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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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* Roz Russell (Marsha Warfield), a [[Deadpan Snarker|deadpan-snarking]] tough-as-nails bailiff whose strength is the fodder for many jokes.
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}}
* [[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.
* [[Ambiguously Human]]: Most jokes made at Bull's expense use this Trope.
* [[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]].
** Art The Repairman also qualifies, having first appeared in Season One, continuing to appear up through the [[Grand Finale]]. In the time between, he had an entire episode devoted to his efforts to woo Christine, gave away the bride at Bull's wedding and eventually began dating Bull's mother.
* [[Ashes to Crashes]]: A man named Herb dies, and his two daughters get into a fight over his ashes, ending up in Harry's court. They eventually resolve their differences and agree to stand by whatever arrangement Harry decides upon. Herb's cremains are left at court, in Harry's office, leading to the following dialog:
{{quote|
'''Harry:''' Art, this wasn't herb tea! [[Incredibly Lame Pun|This was Herb!]]
* [[As Himself]]: Mel Tormé, a couple of times.
** Then NBC Entertainment president [[wikipedia:Brandon Tartikoff|Brandon Tartikoff]] once showed up to post bail for [[wikipedia:Neilsen ratings|a Neilsen Family]] so they could get home to watch ''[[Misfits of Science]]''.
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* [[Badass Normal]]: Harry, not so much in terms of physical strength, but his ability to get in people's heads and resolve tense, violent situations peacefully.
* [[Best Woman]]: Roz was this to Bull at his wedding.
* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Bull and Mac are both genuinely scary when they get upset.▼
* [[Beta Couple]]: Mac and Quon Le.
▲* [[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Bull and Mac are both genuinely scary when they get upset.
* [[The Big Guy]]: Bull in practice, but really the entire male cast qualifies, all of whom were over six feet.
** ''[[Night Court]]'' at one time held the Guinness World Record for tallest sitcom cast.
* [[Born in
** Harry was
* [[Bumbling Sidekick]]: Phil to Dan.
* [[Butt Monkey]]: Despite frequently deserving the bad things that happened to him, Dan Fielding suffered several indignities that not even he deserved. Chief among these were him losing all his savings after his accountant dropped dead at an IRS Audit after Dan was hit with a [[Gypsy Curse]].
* [[Casanova Wannabe]]: Dan Fielding.
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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."
* [[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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** Buddy was DEFINITELY one of these. But he's feeling MUUUUUUUUUUCH better now.
* [[Code Silver]]: More than once.
* [[Crapsack World]]: The world in which Harry Stone was never born in
* [[Crossover]]: Night Court was introduced to a new generation from the crossover/
** 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.
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: ''Everybody
▲* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: ''Everybody.'' More than once it's been suggested that their occasionally mouthy behavior is what keeps them on the night shift.
* [[Deep South]]: Dan was originally from there and his parents were (in Dan's mind, anyway) one step removed from [[Ma And Pa Kettle]].
** 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!"
* [[Disappeared Dad]]: Harry found out this was the case when Buddy Ryan confessed to being his real father.
** In fairness to Buddy, he was totally prepared to do the honorable thing when he found out the woman he fell in love with in the asylum had his baby. But she had gotten out first, married another man without knowing she was pregnant with Buddy's child and it was agreed by all three of them that it would be best to wait until Harry Jr. was older before they told him the truth. But then Buddy and Harry's mother both relapsed and were recommitted, leaving Harry Stone Sr. to raise his son alone, dying before he could tell Harry the truth of his birth or why his mom had disappeared.
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*** This is doubly embarrassing for Bull, as his mother named him that because "she was always crazy about that hunchback!" He is quick to stop any attempts to correct her.
*** His mother also gave him his nickname; not because of his size but because of her reaction to the news she was pregnant: "Bull!"
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: In
* [[Eskimo Land]]: Dan finds himself there after his Army plane crashes in the Arctic.▼
▲* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: In ''Guess Who's Listening To Dinner'', Dan finds out that the woman he is dating is the daughter of a notorious mob boss. Before he can end the relationship, he is invited to dinner at her house, being told that "Dad" is anxious to talk with Dan about his future with her. Everyone expects this to be an attempt by the Mafia to bring Dan "into the family", so they'll have an "in" with the NYC District Attorney's office. The truth is that dad knows about Dan's reputation ("To put it mildly, you have the morals of a rutting pig.") and he's so desperate to avoid a society scandal he's willing to pay Dan to discreetly break up with his daughter.
* [[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.)
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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).
* [[A Fool and His New Money Are Soon Parted]]: "Mac's Millions
* [[Fully-Absorbed Finale]]: The ''[[30
▲* [[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.
** Russian-immigrant Yakov Korolenko.
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* [[Gentle Giant]]: Bull Shannon, who worked with Big Brothers and attempted to write a children's book despite being incredibly intimidating.
** To a lesser degree, Mac Robinson.
▲* [[
* [[Gypsy Curse]]: The entire court was hit with one in Season Two. Bull fell into a deep trance and Dan lost all his savings after his accountant, who was in the middle of an IRS Audit at the time, dropped dead.
* [[Halloween Episode]]: As with Christmas, there was one almost every year.
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* [[Handsome Lech]]: Dan Fielding.
* [[Happily Married]]: Mac and Quon Le.
* [[Heartbroken Badass]]: Harry, several times. But the worst was when his girlfriend Margaret
* [[Heel Face Turn]]: During Season 8, Dan made an honest attempt at becoming a better person after being placed in charge of a charitable organization. It was a slow transformation but by the end of the season he was as nauseatingly cheerful and pure as he used to be sarcastic and sleazy.
* [[Hello, Attorney!]]: Christine Sullivan.
** Billie Young before her too.
* [[Hooker
▲* [[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.
* [[Huge Guy, Tiny Girl]]: Mac and Quon Le.
** 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").
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** 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 Have Boobs - You Must Obey!]]: In
* [[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. ▼
* [[I Surrender, Suckers]]: Harry gets into a pranking duel with a new judge, with his judge's robe on the line, and is thoroughly beaten when the other judge rigs his bench to collapse at the end of the day. He forfeits his robe, and leaves in a sulk; then reveals to Christine that he had to lose, to lure the little twerp right into his trap. Cue a remote control, and a scream in the next room.▼
* [[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]]
▲* [[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.
* [[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.▼
▲** 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.
* [[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.▼
▲* [[I Surrender, Suckers]]: Harry gets into a pranking duel with a new judge, with his judge's robe on the line, and is thoroughly beaten when the other judge rigs his bench to collapse at the end of the day. He forfeits his robe, and leaves in a sulk; then reveals to Christine that he had to lose, to lure the little twerp right into his trap. Cue a remote control, and a scream in the next room.
▲* [[It's a Wonderful Plot]]: The episode "Hey
▲* [[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
* [[Keet]]: Harry and Bull.
* [[Lamaze Class]]: Two instances.
** The Season 3 finale
** Season 7 episode "My Three Dads" centers upon Dan, Bull and Harry all trying to help Christine at hers.
* [[Large Ham]]: Basically just give John Larroquette a bowl of scenery and stand back.
* [[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
** ...
** ...
** ...
** ...
** ...
** Harry also once locked himself in a safe.
** Christine and Tony got trapped in a boiler room, though that could be considered [[Sauna of Death]].
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* [[Mr. Vice Guy]]: Dan Fielding. Lech, pervert, he-slut--but also a man who cares about his friends and the law.
** And also surprisingly health conscious. He always carries latex gloves and condoms in his briefcase, and once has a key prosecution witness who wanted to be all over him but was rebuked thusly:
{{quote|
* [[My Own Private I Do]]: Two examples.
** Christine and Tony were married in an improvised ceremony in an Italian restaurant the night before Tony was due to go overseas for a DEA operation.
** Bull - sick of how all of his friends and family were at each
* [[New Year Has Come]]: "New Year's Leave".
* [[Noir Episode]]: "Hey
* [[Noodle Incident]]: Buddy's life is a string of these.
** Bull has also had his share of these.
** Dan's sex life qualifies too.
▲* [[Noir Episode]]: "Hey, Harry, F'Crying Out Loud--It's a Wonderful Life...Sorta", where most of the episode is shot in the style of a 1940s [[Warner Brothers]] gangster flick.
* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: Harry's favorite M.O.; Dan has used it a time or two as well.
* [[Of Corpse He's Alive]]: In one episode, an important Japanese man dies in the court and his body ends up lost and riding around on an electric wheelchair around the courthouse.
* [[Oh Crap]]: Dan, after being informed the dwarf he insulted is his new boss.
* [[One Born Every Minute]]
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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.
* [[Race Against the Clock]]: On four separate occasions, Harry and his staff must get through an absurdly huge caseload by midnight.
* [[Real After All]]: Santa Claus in the first season [[Christmas Episode]] "Santa Goes Downtown".
** Oddly averted in later seasons, when Bull has to be reassured by Roz that Santa is real, after Dan says that the last words he spoke to his younger sister two decades earlier were "There is no Santa
** Then there was Bull's reaction after Harry used anatomically correct paper dolls, scissors and a stapler to explain how Dan's best friend as a boy had become a woman.
{{quote|
'''Bull:''' What about the Easter Bunny?
* [[Reassigned to Antarctica]]: This almost literally happened to Dan, who was in the US Army Reserves. He was [[Reassigned to Antarctica|Reassigned To The Arctic Circle]] to help give physicals to polar bears, after he was caught faking an injury in order to avoid being called into active duty. Ironically, Dan only did that because he thought he was being sent into combat; his actual orders involved doing reconnaissance work with his [[Hot Amazon]] commanding officer in a [[Banana Republic]], posing as a couple at some exotic resort.
** Also happened, less literally, in Season Nine, when Dan was briefly reassigned to working in the Dog Court.
* [[Red Herring]]: Harry thinks the fact that he and Buddy both had an allergic reaction to some au gratin potatoes is proof that Buddy's his biological father (as he had suspected for a while). Turned out that Buddy was allergic to the potato, Harry to the cheese.
* [[Reluctant Retiree]]: Florence, in the episode
* [[Retcon]]: The Wheelers really were intended to be from West Virgina, but after a number of people from that state complained, it was later revealed that they had actually come from Yugoslavia (where presumably the show had fewer viewers).
* [[Revolving Door Casting]]: A whole bunch.
** Four actresses played the public defender: Gail Strickland (pilot only), Paula Kelly (the rest of Season 1), Ellen Foley (Season 2) and Markie Post (Seasons 3-9).
** 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.
* [[Rich in Dollars, Poor In Sense]]: Several of Dan's would-be girlfriends.
* [[Ripped from the Headlines]]: Several examples.
** The Season 5 Episode "Who Was That Mashed Man?" was based on [[wikipedia: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.
** One later-season episode echoed the rivalry between real-life 80s porn starlets Ginger Lynn and Amber Lynn with a battling pair of porn stars, Amber Waves and Ginger Lee, dragged into the court for public brawling. In what might have been a case of writer bias, Harry discovered that Ginger was an intelligent and witty woman (with whom he had a case of mutual attraction), while Amber was a shrill bimbo.
* [[Running Gag]]: Any time that Mel Torme guest-starred he and Judge Stone would spend the entire episode managing to (unintentionally) avoid each other.
* [[Saving the Orphanage]]: The plot of Season 5's "Another Day in the Life
* [[Scary Black Man]]:
** Mac's not above intentionally invoking this when he has to.
** Aversion: Bull is a Scary ''White'' Man.
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*** Apparently, this WAS planned to have been the [[Series Finale]], with Christine and Harry getting married and Dan joining the priesthood. A last-minute renewal forced them to make some sudden changes to restore the Status Quo at the start of Season 9, with Christine and Harry quickly agreeing they were better off as friends and Dan quickly being cleared of the criminal charges that drove him insane at the end of Season 8.
** Season 9 ended with Christine being elected to high office, Dan resigning his post to follow after her having realized HIS true love for her and Bull being abducted by aliens.
*** This was NOT planned to have been the [[Series Finale]], for obvious reasons. Most accounts say that the decision was handed down the same Friday the final episode was filmed and that the cast was informed their belongings would be thrown out if their dressing rooms were not cleaned Monday morning.
* [[Sharp-Dressed Man]]: Dan Fielding.
* [[Shirtless Scene]]: Mac had one.
* [[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
* [[Something's Different About You Now]]: Happens to Dan in "The Best Of Friends". He takes it very, very badly.
* [[Special Guest]]:
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** Michael J. Fox in the first season's Christmas episode.
* [[Squick]]: The episode with the cockroach infestation. At one point the characters discover they've wandered into a carpet of dead roaches.
{{quote|
* [[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.
** Numerous episodes depicted cast members quitting or being forced from their position in the Night Court only to wind up back in their old job by the episode's end.
** Despite Mac being set up to inherit his family's money very early on, when it finally happens,
* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]: Bailiff Selma Hacker was replaced by Florence Kleiner in Season 3.
* [[Sweet Polly Oliver]]: Andy, the boy Bull was assigned as part of a Big Brothers program, turned out to be a girl named Stella. Stella disguised herself as a boy purely to be able to experience what it was like to have a father, since all of the men in the Big Brothers program wanted to be paired with boys instead of girls.
* [[The Tape Knew You Would Say That]]: Harry uses this on a delusional, gun-toting woman (played by [[Happy Days|Marion Ross]]) who was holding the courtroom hostage.
* [[Ted Baxter]]: Dan Fielding
* [[Ten
* [[Trickster Archetype]]: Harry.▼
▲* [[Trickster Archetype]]: Harry
* [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife]]: Averted, Quon Le is more cute than beautiful and Mac is far from bad-looking himself.
* [[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.
** The king of this (on
** Running a close second is Timothy Stack, who played three separate, prominent characters over the course of the series.
*** In "The Modest Proposal", he played Bill - Christine's humorless fiancee. He winds up dumping her at the altar as he suddenly "gets" every single punchline to every joke he was ever told.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:The Eighties]]▼
[[Category:American Series]]
[[Category:
[[Category:TV Series]]
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