Get Shatner-fied

This morning, the Associated Press published a brilliant profile of William "Captain Kirk & Denny Crane" Shatner. Here's an excerpt, focusing on the three dimensional Shatner, for those who couldn't handle a full 4-5 pages of Shatnerific-ness:

Hate him or love him, rarely has an entertainer straddled giggles and glory so adeptly. And rarely does a performer have three distinct and separate careers, each building on the last:

- Shatner No. 1: I'm a Very Serious Actor. This one played tortured men in two "Twilight Zone" installments, a slick racist in 1962's "The Intruder" and created the role of the iconic Captain Kirk in the original "Star Trek." This Shatner was drama on steroids, and he endured through the 1980s with the tough-as-nails "Hooker" and a Captain-Kirk reprise in seven "Star Trek" movies.

- Shatner No. 2: I Laugh At Myself And You Can Too. Emerged around 1997.There were hints of this Shatner earlier -- well-played comedy in a couple "Trek" episodes and a deadpan cameo in "Airplane II." But Shatner really jumped into self-parody in a 1997 film called "Free Enterprise," in which he played a heightened version of himself. Then came his appearance as the alien leader on "Third Rock From The Sun" and his first Priceline ads, which cast him as a zeitgeisty, lounge-lizard joker.

"Something's happened out there," he told me a decade ago in the middle of this period. "People are perceiving me as funny, and they want funny things from me." He laughed all the way to the bank, and we marveled at his ability to reinvent himself.

- Shatner No. 3: We Laughed Until We Cried. The most sophisticated Shatner of all.

He's a television icon in a brand new prime of his career. If you don't watch "Boston Legal," then you might want to tune in for the final 13 episodes this Fall. Catch the Shatner fever while you can!