Night Court: All You Need Is Love

Austin and Strickland

Night Court: All You Need Is Love
NBC
January 4, 1984
Sitcom
DVD
C+

So this is another '80s series that I watched in the early seasons but gave up on before the end.  Watching the pilot (on a one-disc collection a friend gave me), I don't think it's aged well.  A wacky, irreverent judge?  That doesn't seem particularly remarkable in this day and age, but it's not much of a period piece either, other than it's interesting to see how relatively stodgy Dan Fielding was in the beginning, pipe and all.  The next couple NC episodes we'll look at will be from Season Four, by which point Selma Diamond among others would be gone.  Note that in Season One it went into the Family Ties slot at first, and I wouldn't have been watching my favorite station, because ABC was showing Dynasty.

Karen Austin, who was one of Chester's Girlfriends on Soap and two different characters on Three's Company, plays Lana Wagner, a role that would be dropped later in the year despite the prominence here.  (She's arguably the main character.)  Gail Strickland, who was Jerry's girlfriend Courtney Simpson on The Bob Newhart Show and Capt. Helen Whitfield on M*A*S*H, is almost unrecognizable here as the more straitlaced Sheila Gardner (a role that would not last beyond this pilot).

Joseph V. Perry, who was Sgt. Kulpepper on Gidget, four different characters on That Girl, one of the Cooks on M*A*S*H, and Mr. Phil on Soap, is Phil Kerr here.  Andrew Bloch, who had two roles on M*A*S*H, plays Leonard "Hacksaw" Hammond.  Another M*A*S*H connection is that NC writer and creator Reinhold Weege wrote a '77 episode of that dramedy.