Three decades after the original Night Court ended its nine-season run on NBC, the iconic sitcom is back with a revival series, also titled Night Court. The new series sees John Larroquette return as Dan Fielding, a role for which the veteran performer won four consecutive Emmy awards. He stars alongside the new lead character, Judge Abby Stone, the daughter of the original protagonist Harry Stone (played by the late Harry Anderson).

Melissa Rauch helps lead Night Court as the young judge of Manhattan's evening arraignment court, having developed the series along with her husband, Winston Rauch, and writer Dan Rubin. Thanks to their efforts, Night Court feels like a hip new show while remaining instantly familiar to fans of the original series. Like the original, the new Night Court is filled with broad, silly humor, but also deep characterization with a cast of believably human characters. The original Night Court had a truly one-of-a-kind tone, and the new series manages to recapture that same magic in a way that few revivals/reboots can ever hope to achieve.

Related: Night Court Reboot Cast & Character Guide

While promoting the launch of Night Court on NBC, Rauch spoke to Screen Rant about her work on the series, her love of the original, and her ambitions for the new show. She also shared one of her favorite scenes from the old show, involving Harry visiting an ailing Dan Fielding in the hospital, as seen in the two-part season 4 episode, "Dan's Operation." Finally, she discussed the possibilities regarding lingering plotlines from the original show and revisiting old characters and scenarios after decades away.

Talking Night Court With Melissa Rauch

Night Court Poster

Screen Rant: First of all, yesterday turned out to be my best birthday ever. I woke up and got something I thought I'd never get: screeners for brand-new episodes of Night Court. I never thought this show would come back, and it's fantastic. I watched them twice!

Melissa Rauch: That's amazing! First of all, happy birthday. And you watched them twice? That is so nice!

Screen Rant: I'd like to think I'm something of a Night Court scholar. I'm pretty sure I've seen every episode.

Melissa Rauch: That's so cool! What did you think?

Screen Rant: Night Court has always had such a unique tone. It's so silly and so sincere. I recently re-watched the season 4 premiere, which is such a lovely episode, where Harry learns about his mom from her husband [John Astin].

Melissa Rauch: It's so good, right?

Screen Rant: There's so much pathos, but that same episode has the ventriloquist dummies revolting against their human comedy partners!

Melissa Rauch: It's complete tonal freedom!

Screen Rant: It shouldn't work, but it does. And the revival show captures that lovely dissonance.

Melissa Rauch: Zak, thank you for saying that!

Melissa Rauch and Kapil Talwalkar in Night Court

Screen Rant: How did you do it?

Melissa Rauch: I feel like it's my birthday, with you saying that! That's the nicest thing I've heard. Thank you for saying that! This has made my day. I can finish press now. I'm done. Thank you for saying that, that's really nice.

Screen Rant: I was following the news about this show from when it was first announced, and you were producing but hadn't joined the cast yet. Was it as simple as wanting to watch new episodes of Night Court, and the only way to do that was to make them yourself?

Melissa Rauch: [Laughs] Something like that, for sure! I love what you said about the tone, because that's exactly what drew me to doing this show. Even as a kid, I was obsessed with TV, and I remember watching Night Court, and there was something different going on. The comedy has vaudevillian, almost absurdist moments. But then you'd have a moment of Harry visiting Dan in the hospital. It's one of my most favorite scenes in sitcom history, this beautiful, heartfelt scene where this womanizer is talking about all these women he's been with, but no one has ever said, "I love you."

John Larroquette Night Court

Screen Rant: Eating a microwave dinner on Thanksgiving.

Melissa Rauch: Exactly. Oh my gosh, I just got the chills that you know that! These moments in the show are just so beautiful. I was like, that's so exciting to me. That kind of sitcom goodness, where you can have all the fun in the world and then boil it down to these beautiful moments of humanity. To me, that's TV gold. It was really exciting, the thought of getting to do that.

Initially, I was only planning on producing it. I knew, when we started our production company, we really wanted to focus on bringing more multi-cams [traditional "three-camera" sitcoms] into the TV landscape. It's such a long shot to get something on the air, but I really wanted to do what I can to keep this format alive because I love it so much! But I was really adamant about not starring in it. When I was talking to John, trying to get him on board, he kept on asking if I was going to do it, and I was like, "Not in the cards... But you should do it!"

Then, as the script came together, and it was really great, and it had those moments that we crafted of heart with comedy, I was like, "Ah, eff me, I'm gonna be kicking myself if I don't do this!" I'd just be watching someone else get to do this, so that's when I threw my hat in the ring.

Screen Rant: I don't know who else could play Abby but you. There's some Harry in there, but she's her own person. You get that, especially in the later episodes, but there's some really profound moments. The old show always did, and now continues to feel very true to New York City. It's an absurd little place!

Melissa Rauch: I spent many years there. It's my home.

Screen Rant: This isn't a reunion show, but you know people are going to be wondering and worrying about Abby's parentage. This show addresses that with the casting of Faith Ford, who's Harry's widow. But we have so many questions about those intervening years!

Melissa Rauch: I would say, "Stay tuned." There will be surprises. As a fan of the original, that was very important to me, to have those surprises.

Melissa Rauch Night Court

Screen Rant: You're aware of weirdos like me who want to know the timeline. When Dan says he hasn't been on a date in 27 years, I'm writing on a whiteboard in my mind, filling in those blanks. Do you know those answers, and are you measuring them out to us as the show goes on?

Melissa Rauch: Yeah. They'll be sprinkled in. I think there will be a little bit of TV magic at hand with the dates, based on how old Abby would need to be, versus when the show ended and when he would need to have had a child, in terms of Abby's age, but yeah, I think, little by little, it will all unfold.

Screen Rant: We can fudge those numbers a little bit. I can handle a little temporal sleight of hand.

Melissa Rauch: It's a little of Harry's magic, right? [Laughs] I chalk it up to that, some Harry Stone magic being sprinkled on those numbers.

Screen Rant: After season 2, Ellen Foley disappears without a trace so Markie Post can show up. I love Ellen Foley! I have all of her albums, I've seen her in concert many times... When's she gonna be on the show?

Melissa Rauch: [Laughs] Okay, I'm taking notes. I like the seed being planted.

Melissa Rauch and John Larroquette and India de Beaufort

Screen Rant: I'm doing an Inception on you. Is it working? Don't answer that. Last question: tell me about stepping on the set for the first time and seeing John as Dan again.

Melissa Rauch: First of all, working with John is just a dream come true. He's a true master class in this format. I got to know him through this development process. We did everything on the phone and over Zoom, since we started the process during the heart of the pandemic. We developed this friendship as we were doing it, and he's just a wonderful man. He's a great, wise, and funny-as-hell person! Getting to do this with him is beyond a dream.

And then, when we finally got to be on set together, filming the pilot, it was really cool. I remember walking onto the set. We have the original couch, the original chairs in the cafeteria, and the set is a direct recreation. Our amazing set designer, Glenda Rovello, got the original plans for the set. It's built to the exact tee of the original, except we put new coats of paint on. We figured, a government building wouldn't have evolved that much over time, other than a coat of paint, so that's pretty much what happened!

I operate from being dinged in this business so many times, of expecting the worst and hoping for the best, so I was really [like], "Will this ever come to fruition? I dunno..." But walking onto that set for the first time, I couldn't believe it. I felt like it was a childhood fever dream of mine. If you had told the little me who was watching the show on a 13-inch TV in my bedroom, that I would get to be on the set with Dan Fielding, my head would have exploded. So all of it just feels like a dream come true.

Screen Rant: Honestly, it feels the same way watching it.

Melissa Rauch: I'm so excited. I haven't spoken to a true true Night Court fan, so the fact that you know and love the original and appreciated this, it means the world.

About Night Court

Melissa Rauch in Night Court

From executive producer and writer Dan Rubin (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”), “Night Court” is based on the original hit series that ran for nine seasons on NBC. Melissa Rauch and Winston Rauch executive produce through their After January Productions. Mona Garcea oversees for After January Productions and John Larroquette serves as a producer. “Night Court” is produced by Rauch’s After January Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television and Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group.

Next: Every Original Night Court Reference In The Reboot Show

Night Court airs Tuesdays on NBC and can be streamed the next day on Peacock. The original Night Court is also free to stream on Amazon Freevee.