I remember this show from when I was little, watching it with my mom, dad, sisters and brother. All of us liked it a lot and laughed a lot but I wondered if I would actually enjoy it today if I watched it again, but when I did it actually holds up.
Harry Anderson stars as a wacky "night court" judge, stuck on the graveyard shift at a New York City courtroom. He's silly, tells a lot of bad "dad jokes" and does a lot of magic tricks (in real life he is a comedy magician, which he also had showed off in his guest roles on another great eighties sitcom, Cheers). So at first obviously he is dismissed as a goof but he's also actually got a lot of heart and wisdom and knowledge of the law, which is why he got to be a judge so young (and when he's so goofy) in the first place.
The defense attorney is a bleeding heart and very attractive young lady, who becomes Harry's romantic interest but also is the target of the lecherous, selfish, stop at nothing to win, heartless D.A. Dan Fielding, played by the hilarious John Larroquette who won many awards for this role. All of these characters are still likable and hold up today, as well as Mac the no nonsense court manager, the gigantic, dopey bald bailiff Bull (Richard Moll), and a succession of female bailiffs (two older, gruff talking, smoking bailiffs actually passed away in real life, and then Roz, the sassy black lady who takes no nonsense from anyone, particularly Dan). The supporting characters are also fantastic. Whoever cast this show, I hope they won a lot of awards.
The writing also holds up with a lot of great jokes. You can kind of tell where most of the stories are going, just like with any older sitcom, but it's still a lot of fun to get there when the characters are this likable and the jokes are still funny.
Harry Anderson stars as a wacky "night court" judge, stuck on the graveyard shift at a New York City courtroom. He's silly, tells a lot of bad "dad jokes" and does a lot of magic tricks (in real life he is a comedy magician, which he also had showed off in his guest roles on another great eighties sitcom, Cheers). So at first obviously he is dismissed as a goof but he's also actually got a lot of heart and wisdom and knowledge of the law, which is why he got to be a judge so young (and when he's so goofy) in the first place.
The defense attorney is a bleeding heart and very attractive young lady, who becomes Harry's romantic interest but also is the target of the lecherous, selfish, stop at nothing to win, heartless D.A. Dan Fielding, played by the hilarious John Larroquette who won many awards for this role. All of these characters are still likable and hold up today, as well as Mac the no nonsense court manager, the gigantic, dopey bald bailiff Bull (Richard Moll), and a succession of female bailiffs (two older, gruff talking, smoking bailiffs actually passed away in real life, and then Roz, the sassy black lady who takes no nonsense from anyone, particularly Dan). The supporting characters are also fantastic. Whoever cast this show, I hope they won a lot of awards.
The writing also holds up with a lot of great jokes. You can kind of tell where most of the stories are going, just like with any older sitcom, but it's still a lot of fun to get there when the characters are this likable and the jokes are still funny.