1.30 --- Night of the Meek

Directed by : Martha Coolidge Written by : Rockne S. O'Bannon (original teleplay by Rod Serling) Starring : Richard Mulligan, William Atherton First aired : 20th of December, 1985. It's Christmas eve, and Henry Corwin (Richard Mulligan), an alcoholic part-timing as a storefront santa, is pretty depressed with the fact that the kids from poorer families can't get what they wish. When he returns to his working place drunk, he causes a scene and is fired by his boss, mr. Dundee (William Atherton, Ghost Busters, Die Hard). Back at his apartment in the projects, Corwin takes out the trash, but discovers his trash bag is full of presents ! Delighted with his discovery, he organizes a big Christmas party for the whole neighbourhood, giving presents to everyone attending. Going back home from work, Dundee notices the festivities and decides to investigate. After spotting Corwin handing out all the goodies, he accuses him of thievery and calls the police. Two policemen arrive soon, and while they find it hard to believe Corwin took all those things by himself, they just have to take him in as he can't produce any evidence he bought it all. But before they do, a bunch of sales receipts fall out of the bag - all coming from Dundee's store. Hours after, Corwin finds Dundee sitting alone in front of his building, still in disbelief. Corwin comforts him, saying they both know the goods did not come from his store, and then presents him with an unique fur coat for his wife, and a baseball carrying autographs of the '61. Yankees for him. Dundee is amazed, however, he can't believe Corwin doesn't want anything for himself. Corwin answers his only wish would be to do this ever year for Christmas - a wish that is granted to him once he returns upstairs, and realizes he is now the real Santa Claus. *** Second classic TZ episode to be remade for the new series, Night of the Meek takes much less liberties at revising the script than Dead Woman's Shoes did. One significant change though is the character of Dundee - in the original story by Rod Serling, Dundee is just a classic scrooge. Here, writer Rockne S. O'Bannon presents him as an utterly vile, soulless, despicable Reagan-era yuppie, and gives him a racist slant as well. That said, this is a faithful, well-executed remake, with Mulligan and Atherton both contributing fine performances. I do realize many people probably favour Art Carney over Mulligan, but it should be noted that Mulligan's performance is no worse than Carney's, if not even equal.