EXCEEDING 'GREAT EXPECTATIONS' CHARLES DICKENS' VARIED WORKS EMBRACE THE SEASON.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

What is it about that young rascal David Copperfield that is making him appear more frequently than his illusion-creating namesake?

It's been a positively Copper-full year with a ``Masterpiece Theatre'' adaptation for PBS in April followed by the two-part Hallmark Entertainment ``David Copperfield'' beginning tonight on TNT. And if you're hearing echoes from 1999, you may remember the rather heavy Copperfield metaphor John Irving slathered across his adaptation of ``The Cider House Rules.'' Young Homer Wells reads ``Copperfield'' aloud to his fellow orphans at St. Cloud's

The TNT ``Copperfield'' encroaches on what is normally considered the season of Scrooge. Here's where dozens of ``Christmas Carols'' will leap off the shelves of video stores and be seen in live stage performances throughout December.

On television Saturday, TNT will rebroadcast last year's version starring Patrick Stewart as Ebenezer. A new version this year on VH-1 will feature Vanessa Williams in ``A Diva's Christmas Carol'' (because, as we all know, the world desperately needs another ``Christmas Carol.'')

This all comes hard on the heels of the PBS adaptation of ``Oliver Twist'' in October.

Not that Dickens is ever far from a TV screen no matter what the season. If William Shakespeare would be writing movies were he alive today, Dickens would be the top scribe on a long-running, multiple-character continuing drama like ``ER,'' ``The West Wing'' or ``Survivor.'' And here's betting the man wouldn't need a writing team.

Dickens wrote big, long stories that he spun out over several months, publishing them serially, a few chapters at a time. Unless a character had the misfortune of being offed early, chances are he or she would reappear several installments later.

``He wrote cliffhangers, novels which had dramatic moments in the end that would make the readers come back. Put together, they would make perfect episodic TV,'' says Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of ExxonMobil ``Masterpiece Theatre.'' ``He made you laugh and he made you cry, often in the same work.''

Great TV? Heck, we're talking great storytelling, appropriate for stage or screen large or small. His rogues' gallery of characters - often carrying the most vivid of names - can often attract some serious star wattage, sometimes even for a part that is little more than an extended cameo.

What does it say that, in the year 2000, double Oscar winners Sally Field and Maggie Smith both played David Copperfield's benevolent aunt Betsey Trotwood while the ever optimistic Wilkins Micawber gets renderings by Bob Hoskins and ``Seinfeld's'' Michael Richards, each trying to live down the shadow of filmdom's most memorable Micawber, W.C. Fields. Richards shaved his head for the role, and reportedly was willing to buzz his eyebrows as well.

But a well-stocked stable of actors alone won't do it. If you're going to tackle Dickens and do it right, you'll also need time and patience and a willingness to prune. Film adaptations have largely been hit and miss, often requiring major story pruning or a very free adaptation.

David Lean famously adapted ``Great Expectations'' and ``Oliver Twist'' in the late 1940s, a period that also featured Alberto Cavalcanti's version of ``Nicholas Nickleby.'' The Dickens film that hit the mother lode, of course, was Carol Reed's version of the Lionel Bart musical ``Oliver!'' that won the 1968 best picture Oscar. All of these are featured in the American Cinematheque's ``Great Expectations: Charles Dickens on Film'' series Dec. 21-30 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The series also includes several silent versions of classics.

Recently, the well has dried up. Gwyneth Paltrow, Ethan Hawke and Robert De Niro couldn't sell the 1998, Florida-set update of ``Great Expectations,'' the last American-made film of a Dickens story. Before that, you have to go back to the two-part, six-hour version of ``Little Dorrit'' in 1988. Very faithful to its source, ``Dorrit'' earned Alec Guinness - a Dickensian actor if ever one existed - an Oscar nomination. Strictly art house, it grossed less than $400,000.

There are reasons why the Merchant Ivorys of the world stick with novelists like Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Henry James and E.M. Forster when they want to do the ``classics.'' Even without the name recognition of an ``Oliver Twist'' or ``A Tale of Two Cities,'' Edith, Jane, et al. are manageable in three hours or less.

Dickens? He doesn't sell, says Peter Medak who directed TNT's ``Copperfield.''

``It's the state of this crazy business today. Everybody here wants to make action movies,'' says Medak. ``They would throw you out of a studio today if you walked in with Dickens, unless (Steven) Spielberg decided to do one of his books.''

Which leaves television. Eaton, who admitted a certain concern that ``Masterpiece Theatre'' audiences could reach a Dickens saturation point, continues to produce adaptations of his novels as fast as the BBC can churn them out. The 30th season began with a new three-part version of ``Oliver Twist,'' for which writer Alan Bleasdale spent the first two hours fleshing out a back story that the novel barely touched. Little Ollie doesn't ask for more gruel until episode two. ``Twist,'' one of Dickens' shorter novels, came out at six hours. That's either a mania on Bleasdale's part or creative suicide.

Of course if you're doing the ``Twist,'' you better get creative. It's the most adaptation-friendly Dickens novel (``A Christmas Carol'' was a short story), well ahead of ``Great Expectations'' and ``Copperfield.'' ``A Tale of Two Cities,'' another short novel, seems to have fallen out of fashion despite the recognition factor. (Admit it, you've still got the Cliffs Notes at home somewhere.)

Then there's ``Copperfield,'' which is, Eaton says, practically immortal.

`` 'Great Expectations' has some darker elements to it. 'Copperfield' always works,'' says Eaton. ``It has an absolutely charming child at the center of it, and it's about family, about who your family is.''

The next mass-market test of Dickensian durability won't be another ``Copperfield'' or ``Christmas Carol,'' but a major production of a lesser-known title, and here's betting it will be on TV. After all, ``Masterpiece Theatre'' and the BBC have the hours and the built-in audience. The folks at Hallmark, Disney and TNT have the bucks.

Fred Guida can certainly relate. In ``A Christmas Carol and Its Adaptations'' (McFarland and Co., 2000), Guida, a film history teacher at Connecticut College, compiles the umpteen versions of Scrooge from the 19th-century magic lantern carousels to TNT's westernized ``Ebenezer'' with Jack Palance as Scrooge.

What would Guida like to see? How about ``The Chimes,'' another Dickens Christmas story with supernatural elements not touched by film in nearly 100 years.

``Even at BBC, they're just playing it safe,'' says Guida. ``I don't think the world would stop turning if 'Dombey and Son' or 'Barnaby Rudge' were done instead of the umpteenth version of 'Oliver Twist.' It doesn't do justice to Dickens or to the audience, really.''

``DAVID COPPERFIELD''

Where: TNT.

When: Two parts. Part 1: 8, 10 and midnight tonight; repeats at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Dec. 24. Part 2: 8, 10 and midnight Monday; repeats at 10 p.m. Friday, 4 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Dec. 24.

``A CHRISTMAS CAROL''

Where: TNT.

When: Noon Saturday.

``A DIVA'S CHRISTMAS CAROL''

Where: VH-1.

When: 9 p.m. Wednesday.

``GREAT EXPECTATIONS: CHARLES DICKENS ON FILM''

Where: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.

When: Dec. 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. Thirteen films, several shown as part of a double feature. Call for titles and showtimes or visit www.egyptiantheatre.com on the Web.

Tickets: $7. Call [phone].

Ghosts of Christmas past

Charles Dickens completed 14 novels, each of which has been dramatized at least once. The lesser-known titles can be hard to find (a Portuguese version of ``Hard Times'' anyone?), but we've got our favorites. They may take some hunting down at a specialty video store, but they exist. Just be forewarned: Some of these are marathons. String 'em out over a few days. You'll be glad you did (and besides, it will cost you less of your life than reading the book).

In no particular order:

Our favorites:

``Bleak House'' (1985) - Six-hour BBC version of Dickens' saga of a court case gone haywire. Also a detective story. Featuring Diana Rigg and Denholm Elliott.

``Little Dorrit'' (1988) - Actually two films examining a father and daughter in the Marshalsea prison. With Alec Guinness and Derek Jacobi.

``The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'' (1981) - This one's a filmed play, a nine-hour version of the Royal Shakespeare Company's production. Roger Rees in the title role.

``Oliver Twist'' (1948) - The second of David Lean's two great Dickens adaptations (following ``Great Expectations''). Alec Guinness' Fagin is one for the ages.

``A Christmas Carol'' (1951) - Nobody ``Bah humbugs'' like Alistair Sim.

Our favorite Dickens actor: Sir Alec Guinness. He played Fagin (``Oliver Twist''), Herbert Pocket (``Great Expectations'') William Dorrit (``Little Dorrit''), and Marley's Ghost to Albert Finney's singing Scrooge (``Scrooge'').

Favorite Dickensian actress: Jean Simmons. She was the frosty Estella in David Lean's ``Great Expectations'' and her man-hating mentor Miss Havisham in the Disney version 54 years later.

Someone who should never, ever do Dickens: Woody Allen.

It's bound to happen, we just don't know how to prevent it: Pepsi kid Hallie Kate Eisenberg as the doomed Little Nell in ``The Old Curiosity Shop.''

Advice for actors looking to play Dickens: Never play the title character. Because they're usually a lot more booooorrrring. If you think it's fun to be a Chuzzlewit, rest assured it's a heck of a lot more fun to be a Pecksniff. The funnier the name, the juicier the part. Wackford Squeers - can it miss?

Mamas, if you're gonna let your child stars grow up to do Dickens: Remember, a death scene is not necessarily a bad thing.

It was the best of Tims ...

Just in case you want to see your ghosts live, here are a few productions of Charles Dickens' ``A Christmas Carol'' on stage:

--Glendale Centre Theatre, 324 N. Orange St., Glendale; [phone]. Through Dec. 23. $16-$21.

--A Noise Within, 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale; [phone]. Saturday through Dec. 23. $26-$40.

--South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa; [phone]. Through Dec. 24. $17-$41.

--Santa Susana Repertory Co. at Scherr Forum Theatre, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd.; [phone]. Through Dec. 23. $22-$25.

--Knightsbridge Pasadena Braley Building, 35 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena; [phone]. Through Dec. 24. $18.

CAPTION(S):

6 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1) The man himself, Charles Dickens, sat for this photographic portrait by Herbert Watkins in 1859.

Courtesy of Huntington Library

(2 -- 3 -- color) Hugh Dancy, above, plays the older David, with Max Dolbey as the young David, in TNT's production of Dickens' ``David Copperfield,'' which begins tonight and concludes Monday.

(4 -- color) Bob Hoskins, right, is Mr. Micawber, with Daniel Radcliffe as young David Copperfield, in yet another version of the tale, this time a recent production on PBS' ``Masterpiece Theatre.''

(5 -- 6 -- color) Patrick Stewart, left, played Ebenezer Scrooge in TNT's production of ``A Christmas Carol,'' which will air again on Saturday. Meanwhile, Vanessa Williams, above, tries a different take on the same material in ``A Diva's Christmas Carol'' on VH-1 Wednesday night.

Box: (1) Ghosts of Christmas past (see text)

(2) It was the best of Tims...(see text)