Night Court renewed for third season at sitcom-starved NBC

Fire up that bass-and-sax-heavy theme song: Night Court is living to court another day. TV Line reports today that NBC has ordered a third season of the revival series, which stars John Larroquette and Melissa Rauch, the latter playing the daughter of the character played in the original series by the late Harry Anderson. The news comes at a time when NBC is decidedly not in a sitcom mood—the show is one of only three on the schedule right now (alongside Lopez Vs. Lopez and Donald Faison’s Extended Family)—but what are you gonna do, say no to more Night Court?

We reviewed the new Night Court back when it debuted last year, concluding that, if you’re someone with a basic basal tolerance for traditional gag-based multi-cam sitcoms, you could do a lot worse; Rauch is a charmer, and Larroquette retains his deadpan skills in the role that won him a boatload of Emmys 30 years previous. The show had a minor cast shake-up going into season 2, with star Kapil Talwalker getting swapped out for newcomer Nyambi Nyambi. (Also, they got Marsha Warfield to come back for a couple of episodes as former bailiff Roz.) But a brief check-in shows that it’s still pretty much the same show as when we left it: A quick-moving joke machine that’s unafraid to get pretty goofy and a little stage-y, and not especially worried about doing much reflection of the real world and its various courts, nocturnal or otherwise.

Night Court pulled in a bit less than 3 million viewers every week in its second season, which is pretty good for an NBC sitcom—although significantly less than anything with Law & Order or Chicago in their titles, of course.