Someone had better fetch me my gavel because NBC has a Night Court sequel series in the works.
Currently being developed as a follow-up series, Night Court has John Larroquette reprising his iconic role as Dan Fielding. In addition, Larroquette will also executive produce alongside Big Bang Theory's Melissa Rauch for Warner Bros TV.
Written and executive produced by Dan Rubin (The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), NBC's Night Court revival is based on the original series created by Reinold Weege, which centers on the unapologetic optimist judge Abby Stone, daughter of the late Harry Stone, who follows in her father’s footsteps as she presides over the night shift of a Manhattan arraignment court and tries to bring order to its crew of oddballs and cynics, most notably former night court prosecutor Dan Fielding (Larroquette). (via Deadline)
The original Night Court, which ran for nine seasons from 1984-92, was a smash hit with fans of scripted off-color comedy. It was always a bit hokey for my taste, but that never kept the show from earning three Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy nominations. Sadly, Harry Anderson, who played Judge Harold “Harry” T. Stone for the original series, passed away in 2018 at age 65 and will not be returning for the reboot. His bizarre approach to managing a courtroom will surely be missed.
Melissa Rauch and Winston Rauch executive produce via their After January banner, which hails from Warner Bros. TV. Unfortunately, Melissa Rauch is not set to appear on the show, though she'll be pulling the strings from off-camera for the project she pitched. As for Larroquette, he won four consecutive Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Emmys for his fan-favorite role on Night Court. He's now starring in CBS All Access’ The Good Fight and starred on the CBS comedy series Me, Myself & I from 2017-18.
What do you think about Night Court coming back to TV? Personally, I could see it slipping quite nicely into the workplace sitcom slot, a la Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Parks and Recreation. Plus, there's no shortage of indecorous court cases to pull from, seeing as the world has gone to Hell in a handbasket since the original Night Court was a thing. Here's hoping that the team gets creative for the reboot and that it pleases fans of the original as well.