiful social life than serving her customers. Jake, played by Alex Desert, is blind, and interestingly enough runs a newsstand out of Reggie’s Café. He’s pretty much Becker’s best friend and often foil. A frequent patron of the Café is sleaze Bob, played by Saverio Guerra. He’s got the hots for Reggie and just about any other woman who meets his criteria (breathing) even though he’s married to an unseen wife. Bob always refers to himself in the third person and is clearly the most entertaining support character on the show. He was a recurring character up to year three where he was finally upgraded to regular. I can’t imagine the Becker universe without him.