Night Court: Difference between revisions

 

The show featured regular guest appearances by John Astin, of ''[[The Addams Family (TV)|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.

* [[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 [[Happy Days|Mrs. Cunningham]]. She lists her many friends which were fictional TV characters and it included "The Fonz".

** Another one: Dan is 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.

** Buddy was DEFINITELY one of these. But he's feeling MUUUUUUUUUUCH better now.

* [[Code Silver]]: More than once.

** There's also the theory that con-man Harry The Hat from [[Cheers]] moved on from Boston and is currently masquerading as a judge in New York City.

** Judge Wilbur from [[My Two Dads]] showed up from time to time.

* [[Evil Twin]]: Con-man Will Sanders, to bum Phil Sanders.

* [[Expy]]: ''[[Barney Miller]]''. (Not coincidentally, series creator and executive producer Reinhold Weege was a former ''Barney Miller'' writer, producer, and story editor. In addition, series producer Jeff Melman also worked on ''Barney Miller'' as a stage manager.)

** [[The Hero]]: Harry. After all, it's his court.

** [[The Lancer]]: Dan. His politics and lascivious nature made him the Yang to Harry's Yin most of the time.

** [[The Sixth Ranger]]: All of the female bailiffs.

* [[Flame War]]: Actually [[Lampshaded]] when Judge Stone had to deal with an argument between fans of the old series and The Next Generation - literally. The TNG fans teleported away, which impressed everyone, while a fan said, "Oh, but can they do this?" (Vulcan Salute).

* [[A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted]]: "Mac's Millions." Mac's grandfather dies and leaves all his money to Mac, who naturally quits his job at the courthouse. Then he loses most of his newfound wealth when he's sued over damages caused by a restaurant he bought in a previous episode.

* [[Funny Foreigner]]: Two main recurring ones.

* [[Hello Attorney]]: Christine Sullivan

** Billie Young before her too.

** Ellen Foley, who sang the female lead in "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," played defense attorney Billie Young for a season.

* [[Hooker With a Heart of Gold]]: A lot of these came through Harry's courtroom. Many of them came back so often the staff seemed to regard them as friends.

* [[Hostage Situation]]: Many episodes centered around this.

* [[Hot Mom]]: Christine, in later seasons.

** Bull and several of his love interests qualify too.

** Pretty much any girl the male characters hooked up with qualified as the entire male cast was uncommonly tall (at one point even holding the world record for "tallest regular cast").

** See the [[Ashes to Crashes]] entry above for the [[Incredibly Lame Pun]].

* [[If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him]]: Used in "Dan the Walking Time Bomb" to convince Dan's psychotic ex-classmate not to kill him.

* [[I Owe You My Life]]: Dan saves Christine from choking and exacts a night of passion in a hotel as a way of repayment. A [[Moment Killer]] came (much to Christine's relief) in the form of a jumper on a ledge outside their window.

** Mac's old Vietnam war buddy who saved his life shows up in court and wants him to lose a file so that he won't go back to prison for breaking parole. He later releases Mac from the debt, not wanting to taint the most noble thing he ever did.

* [[Improbably High IQ]]: Bull Shannon, who outscored everybody else in the cast at 181. Then he realized he was holding the paper upside down.

* [[Incredibly Lame Pun]]: Frequent, often [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] with Christine's constant failure to get a laugh.

* [[Instrumental Theme Tune]]

* [[Jerk With a Heart of Gold]]: Dan was usually rude, condescending, arrogant, and self-centered, but he was capable of truly astounding levels of sincerity and sensitivity. He also risked his life, multiple times, to save both his friends and total strangers.

** It was also made clear that he might be a jerk and a pervert, but he was honest and didn't play games with the law. At least three separate storylines centered upon someone attempting to bribe Dan and being reported to the authorities, every single time. He even refused a better-paying job with a big private law firm after he found out that his boss, an attractive woman, was more interested in his bedroom skills than his courtroom skills.

** Three female bailiffs: Selma Diamond, Florence Halop (see Actor Existence Failure above) and Marsha Warfield for the last six seasons.

** Karen Austin, who played the court clerk and was the original romantic foil for Judge Stone, departed after only ten episodes. The show eventually settled on Charles Robinson in Season 2.

** The Season 5 Episode "Who Was That Mashed Man?" was based on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_the_Lone_Ranger#Clayton_Moore_Lawsuit the now infamous court battle] between [[The Lone Ranger]] star Clayton Moore and the owner of [[The Lone Ranger]] copyright over Moore's right to make public appearances dressed as [[The Lone Ranger]], with an Expy called The Red Ranger in the same situation.

** The Season 8 Episode "It's Just a Joke" featured a character who was based on comedian Andrew "Dice" Clay and a plot that was based upon his court battles regarding his right to Free Speech.

* [[Shoe Shine Mister]]: For a little while there's a shoeshine stand that's an important place in the courthouse, with the shiner as a recurring character.

* [[Snowed In]]: ''Twice.''

* [[Special Guest]]:

** Harry's idol, Mel Tormé, made periodic cameo appearances.

* [[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).

* [[Trickster Archetype]]: Harry

* [[We Want Our Jerk Back]]: The cast's reaction to Season 8's Do-Gooder Dan.

* [[What a Piece of Junk]]: Christine's Buick Roadmaster.

* [[The Wonka]]: Harry.

* [[You Look Familiar]]: Literally dozens of examples.