Abby finds a family and Dan Fielding finally achieves his dream. But what
will Season 2 of the new "Night Court" bring us? Let's lay out the evidence.
Abby Stone, of course, does not end up as the Manhattan night court judge by accident. Her
father was the affable, magic-loving judge Harry Stone. The late Harry Anderson played
him for nine seasons on the original "Night Court." By taking over her father's old bench
and recruiting his former colleague, Dan Fielding, to serve as public defender, she hopes to learn
more about that time in her father's life. And perhaps she'll learn more about herself as well.
As the series begins, Abby is in the midst of a prolonged engagement with her long-distance
boyfriend, Rand. It's clear from the start that something is out of step between them, and when
Rand finally makes the trip from their upstate New York small town to visit her in the big city,
it's even more apparent that they no longer fit into each other's lives. At first, he is her rock,
providing necessary comfort as she struggles to fit into her uncertain new position. But by the
end of the season, Abby has made the bench her own and won over her cynical colleagues with
gumption and good cheer. Suddenly, it's her future with Rand that is uncertain.
"The Honorable Dan Fielding," the two-part season finale, puts its characters at personal and
professional crossroads. As the title suggests, Dan has been offered a judgeship back home in
Louisiana, which Abby responds to in her typically anxious and overexcited fashion. She plans a
massive going-away party that she hopes will also function as a "don't actually go away" party,
while trying to ignore the fact that Rand feels neglected. The pressure is too much,
and Abby acts out recklessly. An attempt to aid an elderly defendant, Louise, lands her in jail
and facing a trumped-up felony charge thanks to weaselly District Attorney Jeff Dewitt.
With Dan as her attorney, Abby faces the possibility of disbarment and perhaps even
jail time for trying to help a little old lady break into her boyfriend's nursing home. Dan
pleads with her to let him foist the blame on Louise, but Abby refuses to let someone else
suffer for her actions. In the end, she's saved by a slew of character witnesses who testify to
her sterling character — well, that and the fact that Dewitt coerced Louise into wearing a wire.
The judge declares a mistrial, and Abby returns to the bench. Rand heads home to upstate New York
after he and Abby finally come to terms with the fact that they have grown apart. Dan, meanwhile,
says his goodbyes to Abby and to Night Court, and he takes his seat on the bench in rural Louisiana.
"I'm not being selfish. This is what I've always wanted. I'm not abandoning her."
There's a "lost in time" aspect to the "Night Court" revival. The sets all look pretty much the
same as they did in the 1980s and the cases called before the court are not much different. Everyone
has smart phones, but they rarely figure into the plot, and the titular tech investment opportunity
in the episode "Past Apps" is merely the catalyst for Abby's ethical quandary in dealing with an
old fashioned con man. This is all very much by design; when developing the series, producer Dan
Rubin and production designer Glenda Rovello raided the Warner Bros. television archives,
grabbing surviving set decorations from the original series and even using the
blueprints for the original courtroom set to make sure the new one was to scale.
The series' nostalgic bona fides don't stop at the set design, though. The revival is steeped
in the same vaudeville energy that made the original series a little old fashioned,
even for the '80s. The show's insistence on warm-and-fuzzy comedy that recalls a
more comforting era was very much a selling point for star Melissa Rauch. She told Uproxx,
"I sort of liken it to a bit of a time machine that can take you back to that happiness."
As a result, the show largely steers clear of any divisive real-world issues
regarding the criminal justice system; the fact that the courtroom has barely
been renovated in four decades is arguably its sharpest political gag.
Dan's move to Louisiana is a homecoming in more ways than one. Actor John Larroquette,
who won four Emmys in a row for his portrayal of Dan on the original series, is from New Orleans
and has kept close ties to his hometown since leaving for Hollywood in the 1970s. In 2013,
he was even awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of New Orleans. Larroquette and
his character share a Louisiana upbringing thanks to the original "Night Court" writers, who over
the years mined a lot of humor from the idea that Dan, the erudite Manhattan attorney constantly
trying to climb the social ladder, was born on the bayou and raised in the possum-filled backwoods.
The revival keeps Dan's Pelican State birthright, but takes it easy on the redneck jokes;
it also keeps Dan's womanizing past in the past. During the '80s, Dan was one
of network TV's most shameless lotharios, and his constant pursuit of every woman in sight
was one of the original series' most reliable wells of humor. The episode that was planned
to be the series finale features a nightmare sequence in which Dan is tried, convicted,
and hanged by a courtroom filled with every woman he had ever slept with. Three decades on, however,
Dan is a changed man; when Abby knocks on his door in the pilot episode he's a grieving widower,
the kind of man who can no longer see himself being with any woman, much less every woman.
That first scene between Larroquette and Rauch in the pilot episode is heavy with
grief — almost too heavy, but that's a burden that "Night Court" has had to carry from nearly
the beginning. The show's early seasons were marked by the deaths of actresses Selma Diamond
in 1985 and her replacement Florence Halop just a year later. Abby's grief over her
father and connection to Dan as a surrogate forms the emotional backbone of the revival,
given extra poignance by the real-life death of star Harry Anderson in 2018.
The show mourns not just a beloved character, but a beloved actor as well.
For as much weight as Anderson's death is given on the show, however, other recent
cast deaths are not mentioned at all. 2021 saw the deaths of both Charles Robinson,
who played longtime officer of the court Mac, and Markie Post, who joined the show as public
defender Christine Sullivan in Season 3. It's possible that their characters' absence will be
commemorated in Season 2, but it's possible that in the world of "Night Court," Mac and
Christine are still alive. The 1992 finale saw Christine leaving the public defenders' office
for a nascent political career, while Mac tendered his resignation in order
to fulfill his dream of becoming a film director. It could very well be that Christine and Mac are
simply too busy in Washington and Hollywood, respectively, to show up to court anymore.
The untimely deaths of Anderson, Robinson, and Post cast a pall over the revival series.
After all, half the fun of legacy sequels like this is to bring back the old cast for
one last hurrah. Other than Larroquette, there's hardly any original cast left,
but the show kept one trick up its sleeve. In the final moments of the finale, Dan takes yet
another case of a soon-to-be bride arrested for fighting in the French Quarter during her
bachelorette party. But when he looks up at the defendant, he sees a very familiar face:
"Fielding? They made you a judge? Take me back to jail."
Yes, it's former night court bailiff Roz Russell, played by comedian Marsha Warfield.
Warfield joined the cast of the original series in 1986 after Florence Halop died
earlier that year. The wisecracking Roz was quickly a fan favorite,
and her verbal sparring with Dan often cut the egotistical lawyer down to size. In an interview
with "Variety" published after the season finale aired, Warfield spoke to the bittersweet feeling
of being back on that set after so many years, and without so many of her colleagues. Overall,
though, Warfield was happy to be reunited with Larroquette and to meet the new
generation — especially Lacretta, the new bailiff in town. Warfield said of their conversation,
"I told her, 'just do you, baby. Just be you and enjoy it and enjoy the ride.'"
"Welcome to Night Court."
The last two scenes of the finale represent a new status quo for the series. Abby,
newly separated from Rand and exonerated on her felony charge, returns to the bench
reinvigorated and ready to hear the first of two hot dog-related cases. Dan, meanwhile,
has achieved a long time career goal and has become a judge himself, presiding over case
after case of drunken New Orleans brawls. If Larroquette remains a regular on the show,
it seems unlikely that his Louisiana interlude will last very long into Season 2. However,
it's possible that sending Dan off to his dream job is the show's way of bidding farewell to
the character, with Larroquette in a reduced role for the next season.
The two-part finale also spends a fair amount of time with Gurgs and her career ambitions.
Despondent over failing the Bailiff supervisors exam, she attends Dan's going away party,
where her facility with remembering names and faces impresses a representative from
Scotland Yard. Gurgs is invited to a training program in London,
but after coming to Abby's aid as a character witness in her trial,
the possibility of her moving overseas is dropped and never mentioned again. Did Gurgs really give
up the opportunity of a lifetime to help out Abby, or will her London adventures be seen in Season 2?
NBC renewed the series for a second season in February 2023,
just a few weeks after its surprisingly strong premiere. In a March interview
with "Collider," Melissa Rauch confirmed that the writers' room had recently convened for
Season 2 and were working on the next batch of scripts. No premiere date has been set just yet,
but the expectation was that "Night Court" would return for a full season sometime in Fall 2023.
The WGA strike, however, may have changed those plans. In May 2023, the Writers Guild
of America called a general strike over the lack of compensation for television writers,
bringing most film and television production to a halt. While some shows are continuing
to film during the strike without the input of their writers, many others have chosen to
shutter production until the strike is resolved, including "Night Court." Depending on how long the
strike lasts and how far into production Season 2 was when the strike was called,
the show may not premiere until later in the Fall, or perhaps Winter of 2024.
Melissa Rauch, who is a producer on the show along with her husband Winston, is expected to
return for the second season, along with India de Beaufort, Kapil Talwalkar, and Lacretta.
Larroquette, who was also credited as a producer on the pilot episode, is a little more in doubt.
"Rand, Dan is leaving, but it's because I helped him, gave his life new meaning,
et cetera, et cetera."
After the finale aired, Marsha Warfield confirmed to "TVLine" that she will be returning as Roz for
at least one episode of Season 2, so it stands to reason that we will see Dan at the same time,
though it's possible that Larroquette may not return as a regular cast member.
There's one major character from the original series that we're waiting
to see. Richard Moll's goofball bailiff Bull Shannon was one of the show's breakout stars,
a kooky simpleton with a heart of gold. In the two-parter that was planned as the original
series finale, Bull is convinced that a pair of little old men seen around the courthouse
were in fact space aliens stalking him for nefarious purposes. In the end,
his suspicions are confirmed. The little old men really are aliens from the planet Jupiter and have
come to recruit Bull to grab all the things on the planet that the aliens are too short to reach.
Bull accepts his destiny and disappears from Harry's office in a flash of light.
30 years later, Bull is apparently still on his interplanetary adventure. No mention of
the character was made in the revival season, and Moll himself has long been hostile to the idea of
returning to the show. In 2013, when cornered by a TMZ paparazzo in an L.A. parking garage,
he flatly stated that if any "Night Court" reunion or reboot were to happen, he would,
quote, "run in the other direction." Still, a lot can happen in a decade's time,
and it's not unheard of for actors to be lured back to beloved roles. Could Bull
pop up in Season 2 of the "Night Court" revival? The answer, so to speak, is written in the stars.