Latest Version Of ‘Night Court’ is A ‘New-Boot,’ Combining A Contemporary Judge Working Alongside Original Series Character Dan Fielding

Both stars of the new version of Night Court initially said, ‘ no way’ to joining the project.

The revival of the legal sitcom that ran for nine seasons from 1984 to 1992 features an ensemble that includes John Larroquette, who reprises his iconic role as Dan Fielding, and Melissa Rauch as Judge Harry Stone’s daughter, Abby, as she takes her seat behind the bench, overseeing the unorthodox legal proceedings that take place during the overnight hours in a New York courtroom.

When Rauch, who is also an executive producer on the series, first approached Larroquette about reprising the role he played over three decades ago, the actor says his initial reaction was, “That’s funny. Talk to you later. Bye.”

He says that the idea of trying to revive, “something that you did 35 years ago when you were young and agile and acrobatic, to try and, at 75 years old go back, that seemed a real error in judgment on my part if I had said yes.”

But, he admits, “Then, the other part of my ego as an actor sort of perked up and said, ‘Hold on a second. How often does an actor get a chance to revisit some character that he played three-and-a-half decades ago? And what was the length of that journey and what happened to him in his life.’ That became interesting to me — how he might appear in 2022 as opposed to 1992, when we last saw him.”

As for stepping back into the role, and just how his character has changed, Larroquette offers an analysis, saying, “It was a task to figure out what’s happened to him, where is he in life, and how is he still funny since some of the humor that Dan Fielding presented in the ’80s would probably not be funny today. So, what’s still funny about him? I think his arrogance, the fact that he still thinks he’s the smartest person in the room. He doesn’t have the hunger that young Dan Fielding had. He doesn’t want to be a member of the private club or get out of here and be a great DA of life or whatever fantasies he had about his life at 35.”

He adds, “[Dan’s] had a full life. He’s had a love life. He’s had a marriage. He has lost his wife, as we find out in the first episode. So, it was a journey finding the jokes again. That’s all this show is, and I’ll never claim to be ashamed of that. It’s to try and make you laugh, and if we can make you laugh, then we are successful, and we have to just find other ways of doing it than I could do it in the ’80s.”

For her part, Rauch insists, “Originally, I was just coming on [just] to produce, and I was really adamant about the fact.”

But she says that as the project started to come together, after having lengthy conversations with Larroquette, she kept thinking, “Oh, this is a really great role.”

Rauch adds, that, “I’m not really a person who is necessarily led by jealousy, but when I thought about this lucky actress that was going to get to do all of these wonderful scenes with John, I was, like, ‘Uhhh, I’m going to be kicking myself if I’m on set behind the monitor, watching this.’ So, then, I decided to join.”

She addresses the concept of making what’s old new again, saying, “When we were first developing it, we were all trying to figure out what the term for this would be. Would it be a reboot? Would it be a revival? Is it a continuation? I think whenever someone hears the term “reboot,” I know I personally ‑‑ my whole body tenses up. [Thinking] ‘that’s my show. What are you going to do to my show?’

In light of this, she says that team decided, “It’s not necessarily a reboot, because there is this fresh new element to it. [So], when they were, ‘oh, like, it’s a new reboot.’ As ridiculous as that word sounded at the time, we realized that actually, sort of, makes sense. I’s a bit of a new‑boot [and] a bit of a revival, because we really pay our respects to the original.”

In describing her character’s commitment to justice, Rauch remarks that, “I think the beauty of Night Court is that Abby would treat a public urination from a Times Square Elmo the same way that she would a case that was argued on the Supreme Court.”

Because of the nature of the narrative, with each episode featuring wacky court cases with an array of new defendants, executive producer Dan Rubin, says, “anyone can walk through those [courtroom] doors at any moment.”

The production team revealed that there are already a host of guest stars on tap for this season, including Melissa Villaseñor from Saturday Night Live, Faith Ford, Pete Holmes, Lyric Lewis, Gary Anthony Williams, Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, and Wendie Malick.”

Because of the outrageous humor and the cavalcade of stars, Larroquette, who says he’s, ‘the self‑appointed historian of the show,’ has concluded that, “I always thought of Night Court as a vaudeville act, that we created our own reality, that we were not bound by the physics of the natural universe.”

While many sitcoms have taken on important issues, Rubin says, “The appeal of [this version of] Night Court,’ and the original, was that you’re not dealing with the heaviest cases. This is more like fast‑food justice.”

He adds, “As I say that, I mean, there are issues [that will] creep in from time to time, but first and foremost we’re trying to make you guys laugh and take a little escape from the day‑to‑day of.”

Rauch concludes that, “Fans of the original, there’s so much for them to love. We’re revisiting these wonderful stories in these walls that we all know and love. So, there’s all these Easter eggs that original fans will love. At the same time, you don’t need any prior knowledge of the original to watch a show with the fresh, amazing new cast that we have. We’ve created this new workplace family. [So], you don’t really need any prior knowledge to jump in, while, at the same time, if you do have prior knowledge, then it’s also exciting to see where the show lands.”

‘Night Court’ debuts Tuesday, January 17th, at 8e/7c with back‑to‑back episodes on NBC. It will also stream next day on Peacock.