Night Court Revealed A Surprise Guest Star In Season 1 Finale, And There's Good News For Season 2
Warning! The following contains spoilers for the Night Court Season 1 finale, called "The Honorable Dan Fielding Part 2." Read at your own risk!
NBC's Night Court delivered a nice surprise in the Season 1 finale, despite the somewhat downer ending of the episode. While John Larroquette's Dan Fielding successfully defended Melissa Rauch's Abby Stone and helped her keep her job on the night court, the duo split up at the end of the season. Dan ultimately went and took a job as a judge in Louisiana, and the final scene showed him on the bench in the southern state.
While Dan seemed enthused about the job before leaving, the brief scene seemed to hint he'd grown tired of the monotony as he sighed at hearing another case involving a bachelorette party gone wrong in New Orleans' French Quarter. Dan didn't perk up until he saw the woman he was judging, who happened to be a familiar face from the original Night Court. What's better is that this guest star will be appearing again!
Marsha Warfield Returned As Roz
Marsha Warfield posted a TikTok video earlier in the year to let everyone know she was a fan of the Night Court revival. Now, we may know why she was so supportive, as Warfield appeared in the Season 1 finale and reprised her role as Roz from the original series. Dan was shocked to see Roz all the way down in Louisiana and facing charges for a bachelorette party incident. She was relatively unfazed and informed the baliff that if Dan was a judge now, they might as well put her back in jail.
Rosalind "Roz" Russell served as the bailiff on the original Night Court from Seasons 4 to 9. She was no-nonsense, but grew closer with the members of her crew as her tenure continued despite her tough exterior.
Her appearance in the revival's season finale was brief, but her cutting humor was enough to make up for the sad twist that Dan did not stay with Abby and the rest of the Night Court characters back in New York City. Dan leaving was especially sad considering he would've stayed had someone asked, but Abby threw out a card asking him to stay as she felt that doing so would be selfish.
Roz Will Return in Season 2
While Marsha Warfield is not expected to join Night Court Season 2 as a series regular, TVLine was able to confirm in an interview with the actress that she will appear in the premiere. Warfield told the outlet that Season 2 will reveal why Roz is in jail, and she'll get to spend some time catching up Dan and the Night Court fans on what she's been up to since the original series ended.
As far as whether or not Marsha Warfield will return for additional episodes outside of the Night Court Season 2 premiere, the actress had this to say:
If they ask for more, I’m hopefully available, and I would love to do it.
John Larroquette previously said that doing the Night Court revival was hard because he didn't have a lot of familiar faces to turn to while filming Season 1. Should the NBC series bring on Marsha Warfield in a more permanent capacity, it would give him more company from the original series.
Whether the Night Court team wants that or would rather mostly forge new territory aside from the occasional updates like what happened to Harry Stone remains to be seen. Perhaps it might be best to let the new cast continue to build chemistry, after they got off to a good start with the first season. Cast member Lacretta shared how they got to know each other behind the scenes!
Night Court will return for Season 2 on NBC. As for when to expect it, that's a question that likely won't be answered for a while, as the sitcom is one of the series impacted by the WGA writers strike. Fortunately, folks will be able to rewatch Season 1 over on Peacock, and relive one of the funniest shows of 2023 all over again.
