Night Court/Trivia


 * Actor Allusion:
 * One of the many, many people who have taken the court hostage over the years was a woman with a grenade who couldn't distinguish television shows from reality. She was played by Marion Ross, aka Mrs. Cunningham. She lists her many friends which were fictional TV characters and it included "The Fonz".
 * Another episode has Dan being held hostage by an insane woman who acts out scenes from horror movies. When the TV announces that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is about to begin, he says, "Seen that already." John Larroquette was the narrator for the original film.
 * Actor Existence Failure: Selma Diamond after the second season, Florence Halop after the third. Marsha Warfield was hired because she was much younger, so this could be prevented from happening a third time.
 * The Character Died with Him: When Selma Diamond and then Florence Halop died, their respective characters were written as having passed away too.
 * Colbert Bump: Mel Tormé's guest appearances introduced him to a whole new audience who otherwise would have never heard of him and he developed a following among Generation Xers.
 * The Danza: Selma Hacker/Selma Diamond, and Florence Kleiner/Florence Halop.
 * Could also be invoked for Mac Robinson/Charles Robinson.
 * Averted with Harry Stone played by Harry Anderson, oddly enough. According to series creator and executive producer Reinhold Weege's DVD commentary, the character was called Harry and was a devoted Tormé fan and magician before magician turned actor Harry Anderson auditioned.
 * So it was more of a case of Typecasting Harry Anderson.
 * Yakov Smirnoff's occasional guest appearances as Yakov Korolenko.
 * Dawson Casting: Don Cheadle plays a robber in one episode. The character was supposed to be 16, Cheadle was 24 at the time.
 * Directed by Cast Member: Several.
 * John Larroquette directed 2 episodes.
 * Harry Anderson directed 2 episodes. He also wrote 5 of them. (One - "Caught Red Handed" from the fourth season - he both wrote and directed).
 * Charles Robinson directed 3 episodes.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Brent Spiner, before he hit it big on Star Trek: The Next Generation, made recurring appearances as Bob Wheeler.
 * Lou Ferrigno - most famous at that time for playing The Incredible Hulk on TV - played a professional wrestler who was beat up by an old lady in one episode.
 * Gordon Clapp, later Det. Greg Medavoy on NYPD Blue, plays Bull's Ambulance Chaser cousin in one episode.
 * John Astin (aka Gomez Addams) as Buddy.
 * Robert Englund pops up in Season 3.
 * Pam Grier was one of the pregnant women trapped in the building by a hurricane.
 * Leon, the young shoeshine boy that Harry adopted in Season 3, later grew up to be Bumblebee & Dwight.
 * Al Craven, a sleazy tabloid reporter who hassled the gang a few times during the first two seasons is the titular Bernie.
 * Estelle Harris, best known as George Costanza's mother on Seinfeld played a hooker that got arrested with Christine's father in Season 3.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!:
 * Ellen Foley, who sang the female lead in Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights", played defense attorney Billie Young for a season.
 * Keep Circulating the Tapes: Warner began issuing DVDs of the show in 2005; seven years later, they still haven't made it past Season 5 (and Seasons 4 and 5 are no-frills, "manufactured-on-demand" releases available only online). Shameful considering Night Court was part of NBC's vaunted '80s Thursday Night Line-Up, along with The Cosby Show, A Different World, Family Ties, Cheers, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Seinfeld, Wings, and Frasier.
 * The Other Darrin: Phil Sanders was played by a different actor (and had a quite different characterization) when he first appears (and is revealed to actually be a wealthy former Wall Street banker who suffered a breakdown).
 * Reality Subtext: "Flo's Retirement" was a fitting sendoff for Florence Halop, who was dying of breast cancer. And she still managed to finish out the season.
 * Technology Marches On: Averted. Dan makes use of a cell phone several times, Harry owns several laptop computers, and Mac eventually trades in his beloved files for a computer as the series goes on.
 * What Could Have Been: We never did get to see a three-part episode with werewolf lawyer Sparky Monroe.


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