AS SEEN ON TV: THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

'Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to me?' asked Scrooge.

'I am.'

The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if instead of being so close beside him, it were at a distance.

'Who, and what are you.' Scrooge demanded.

'I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.'

'Long Past.' inquired Scrooge: observant of its dwarfish stature.

'No. Your past.'"

"A Christmas Carol", [Stave 2: The First of the Three Spirits]

THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST

AS SEEN IN:

"A Christmas Carol" (1999)

CREATED BY:

Charles Dickens

PORTRAYED BY:

Joel Grey

TV STATUS:

Recastaway of the Multiverse

TV DIMENSION:

TBD

From Wikipedia:

The Ghost of Christmas Past is a character in the well-known work "A Christmas Carol" by the English novelist Charles Dickens.

The Ghost of Christmas Past was the first of the three spirits (after the visitation by Jacob Marley) that haunted the miser, Ebenezer Scrooge in order to prompt him to repent. It showed him scenes from his past that occurred on or around Christmas, in order to demonstrate to him the necessity of changing his ways, as well as to show the reader how Scrooge came to be the person he was and his particular dislike for Christmas – most of the events which negatively affected Scrooge occurred around the Christmas holiday season.

According to Dickens' novel, the Ghost of Christmas Past appears to Scrooge as a white-robed, androgynous figure of indeterminate age. It had on its head a blazing light, reminiscent of a candle flame, and carried a metal cap, made in the shape of a candle extinguisher. While the ghost is often portrayed as a woman in most dramatic adaptations, Dickens describes the Ghost of Christmas Past only as “it”, and gives a curious description of it "being now a thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with twenty legs, now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a body: of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible in the dense gloom wherein they melted away."

In the 1999 made-for-television version of "A Christmas Carol", the Ghost is portrayed as a being of indeterminate age, as described in the 1843 novel.

But that would not be the last we would see of this phantasm.....

From Wikipedia

"Conundrum" is the two hour series finale of the television series 'Dallas'. The episode originally aired on CBS on May 3, 1991, and in subsequent reruns in syndication, "Conundrum" aired as two-part one hour episodes.

Nearing the point of suicide, J.R. Ewing is visited by Adam, who takes him on an "It's a Wonderful Life"-style journey to see what would have become of the Ewings, had he never existed.

After being taken through this journey J.R. is encouraged by Adam to pull the trigger and kill himself. J.R. scoffs at the idea, saying that Adam's boss would not be happy— implying that Adam is an angel. However, Adam reveals himself to be not a true spirit, but actually a demon sent by Satan himself.

O'BSERVATIONS:

Both the Ghost of Christmas Past (in this production, anyway) and Adam were played by Joel Grey........

What happens to such a ghost when their services are no longer needed? This ghost was only Scrooge's ghost, geared toward his past life. So when Scrooge died, the ghost must have ended up on the ectoplasmic dole.

Rather than fade away and/or accept a transition to the next stage of the after-life, perhaps to angelic status, this ghost found employ with the other team in another TV dimension. Taking the name of Adam (a hated name this week certainly), he would have been able to keep busy with a variety of cases, including J.R. Ewing, instead of just the one, Ebenezer Scrooge.

BCnU!