Nite Kwart

So I've been (re)watching Night Court... I didn't know it was nine seasons long! That's a lot of episodes!

Judge Harry Stone runs the Night Court, in which cases come in front of him during the night shift with Defender Christine Sullivan and Prosecutor Dan Fielding giving the defense and prosecution. Mac handles the paper work (and wears sweaters) and Bull Shannon stands large, and Roz with him. And there is a lot of comedy.

First off, are night courts an actual thing? I could look it up, but where's the fun in that?

This show changed a lot over the first few seasons. The first two had different Defenders entirely from season to season (heck from pilot to season) before Christine became the defender (although she did cameo in an early episode in a previous season, clearly the producers liked her and brought her back). Also the guard with Bull was an elderly lady, whose actress passed away, to be replaced by another elderly lady, whose actress also passed away, before ending up with Roz. Very much the same idea of the cynical "seen it all" voice across all characters, but clearly the producers were a bit shy of another incident.

The bulk of the seasons were very much the same. It wasn't until very late that actual constant changes happened, with Christine getting married and having a child being the main one, and Dan's lacky passing away with that plot line going through things. Then we get the end of season nine (the last season) with a two parter that basically sets off characters in a new direction (I presume they knew it was the last season, so dealt with them). Then we get the actual final episode, which I assume was a special instance of some kind, as it was otherwise a generic episode that could have been in any previous season.

And then it was all over. In all, some good television. Some obvious episodes dealing with issues (some not well, hello 80s), but overall I'm glad I indulged again. I can't immediately think of another series that did the mix of law and comedy like this.

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