It’s late at night, and I’ve just finished watching my nightly episode of Boston Legal (episode 13 of season 4… so I’ve got 20 to go before the show comes to an end…. SO DON’T SPOIL IT FOR ME) and I realise how much I’m going to miss The Shat AKA Bill AKA TJ Hooker AKA that guy from that Twilight Zone episode, when he does, finally beam off this mortal coil forever.

Because although he’s possibly the easiest actor going around  to take the piss out of – other than maybe Tom Cruise or Brittney Spears – I really do think that The Shat is one of the better actors of the 20th and early 21st Century.  Yeah, he can ham it up like it’s nobody’s business.  And yes, his early acting involved an odd understanding of punctuation, but when you watch The Shat on BL, you can see why he’s lasted in Hollywood for so long.*  And it’s not the botox.  It’s the fact that he can do serious and funny and even smart all in the same scene.  And does it so easily that you forget that he used to fight Klingons on a bi monthly basis.

I’ll miss The Shat when he goes.  Just like I’ll miss Boston Legal when I’ve watched the final episode.  The Alan Shore / Denny Crane dynamic is probably one of the top ten reasons why TVs were invented.

* Not including the long breaks in his career and the fact that he struggled for work after Star Trek.