And these are the people who came out to play on Night Court. Many people – especially the people of New York City in the 80s – have a weird side, a quirky side, a misfit side. But boy they must have been the most boring family on the planet. And along with this oddball nature we got to see, what I would argue, is a more accurate portrayal of humanity than what was being shown before it on the fantasyland comedies of the time.ĭid anyone ever really live like the Keatons? Probably in one case somewhere. Just as Night Court was the oddball of the television comedy lineup of the time, the real night court was, and presumably still is, the oddball of the New York city court system. ![]() Club put it, “for a few years in the 1980s, Night Court was the square peg that was also a ratings champion.”Įach episode revolved around not only the wild cases and characters that came before the court, but also the interplay of the courtroom staff and their relationships. Sitting alongside the behemoths of the NBC lineup of the time, Cheers, The Cosby Show, and Family Ties, as Erik Adams of The A.V. Absurd, subversive, insane, crude, slapstick, lowbrow, and because of this, it was just roasted by critics at the time. Or if they did it was very short lived and played up more for fun then anything else.Ī show about weirdos, for weirdos and if you, like I, felt a certain sense of belonging and kinship while court was in session you’ll surely enjoy rewinding back to see just how wild Night Court could be.Ī broad workplace comedy about New York’s infamous night court wherein an extraordinary number of bizarre characters and their cases make their way through Judge Harry’s somewhat, well, different, courtroom. The characters themselves, while having impressive backstories and fully fleshed out personas, did not revel in their own problems in a terribly serious manner. Night Court was written specifically against this common trope, deliberately avoiding heavy topics. It bucked the trend of the domestic sitcoms of the time and the significance they placed on Very Serious Topics and family members learning lessons by the end of each episode. Kind of like the late night miscreants that appeared before Judge Harry and his courtroom team, the show itself was an oddball outsider. In fact, the writers should be given extra credit for coming up with the hundreds of bizarre cases and the equally bizarre defendants that came with them. This was a show whose comedy and plot points was mostly driven by the individuals brought into court, leading to an extraordinary amount of self contained episodes. It’s hard to remember any significant parts of the show today because there were very few major story arcs. ![]() ![]() ![]() That’s petty as all hell and is the perfect seed for a show that revelled in its pettiness. And while the entire premise of the show being centred on a 34 year old judge seems impossible, it was loosely based on true events in Los Angeles where angry outgoing mayor Sam Yorty filled all of the district’s judicial openings with unqualified people simply to annoy victorious candidate Tom Bradley. And this includes a roaming box of sex toys that yes, is portrayed as an actual character in one episode. With a setting and premise that allowed the writers to bring literally anything and anyone into the courtroom, it is very nearly untouchable in terms of the range of characters that came through Harry’s court on the 18th floor of the City Courts Building in New York. Instead, it made us better people by trying as hard as it could, episode after episode, to make us laugh in any way possible. Surrounded by shows that shovelled the moral lessons at you by the dump truck load – here’s looking at you Cosby Show and Family Ties – Night Court had no interest in making us better people by pandering to us. Absolutely absurd, completely ridiculous and featuring a cast of thousands, or at least it felt that way, the world of Night Court really had no equal in the television universe.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |