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Night Court: Difference between revisions
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[[File:night_court_1755.jpg|frame]]
''Night Court'' was a [[
It followed the goings-on of a night-shift Manhattan arraignment court, which was populated by a madcap band of lawyers, judges, and bailiffs, including (by the end of the series):
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The show is usually considered a satire and subversion of the [[Law Procedural]] genre, featuring bizarre, wacky crimes, such as groups of rival ventriloquists and their dummies assaulting each other (although the show was also praised for its refusal to deal with violent and "glamorous" crime and called "The most realistic law show on the air" by ''Time Magazine'', no less). Logic and realism were frequently abandoned for the sake of a joke: cartoon animal [[Looney Tunes|Wile E. Coyote]] once appeared in a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh1pZqmxvmM brief gag] as a defendant.
The show featured regular guest appearances by John Astin, of ''[[
{{tropelist}}
* [[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".
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** Dan's "Ciao, baby!" in later seasons.
** And, of course, Buddy's standard conclusion to most of his stories regarding his hospital stay or past strange behavior, "But I'm feeling ''muuuuch'' better now."
* [[The Character Died
* [[Chick Magnet]]: Dan fancied himself something of one. Ironically, Harry and Bull were much better at attracting women with far less effort, if not particularly successful at maintaining lasting relationships.
* [[Chivalrous Pervert]]: Dan Fielding, despite his protests to the contrary. Protesting the "chivalrous" part, that is.
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** Although this is a milder form than the [[Trope Namer]], as personnel could be plausible transferred to different courts or shifts without warning or later comment.
** Happened with an actual brother in the pilot, where Harry made reference to a baby brother who was never seen or referenced again in the entire run of the show.
** But what's probably the most jarring example are a couple of occasionally seen recurring characters, the hapless hicks, Bob and June Wheeler. In their final episodes they were actually being set up to have a semi-regular presence on the show, when they bought the courthouse cafeteria. But then the actor who played Bob, Brent Spiner, got cast as Data on ''[[Star Trek:
*** This is also true to a lesser extent, of the Wheelers' little girl, Caroline. She's with them in their first 2 episodes, but not any of their remaining episodes.
* [[Citizenship Marriage]]: Mac and Quon Le started out as this. Subverted later on as it blossomed into actual love.
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* [[Code Silver]]: More than once.
* [[Crapsack World]]: The world in which Harry Stone was never born in ''Hey, Harry, F'Crying Out Loud--It's a Wonderful Life...Sorta ''. Apparently Harry's friendship was the only thing keeping Dan Fielding from becoming a [[Card-Carrying Villain]] and taking over New York City from behind the scenes.
* [[Crossover]]: Night Court was introduced to a new generation from the crossover/ShoutOut in ''[[
** 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.
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** The Wheeler family was originally portrayed as being from West Virginia, until outcry over stereotyping revealed them to truly be from Yugoslavia.
* [[Did You Just Have Sex?]]: In "Jail Bait", Christine winds up having a one-night-stand with a young street artist she defended. The next day, she is smiling a little more than usual, leading Dan to announce loudly "You bopped the kid!"
* [[Directed
** 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).
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** [[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).
* [[Fully-Absorbed Finale]]: The ''[[30 Rock
* [[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.
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* [[Hello, Attorney!]]: Christine Sullivan
** Billie Young before her too.
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: [[Star Trek:
** Ellen Foley, who sang the female lead in "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," played defense attorney Billie Young for a season.
* [[Hooker
* [[Hostage Situation]]: Many episodes centered around this.
* [[Hot Mom]]: Christine, in later seasons.
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* [[Instrumental Theme Tune]]
* [[It's a Wonderful Plot]]: The episode "Hey, Harry, F'Crying Out Loud--It's a Wonderful Life...Sorta", in which a guardian angel shows Harry what the world would have been like without him.
* [[Jerk
** 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.
** In that same episode, Dan proudly declared that he has the highest conviction rate, coupled with the fewest overturns on appeal, of any other prosecutor in the city.
* [[The Judge]]: Averted with Judge Harry Stone, who is anything BUT a typical judge.
* [[Just the Introduction
* [[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 [[Vanilla Edition|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]]'', ''[[LA Law]]'', ''[[Seinfeld]]'', ''[[Wings (TV series)|Wings]]'', and ''[[Frasier]]''.
* [[Keet]]: Harry and Bull.
* [[Lamaze Class]]: Two instances.
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* [[Laugh Track]]: It had one but rarely needed it.
** Actually a [[Studio Audience]], where the same person (sometimes identified as creator Reinhold Weege's father) is often heard laughing uproariously.
* [[Locked in
** ... a fire, which forced the cast to take refuge in the courthouse morgue.
** ... a hurricane.
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** This is actually the punchline to a [[Real Life]] dirty joke, which the writers couldn't tell in full on the show.
* [[Overly Long Airplane Banner Gag]]: "Constitution" actually does it without an airplane. Bull puts up a "Welcome Home Roz" banner that runs the entire length to the courtroom: ''eighteen floors''.
* [[Pie in
* [[Post Script Season]]: Season 8 is over. Dan quits his job and loses the Phil Foundation fortune. More importantly, Harry and Christine have professed their love to one another. OK, that's the end. What's that? We've been renewed? Oh, crap!
* [[The Prankster]]: Harry took professional pride in it.
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* [[Squick]]: The episode with the cockroach infestation. At one point the characters discover they've wandered into a carpet of dead roaches.
{{quote| '''Christine:''' Oh, please God, let that be a pebble in my shoe.}}
* [[Status Quo Is God]]: The show did follow the standard [[
** Most of the cast's romantic relationships were short-lived and didn't last long. Even Christine's marriage ended part-way through the following season and Harry's longest-lasting relationship was only half a season.
*** The most notable exception was Mac and Quon Le, whose marriage lasted the entire run of the show.
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* [[Technology Marches On]]: Averted, Dan makes use of a cell phone several times and Harry owns several laptop computers as the series goes on.
* [[Ted Baxter]]: Dan Fielding
* [[Ten
* [[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
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* [[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.
* [[What Could Have Been]]: We never did get to see [[30 Rock
* [[The Wonka]]: Harry.
* [[You Look Familiar]]: Literally dozens of examples.
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