New 'Night Court' finding its footing

I have spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about a sitcom that has arguably always been designed to be entirely disposable.

I was a huge fan of the original "Night Court," which ran for nine seasons from 1984-92 on what became known as NBC's "Must See TV" Thursday night primetime lineup, and I was far from alone.

John Larroquette, who played the unrepentantly randy and acerbic prosecutor Dan Fielding, won four consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series from 1985-88, before he withdrew his name from the ballot in 1989.

Just about the entire cast of the show in its prime years was golden, from Richard Moll, Selma Diamond (who died during the show's run) and Marsha Warfield as bailiffs Bull, Selma and Roz, to Charles Robinson as court clerk Mac, Markie Post as public defender Christine Sullivan, and of course, Harry Anderson as Judge Harold T. Stone (the latter three of whom all died away within the past half-dozen years).

At its peak, "Night Court" was a relentlessly effective joke-telling engine, that for the better part of a decade sustained itself on a formula so rigid its lead actors spent most of each episode standing still, in the exact same fixed positions, to deliver their lines.

The court clerk (Mac in every season except the first) introduced the latest zany case. Dan subjected the defendant to witheringly cynical snark. Christine (or one of her equally earnest predecessors) made an impassioned do-gooder plea for leniency. And Judge Harry summed up the case's moral lesson with a light-hearted one-liner, before handing down a sentence of $50 and time served, with bits of side-comedy provided by the bailiffs.

On paper, it reads as almost insultingly simple. But like the endless weekly car chases of "The Dukes of Hazzard," or the ridiculous customer interactions, slapstick sales display props and single-entendre innuendoes of the sales counter clerks in the British sitcom "Are You Being Served?" "Night Court" was armed with effortlessly talented performers. Their characters' chemistry with each other likewise made even their most improbable misadventures feel emotionally authentic, if not necessarily "realistic."

Yes, Wile E. Coyote, the cartoon character, appeared in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in one episode, with Judge Harry ruling that he had to leave the Road Runner alone.

And yet, like "Barney Miller," "Night Court" was a sitcom about the legal system that many real-life cops and lawyers told folks coming into their respective professions to watch, if they wanted to know what many courthouses and police precincts were like on an everyday basis.

Perhaps not coincidentally, "Night Court" creator Reinhold Weege had worked on "Barney Miller." Both shows depicted workplaces that felt lived-in, with sets that seemed to bear the wear-and-tear of ordinary folks doing their jobs.

Having devoted nearly half my review to recapping the original "Night Court" for those who haven't watched it (yet), I think it's important to watch the new "Night Court," whose first two episodes aired Jan. 17 on NBC, by keeping in mind it took time for the original series to hit its stride.

Ironically, the almost total absence of serialized storytelling in episodic Eighties sitcoms meant viewers had to be patient to piece together the backstories of each character, rather than having hints of their hidden depths crowd out the comedy.

While the new "Night Court" strives to emulate the antics of its predecessor, it can't help but be influenced just a bit by more recent and relationship-oriented workplace sitcoms, such as "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation," because the new judge on the night shift at the Manhattan Criminal Court is Abby Stone (played by Melissa Rauch), the adult daughter of the since-deceased Judge Harold T. Stone, and after her first day in court sees her public defender quit, she looks up Dan Fielding to have him fill that role.

After the first two episodes, I feel like the supporting cast is still finding its footing, but each one comes with potentially intriguing traits.

India de Beaufort's Olivia, the assistant district attorney assigned to Abby's court, is compelling because she's who Dan Fielding used to be, minus the lechery, since she's so career-driven that she can't wait to leave this dingy courtroom in the dust.

Given that Abby doesn't appear to share her late father's penchant for practical jokes or magic tricks, I can see the logic behind making Abby's court clerk Neil (Kapil Talwalkar) the resident prankster, especially since his stated reason for secretly staging such gags is to stave off the brain-numbing boredom that comes with his job.

"Night Court," after all, isn't meant to depict the aspirational or glamorous side of the law, so it works if the subtext is that the night shift of the Manhattan Criminal Court is where you're sent if you're a screw-up or are paying your dues in the early part of your career.

Even though the sets of the new "Night Court" appear to be almost exact duplicates of those from the original series, I have to agree with friends who claim they look too "clean" now, which might simply be a result of the higher resolution video on which the new show is filmed, because that old courtroom should look like the built-up dirt and crime of New York City has ground itself into the structure's cracks.

I'd never seen the blond-haired comedienne Lacretta before her role as bailiff Donna "Gurgs" Gurganous, but in spite of the first two episodes handing her some of the weakest lines, she sells them with a standout aplomb. Far from being a Roz clone, her endearing enthusiasm alone has earned her character a breakout star status.

Which leaves our two lead actors, Rauch and Larroquette. Rauch's Abby is almost more of a modern-day Christine than a successor to Harry, given her indefatigably chipper refusal to give up on those whom she sees as needing and deserving of her support, but such idealism was at the core of Harry's character as well.

Rauch is well-cast and capable in the role of Abby, but I'd like to see the writers furnish her character with more quirks, albeit without too obviously attempting to recreate Harry's signature idiosyncrasies, such as his affection for the music of crooner Mel Tormé.

As for Larroquette, he's investing Dan Fielding with more dramatic weight and pathos, establishing him as a profoundly lonely, hollow man in his old age, who desperately needs to be given a reason to reach out to other people again, even if he doesn't yet realize it himself. It has the makings of a career-best performance, even with stints on "The John Larroquette Show" and David E. Kelley's legal series "The Practice" and "Boston Legal" in the 1990s.

I'll reiterate that the new "Night Court" is still coming together as the show that it could be, but it's made far more progress by this point than the original "Night Court" had done, and the climax of the revival's second episode was a Rube Goldberg symphony of converging cacophony that would have done the also-departed Reinhold Weege proud.

This one has the potential to become something special.

Author Bio

Kirk Boxleitner, Reporter

Shelton-Mason County Journal & Belfair Herald
[email protected]