(S04E15) "Life's a cabaret, man." - Denny Crane

Christopher Rich is one of my favorite of Alan's adversaries not only because he's a "hoot" himself but because he is one of the few lawyers who give back to Alan exactly what he dishes out. As much as I adore Alan Shore, it pleases me to no end to see him get frustrated almost to the point of anger. Who knows, one day, he may even lose to someone like Melvin Palmer but I won't hold my breath.

When Alan lost his temper with Melvin, it was great. I can't remember ever seeing Alan look so embarrassed. I guess we shouldn't be shocked that a guy who has no ability to suffer fools also has a deep seated fear of clowns.

Here's an interesting fact about William Shatner, who celebrated his 76th birthday last week: Boston Legal is not his first legal drama. Back in the early 1960's Shatner had an recurring role on The Defenders as Assistant District Attorney Earl Rhodes. And before that, 1957 to be exact, he appeared in an episode of the anthology series Studio One titled "The Defenders".

Why am I mentioning all of this? Well, the producers of Boston Legal are planning to use footage from Shatner's Studio One appearance in the April 3rd episode. According to a piece at contactmusic Shatner's character, Denny Crane, will be taken hostage by a man who holds a grudge against him stemming from a 50-year-old court case. That means that the 76-year-old Shatner will be paired with the 26-year-old Shatner throughout the show.

By the way, the episode of Studio One that will be used also featured a young Steve McQueen (credited as Steven McQueen), who was an unknown at the time. It hasn't been determined if footage featuring McQueen will be shown during this episode of Legal.