Night Court
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Night Court was an American television situation comedy that aired on NBC from January 1984 until May 1992. The show focused on the nutty antics during the night shift of a Manhattan arraignment courtroom, presided over by the young, unorthodox Judge Harold T. Stone (as played by Harry Anderson) and his cast of loonies.
It was created by comedy writer Reinhold Weege, who had previously worked on award-winning and wry series Barney Miller in the 1970s and early 1980s. Some who began watching Night Court at its premiere were expecting a similar program, especially since they both began with a catchy bassline and featured law-enforcement personnel in New York City, but Night Court was a distinctly sillier show. Cable network TV Land began airing Night Court in August 2005.
The series did not become well-known in the United Kingdom despite some screenings on Sky One and The Comedy Channel (UK) in the early 1990s.
Description
Night Court, according to the first season DVD, was created without comedian/magician Harry Anderson in mind, but Anderson auditioned with the claim that he was Harry Stone. Anderson had developed a following with his performances on Saturday Night Live and made several successful appearances as "Harry the Hat" on another NBC sitcom, Cheers. (For the first several years of its run, Night Court aired on NBC Thursday nights after Cheers.) In later seasons, while Anderson remained the key figure, John Larroquette became the break out personality, winning a number of awards and many fans for his performance as the lecherous assistant district attorney Dan Fielding.
The comedy style on Night Court could best be described as broad, almost slapstick comedy. The main characters had personality quirks which made them slightly off-kilter. Logic and realism were frequently abandoned for the sake of a joke: cartoon animal Wile E. Coyote once appeared in a brief gag as a defendant ("I know you're hungry, but leave the poor bird alone!"). A typical plot might have Judge Stone trying to stop a group of rival ventriloquists and their dummies from assaulting each other, (then NBC chairman) Brandon Tartikoff bailing out a Nielsen family so they could get home to watch Misfits of Science, or Harry pushing the court staff to meet a deadline of 200 cases to be adjudicated before midnight. The show featured several defendants who appeared before the court again and again; notable were the Wheelers, Yugoslavians (one of whom, the husband, was played by actor Brent Spiner) who pretended to be a hick family from West Virginia and, at one point, even ran a concession stand in the courthouse.
Primary cast
- Harry Anderson as Judge Harold T. Stone, a young, good-humored jurist and an amateur magician whose father was a former mental patient. Harry loved movies and fashions from the 1940s, and idolized crooner Mel Tormé.
- Gail Strickland as Public Defender Sheila Corinth (in the pilot episode only).
- Paula Kelly as Public Defender Liz Williams (in the first season only, after the pilot).
- Ellen Foley as Public Defender Billie Young (in the second season only).
- Markie Post as Public Defender Christine Sullivan (from the third season until the show's end), who, though attractive and voluptuous, was honest to a fault and somewhat naïve.
- John Larroquette as Assistant District Attorney Dan Fielding, a.k.a. Reinhold Fielding Elmore, a sex-obsessed narcissist who would do anything to get a woman to sleep with him.
- Richard Moll as bailiff Nostradamus "Bull" Shannon, a (mostly) dim-witted hulk of a figure who was gentle and often childlike. He was known for his catchphrase, "Ohh-kay".
- The various female bailiffs (the first two of whom died early in the show's run) who were acerbic and comically gruff:
- *Selma Diamond as bailiff Selma Hacker (in the first two seasons).
- *Florence Halop as bailiff Florence Kleiner (in the third season only).
- *Marsha Warfield as bailiff Rosalind "Roz" Russell (from the fourth season until the show's end).
- Karen Austin as court clerk Lana Wagner (in the first season only).
- Charles Robinson as court clerk Macintosh "Mac" Robinson (from the second season until the show's end), a veteran of the Vietnam War, who was very sweet and would do anything for anyone. He always wore a cardigan, plaid shirt, and a square-end tie.
- Denice Kumagai as Quon Le Duc Robinson (occasional from second season on), Mac's wife, a refugee from Vietnam who was somewhat naive about America and its customs, but was loving and very devoted to him.
- Mike Finneran as building facilities supervisor Art Fensterman (occasional throughout the entire run).
- Joleen Lutz as court stenographer Lisette Hocheiser (occasional last two seasons).
Cast changes
The first few seasons of Night Court had an unusually large number of cast changes for such a long-running series. The only actors to appear consistently throughout the show's run were Harry Anderson, John Larroquette, and Richard Moll.
- When Selma Diamond, the first female bailiff, died after two seasons, Florence Halop played a replacement character, only to die one season later. Night Court scripts addressed the deaths of both characters, which was uncharacteristic for a sitcom. The show decided not to bring in a third elderly actress and instead replaced Halop with Marsha Warfield, who played Roz Russell. All three characters were written as mother-figures for Bull.
- Karen Austin only appeared as Lana Wagner for the first ten episodes, after which her character was only subsequently mentioned in the eleventh episode as "out sick" by a one-time character, and never again by regular cast members. She was kept in the titles of the remaining three episodes of the first season. Also cut from the show after the first season was Paula Kelly; the public defender role was filled by Ellen Foley for the second season, after which she in turn was replaced by Markie Post.
Awards
During its nine season run, Night Court received a number of award and nominations. Both Selma Diamond (in 1985) and John Larroquette (in 1988) earned Golden Globe nominations, but lost to Faye Dunaway and Rutger Hauer respectively. The show has had more success with the Emmys and the first season earned a nomination for Paula Kelly. While the second season came around, the show had more success with the fans and critics and higher recognition came from the Academy of Television Arts. John Larroquette won four consecutive Emmys for best supporting actor in a comedy series from 1985 to 1988, before he withdrew his name from the ballot in 1989. Selma Diamond also earned a nomination in 1985, as a tribute for her sudden death, and the show's star Harry Anderson earned three consecutive nominations (from 1985 to 1987). The show earned three nominations for best comedy series, in 1985, 1987, and 1988. The show also received many minor awards and nominations in the areas of lighting, editing, sound mixing, and technical direction. In total, the show was nominated for thirty-one Emmys, winning seven.DVD Releases
The first season was released on DVD in the spring of 2005. In February 2006, Warner Brothers released a Television Favorites compilation to test the waters for a second season release.Trivia
- Richard Moll had originally shaved his head for a role in the 1983 science fiction B-movie . Producers liked the look for Bull, so he continued shaving his head for Night Court.
- This was one of the few sitcoms to feature a brief animated character in an episode.
- John Larroquette's character was called "Dan Fielding" almost exclusively, although his full name was quite different. When his parents visit him "from Paris" (Texas), they mention that his last name was "Elmore" and his middle name was "Fielding". In a different episode, where pregnant women and their spouses are stuck in the courtroom during a hurricane, Dan admits to one of the mothers that his first name is "Reinhold." (His coworkers would not learn his name until several years later, when a vengeful high school classmate of Dan's reveals it to them along with the fact that Dan used to play the accordion.) This was a nod to the unusual first name of the show's creator, Reinhold Weege.
- Although often portrayed as a simpleton, character Bull Shannon had a tested I.Q. of 181. (Although it deserves mention that, when the results were given to him, he initially read the page upside-down ... and was subseqently surprised to find that 181 looks the same both ways.)
- Harold T. Stone was the youngest judge appointed to the bench in New York. According to Stone, he was selected because the mayor was filling all open seats on the last day of his term, and Stone was the only nominee on the list at home to answer his phone (it was a Sunday). Some trivia pages list this as being Super Bowl Sunday, but that was never stated and would not coincide with when a Mayor of New York's term would end.
- Judge Stone's most frequent sentencing was "$50 fine and time served."
- Night Court was known as having one of the tallest male casts in the history of television, with Richard Moll at 6' 7 1/2", John Larroquette and Harry Anderson at 6'4" and Charles Robinson at 6'2".
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