There are TV series that are timeless, that people still talk about long after they went off the air. Shows like Friends continue to have an obsessive fan base that still want more content. Continued popularity like this is how you end up with new episodes of something that went off the air years ago, though that doesn't always work out. Then, there are shows that are popular when they're on the air but seem to fall off the radar quite quickly once they stop. Night Court was definitely one of those shows. But if you have the opportunity to go back and watch it, the show holds up, partially thanks to the strange people who were brought in front of Judge Harry T. Stone each night.
Yakov Korelenko
Played by comedian Yakov Smirnoff, Yakov Korelenko was a Russian immigrant who did not understand American culture and spoke little to no English the first time he appeared in the courtroom. But that didn't stop Yakov from being a very strange man. Korelenko became a recurring character and while his English improved, his strangeness did not. Like the comedian who played the character, Korelenko had a fondness for telling highly improbable stories about Russia. At least in the case of Smirnoff, you knew he was joking.
Mrs. Smith
Unsurprisingly, an almost endless array of hookers made their way through the courtroom over nine seasons. In many cases, they appeared more than one time. But not working girl left more of an impression on the Harry Stone and his crew than Mrs. Smith.
She was an elderly woman who was brought in for soliciting inside the seniors home she lived in. Her clientele were the men living there. Mrs. Smith's character witnesses were all elderly, wheelchair-bound men, all of whom could reputedly walk before meeting her. In the end, prosecutor Dan Fielding decides to take her up on her offer.
The Klondike Butcher
A mainstay of long-running sitcom plots is a character suddenly wanting to change their life after having an epiphany. It's rare that said epiphany lasts more than an episode as things usually return to status quo by the following week. One such occurrence saw Bull, the towering bailiff, decide to change his career path and follow his dreams after meeting a man in court. That man was known as the Klondike Butcher and he was a professional wrestler. Lou Ferrigno played the character, which definitely made him quite imposing and believable in the role.
Eugene Sleighbrough
Long before Seinfeld launched him to super stardom and bad choices on stage sent him crashing back to Earth, Michael Richards made a very memorable appearance in season two of Night Court. As Eugene Sleighbough, he was arrested for attempted robbery, which isn't that strange.
What was strange was that he thought he was invisible. The fact that Judge Stone was not able to see in that episode only reinforced Eugene's belief that no one could see him at all. He was, of course, incorrect but that didn't stop him from taking all his clothes off to prove his point.
Valerie Sanders
Valerie Sanders was a dangerous woman. Beautiful, smart and crazy, she lived her life through acting as characters from different movies. Fortunately for her, she came through court on the night a new bailiff trainee named Rhoda was on. She let Valerie steal her gun and escape. When a beautiful, crazy woman is loose on this show, there's only one logical outcome: Dan takes her to a hotel room. He survived the experience but it was a close call. Nana Visitor of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame played the character perfectly.
Trekkies
If Star Trek: The Original Series birthed an entirely new fandom, Star Trek: The Next Generation resuscitated it and kept it alive. But among certain groups of fans, the debate about which show is better can become highly contentious.
This led to a group of The Original Series fans and a group of The Next Generation fans to come to blows and be brought to Judge Stone's court room. The weird part about the scene is that it ended with the TNG fans beaming out of the courtroom after a verdict was handed down.
Mr. Tuttle
On a night when you've got 200 cases in front you and you're trying to knock them all out before midnight, the last thing you need is a slow talker. Unfortunately for the Night Court crew, that's what happened to them. In the home stretch with only two cases left and 15 minutes of time still on the clock, a case came in where a person tried to stuff a postal worker into a mailbox. They quickly found out why. Mr. Tuttle, the postal worker, spoke at a pace of one word every ten seconds, which might even be slower than the sloth in Zootopia.
Ventriloquist Dummies
When you work in a courtroom at night, you end up dealing with some pretty unsettling things that make you question society. One of the hardest cases the team had to deal with was a mass-assault involving several ventriloquists. Fortunately, the ventriloquists knew exactly who their attackers were and were able to identify them.
Given that this was Night Court, the attackers were inevitably the ventriloquists' own dummies. This case seemed like it should be right up Judge Stone's alley but he was too busy with personal issues to really enjoy it. What a waste.
Bob And June Wheeler
A mainstay of the courtroom in seasons three and four, Bob and June Wheeler were two of the most memorable, and ridiculous, characters on the show. Every time the Wheelers came through, they brought stories of their shockingly pathetic lives which were filled with tragedy. You know, funny tragedy, not sad tragedy. They could never get ahead as they were two steps forward, eight steps back kind of people. The weird part was that they originally said they were from West Virginia but eventually revealed that they were from Bosnia. Bob Wheeler was played by Star Trek: The Next Generation's Brent Spiner, an early role before becoming Data.
Wile E. Coyote
This was not someone coincidentally named Wile E. Coyote. This was not someone dressed in a Wile E. Coyote costume. This was the actual, animated Wile E. Coyote brought in front of Judge Harry Stone and charged with harassment. When finding him guilty, Stone read Wile E. the riot act and told him to go to a restaurant when he gets hungry instead of chasing a bird around. Someone had to say it and Judge Harry Stone was the man for the job. That being said, it was a little odd how unfazed everyone in the court was by the appearance of an animated character.