The Christmas Tree

Glad there are enthusiasts about Boston Legal, but after reading the only three reviews here,

I still have no clue what THE Christmas TREE is about. :(

What the hell does STUDIO ONE & Boston Legal have to do with this film?

And why is the IMDb making me right 10 lines of text out when obviously those other reviews (which I will out point again just for the servitude of having to write the minimum 10 lines required by IMDb) didn't d o such a thing?

No answer?

I didn't think so!

Boston Legal: April 3,2007. This original Episode of Boston Legal, features William Shatner being forced to relive a trial in his youth. Flashbacks show black-and-white scenes with Shatner and Ralph Bellamy.

Classic. Very Classic.

I was curious enough to search for occasions where Shatner and Bellamy would have been on the screen together. I'm moderately surprised to see many opportunities, but only this one where they are both credited.

So, I'm guessing this show is where that black-and-white footage came from.

If you know more about this, comment further.

The flashbacks in the recent Boston Legal episodes were from a two-part episode of the series "Studio One".

The episode was called The Defender, and, as in the Boston Legal episode, Ralph Belamy's character was the father of the William Shatner episode.

That show was written by Reginald Rose.

You can find a little more about this show here in IMDb.

What was really great was how they worked these scenes into the episode. David E. Kelley is a genius at writing dialog and even in supervising other writers in getting to that dialog.

Some of Shatner's performance was a bit stilted (no surprise there when he's doing drama) but they really made the character work in this situation.

Definitely not.

Bellamy and Shatner were in one vignette among a dozen, entitled "Light one Candle" and involving a conversation between two Roman tax collectors in Bethlehem on the day of Jesus' birth.

My knowledge of this comes from my role in another of the vignettes entitled "Miracle of the Orphanage" which featured Jessica Tandy, Margaret Hamilton, Bernadette Peters and Richard Thomas. Other vignettes featured those listed in the cast list.

Since the database requires 10 lines I'll try to keep my extraneous comments to a minimum