Christmas on TV: How Dean Cain Is Kevin Bacon

When you've seen as many made-for-TV Christmas movies as I have, you realize that Dean Cain, a.k.a. Superman from The Adventures of Lois and Clark, is in a lot of them. We're talking almost as many as Shelley Long. We're talking almost as many as puppies. In fact, this year alone IMDB lists him as an actor in two holiday movies, and the kicker is that both of those movies also feature dogs: A Dog for Christmas and The Dog Who Saved the Holidays. But we'll get to those. For now let's review some of Dean Cain's best and worst made-for-TV Christmas movies and discover why I think Dean Cain is effectively the Kevin Bacon of the genre--any actor in made-for-TV Christmas movies could get back to Dean Cain in six degrees or less.

A Nanny for Christmas

As this movie started, I was chanting, "Please do not portray the death of the mother. Please do not portray the death of the mother." I was chanting this mostly because, based on the title, I thought it would be about some lonely single father with two or more adorable or obnoxious children who hires a nanny for Christmas and then falls in love with her. But it's not! The nanny (Emmanuelle Vaugier of It's Christmas Carol) is hired by corporate workaholic mom while she works on an ad campaign for intrepid chocolatier Dean Cain. Honestly, other than his status as a regular in made-for-TV Christmas movies, I'm not sure why he gets top billing in this movie. Because an hour into it, he had only been on screen for three minutes. Having gone in with the expectation that he and the nanny were going to fall in love, I was pretty disappointed. Emmanuelle does a fine job carrying the movie, and the children are surprisingly not overly obnoxious, but it needs more Dean Cain.

The Case for Christmas

A knockoff of Miracle on 34th Street, The Case for Christmas features Dean Cain as a lawyer called to defend Santa Claus when a rich man sues him for emotional distress. Elves and a scheming millionaire bring this one down, and the ending would have more punch if the jury were allowed to vote on whether or not Kris Kringle is actually Santa Claus. And if the girl didn't start flying like a fairy at the end.

The Three Gifts

Of all the movies on this list, I choose this one as my favorite. I like Dean Cain best when he's in the role of either good-hearted guy looking for love or devoted husband and father. This movie uses him as more of the latter. He and his wife, played by the curly-haired singer from Mr. Holland's Opus, live on a farm that doubles as a homemade toy factory but are struggling to start a family. Three orphaned boys come to live with them during the holidays, and a family is born. This one is also fun to watch for the scenes with the dad from Family Matters.

The Dog Who Saved Christmas, The Dog Who Saved Christmas Vacation, & The Dog Who Saved the Holidays

I'll admit happily that I've never seen any of these movies. I only have to read two words into the title to know they're not my style. But apparently Dean Cain helped launch quite a successful franchise here for ABC Family. Both Mario Lopez and Joey Lawrence have done stints as the talking dog in these knockoffs of Home Alone, where Dean Cain plays the Joe Pesci role of conniving thief vent on ruining the holidays. I also don't know where you'll get a chance to see it this year, since even ABC Family has stopped airing them and just started sending them directly to DVD. The first one is airing on Hallmark Channel at some point, but try Amazon if you really must see them.

And speaking of dogs, Dean Cain has made another Christmas movie with dogs entitled...
A Dog for Christmas

I'm not sure when this movie comes out. I'm not sure what channel will air it. I'm not even 100% sure it's even made for TV, except that is has all the right elements: a dog, a Santa character, and several "Where Are They Now?" TV stars in key roles. In all reality, those "Where Are They Now?" actors are the only reason I'd like to see this movie. In addition to Dean Cain, two of the principal actors in A Dog for Christmas are Richard Karn of Home Improvement fame as Santa Claus (which marks the third time a cast member from that show has dressed up in a Santa suit for a movie role) and Dustin Diamond from Saved by the Bell as "Fred." Their Facebook page hasn't been updated in months. Their Twitter account has four tweets; just four. So who knows if we'll ever see this potential gem of a film featuring Dean Cain, the Kevin Bacon of Christmas movies.

And don't forget, the Kevin Bacon of Christmas movies also makes an appearance in A Christmas Wedding.