“Night Court,” which ran on NBC for nine seasons between 1984 and 1992, was a sitcom that relied heavily on its first syllable.
Set during the night shift of a Manhattan municipal court, creator Reinhold Weege’s seven-time Emmy winner was built on the pliable foundation often favored in a TV era when seasons ran for 22-24 episodes per year.
New cases came up fast and funny: some episodes focused on a single issue, while others ran through a few at a time, while shifting focus to the people of the court.
Either choice brought out plenty of weirdos, wrongfully accused, and random denizens of the night for Judge Harry Stone (played by the late Harry Anderson) to inspire or punish, based as often on his own peculiar instincts as on the arguments made by a few defense attorneys and one steadfast prosecutor: Dan Fielding, played by John Larroquette.Whether the gang was deciding if an omniscient,
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