Night Court: Difference between revisions

The show featured regular guest appearances by John Astin, of ''[[The Addams Family]]'' fame, as Buddy Ryan, Judge Stone's certifiably insane birth father. Harry Stone's idol Mel Tormé made frequent guest spots, as did Brent Spiner (later famous for his role as Data on ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'') as Bob Wheeler, patriarch of a family of Yugoslavians who pretended to be a hick family from West Virginia and, at one point, even ran a concession stand in the courthouse.

{{tropelist}}

* [[An Aesop]]: Early episodes emphasized a particular moral dilemma that the case du jour revolved around; as time wore on the show became more focused on the ensemble cast's character quirks. Although this still crept up in several later episodes.

* [[Ascended Extra]]: Phil the Bum is perhaps the best example of this. Originally introduced in Season Two as one of the many background characters in the gallery of the courtroom, he became [[Bumbling Sidekick]] to Dan in Season Three and continued to make semi-regular appearances up through the middle of Season 8, where his accidental death facilitated Dan's [[Heel Face Turn]].