"Night Court" was a silly 22 minute per episode situational comedy that ran from 1984 to 1992. It starred Harry Anderson as Judge Harry Stone, who was very young and goofy and possibly last pick to fill a judge's position. But he quickly proves himself to be a decent man who's good at find eccentric and effective solutions to problems. I saw a lot of this series on broadcast TV back in the 1990s, but this is the first time I'd sat down and watched the first season in sequence. (The first season was 13 episodes: later seasons were 22 episodes per year.)

The pilot episode is very funny, but by the second episode it had settled into having some melodramatic absurdity (a bickering married couple, Bull with a baby) be the focus of the episode. While the absurdity and dripping sentimentality were par for the course for period sitcoms, I found it kind of grating. What makes "Night Court" somewhat watchable is the humour - which at its best is very funny indeed. And probably the reason the show got a 2023 reboot.

The history of the actors is interesting if you dig into it: Harry Anderson was a touring magician, occasionally hosted Saturday Night Live, and had a recurring bit on "Cheers." John Larroquette was the court's sex-obsessed prosecuting attorney. Both of them are very tall at 6'4" ... but are made to look normal-sized by Richard Moll (playing bailiff "Bull Shannon") who is the court's towering security guard and frequent comedic foil. Paula Kelly is the public defender - she was only with the series for a year, being replaced by Markie Post who held the role from seasons 2-9. Likewise, Karen Austin played the court clerk in the first season ... but (if Wikipedia is correct) was let go because she had Bell's Palsy (which seems kind of unfair), and replaced with Charles Robinson who played the court clerk in seasons 2-9.