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'Boston Legal' Is Ready To Close The Case

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By WALT BELCHER

wbelcher@tampatrib.com

Published: December 1, 2008

Spry 84-year-old Betty White is back on "Boston Legal" tonight as nutty old Catherine Piper, an outspoken sharp-tongued woman with a sweet exterior who keeps getting involved in murder.

Of course, just about every character on this show is nutty. That's one of the things that made this over-the-top legal series more of a comedy that a drama.

Next week, the curtain falls for good with two back-to-back episodes that will wrap up the series after five seasons.

The end also is near for the law firm of Crane, Poole and Schmidt, which is facing financial ruin in these difficult economic times. And lawyer Denny Crane (William Shatner) is losing ground to Alzheimer's disease.

Tonight's episode at 10 on ABC finds Denny Crane's best friend Alan Shore (James Spader) headed to the Massachusetts Supreme Court to argue for a non-FDA approved drug that could slow Denny's Alzheimer's.

Meanwhile, lawyers Jerry Espenson (Christian Clemenson) and Katie Lloyd (Tara Summers) defend a student denied acceptance to Harvard after being disqualified for using a brain-enhancing drug during her SATs. Guest starring is actress Kimberly Williams-Paisley, wife of singer Brad Paisley.

The decision to end "Legal" was a mutual one between ABC and the show's creator, David E. Kelley, who, for the first time since the 1980s, doesn't have a new series in the works.

HOLIDAY GREEN: ABC is going green tonight. But it's not exactly an environmentally friendly move.

"Shrek the Halls," at 8 p.m. is a 22-minute animated holiday special starring the ogre from the "Shrek" films.

It's followed at 8:30 by the 1966 classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," the Dr. Seuss story of the evil Grinch (Boris Karloff) stealing the holiday from the Whos in Whoville.

"Shrek the Halls" finds Shrek spending his first Christmas with his wife, Fiona, and their triplet baby ogres. He's clueless about how to celebrate the holiday. But he gets help and hindrance from Donkey, Puss 'N Boots and others who tell botched versions of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas."

'PRISON BREAK' BREAK: Now that the November sweeps have ended, broadcast television is in the holiday mode and there are only a few new episodes of series airing this month.

One drama that continues on Mondays through Dec. 22 is Fox's "Prison Break," which may be coming to an end sometime next year.

Fox ordered 22 episodes for this season (the fourth) and 16 will have aired by Dec. 22. The remaining six have not been scheduled. The network recently ordered two more hours to be filmed early in 2009.

There's been a lot of speculation about what Fox might do with these eight hours of "Prison Break." It's not exactly enough time to break out of another jail. And just how long can these guys keep doing the same story?

Creatively, the series may have run its course because the ratings have steadily declined over this season.

ROSIE BOMBS: If the variety show genre wasn't dead, then Rosie O'Donnell killed it. "Rosie Live" on NBC Wednesday night was unwatchable (unless you were fascinated by the horror of it all).

Only 5 million viewers tuned in. It tied with ABC's canceled "Pushing Daisies" as the night's lowest-rated broadcast programs.

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