Night Court

[ClassyCo]

With the forthcoming reboot coming up on NBC, there's no time like the present to get a conversation going about the past and future sitcom called NIGHT COURT.

I vaguely remember catching some reruns on some of those no-name TV channels that shoved the show into those early morning or late night time slots, but I honestly can't remember anything about it.

I don't even know if I like it or not.

About the only thing I really know about the show is that it originally featured Selma Diamond as the bailiff. Diamond and Doris Roberts were the actresses that gave NBC the nudge to seek out a TV show featuring older actresses. The network petitioned the idea to Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas, who recruited Susan Harris, who ended up creating THE GOLDEN GIRLS.

But, back to the point of this thread --- anyone a fan of NIGHT COURT?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

It was surprisingly blue for TV in its day, and sometimes cleverly so. Somehow, its ambience just didn't appeal to me enough to watch it very often, though.

It was, in the States, part of that impenetrable Thursday night two-hour lineup of sitcoms: THE COSBY SHOW, FAMILY TIES, CHEERS and NIGHT COURT, followed by yucky HILL STREET BLUES and, later, more commercial L.A. LAW at 10pm.

COSBY was something I could no longer sit through after its first season; I'd watched FAMILY TIES and CHEERS since their inceptions in 1982 (and, for a while, they were the only two decent sitcoms on television) but I didn't follow FAMILY TIES when they moved it away from Thursday nights (circa 1986, and Courtney Cox didn't really work for me) and I dropped CHEERS after Shelley Long left (in 1987) as I found her replacement weak... R.I.P.

So I rarely ever made it to the 9:30pm show, NIGHT COURT.

After that, naturally, I switched over to KNOTS LANDING on CBS, especially as I determined HILL STREET was cold and dire in a very '80s way, and found L.A. LAW slicker and more upscale but not compelling enough to pull away from KNOTS.

Oh, yeah, NIGHT COURT had some funny "dirty" jokes. Quite a lot of them actually.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I adored Night Court and watched it from start to finish. It started off rather weak, with several cast changes made before it really hit its stride. They had that unfortunate string of bad luck with the older, female bailiff role, but they also replaced the defense attorney twice and court recorder once before they got the right mix of actors. Harry Anderson was a stand-up comic and not necessarily the strongest actor, but he grew into that role quite well.

I especially loved their naughty sense of humor, and since the show aired in the later-evening time slot, they could get away with a lot more. The setting lent itself to tacky sex jokes and the like, too. I'm not sure if I want to watch the reboot, though, because the hallmark of OG Night Court was the politically-incorrect, subversive humor that so many in current culture decry as misogynistic and all the other PC terms tossed around. I still have third-degree burns from that execrable Murphy Brown reboot a few years ago. It ruined fond memories of that original series. Maybe it would be best just to wait and see how Dan Fielding manages to survive the 2020s.

 

[ClassyCo]

NIGHT COURT is streaming for free (with ads, of course) on Amazon Prime and Freevee. I'll mozy on over there, maybe this evening, and see what it's all about. I'll just start from the beginning and see where it goes.

 

[Crimson]

I don't really have any fond memories of NIGHT COURT. I watched it but, in retrospect, I think mostly because it was just there. The only character on the series I found funny or interesting was the gruff voiced bailiff played by Selma Diamond, but she died after the first season. All the rest, I found either vaguely annoying (Harry, Dan, Bull) or vaguely dull (Christine, Roz, Mac).

 

[TaranofPrydain]

What SneakyOracle said was correct, the original Night Court became a hit largely because of its timeslot. It debuted as a mid-season replacement in early 1984, and was the only freshman series NBC renewed that year though the ratings were limp. But when Cosby premiered in the fall, it supercharged the ratings of the three sitcoms immediately following it, as the channel itself took flight after a decade of miserable ratings and very few hits. Of those three sitcoms, Cheers would be the only one that would remain firmly entrenched on Thursdays; Family Ties was moved off to Sundays in 1987 (replaced by A Different World), where it spent its last two years getting crushed by Murder She Wrote, while Night Court was largely pushed off to Wednesdays beginning in 1988 (replaced by Dear John, which in turn would lose its spot to Grand, the first of many short-lived , much-hated-by-audiences sitcoms that NBC would cynically push into either the 8:30 or 9:30 Thursday slots throughout the 90s). Wednesdays usually have been , with the exception of Dynasty, a pretty quiet night for TV shows, so Night Court took a big hit in the ratings, although it remained a top 30 series through 1990, so clearly audiences still had affection toward the show. The show folded quietly in 1992.

As for Hill Street Blues and LA Law, I much preferred the latter (although St. Elsewhere is better than both) Both were message shows talking about many controversial topics in a very blunt manner, but LA Law was sleeker , more intelligent, and had a great ensemble cast to go with its strong writing. But, if given a TV set with no VCR in the 80s, I would still watch Knots in that timeslot instead. I know the Emmys typically look down at primetime soaps, but given Knots' long-lived quality and critical praise, I have the feeling that it might have fared better at the Emmys had it been in a timeslot where it didn't have to go up against the two biggest Emmy drama magnets of the 1980s.

I did see Night Court's pilot a while back. It was OK, nothing earthshattering, somewhat claustrophobic feeling. One's mileage with it will likely vary.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I think the 'claustrophobic feeling' is intentional, with the dismal-looking sets and grimy feeling. It was an inner-city court house, after all; they kept up that drab look to the very end, and I wonder if they will "freshen it up" in the reboot (I hope not). They even acknowledged this in an episode where the characters were asked to work the "day shift" for a week or so in the same facility. Everything was lighter, more happy--even the cafeteria was more hospitable---and it became a running joke in the episode that the night shift seemed to have a cloud parked over it.

 

[ClassyCo]

I watched the first episode of NIGHT COURT. It gave me a few chuckles here and there, and I'm sure I even laughed out loud a time or two. Overall, however, I was a little... Well, meh.

I'm not saying I didn't like it. For what it was -- a pilot episode -- I guess it was pretty good. It just takes me some getting use to a new show before I have a solid opinion.

Whether or not I'll actually like NIGHT COURT, still remains to be seen.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Be forewarned (if we haven't clued you in already)....in later seasons it can be very...bawdy. It's late-1980s/early 1990s bawdy (in other words, tame by 2023 standards), but they were able to get away with a lot of sex jokes and innuendo that would not be as easy to play today. Not because of Standards and Practices, but because of the Me Too Crowd and every group with grievances looking for any excuse to mount a boycott and play "offended".

Memorable example: Dan's boss has a beautiful daughter (played by Teri Hatcher) who portrays herself as an innocent around her father, but is actually eager to get Dan to sleep with her. He rather painfully resists her endless attempts at seduction because he fears the boss will fire him. So she arrives with her father at the courthouse, where the two have been out shopping. As the father steps away, they're standing in a hallway and she quips that she needed to go shopping because, despite packing for her trip, she didn't have a thing to wear (at which point we see her from the back as she drops her trench coat to reveal she's not wearing anything underneath). Dan practically screams, since he's never been able to resist sleeping with as many beautiful women as possible and it is killing him to resist her.

 

[Seaviewer]

It was surprisingly blue for TV in its day, and sometimes cleverly so. Somehow, its ambience just didn't appeal to me enough to watch it very often, though.

That about sums it up: a funny show but lacking that certain something that makes you want to spend time with the characters.

 

[ClassyCo]

That about sums it up: a funny show but lacking that certain something that makes you want to spend time with the characters.

I've yet to go back to the show after watching the first episode. Nothing I saw compiled me to want to go back and watch any more of it.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Admittedly I haven’t seen much of it over the years but from what I have seen it just never felt like a show that could hold my attention very long.

 

[Jock's Ghost]

For a while, the funniest sitcom on Thursday nights, besides CHEERS. the new version is not funny especially since HALF the original cast is dead.

For someone just now watching the original series- IGNORE SEASONS 1 AND 2. Go to when Christine shows up, S3 I think and watch until 1990 S7, when Christine gets married. Stop there. New producers took over and killed the show.

 

[ClassyCo]

Quite honestly, I've only watched the first episode and I haven't had any desire to push along any further.

 

[Daniel Avery]

The show had wanted Markie Post for the Public Defender role all along but Post was contracted to The Fall Guy. It's pretty obvious that the character of Billie Young (played by Ellen Foley) was a placeholder until Post could join the cast, since the two characters are so similar.

 

[DallasFanForever]

Quite honestly, I've only watched the first episode and I haven't had any desire to push along any further.

I felt exactly the same way when I tried to really get into it once. But I have to say that at the time this show was widely popular. It had a kind of cult following. It felt like back then everyone watched Night Court so maybe it’s us.

 

[ClassyCo]

 

[Daniel Avery]

For someone just now watching the original series- IGNORE SEASONS 1 AND 2. Go to when Christine shows up, S3 I think and watch until 1990 S7, when Christine gets married. Stop there. New producers took over and killed the show.

And strangely enough, she marries Detective Zorelli from Dynasty. Well, not really---it's just that it's the same actor (Ray Abruzzo) playing the same kind of character on both shows, right down to both being cops and having the same mannerisms, etc.