News


7.18.06 - TVGuide.com: Lindsay Sloane (Grosse Pointe) has been cast as Ted Danson's daughter in ABC's Help Me Help You.

6.15.06 - Jorge Garcia was nominated for a Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Sidekick, for his role in Lost. Teenagers can vote at TeenPeople.com, which has sponsored the balloting for several years, and at several sites owned by FOX parent News Corp.: MySpace.com, IGN.com and FOX.com. The awards will be handed out Aug. 20 on FOX, and teenagers can vote for the winners through Aug. 11. The nominees announced Thursday constitute "Wave One" of the process, with two more to come in the weeks leading up to the awards.

3.2.06 - TVGuide.com: Per the Hollywood Reporter, Ted Danson is in final talks to star in the ABC comedy Help Me Help You (playing a psychologist) as well as to appear in seven episodes of NBC's Heist (as a cop).

1.5.06 - Ted Danson was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries for his role in "Knights of the South Bronx." The 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony will be on January 29th, 2006, and will air live on both TNT and TBS.

12.4.05 - Zap2It.com: Danson Plays Chess with 'South Bronx' An actor's career decisions can be as strategic as the moves in a chess game. Whether or not that's the reason Ted Danson signed up for his latest television project, chess figures in anyway. The Emmy-winning "Cheers" and "Becker" veteran plays an inner-city educator who galvanizes his students by teaching them the game in "Knights of the South Bronx," a fact-inspired A&E Network movie directed by Allen Hughes ("Menace II Society") and debuting Tuesday, Dec. 6. More...

12.3.05 - Ted Danson will be on The Ellen Degeneres Show on Tuesday, December 6th.

10.7.05 - Bid on this Hand-Signed, Limited-Edition Lithograph by the late caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, (number 49 of 100) of the cast of his show Becker to this auction benefitting the ACLU of Southern California. It measures 25 x 21 inches. It is signed by both Al Hirschfeld and Ted Danson. Last I checked, the starting bid was $500 and the auction is over the morning of October 11th. Go to eBay

9.15.04 - Bid on this hand-signed, limited-edition lithograph by the late caricaurist Al Hirschfeld, of the cast of Becker, donated by Ted Danson to benefit the ACLU of Southern California. Last I checked, the starting bid was $500 and the auction is over the morning of September 21st. Go to eBay

5.21.04 - Nancy Travis will play the fiancé of Bradley Whitford's (The West Wing) character in a new movie called "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," an adaptation of the best-selling Ann Brashares book. The film is being directed by Ken Kwapis (Malcolm in the Middle) and is an adaptation by Delia Ephron and Elizabeth Chandler. It's a coming-of-age story revolving around four friends during the first summer they spend apart. They vow to keep in touch by circulating a magical pair of secondhand jeans that fits each of them perfectly. Whitford plays the father of one of the girls. Also starring are Alexis Bledel (Gilmore Girls), Amber Tamblyn (Joan of Arcadia), America Ferrera, Blake Lively, and Jenna Boyd.

5.18.04 - Ted Danson has been tapped for the lead role in "Our Fathers," Showtime's adaptation of David France's book about the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal. He'll play the Boston lawyer who represented the first victims to come forward.

3.2.04 - Alex Désert has been cast in the ABC drama pilot Harry Green & Eugene (Frequency Films/Littlefield Co./Paramount) which stars Mark Valley and Jason Segal as brothers - one smart, the other not so much, who own a P.I. firm.

2.3.04 - Ted Danson, along with his wife, Mary Steenburgen, will be on The Ellen Degeneres Show on Friday, February 13th.

1.28.04 - TV Guide Online: Ted Danson Ends Becker

Last summer, Becker was brought back from the dead with an eleventh-hour renewal for a sixth season. But don't expect it to happen again, even though CBS hasn't officially canned the series. "They never really cancel things," says star Ted Danson. "They just let them disappear. I think canceling is bad juju, so [series] just don't show up again."

The Becker finale airs tonight at 9:30 pm/ET, and the episode title is "DNR" — as in "Do Not Resuscitate." He admits it's a not-so-subtle message to the network that the Becker set is closed for good. In it, grumpy Dr. Becker finds happiness. "But," Danson says, "he's morose over the fact that he's happy. I love that."

Danson's grateful for the chance to end the show "with some degree of grace," even though the cast and crew knew, going into Season 6, that they "weren't the flavor of the week" and would be gone by mid-season. As for shooting the wrap-up, he says it was "very sweet. We'd already gotten through the disappointment of being canceled."

However, the actor won't be gone for long. Next month, he'll costar with wife Mary Steenburgen in the CBS movie It Must Be Love. Danson calls the story "a valentine," written especially for them by Beth Henley (Crimes of the Heart). It's about a married couple on the verge of divorce, yet rediscovering their love for each other. For you cynics out there, he insists, "It really captures love in a very non-manipulative way."

As for the future, Danson has no definite plans. "I'm knocking on doors," he admits. "I probably need to give the half-hour [sitcoms] a bit of a rest because, emotionally, part of me would go, 'Why am I doing this? I had one that worked perfectly well.' I trust something will come my way, but at the moment, I have no idea."

1.20.04 - Zap2It.com: Danson Says Goodbye to 'Becker' - Parting is sweet sorrow for Ted Danson. Again. After his 11-year run as Sam Malone on the classic sitcom "Cheers," the Emmy-winning actor is bidding farewell to the role of perpetually cranky New York City doctor John Becker. The CBS series "Becker" is ending after six seasons, with its final telecast scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 28....

11.8.03 - Don't miss the great article on page 54 of the November 8th issue of TV Guide entitled "Perfect Bedside Manners: How Ted Danson and the cast of Becker comforted one writer's dad during his final days."

11.4.03 - Becker is just about done. No, not cancelled. Just done, at least for now. Variety reports when Becker's 13 episode commitment has been fulfilled, the show will close shop for the season and wait to see if it finds its way back on the schedule next Fall. Come midseason, CBS new sitcom series The Stones is set to launch with its 9 episodes on Wednesdays at 930p following King of Queens.

10.14.03 - Jorge Garcia has joined the cast of Becker in the recurring role of Hector Lopez, Jake's long lost friend who will now be hanging at the diner while he searches for work.

9.27.03 - Saverio Guerra was spotted walking down lower Fifth Avenue in New York City with an attractive female companion this weekend. He looks much more suave in real life than he does as his character, Bob. :)

9.19.03 - Ted Danson will be a presenter at the Emmys this Sunday.

8.26.03 - Old episodes of Becker will begin running in syndication on September 15th.

8.26.03 - CBS has extended Big Brother by two episodes, which will push back its grand finale to Wednesday, September 24, when it is scheduled to air at 9pm. That means the King of Queens premiere will be pushed back one week to October 1st, and Becker gets pushed back to October 8.

7.17.03 - Betty Garrett was nominated for an Emmy for her guest role as Mrs. Molly Firth in the episode "Nightmare on Becker Street." The Emmy Awards will be presented live on Fox from the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium on Sunday, September 21st.

7.3.03 - Becker has found its way onto the fall schedule, airing on Wednesdays at 9:30pm following The King of Queens in its new time period. The addition to the sked displaces fall newcomer The Stones, which will now hold until midseason. The reason given for the change is the network didn't want to try to launch a new Wednesday 9-10pm comedy block with half the block a complete unknown, and also wanted to give the 10pm show, David E. Kelley's The Brotherhood of Poland NH, the best shot possible with a known lead-in.

6.29.03 - The first season of Cheers, starring Ted Danson, has recently been released on DVD. Click here to buy it from Amazon.com.

6.24.03 - From TV Guide Online: Ted Danson apparently isn't holding a grudge against CBS for banishing Becker to midseason. The actor and his real-life wife Mary Steenburgen have signed on to star in the CBS telepic Surviving Love, a drama about a married couple whose icy relationship thaws out during a freak snowstorm.

6.17.03 - CBS has ordered 13 more episodes of Becker for next season, and they will begin airing sometimes in the mid-season. With 117 episodes already made, these 13 new episodes will bring the totaly syndication package up to 130.

5.14.03 - Zap2It.com: 'Becker' Missing from CBS Slate - The veteran comedy "Becker" isn't on the fall schedule for CBS, but there's still a chance it could return next season. The show, which wrapped up its fifth season last month, suffered a considerable drop in viewership this season, when it moved to 8 p.m. ET Sunday from the more protected 9:30 p.m. Monday slot. "Becker" averaged about 10.4 million viewers a week this season, down from more than 16 million last year. CBS President and CEO Les Moonves says the network is "still in discussions" on possibly bringing the show back later in the season, but he doesn't sound overly optimistic....

2.4.03 - WGN Superstation has picked up the cable exclusive rights to Becker (Paramount Domestic Television). The show will join the lineup this Fall 2003. WGN is available in 57 million homes nationwide.

10.11.02 - From the October 5th issue of TV Guide: Great Performances. Playing a grouch on Becker is one thing, but Ted Danson is really showing his comic range these days by appearing as a not-always-flattering version of himself on HBO's sidesplitting Curb Your Enthusiasm. Danson (the fictional one) is a long suffering friend of Larry David's who has gone into the restaurant business with the intolerable jerk. Trying to be a nice guy in the company of the most exasperating man on the planet, Danson performs classic slow burns while we eagerly anticipate the inevitable moment when he can no longer curb his frustration–a meltdown most memorably displayed in a childish tug-of-war over a shirt. Becker would be proud. –Matt Roush

9.23.02 - Ted Danson will be on The Wayne Brady Show on Thursday, October 3rd.

9.23.02 - Ted Danson will be on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn the night of Thursday, October 3rd.

9.6.02 - Becker's new time slot is now 8pm ET on Sundays.

8.26.02 - Becker will premiere its fifth season on October 5th.

8.7.02 - From TV Guide: Jeers to the spark fizzling out. We were dismayed recently to learn that Becker's Terry Farrell and The Drew Carey Show's Christa Miller will not be returning to their respective series next season. Not that we blame them: Both shows are hanging on by their fingernails. If we were a sassy, talented actress with options–and both Farrell and Miller are–we'd amscray too.

5.23.02 - Sorry if this is a spoiler for some people, but it's just too big not to report. Reggie is being written out as "part of a new creative direction for the show," sources told The Hollywood Reporter. Terry Farrell is leaving the cast.

5.15.02 - CBS just announced their fall schedule and Becker will be moving to Sundays at 8:30pm ET.

4.26.02 - TV Guide Online: Ted Danson Sees Dead People - Looks like Dionne Warwick's not the only celeb with psychic friends! Ted Danson portrays his pal – spirit medium James Van Praagh – in CBS's Living with the Dead (airing on Sunday and Tuesday at 9-11 pm/ET). Surprisingly, the Becker star didn't think he was the right actor for the job.

4.2.02 - Ted Danson was interviewed for TV Guide's recent "TV We'll Always Remember" article in their April 6th issue: I grew up in Arizona without a television and didn't have one until I was 20. Either we lived in a neighborhood that didn't have reception or my mother just didn't want one in the house. Whenever I'd visit my cousins in Pasadena, I'd sit in front of their TV and just devour it. And I remember looking at TV Guide and planning my evening. All these treasures you could watch–this was like heaven to me! I remember my father and I just giggling together watching Bonanza and Cheyenne and Maverick. Now, of course, I have a TV in every orifice of my house.

3.29.02 - Terry Farrell will be on The Rosie O'Donnell Show on Monday, April 1st.

3.29.02 - Terry Farrell will be on The View on Thursday, April 4th.

3.29.02 - The Becker episode "Breakfast of Chumpions" has received a nomination for a PRISM Award. PRISM Awards honor the accurate portrayal of drug and alcohol use and addiction in the entertainment industry. The awards are presented by the Entertainment Industry Council, a nonprofit group that encourages social responsibility in the entertainment world, along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The ceremony will take place Thursday, May 9, and be taped for a syndicated broadcast by Tribune Entertainment.

1.31.02 - From the January 26th issue of TV Guide: Many TV shows, from NBC's Third Watch to ABC's NYPD Blue, have found a way to address the September 11 terror attacks. CBS's Becker hasn't, even though Ted Danson stars as a doctor living in the Bronx who thinks the whole world has gone mad. "Everything's still a little close to home," Danson says. "A lot of people I knew and loved, especially [Cheers and Frasier producer] David Angell and his wife, Lynn, were lost. I hope to someday deal with the emotion of it. I would love to see us do that."

1.29.02 - Becker has been picked up for a full fifth season by CBS.

1.28.02 - Ted Danson and Marisa Tomei are joining Screen Actors Guild President Melissa Gilbert to announce the nominations for this year's SAG Awards on Tuesday, January 29th at the Los Angeles Pacific Design Center. Nominations will be read at 6:40am PT and will air live on TNT, CNN's Headline News and E! Entertainment Television. The eighth annual SAG Awards will air on TNT on Sunday, March 10th at 8pm ET/PT.

1.9.02 - Ted Danson will be on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on Wednesday, January 16th (actually early morning of Thursday, January 17th).

12.17.01 - Paramount will bring out Becker in syndication for Fall 2003. The deal include a five year term, a sixth episode, and a cash plus deal. Paramount has begun chatting with station groups.

11.19.01 - Ted Danson will be on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Thursday, December 6th.

11.19.01 - Ted Danson will be on The View on Thursday, December 6th.

9.14.01 - The September 14th issue of Entertainment Weekly answers the Burning Question: Ted Danson's Becker costars Terry Farrell, Hattie Winston, Alex Desert, Shawnee Smith, and Saverio Guerra have sued Paramount, essentially angling for pay raises. Are they worth it?

Well, they ain't exactly the Friends. In EW's poll of 100 Times Square tourists, only 12 kinda recognized the plaintiffs' photos. "They're in that show I hate," says one. "The show with the guy from Cheers," notes another. The actors may not be household names, but TN Media analyst Stacey Lynn Koerner says that the show's ratings are okay, so replacing them may not be an option. "You can't have a show with just Ted Danson," she says. "The strength of their position is that they're [suing] together."

9.4.01 - Peace has been restored to the set of Becker: The show's five supporting castmembers - Alex Desert, Terry Farrell, Saverio Guerra, Shawnee Smith and Hattie Winston - have settled their breach-of-contract lawsuit against producer Paramount and have returned to work on the show. The quintet claimed the studio reneged on an agreement to give them a raise.

9.1.01 - Zap2It: 'Becker' Cast Settles Lawsuit - The health of Becker's supporting cast seems to be doing better. Five cast members — Alex Desert, Terry Farrell, Saverio Guerra, Shawnee Smith and Hattie Winston — who came down with the blue flu earler this month, settled their lawsuit against Paramount Pictures Television Group on Friday (Aug. 31), reports the AP....

8.30.01 - Zap2It: 'Becker' Actors Stage No-Show - One day after the five co-stars of CBS' "Becker" filed a lawsuit against Paramount, who produces the show, the group decided not to show up for work on Wednesday (Aug. 29), according to trade sources....

8.29.01 - Terry Farrell, Shawnee Smith, Alex Désert, Saverio Guerra, and Hattie Winston filed a breach of contract suit in the Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday and none are expected to return to work while the suit is pending.  Paramount has chosen not to renegotiate salaries until after the show has been sold in syndication, which is expected to happen this fall.  The suit claims the actors were told a salary increase would kick in at the onset of the fourth season, an increase not conditional on the sale of the show in syndication.  Since it seems now Paramount will hold any increases until after the syndication deals are done, the complaint says the plaintiffs were lulled "...into acquiescence by expressly promising to renegotiate their compensation starting with the series fourth season..."  So far no official comment from Paramount.

8.3.01 - The cast showed up in full at yesterday's rehearsal. While Paramount isn't saying anything, reports are no discussions regarding any cast member's desire for a pay hike will be conducted until after Becker is sold in syndication. The cast is working with the same pay as when they first signed on for the show four years ago.

8.2.01 - Expected to show up for work yesterday was the full cast of Becker, only there seems to be an actor's version of the Blue Flu and five cast members called in sick -- Terry Farrell, Hattie Winston, Alex Desert, Shawnee Smith and Saverio Guerra. Ted Danson did show up as did guest star Rhea Perlman. Certainly concerned over his cast's health, Paramount TV Group Chairman Kerry McCluggage sent a team of doctors to each of the actor's homes to determine the nature of the illness. If it turns out to be the pains of contract re-negotiation, they could be in breach of contract. The actor's contracts were signed when the show first debuted, and have not been re-negotiated since. The actors are apparently looking for a paycheck hike that would at least double their current pay. They are all expected back to work today. This type of move was executed recently by a few cast members from The West Wing, each of whom ultimately did get a pay increase. The difference here is -- 1. Becker hasn't been sold in syndication; 2. Becker is not the same ratings draw as West Wing; 3. The supporting cast members of Becker are not as well known as those from West Wing nor did any of the cast just receive an Emmy nomination the day before the rehearsal no-show. We'll see what happens today.

5.16.01 - Becker has been officially renewed for another season and will be keeping its Monday 9:30pm time slot.

4.9.01 - Becker has received a Prism Commendation for the episode "Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em." Prism recognizes work in which members of the entertainment community take an active role in addressing drug abuse in America. The 5th annual Prism awards, hosted by Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis, were taped April 4th. No word yet when or where they will air.

3.8.01 - "Becker," along with "Yes, Dear" and "King of Queens," has been renewed for next season.

1.8.01 - Ted Danson, sporting very white hair, presented the first award at the People's Choice Awards last night, for Favorite Female Performer in a New Television Series (Bette Midler won).

12.21.00 - Ted Danson was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy. Congratulations!

10.30.00 - TV Guide Online: Crank Case

11.14.99 - Ted Danson now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, just a few feet from where the "Cheers" TV show set is enshrined. Among the 300 people who attended Wednesday's unveiling of the star were Danson's wife, actress Mary Steenburgen, and former "Cheers" stars Kelsey Grammer, Kirstie Alley and George Wendt. "When you add my husband's name to the Walk of Fame you are doing something special," Steenburgen said. "To silly men everywhere, this represents you."

10.28.99 - The National Enquirer reports that Terry Farrell was in the dressing room of a New York store trying on clothes when she heard Lauren Bacall's voice outside. Terry, long a fan of Lauren's, dashed outside to meet her idol, who didn't seem amused. Terry was standing there in her underwear.