So you’re looking for a little fun on a Tuesday. You flip on your TV at 8 p.m. and find – well, the FBI … and the GBI … and some drug-dealers.
Clearly, there’s a void here for NBC’s only comedies to fill. “Night Court” (shown here) and “Extended Family” face CBS’ “FBI,” ABC’s “Will Trent” (a Georgia Bureau of Investigation cop) and Fox’s “The Cleaning Lady.” Alongside that tough turf, we get:
— “Night Court” (8 p.m.), is given to broad humor – including an episode that put John Larroquette in “Star Trek” make-up. “He’s intimidating anyway,” said writer-producer Dan Rubin. “When he’s dressed as a Klingon, forget about it.”
The “Night Court” people were talking to the Television Critics Association from the show’s set. It was reconstructed fom the original (1984-92) “Night Court” … except maybe scaled down to fit this cast.
The old group was huge, said Larroquette, the one actor in both versions. He’s 6-foot-4; back then, he was with Charlie Robinson, 6-3; Harry Anderson, 6-4; and Richard Moll, 6-8. Now? Melissa Rauch, playing Anderson’s daughter, isn’t quite 4-foot-11.
In costume, of course, people can transform. “When I have the judge’s robe on, I can perform marriages,” she said with a grin. She got a certificate online and sometimes volunteers to officially unite people in the audience.
After ratings success the first year, “Night Court” was one of the first shows to return after the strike. There were a few changes: A planned Halloween episode became a Comic Con one (hence the Klingon look); also, the court clerk was re-cast.
“They said I was coming in for just one episode,” Nyambi Nyambi said.
The actor with the odd name – “it’s a bit redundant,” he granted – has stayed, after long runs as a Senegalese waiter in “Mike & Molly” and a lawyer with immigration problems in “The Good Fight.” In real life, he was born in Oklahoma (with Nigerian parents), went to high school in Virgiinia and college in Pennsylvania … and grew up watching the original “Night Court,” which he re-watched when he got the part. “I was scared of John because I‘d just watched nine seasons of him.”
— “Extended Family” (8:30) is based loosely on a true story. When Emilia Fazzalari and George Geyer divorced, their kids were able to stay put. Sometimes Geyer lived there; sometimes Fazzalari did, wiith her now-husband Wyc Grousbeck.
Grousbeck happens to be principal owner of the Boston Celtics. Getting into the role, Donald Faison was able to spend some time in Celtic luxury suites, which he recommends. “Great desserts …. They bring you all the food you want.”
The occasional Celtic plotlines put Cryer alongsiide people who are large and macho. He told the TCA he’s sort of used to that.
“That has always been a position of comfort for me, being basically inferior to everybody,” Cryer said drolly. He’s “the Everyman, when faced with, say, an Ashton Kutcher. I don’t know why I get cast in these kinds of things, but I‘m grateful.”