Night Court review: The NBC revival (slowly) finds its rhythm
Thirty-one years after going off the air, Night Court is back, with original star John Larroquette and The Big Bang Theory's Melissa Rauch
TV Reviews Night Court
Night Court—the new Night Court, that is, which is the sequel to the old Night Court—has a pretty big question on its hands, right from its opening moments. And it’s one headier than any of the legal issues that cross the bench of Judge Abby Stone (Melissa Rauch) as she presides over her courtroom full of nocturnal weirdos: Why? Why resurrect a TV show that went off the air 31 years ago, and which is mostly remembered at this point by die-hard sitcom nerds—and why do it in a way that sometimes feels needlessly beholden to those three-decade-old comedic rhythms?
The answers, as far as we can tell, are two-fold. The first is that Rauch—reigning sitcom royalty after years serving as one of the consistently funniest parts of The Big Bang Theory—seems pretty into the idea, throwing her considerable efforts into reviving this particular sitcom husk. And the second is, to put it bluntly: John Larroquette said “Yes.”
Nu Night Court doesn’t waste much time introducing us to either star, opening as it does with an ambitious (and largely ill-advised) scene that cuts between Abby and former Night Court prosecutor Dan Fielding on Judge Stone’s first day of court. (And, yes: She’s the daughter of that Judge Stone; although Larroquette is the only original Night Court regular to appear in the show’s first six episodes, the late, great Harry Anderson’s legacy is front and center for most of them.) Said scene is ill-advised mostly because it foregrounds one of the show’s big weaknesses: Its editing, which often seems bound and determined to suck the life out of every single one of the numerous jokes Night Court fires off every single minute it’s on the screen. That opening scene is meant to demonstrate Abby and Dan’s contrasting perspectives on the court; what it mostly does is instill an early sense of dread that takes a few episodes to wear off, as the show (mostly) finds its rhythm.
That especially includes the supporting cast, all of whom struggle in the show’s early going with a set of scripts that land somewhere in the territory between old-school broad comedy, and, well, more modern broad comedy. Either way, we’re talking big, obvious jokes, and it’s a mixed bag how each performer fares with the material. On the low end, we have Kapil Talwalker as court clerk Neil, who delivers many of his lines with a disaffected rush that serves sometimes weak material fewer favors. On the winning end, meanwhile, we’ve got India De Beaufort as the court’s new prosecutor, Olivia; De Beaufort attacks the character with a crisp intensity that’s exactly the kind of “playing to the fences” mentality that the show’s more throwback style demands.
But the main draws of Night Court, unsurprisingly, are Rauch and Larroquette, both of whom are capable of that sitcom superstar’s trick of playing their characters simultaneously as real people and cartoons. Although she struggles from time to time, Rauch largely avoids turning Abby—whose chipper desire to see the good in every defendant drives much of the show’s plot—into a simple caricature of cheerfulness, giving her actual human emotions from behind the smile. And John Larroquette is John Larroquette; the man was winning Emmys by the pound for precision-delivering deadpan one-liners while most of his castmates were in diapers. Meanwhile, he gives the aging Dan just enough sadness and gravitas to keep the whole show from flying off into orbit.
The good news about Night Court is that it gets noticeably better as it works its way through its first season, and as the rest of the cast find enough grasp of their characters to begin, if not matching Rauch and Larroquette, then to at least not bog them down. The highlights, as with the original show, are often the courtroom scenes themselves: Rauch, Larroquette, and De Beaufort tossing zingers off of each other while weirdos parade through. What’s not to like? And while we’re not entirely sold on, say, an episode of Night Court that wrestles with how bailiff Gurgs (Lacretta) deals, as a Black woman, with being part of an often corrupt and inefficient legal system, it’s at least interesting to see the show wrestling with its status as a show about, y’know … a court.
The final question hanging over the Night Court revival, then, is who is it for? The old-school theme song and decidedly retro credits sequence suggest that there’s at least some nostalgia hunting going on, but that can’t explain the series’ whole existence. And there are laughs to be had here, even if they’re delivered less naturalistically than modern comedy fans might be used to (and even if the editing does not improve at the same pace as the cast). If you’re curious about it, don’t let the pilot throw you off, at least; check back in a few episodes later, once the show has actually hit its (often pretty funny) comedic stride.
Night Court premieres January 17 on NBC.
187 Comments
theres a show called MILF MANOR now too. You can’t tell me Jack Donaghy isnt real
I won’t wrest until we get Homonym on the air!
It’s on the heir in Iran!
“theres a show called MILF MANOR now too.”You can stop bragging, we’ve all seen your channel on Pornhub.
Wow, I just realized all the Night Court alums who showed up for the 30 Rock episode are dead now. 🙁
You lost all credibility when you wrote that the original Night Court is “mostly remembered by die hard sitcom nerds.
Night Court is one of the best, funniest, and most underrated sitcoms of that 80s / early 90s. I do not know anyone in Generation X who does not look back fondly on that show.
I have not seen the new version yet, but was overjoyed when I saw the promo for it. Sadly, much of the original cast has passed on, but I can only hope that Richard Moll and Marsha Warfield make appearances.
This is when Hughes lost all credibility?!
I’m just glad someone ID’d the exact moment.
Hughes had credibility!?
Aww, I missed that Charles Robinson had died (and only like a month away from Markie Post). Man, that makes me feel old. (to be fair I am 49).
Never heard of it. Seems like you must know a bunch of sitcom nerds.
“Sadly, much of the original cast has passed on”Mel Torme is still alive, right? Right!?
Man…I had to check. Torme died in 1999!
John Astin will outlive them all…….
But he’s feeling much better now.
He was murdered by George Santos, who is in fact, the Zodiac Killer.
At least, according to him…
Someone check on Richard Moll!!
And Marsha Warfield.
MMMOkay…
The Velvet Fog is ETERNAL
Don’t count on Richard Moll.https://www.tmz.com/2013/01/23/night-court-richard-moll-no-reunion-video/Apologies for TMZ.
Well, Jupiter is a long way to travel back from.
The fact that it’s underrated sort of implies that people don’t like it that much, doesn’t it? I don’t think it’s really that well-remembered, if it’s remembered at all. It’s one of those shows that didn’t get rerun very much, and sort of vanished. The only time I can remember it being referenced is that one 30 Rock episode.
Great 30 Rock ep!
Night Court was actually pretty popular in syndication at one point – I used to watch an hour of it almost every night. But once the big 90’s shows like Seinfeld, Friends, and The Simpsons hit syndication, it disappeared quickly.
“Night Court was actually pretty popular in syndication at one point”Was it? I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you, but I don’t remember seeing Night Court too much in re-runs. From that killer Thursday night lineup (Cosby/Family Ties/Cheers/Night Court) it seemed like only Cheers got much traction in syndication. I guess The Cosby Show did, too. But that’s a whole other kettle of fish.
Most shows that run 4 or more seasons get rerun for a while after the end. That’s why they push them to 4 seasons.An hour of it every night makes me think it was on some cable station like TBS which would purchase cheap shows and run them twice in a row.I really liked Perfect Strangers, but I recognize it’s not really a classic, despite it popularity at the time.
Local TV stations would air a LOT of sitcom reruns back then. It was the predominant time filler of the era.
I remember that. There was a whole block of cheap shows on Channel 47 Cable Fun.
Right?
Night Court and Newhart were shows my mother and I could watch together.
Do you not get that “die hard sitcom nerds” refers to you and everyone you know in Generation X?
I was gonna say
So what you’re saying is that Night Court is mainly remembered by die hard sitcom nerds like yourself. Got it..
“Night Court is one of the best, funniest, and most underrated sitcoms of
that 80s / early 90s. I do not know anyone in Generation X who does not
look back fondly on that show.”You do know how small a part of the population Gen X is, right?
Night Court just can’t catch a break in modern times, making it, yeah, a small cult show.Even when TV-on-DVD was a big thing, NC was limited, at least for most of its seasons, to just the Warner Bros. Archives direct manufacture site.
It’s not on any streaming service, not logical major ones like HBO Max or Peacock or even small, FAST ones like Tubi or Pluto. (The only reason I have it is that Vudu had the full-series bundle on sale a while ago.)
Except for digital secondary channels like MeTV and Antenna, TV channels have basically killed off reruns of all but the biggest names like Seinfeld, Simpsons and BBT.
Season 1 of Night Court got a proper DVD release, but that’s it – probably because Season 1 sucked and half the cast was different so no one bought it. It was doomed from the start.
It’s free with ads on Amazon prime channel Freevee. I watched all 197 episodes over the holidays and then during a surgery recovery. It’s still pretty funny, and you can eventually learn to ignore the laugh track
FYI, the series is currently available in full on FreeVee.
Uhh…https://www.statista.com/statistics/296974/us-population-share-by-generation/About 20%, roughly equal to every other major generation. And?
Thanks for making my point for me. You’re a mensch.
Among the actual population, or among the people reading this website? Because while the writers of the website might have all been born after Night Court went off the air, I’m pretty sure most of the readers are pretty firmly in the 30-50 range. The commenters certainly are.
Yes, it’s like we don’t even exist.
I’m down for a little anonymity. Besides, once all the Boomers die off, we’ll be in the cultural crosshairs quick enough.
I don’t know, as a GenX-er, I just liked it okay, especially early on, but I started drifting off around season 5 (coinciding with going out to gigs and having more of a social life, etc.), and don’t think I’ve seen the last few seasons, except maybe a syndicated rerun in passing. Also, I was always more attracted to Ellen Foley than Markie Post.
Aw, man. I was with you right up until the end there.
She had an edge to her, Markie was too mainstream all-American blonde for me.
Fair enough, sir.
Also one of the better, catchier theme songs of any sitcom ever.
That’s the thing that I’m most interested in. Another review of this new continuation was more effusive in its praise of the new version of the theme, but NBC hasn’t shared it yet.
I don’t look bad fondly on it but it’s simply because I didn’t have a television. I remember commercials which showed the judge doing magic tricks but simply never got to saw it so I will take your word for it that every single person in our generation either likes it or you only know people who were never poor.
Considering the first couple years of Night Court, it’s kind of amazing that the last two survivors are the bailiffs.
I am a Gen X-er, and I liked Night Court, but I wouldn’t put it as one of the best sitcoms of its era. It was more of a “good if nothing else is on” kind of show. I really didn’t need a reboot of it.
Of sitcoms from that era that I actually liked and got rebooted, I couldn’t bring myself to watch Roseanne for fear it would ruin my fond memories of the earlier seasons of that show and I tired of the Murphy Brown reboot about halfway through the season.
It was one of those like Cheers or Newhart that I could watch with my parents but it’s definitely not as good as, say, News Radio, as far as workplace sitcoms.
Nothing is as good as News Radio as far as workplace sitcoms.
Amen!
I always thought Night Court and Newsradio had a lot of similarities – both workplace sitcoms, both had absolutely loaded casts, more focused on zany antics than heartfelt stories (though Night Court could lay it on at times). Both had devoted fans but were never the most popular comedy on their network, both hung on at NBC for longer than expected.
Oh yeah they were very similar but News Radio is superior in basically every way.
There are very few workplace sitcoms as good as NewsRadio. So that’s not a fair comparison.
Yeah that’s why there are very few workplace sitcoms that are really worth watching.
I completely agree with you.I was hooked from the first view of the intro. I love the theme song. Thunk thunk. Hey, is that Law & Order got it’s thunk thunk from??Anyways, it worked because it was delightfully off-kilter. Like a Barney Miller of the court scene. Also, I always thought Karen Austin deserved a better career.
although Larroquette is the only original Night Court regular to appear in the show’s first six episodes . . .
I saw that line and thought, “yeah, because everybody’s dead.”
Let’s split the difference. The people who still love the show are die hard sitcom nerds. The people who still remember the show were likely alive and old enough to watch it when it was aired or caught it in syndication and have a good memory for that sort of thing. Two different groups although probably a similar age range as I don’t believe it was in reruns past the 90s.
I don’t think that characterization is entirely false. Night Court (the original) was a fantastic show, but it isn’t famous the way that Seinfeld or Friends or Cheers are. It hasn’t seen wild viewership numbers on the streaming services. Night Court is one of the more underrated comedies that I can think of.
So are we going to have Bob and June Wheeler make appearances?
Came for this. Heading back to West Virginia satisfied.
Bob and June died in separate, equally tragic shrimping accidents three years apart but in the same spot.Bob’s eccentric brother who thinks he’s a robot from outer space might drop by, though.
Bob Wheeler is currently a US Senator for West Virginia, under indictment by the USA for SDNY for possum smuggling
“That’s right. It’s us.”
Bob Wheeler wanted to go make a Star-Trek kind of robot-man, but he knew he needed them micro-chips for one. He couldn’t decide whether those chips should be potato or tortilla!
So is NBC just going to ret-con Dan Fielding as an irredeemable, misogynistic pervert who would have been Me-Too’ed and buried under the Night Court by this point in his career?
He’s probably going to be a sensitive women’s rights crusader
who’s also really sorry that he’s white
It’s been 30 years. He could have learned to keep his mouth shut in public. I mean, the fact he is still a lawyer in night court after 30 years could be because he can’t get promoted because he’s a perv.
From what I’ve gathered, he’s been out of law — or at least the low-paying kind — for some time. (That apartment of his overlooking what looks like Central Park probably isn’t something a prosecutor would afford.)
You do realize that Night Court was a sitcom and not a documentary, right? Or are you the Neil deGrasse Tyson of the AV Club?
Yes, but Dan was creepy. That was pretty much his one-dimensional character. He never passed up an opportunity to sexually harass anyone.
It would be like if they remade WKRP in Cincinnati and just had Herb Tarlek in regular suits and he was a mentor to everyone at the TV station.
Herb Tarlek was shot and killed by the Phone Cops.
god i loved that show.dr. Johnny fever is my spirit animal.
RIP Frank Bonner.
“Wake up, sucker, this is the phone company we’re talking about! They see everything, they know everything, they got their own covert police force! I’m probably wired for sound right now! I gotta get out of here!”
What TV station?
Exactly my point.
Season 8 of the original show did give Dan an extended redemption arc that turned him from a cartoonist sleazebag into an equally cartoonish do-gooder—but then the show unexpectedly got renewed for season 9 and they walked it back.If I remember correctly, the series ended with a more restrained suggestion that Dan might change his ways to earn the love of Christine, so it’s not like the idea of his redemption is completely beyond the pale.Part of me kind of wishes that Dan’s late wife who apparently helped to mellow him was Christine, but per the preview clips her name was Sarah.
I don’t know much about the show status quo in this, but clips I’ve seen he seems mellower and sadder, and looks like he might be with the public defenders now. Maybe he did face a big career collapse due to the way he was back in the old show, and he switched over for atonement, and because he got drummed out of the DA’s office or something.
I think he’s the public defender now, so that’s the big “twist” of this reboot I guess. Still, it does speak to a big change in his character, one would assume, as the career track from prosecutor is usually toward a lucrative private practice partnership and/or politics. So it’s actually kind of likely that he got Me-Too-ed and now has to be a 75-year old public defender.
He probably did go the lucrative private practice path at some point after the show. That apartment isn’t cheap.
How is that not the same thing basically that I said?
I was agreeing with you in a not-concise manner…
I think there was one episode where he had a heart attack or something in the middle of sex and there was this big scene where Harry told him he was gonna kill himself if he kept on going like this and Dan said “Good” and it turned out that Dan’s biggest fear was growing old alone. Kind of depressing to think about tuning in to see him still stuck in the same dead-end job in his later years with all his friends gone.
Dan was creepy, but he also (eventually) accepted when his best friend came out to him as trans. So, still better than 90% of modern-day conservatives.And let’s give it up for a network comedy doing a positive trans representation episode in 1985.
I rewatched Night Court recently (or early pandemic-ish) and Dan in particular is pretty weird to try track with modern social/political mores. He really only makes sense in the 80s framework of socially fairly liberal fiscally conservative Republican yuppies. The way he breaks on social issues is kind of all over the place. His sort of sex pest characteristics are written pretty differently season to season and episode to episode and sometimes come off as a predatory creep and sometimes as a likeable scamp in the vein of Hawkeye in MASH. Sometimes, with a modern lens, he almost wanders into sex positive feminist territory (though he doesn’t usually stay there long).The trans friend episode is kind of cringey now, but also so far ahead of its time that its mind boggling.
Dan is kind of an 80s “greed is good” New York Republican and a sexist creep, but isn’t a part of the culture war lunacy that grew into the hot mess we have today. And yeah, that episode’s trans-centric jokes are rough, but it’s still astonishing that the trans character was a person rather than a punchline, and was happily married.
Dan was creepy, but he also (eventually) accepted when his best friend came out to him as trans.Eventually? I remember that as ending with him being left faceplanted into a salad bar by said friend precisely because he couldn’t! Are you sure you’re not thinking of Sam Malone from Cheers with the same scenario? Or the other Cheers episode which had an opening with Harry Anderson cheating him out of money and then the body of the episode started off with Sam being accepting of his other friend coming out as gay in his autobiography?Though of course since I only saw the episode scene as part of a clip show where they had to justify all their expenses for damage to the building, there might have been a further resolution scene after that I didn’t see so it’s quite possible that I’ve just stepped into things yet again as I am wont to do on a frequent basis.
Eventually? I remember that as ending with
him being left faceplanted into a salad bar by said friend precisely
because he couldn’t!That’s the middle of the episode, not the end. The episode ends with Dan reconciling with Charlene, catching himself calling her by her old name and making a point to use her new name instead, and telling her husband-to-be, about whom he’s previously been an asshole, to “be gentle” with her.
That wasn’t the end of the episode, it was just after his friend first showed up as a woman and Dan was being a dick. They got into a fight and Dan got the shit kicked out of him. In the end they talked it out and Dan came around.
It is worth noting that the original show did a lot to redeem Dan in its final seasons, with the final episode having him have a revelation regarding his mistreatment of women after his latest romance fell apart when he discovered his fiancée’s mother was a former conquest.
The new Night Court establishes early on that Dan got married and is in mourning for his wife. So… yeah. He changed.
The only Dan story I can remember from the original show was when a guy came into the court with a bomb strapped to him and said “If anyone makes a move then I’m going to kill Dan Fielding!” and within seconds everyone in the room (including the main cast) ran for the exits.The episode has the bomber tell Dan that he would let him go if he could remember who he was, which of course Dan could not. One of his guesses was “Your name is such-and-such and I slept with 3 generations of your family!” to which the bomber replied “No … but I’d love to hear the story!”And the episode ended with the picture of a young John Larroquette playing the accordion.
Well, if they portrayed Dan that way, it wouldn’t be a “ret-con”, would it? It’d just be the same Dan.
That’s not what “retcon” means.
And plenty of people have survived in many walks of life behaving like Dan Fielding, unfortunately. It’s not at all surprising that an obscure prosecutor would be one of them.
“So is NBC just going to ret-con Dan Fielding as an irredeemable, misogynistic pervert who would have been Me-Too’ed and buried under the Night Court by this point in his career?”
Well, the trailer says “His second chance”. So I’m assuming he’s a defense attorney now trying eight wrongs, etc…
Eight wrongs don’t make a right.
But three lefts do.
Watching the trailer, it does look like they are retconning, or at least softening, the Dan Fielding character. He’s now a widower speaking fondly of how much his late wife loved the view from his curren apartment.Which, honestly, feels fine for a reboot. Fielding is a fictional character. Retcon him to have been smarmy and crass without having actually crossed any lines, softened by age and finally finding true love, and he’ll be fine. Fictional characters are products of their time and their creator, and we can retcon/reboot them as needed and update them into a modern version. We can have Sherlock Holmes without the heroin addiction. We can give him a younger sister. We can have a skinny Mycroft.
He is actually playing the public defender in this so maybe he got “woke”. Of course this means the folks at Fox News will have something to outrage about.
I know that we’ve reached a point for reboots/sequels/whatever get an immediate side eye (I’m talking to you, Pink Ladies). but Night Court is such a simple, evergreen premise. It lives or dies on the ensemble, of course, but the premise is so brilliantly simple. And as much as I love serialized storytelling, here’s hoping they keep this one mainly episodic, maybe with more subtle character arcs.
None of what you say is wrong, but I still can’t help but have a lowered preconception of a show based on it being a reboot. Even if it wasn’t called Night Court the premise would raise an eyebrow.On the one hand, it’s got the same change as any other show of being good (which is slim!). On the other hand the connection to a fondly remembered show might hurt it in comparison, even as it is helpful in publicity.
I get that they want to keep the model similar to the original, but it would’ve been fun to see Dan as the judge and Harry’s daughter as the prosecutor.
that would have been fun. the creators probably think Rauch playing lead will bring more young audience members in. Larroquette was really only a big name for about 5 years, and back when genX was young.
Weird take….John Laroquette has worked pretty much every year in the three decades since Night Court was off the air and has been the lead or a main cast member of at least five multiseason TV shows just off the top of my head without referring to IMDB.That’s putting aside the large segment of people (including younger people) who consider his most important role to be the the narrator of Texas Chainsaw Massacre.Point being, he’s hardly an obscure figure in show business.
John Larroquette is awesome, but there’s no way this doesn’t suck dick
Mellisa Rauch is no Markie Post, but she’ll do.
At least she’s alive.
I could see a funny scene where Fielding (Larroquette) says the judge reminds him of Sullivan (Markie Post), she asks why, and he says, “because of your ti – I mean your temperament.”
I bet that’s exactly how the table read went.
and yet, we still can’t get a reboot of Bosom Buddies.
where is the Perfect Strangers reunion THE PEOPLE have been demanding?
Don’t be ridiculous, cousin.
No dance of joy for us.
I don’t know, I thought Adam Scott and Paul Rudd nailed it.
I know what you are talking about, but they only did the opening credits!
It was called I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, and it was *amazing*.
Multi-cam sitcoms with laugh tracks are so 20 years ago.And I’ll quit calling it a laugh track when you explain the functional difference in “live studio audience (that is required to laugh on command)“.
Hopefully we’ll soon develop the technology to make AI studio audiences.
Recently started watching Holliston, because I’m a way back GWAR fanboy, and I was not prepared for it being a laugh-tracked, multi-cam sitcom with the kind of big-gesture gags one associates with this kind of show.
Cheers was the best show of that killer 80s NBC Thursday night line-up (although Night Court was a close second), but I recently saw some re-runs of it, and it’s kind of hard to watch.Not because it isn’t good, and not because it isn’t funny, but because the broad humor with the multi-camera setup and studio audience laughter is the diametric opposite of every sitcom made in the last ~20 years. Watching Cheers re-runs felt like watching someone use a car phone that has the keypad on the back of the handset.
They’re not “required to laugh,” like, not forced, but they are primed to laugh, and sitting in a studio audience likely makes one more inclined to laugh.Still, SNL and Late Night talk shows give ample examples of jokes that do not elicit any laughs, let alone gales of laughter. And live studio audience laughter is more organic, the length and volume depending on the effectiveness of the joke. Canned laughter is, at best, an audio technician guessing at that, and at worst, repeating the same canned laugh regardless of joke.As for it’s artifice, it’s important to remember that before TV, one wouldn’t have seen a public comedy performance without hearing others laugh. Even for movies, you were watching in a theater with others.
You understand “live studio audience” is different than live performance? SNL is actually live, so sometimes the laughs aren’t there. In a normal sit com, they do another take until the audience does their job.
Aren’t live studio audience sitcoms still juiced with canned laughter anyway? They used to be, anyway—
Or they beef it up with canned laughter. Happens on virtually all sitcoms filmed in front of an audience.
also, the creator’s dad went to a lot of tapings and had this weird laugh that a lot of people noticed. i remember listening for it during the show’s initial run and when it was briefly in syndication. i think they sweetened the show with canned but even if they didn’t, it sure seemed like the audience was often taking a cue from that one guy. maybe even laughing at that guy’s laugh.
A laugh track never steps on the lines
Night Court review: The NBC revival (slowly) finds its rhythmLol. I gotta start keeping track of these.https://www.avclub.com/1849966792
Wow, Tracy Jordan finally got this made. (I wonder if they’ll bring back Jenna’s werewolf character, though.)
I hope Kenneth Parcel is happy.
If Eva Anderson isn’t writing on this show, we riot.
I would hope that at some point, we’d see Roz and Bull again.
No luck with Bull: Richard Moll says no way. Apparently he hates the cast?
Just another Roz and Bull Story
Melissa Rauch is somehow 5 years older than John Larroquette was when Night Court premiered.
But how many Texas Chainsaw Massacre trailers has she narrated?
One?
People just looked older decades ago. Part of it is styles we associate with older people, and part of it is the prevalence of smoking. Part of it is the perceptions we had of peoples ages relative to our own when we first saw them.
(Rue McClanahan was only 51 when she started on The Golden Girls. Younger than Julia Louis Dreyfus, Michelle Yeoh, Sandra Bullock and Vivica A Fox are today.)
Also better awareness of sun damage/better sunblock, I believe.
There’s a theory that as the average life expectancy rises in general people age slower (one reason why before the 20th Century there wasn’t really a teenage stage—and it wasn’t *just* because so many people had to start work young.) I mean even looking at my parents or grandparents high school year books compared to mine, and now compared to my niece’s there’s a notable difference, and you can’t tell me it’s because 16 year olds in the 1960s all had had years of heavy smoking.
So, I don’t think it’s just because so many fewer people smoke (especially since out of the people who do still smoke, a lot of them are in show biz 😛 ) It causes issues when they revive plays—no one is gonna cast Blanche Dubois with a 30 year old anymore, and it’s not just because society has changed so that a 30 year old unmarried woman is no longer a spinster—it’s because most audiences wouldn’t reconcile the appearance of the actor with the character.
Thanks for that! Good video, if a bit all over the place.
Funny…I just saw Fargo for the first time. It came out when I was in 6th grade and I remember looking at Frances McDormand in the commercials for it in 1996 and thinking she looked to be at least in late-ish 40s then, but while watching now I felt like she definitely didn’t look to be nearly the age I originally thought. While I was watching I looked up her wikipedia page and figured out she was 37 about to turn 38 when it was filmed. I’m a year older than she was while she filmed Fargo. Big dose of reality.
Any time I see Wilford Brimley in something I have to ask myself, “Am I older now than Wilford Brimley is here?” and the answer is often yes.
It’s math
John Astin is still with us, and his appearances were one of my favorite parts of the original series. I hope they book a cameo quick!
And he’s feeling much better now!
Am I crazy or did they eventually reveal that Buddy was Harry’s father? If so he could easily do a cameo since he’s Abby’s grandfather.
They did! It’s been decades since I’ve seen the show, but as a kid I remember the reveal being particularly affecting. There was a sweetness to the character arc that made it my favorite part of the show.So yeah; they absolutely have a narrative ‘in’ to give him a cameo.
“and which is mostly remembered at this point by die-hard sitcom nerds”Fuck you, AV Club.
Did they lie tho
“Because of what they said about the show?”“… show?”
“Fuck you, AV Club.”That’s all, just Fuck you, AV Club.
I wonder if the writers will take an episode off and have Larroquette trapped in the rickety old elevator for 20 minutes? They only did that 3 times in the original series, so there’s got to be more he can do with that premise.
Is it safe to assume that the judge will consult with a framed photo of her late dad, instead of one of Mel Torme?
It should be a picture of her dad with Mel Tormé.
In the original’s pilot:“I own every record Mel Torme ever made … I’m going to marry the woman that impresses.”
I wonder if they’ll ever be getting Bull back from Jupiter?No, not the one in Florida.
Unlikely. Richard Moll apparently did not enjoy his time on the show (he disliked the improvisation Harry Anderson and John Larroquette loved indulging in) and he has said repeatedly he would not return for any cast reunion or revamp.
Marsha Warfield has said she wouldn’t mind coming back for a cameo, though.
M. Rauch is an excruciating actress who didn’t belong in the same zip code with Simon Helberg or Kunal Nayyar. She was emphatically not “one of the funniest parts of TBBT.” She’s unwatchable.
The thing that’s crazy to me is that we have cars that are almost autonomous, AI that’s painting pictures, writing stories, and creating video.Why the hell don’t we have a reboot of Knight Rider?! That’s what the world really wants.
We did a few years ago but it was with… a Mustang
Are there any actors of Hasselhoff’s caliber (not a compliment) available today?
Gina Carano?
David Boreanz.
7th on the call sheet at BBT is sitcom royalty?
I’m from Gen X, and I hated that show. Tired jokes and tired rhythms. Vaudeville’s most obvious moments played and replayed endlessly for an ‘80s crowd.
As long as they acknowledge the Dan’s real first name is Reinhold and that he played the accordion, I will be happy.
Reinhold???
Weeeeeeeeege
Ghosts is the only current comedy I record and watch. Everything else blows. So I was pleased to hear about this – I’m nearly always right about what will work and what will fail when it comes to new programs. This will be here a while. It’s a damn good idea to reboot it. We need a few laughs these days. Nitpicky whatever blah blah blah – don’t care. You’ll see. Some stuff should not ever be rebooted. We wouldn’t want a new Cheers. We all knew the new Odd Couple would fail, right? This Frasier thing? Gone in 18 months, if that. But Night Court? With it’s ever-changing defendants and overall goofy silliness? That’s a keeper.
Okay, I finally watched the trailer, and the most accurate moment is the trench-coat-wearing flasher followed by the bailiff declaring “That’s Night Court, baby!” The original Night Court never passed up on a flasher gag.
I’m not trying to yuck anybody’s yum, just sharing a few thoughts: I never cared much for the original—which I watched a bit throughout its first run way back when. The humor was so broad it spanned three area codes, and to be charitable, the late Harry Anderson was (in my opinion) not an actor anywhere near on par with John Larroquette, who definitely had/has excellent comic timing.
I’m an old and was a huge fan of the original Night Court. I’m really looking forward to this. I’m not too worried by the new show’s rocky start. As best as I remember, the OG Night Court also struggled at the beginning. Back then, shows were given a chance to find their footing. I hope the new Night Court is also given some breathing room.
No Bull, no deal
just shouting out John Larroquette in Southland Tales
Somehow out of the heap of broken mirrors that are my memories one shard that stands out brightly is my kindergarten music teacher showing us the matched wooden sticks called claves and asking us if we had ever watched the show “Night Court” with our parents then explaining that these instruments are the ones that make the funny sounds in the theme song.It’s bizarre how some memories are forever and some never take hold. So many important events happened when I was a small child, from what I’ve been told, yet one of the clearest memories I have of that time is learning something about the music on a sitcom. I wonder if what stays and what goes has anything to do with personality or if it’s just random?
Starting off with a “B” isn’t so bad since it took 3/4 season for the original show to get the cast that everyone remembers. Even if this currant cast is a bit clunky right now their might be some hope for the future with some minor tweaks. Sadly they don’t give shows that much time to find their footing anymore.
I rewatched the old Night Court recently and while it should be obvious given his Emmys, geez was John Larroquette good. In part, he was primed to be the show’s breakout star because of the character he plays. As the show’s resident jerk, Dan Fielding courts the most comeuppance in the form of pratfalls and punches. Also, he is witty enough to get plenty of good lines, and he is a naturally showy and shameless person. That is a pretty big contrast with most of the characters, who are straightmen of one stripe or another (Mac, Christine, and even Harry, in spite of the pranks and magic tricks).That being said, Larroquette is very committed to the bit. When he executes a pratfall or other bit of physical comedy, he goes for it so hard that I’m a little surprised he didn’t get injured all the time. He’s also good at playing both the more comedic parts and the dramatic parts. He really should have gotten more roles post-Night Court. (Also, while Larroquette isn’t unusually handsome, he’s pretty sexy (charming, carries himself well, that voice). Dan is such a sleazy dirtbag that women shouldn’t have anything to do with him, but because it’s Larroquette in the part, it’s easy to believe that Dan gets women in spite of his creepy behavior.)
As I recall, Larroquette won the Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Emmy so many years in a role that he eventually took himself out of the running because it eventually became ridiculous.
As long as Brent Spiner makes a few appearances, I am okay with this.