Santa Who?

In this live-action, made-for-TV film, Steven Eckholdt is the bland leading the bland as Peter, a cynical newsman who as a youth was abandoned by his father and thinks Christmas is a crock, an attitude that puts him at odds with the young son of his girlfriend. Peter gets the requisite change of heart when a man in a Santa suit topples onto his car and goes amnesiac. Smelling a career-making story, he sets out to reunite the mysterious man with his family in time for the holidays. The audience, of course, already knows that the stranger is none other than Santa (a game Leslie Nielsen), who fell off his sled and was himself feeling a bit disillusioned before the accident. Truth be told, there's a limit to how much holiday whimsy we can comfortably accommodate, and this prefabricated Wonderful World of Disney presentation exceeds it. Not recommended. (K. Lee Benson)