'It Was A Dream Come True': Night Court's Paul Sheer Compares Sitcom To The Simpsons In Reunion With Melissa Rauch
NBC wasted no time in bringing Night Court back for Season 2 in the 2024 TV schedule, after returning for a one-off Christmas special. The next episode will bring in none other than The League and Family Switch's Paul Scheer as a guest star, which will reunite him with former Black Monday co-star Melissa Rauch. The actor spoke with CinemaBlend about coming to the NBC reboot and why it was a "dream come true" that reminded him of another iconic comedy.
Paul Scheer arrives on Night Court in the new episode on January 23, and the role has been a long time coming for the actor. When I asked what brought him to the hit sitcom, he revealed that he's a fan of the original and even name-dropped The Simpsons, saying:
When I heard that Melissa was producing a reboot of Night Court, I wrote her the day was announced. I was like, 'This is a genius idea.' The show was so funny, and to me, what I loved about Night Court originally was it was kind of Simpsons-level in the sense that you had these insane cases that just weaved throughout every episode, but then you really actually cared about the characters as well. And I think it's such a great way to do a sitcom. Every episode you get two really funny, insane cases and then you have a real story at the center of it. So I was like, 'This is a no-brainer. It's a timeless premise.'
Melissa Rauch worked opposite Paul Scheer in Showtime's Black Monday, which wrapped as one of the most disappointing cancellations of 2022. She was originally only set to produce Night Court rather than also star as Abby Stone, which was already a "genius idea" to Scheer. A series being compared to The Simpsons can also only be a good thing; after all, there's a reason why that show has been running for 35 seasons and counting, with adult fans who have been watching since childhood. Plus, the original Night Court lasted for nine seasons and nearly 200 episodes. Scheer continued:
I was so excited about it, and was thrilled to get the call. They wanted me and Rob [Huebel] to come in together to do something, because I think one of the best things is the chemistry there. Melissa played my wife on Black Monday, and so that idea of knowing each other and having that sense of play is great. And then you're on a stage that is so familiar, and you look to your right, and there's John Larroquette, and you're like 'Oh my god, I have traveled back into my childhood and I'm doing an episode of Night Court.' It was a dream come true.
Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer have been a double act of sorts for years, both getting their starts at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York, co-creating MTV's sketch comedy show Human Giant, and doing live comedy shows in Los Angeles. And it's no surprise that seeing John Larroquette on set would make an impression on Scheer, since – as Larroquette's longtime co-star Marsha Warfield pointed out – he was winning Emmy after Emmy for the original Night Court.
While fans will have to tune in to NBC on January 23 at 8 p.m. ET to see what exactly Scheer will bring to Night Court, he'll share some of his screentime with India de Beaufort as Olivia:
The actor went on to note that while he has a long history of doing live theater, Night Court was his first experience with a multi-cam sitcom with a live studio audience. His previous TV shows, which include The League and Black Monday, weren't filming in front of a crowd of fans. Scheer described the experience as "thrilling" because the studio audience means that you "immediately know what's working, what's not working."
According to Scheer, the set was "so collaborative" for him. Still, given that this was his first multi-cam with a live studio audience, I asked if Melissa Rauch – who appeared in more than 200 episodes of The Big Bang Theory before Night Court – had any advice for him. Scheer explained:
I definitely was asking people, like, 'What should I know? What should I do?' And Pam Fryman is the director of this episode. She was also director of the pilot of Night Court as well, just one of the best multi-cam directors out there. She's wonderful, so I really leaned on Pam and Melissa about how should I do this? And I think that the thing that they were both putting forward was like, 'Just perform. Have fun. Do your thing.'
Pam Fryman certainly is a prolific director in the entertainment industry, with credits on shows including How I Met Your Mother, Man With a Plan, One Day at a Time, and of course Night Court, to name just some of them. Paul Scheer went on about the advice that Fryman and Rauch had for him:
I thought I had to do something different, but because like I said, I've been performing for so long [that] it wasn't like I never performed in front of the audience. I just never did in front of TV cameras. And so all those instincts come into play. It was really fun and that ability to relax and not worry about getting everything perfect and just making it loose and fun really was the dream. The other thing I didn't realize too was how prepared I would be by the time we actually got to tape day.
Viewers don't have to wait too much longer to see Paul Scheer on Night Court in his multi-cam sitcom debut opposite Melissa Rauch. You can find him in the new episode, called "Hold the Pickles, Keep the Change," on Tuesday, January 23 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. You can also revisit earlier episodes of the series streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription.
