However, sitcoms of the ‘80s and before were poles apart from those that came about in the ‘90s and beyond. The older ones were characterized by laugh tracks, multi-camera sets, lunatic characters with no development, episodic format and a range of gags. This ironic detachment was followed by 90’s series like Seinfeld and Get a Life which had more intimate serialized format such as How I Met Your Mother and eliminated laugh tracks with The Office,Parks and Recreation having mockumentary style.
There were exceptions though; some shows held onto the old school style till the end. On this note, The Big Bang Theory stands out among them as perhaps the most consistently popular one. Melissa Rauch is one of its stars who have spearheaded another traditional sitcom reboot, Night Court. With her husband Winston and showrunner Dan Rubin (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Happy Endings), she brings back a series that has just as much bright colorful multi-cam energy familiar to her previous sitcom.The show picks up three decades after Night Court ended its run while continuing both its storylines and style minus a laugh track using a mockumentary style seen in The Office or Parks & Recreation.
Night Court existed on the cusp of change and was one of the last shows to reflect that traditional sitcom format before the television landscape fundamentally shifted in the ’90s. From 1984 until 1992 when it went off air for good, Night Court could best be described as essentially set at work place around drunken people taken into custody late at night during trial proceedings while talking “one-liners,” sarcasm or silly humor here there.A critical hit, it earned seven Emmy Awards from 31 nominations with John Larroquette winning four straight years.
This time around Larroquette will play Dan Fielding again after thirty years reprising his role in NBC’s remake. However this time around Rauch plays the daughter of Harry Stone, who presided over the original series and was portrayed by Harry Anderson. In the old court system, Harry had a prosecutor; in the new one Abby is now the judge recruiting Dan as her public defender.The Night Court reboot is not very interested in which side he’s on; or rather it is still mostly focused on gags and other kinds of comic plays like that of its predecessor.
It is a joke-a-second episode with absurd non-sequiturs every few minutes, off-the-wall side plots and snarky comments shared equally amongst the cast members. Alongside Rauch as the judge and Fielding as the public defender, India de Beaufort (Slumberland, Veep) plays Olivia, an uptight assistant district attorney and Kapil Talwalkar (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist) portrays Neil who is a career-minded clerk.
Moll may have reappeared as Bull – Night Court’s tall imposing bailiff–in many fans’ minds but he once hinted that if a reunion ever happened he’d “run in the other direction” so it could be concluded that Moll has retired for real. Thankfully though Lacretta (a Broadway performer) does get to star here. Donna “Gurgs” Gurganous played by Lacretta is affectionate grandiose tough dependable bailiff who loves her job and colleagues too much at times.
The stupidest subplots always ended up on Gurgs’ plate, who Lacretta plays in a more heightened, oddly delightful version. Rauch is doing what she does in sitcoms as Abby and she has worked out her comic timing and pacing over many years of appearing on The Big Bang Theory. There is much to be made out of this character – her chirpiness being at loggerheads with the miserable routine of an office and the pressures of unresolved history and family name, all these can make for a good beginning.
However, by Night Court’s sixth episode it’s still unclear if Abby is going to be a tangled-up hard-nosed personage or just another ringleader. Certainly Rauch can turn an idiosyncratic one-note character into something far more dynamic and interesting (as evidenced by The Bronze which she also co-wrote with her husband), but this remains to be seen with respect to Night Court.
In the original Night Court as well as his underappreciated subsequent TV series The John Larroquette Show, Larroquette was always a critics’ darling so it follows that he would have such prominence here. In fact there is almost like a mini play for most of the very first episode with Abby searching for Dan. His face carries 30 years of information that are initially hidden by a bushy ZZ Top beard; Larroquette does great work here.
Dan’s wife has died leaving behind him grumpy old man life style, while he has no idea about what is going on in the contemporary world. Could Abby have been like Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation with Dan? Imagine how interesting it could have been set within Night Court.
Salty Dan and sturdy Gurgs are the most interesting characters here, plus there are some good roles played by familiar funny faces for instance Pete Holmes acting as Abby’s long-distance fiancé). However, everyone else knows exactly what they’re doing and precisely the kind of show this is.
But the reboot doesn’t seem to notice that America’s criminal justice system has evolved in the last three decades since Night Court. Likewise, it does not realize how much comedy has changed over those same thirty years. It’s like the original show went into some peaceful coma in 1992 and woke up in 2023 where it carried on from there.
Ultimately whether an audience will appreciate this or not comes down to what kind of humor they prefer. The old-fashioned sitcom format is quite different from most comedies these days and that could be appealing for its viewership. This traditionalist approach should make fans of original Night Court happy plus those who are following Rauch from her role on The Big Bang Theory will probably enjoy it too as it should be fun to watch. For everyone else, well, there’s everything else.
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