Posted on 12/10/2003 9:51:22 AM PST by fight_truth_decay
Another episode of the CBS sit-com Becker, which stars the liberal Ted Danson playing a doctor in a one-man practice in New York City, airs tonight on CBS. In last week's episode, upset by the closing of a "residential life" home for the mentally- challenged, "Becker" went to see the city's Deputy Director of Social Services, who launched into a lengthy rant about the evils of how tax cuts have reduced the amount of money available to government and will lead to "crappy schools which will turn out yet another generation of voters who are too stupid and greedy to think about anything else besides cutting taxes!"
The government bureaucrat, his anger rising, yelled: "That facility is not going to re-open and I'll tell you why, there is no money! There's no money because the federal government cut taxes, which is all anybody seems to care about anymore. That means less money for the state, which means less money for the city, which means we had to cuts services, which means fewer cops, fewer firemen, bad air, bad water, and crappy schools which will turn out yet another generation of voters who are too stupid and greedy to think about anything else besides cutting taxes! So don't you come in here and tell me to fix your problem because there's not a damn thing I can do about it!"
Aubree Rankin of the Parents Television Council alerted us to the scene in the December 3 episode and the MRC's Amanda Monson transcribed it for CyberAlert.
In the show, Becker's clinic/office is overwhelmed by wacky people and he figures out it's because a nearby residential facility was closed by the city. We pick up the story with Becker going to see the city official in charge of the department which ran the facility:
Becker: "Look I just came down here 'cause I want to tell you about something terrible that's going on in my neighborhood."
Deputy Secretary of Social Services, sitting at his desk: "Tell me."
Becker: "Well actually, watch this. [Opens door to crowd of people from the facility he brought along and whistles] Come on I whistled, that's when you -- never mind. [Closes door] Look, someone in your department shut down a residential care facility in my neighborhood and threw everybody out on the street. Now I'm here 'cause I want something done about it!"
Deputy: "Wow. You sound pretty upset."
Becker: "Well, I am you know, I've been on the phone all afternoon calling every city agency I can think of and all I got was the typical bureaucratic run around."
Deputy: "Well that's terrible, you shouldn't have been treated like that."
Becker: "Well, at least you see that."
Deputy: "Well of course I do."
Becker: "Oh good, then you'll help me?"
Deputy: "Oh dear no."
Becker: "Maybe you didn't understand me."
Deputy: "No, I understood you perfectly. You discovered a social injustice and as a concerned citizen you have come to your government to demand some action."
Becker: "Exactly."
Deputy: "Yea well, it's not gonna happen. But that look on your face, oh, that took me back. What was that, righteous indignation? I used to feel like that when I first started working here, 42 years ago."
Becker: "Yea, look -- you've been in this office 42 years?"
Deputy: "Yeah. Same desk, same fake plant, same window. It doesn't open, none of them do. Otherwise we'd all jump out. But, you were saying."
Becker: "I told you. Look, either re-open the facility or make some arrangements to take care of these people!"
Deputy: "And I told you I can't help."
Becker: "But you're the Deputy Secretary of Social Services."
Deputy: "It's just a title."
Becker: "Dammit. Look. Listen! You're in charge here, you're responsible, you work for the city!"
Deputy, standing up, walking toward Becker, voice rising and turning into angry yelling: "You're not listening. I can't help, nobody can help. That facility is not going to re-open and I'll tell you why, there is no money! There's no money because the federal government cut taxes, which is all anybody seems to care about anymore. That means less money for the state, which means less money for the city, which means we had to cuts services, which means fewer cops, fewer firemen, bad air, bad water, and crappy schools which will turn out yet another generation of voters who are too stupid and greedy to think about anything else besides cutting taxes! So don't you come in here and tell me to fix your problem because there's not a damn thing I can do about it! [Pause, calms down] Where did that come from?"
Becker: "So, what I'm getting here is, you're not gonna help me."
Deputy: "No, no"
Becker: "Can't you just call the Mayor."
Deputy, sakes head no: "Uh-Uh"
Becker: "Fire off an angry e-mail."
Deputy: "I don't think so."
Becker: "Look I came down here with all of these people, if I leave with nothing I am going to look like a jackass."
Deputy: "I'm sorry, I can't help you."
Becker opens door, whistles, and shouts: "He's the one with the ice cream." [crowd of people from facility enter the office of the Deputy and Becker leaves.]
For CBS's page on the sit-com, which stars Ted Danson and Nancy Travis and airs Wednesdays at 9:30pm EST/PST, 8:30pm CST/MST: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/becker/
The part of the anti-tax cut government bureaucrat was played by character actor Henry Gibson, an older, short, white-haired man you'd recognize from his many small roles over the years in TV and in the movies. For the most complete rundown of his roles, see his Internet Movie Database page, which is sans a photo: http://imdb.com/name/nm0002099/
For a picture of him in 1969 on Laugh In: http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/PersonDetail/personid-16085
For a more current photo: http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/detail/celeb/189075
Viewers won't have to suffer liberal pontificating on Becker for much longer. CBS has announced that it won't return next season.
"Yes. For me, you have to drop down to the spiritual level and say "why are you here?" You're here to learn and grow and learn more about yourself and grow, and what better place and what better challenges to face than these? I don't think it's a matter of, "do you win the game or not", it's how gracefully do you play it. How much do you engage yourself in what's truly real and important in life. So, that's the individual question - I don't think it's a finger shaker at other people, it's just what's so. I mean, to me you could run the whole world on environmental issues. Address these environmental issues and you will address every issue known to man. And we keep dabbling in things that aren't really that important in the long term."
Makes me want to squat down, wrench my body into an almost unnatural pretzel position and release a guttural chant purging the pain of listening to it all.
Our masters in the media can run anything they want 60 days before the election. Only we unworthy peons are forbidden to give our views. We should be humbly grateful they allow us to speak our minds at all, at any time, stupid greedy people that we are.
And if you try to present a different opinion, well off to slammer with you, as the supreme court said.
A good deal of what we think of as "America" died today.
Red
Is this an indication they will be passing out ice cream for votes..usually they pass out smokes. ;)
You'd better protect yourself from learning anything about performers you like to watch. In Tinseltown, they're almost all infected. With some actors, I'm able to have an out-of-body experience while watching them; only afterwards, do I recall that they're traitors.
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