This is just another of those versions that uses the premise of Dickens' original story without worrying too much about anything else. There's a good deal of imagination in here and taken at face value, its very entertaining. Time to pay tributute to the work of William Shatner. In the post Star Trek work he does, he is invariably good-humoured and doesn't shirk to take on projects that could destroy the Trekkie image.All in all, this is a pleasing diversion from the original Carol and shows what you can do with a bit of creative thinking. The 'Good Times' animation you feature tomorrow had a companion audio release I believe. Read by the appropriately named 'Mr Meany'.......

Ok seriously, when is this article going to end?

Nevermind ending, lets have more ! There's several significant versions that have not been covered. I think its time the excellent Mr Hill sat in front of his TV again and watched a few more to keep him in the Christmas spirit for longer !

So, Jim went from never finishing a series to doing one that never ends.

Sorry, couldn't resist the joke. :-)

Of course, the Shat played a very similar character to Denny Crane in "Miss Congeniality" which was released 3 years earlier in 2000. There's a really good chance David Kelley saw that film at some point, since it was one of that year's big hits and plays pretty much continuously on tv. That film also paired him with Candice Bergen - several reviewers specifically mentioned their scenes - and oddly enough she co-stars with the Shat in Boston Legal. If it sounds good to say the Shat was discovered in a tiny cable movie - ok - but the rest of the US re-discovered the Shat 3 years earlier in a big budget movie release.