She's Awesome Because She Can Be Scary: Nancy Travis

Nancy Travis is a fun and fine actress. I encountered her first on Becker as the eternally optimistic girlfriend of Dr. Becker. Currently, she is starring opposite Tim Allen on Last Man Standing as Vanessa Baxter.

Like Chris Connor on Becker, Vanessa Baxter is mostly happy, even happy-go-lucky (with a penchant for bad puns). What makes Travis so fun to watch is that she exudes happy-go-lucky with no extra effort, yet she can get total bad girl if she wishes.

My second encounter with Nancy Travis after Becker was on Numb3rs where she plays the cheerful but seriously scary DARPA lady who just might bamboozle Charlie into giving up his academic career (which fits him perfectly) for government money. She is absolutely pleasant with a knife-edge of "wow, watch out!"

Likewise, as Vanessa Baxter, she can suddenly snap out a trenchant, no-holds-barred critique as when she puts Ryan in his place for wanting to do the wedding his way (the same episode has Mike Baxter pointing out that none of the women in his life--wife or daughters--can be forced into doing anything).

My favorite example of sweet-natured, bubbly Vanessa giving way to no-nonsense, level-headed, straight-talking Vanessa is in "April Come She Will." To her sister, who thinks she wants to have a child and has convinced Mandy to help her, Vanessa says levelly without a pause, "April...I will never stop holding your hand...but Mandy is my child, and I'm not going to let you exploit her."

No compromise. And of course, Mandy--like all the Baxter daughters--eventually also demonstrates the fundamental commonsense instilled in her by her mother and father. 

It should be mentioned that Nancy Travis has excellent comedic timing.