Night Court may have already aired its regular fall finale with the wait still on for Melissa Rauch's reunion with more Big Bang Theory vets, but that wasn't the end of the sitcom in NBC's 2024 TV schedule before the 2025 TV schedule starts. Abby and Co. are set to celebrate the holidays as only they can: with murder mystery shenanigans and fun guest stars. Former Brooklyn Nine-Nine cast member Joe Lo Truglio and Mad TV alum Andy Daly will appear in the special episode, and they spoke with CinemaBlend about their wacky characters and their Brooklyn Nine-Nine reunion.
The special episode after the regular fall finale is called "Feliz NaviDead," and I'd say that pun on the famous "Feliz Navidad" Christmas carol is proof enough that some festive hijinks are on the way on December 17. When I spoke with Joe Lo Truglio and Andy Daly ahead of the broadcast, the former previewed what brings his character into the mix:
There's a bit of a murder mystery that's happened at the courthouse, and I play a detective that's come in to solve the mystery, Detective Kratz, and I'm there and one of the suspects that we have is played by Andy Daly, who's absolutely wonderful and hilarious in it. So I played a detective that's come to kind of solve this mystery during the holidays. There's been a body that's been discovered. I'm there to figure out why it's there.
Playing a detective on a multi-cam sitcom with a live studio audience is new for Joe Lo Truglio, but fans of Brooklyn Nine-Nine – which ended on NBC less than a year and a half before Night Court premiered in 2023 – have certainly seen him playing a cop before thanks to eight seasons as Detective Boyle.
The actor also played plenty of law enforcement characters before this one, ranging from on Hot Frosty (streaming now with a Netflix subscription) in 2024 to on Law & Order way back in 2000. When I noted to Lo Truglio that he's an expert at playing fictional cops by this point in his career, he responded with some more examples:
The movie Paul [as an] FBI agent. Reno 911. There are plenty of law enforcement roles and terrific. I love the work. Maybe it's that I'm Irish/Italian from New York, and I have that look. [laughs] Maybe that's why I'm getting so many of the roles. But they're always fun to play, and so I'm happy to do it.
As for Andy Daly, the prolific voice actor with recent credits on animated shows like Big City Greens, The Great North, and American Dad! definitely isn't playing a cop on Night Court. After joking that all he could preview was that the holiday episode "takes place in a court at night," he shared that his character was "arrested because he refused to leave a party," and he'd been hired to be at the party. Daly elaborated:
He's hired to be there to lead a sort of murder mystery party. But as probably happens a lot with these murder mystery parties, the murder was not being solved, and my character would not leave and he would not break character until the mystery was solved. He's just really super committed to his job. Like, 'I don't break character and leave until the mystery gets solved.' And so he wouldn't leave until he had to be arrested for trespassing at the party, and that's why he is hauled in front of the judge in Night Court. Because the mystery that he was hired to conduct has not been solved, even though he's been dragged into a court, he is still in character and still refusing to stop.
Talk about commitment from Andy Daly's character! Based on the comments from both guest stars, the murder mystery seems like it could involve both real murder requiring a detective and a fake murder that hooked an extremely dedicated actor. Whatever the case, it's probably a lot more than Abby and Co. bargained for so close to the holidays!
A less widely-known fact than that Night Court can get bonkers for holiday episodes is that this won't be the first time that Joe Lo Truglio and Andy Daly share the screen. With Lo Truglio as part of the Brooklyn Nine-Nine ensemble from the start, Daly guest-starred in a Season 4 episode called "Cop-Con" back in 2017, which you can stream now with a Peacock subscription or on Netflix. On the subject of working with Lo Truglio again for NBC's current sitcom, Daly said:
Joe and I are friends from Brooklyn Nine-Nine. But also, I think from before that, he's just a guy that I know and see around a bunch, and we're just guys who know each other. [laughs] I was so happy. In fact, they told me he was going to be playing the other part when I was offered the role, and it was one of the reasons that I felt more comfortable doing it. I thought, 'Oh, all my scenes are with somebody that I know already pretty well.' So that was great. It's really good when you're going in as a guest actor, just for a week, to have people there that you know and that you know you have an easy rapport with. We had a lot of fun. I was very thankful that all my scenes were with Joe.
For his part, Joe Lo Truglio echoed Andy Daly's sentiments about the perks of guest-starring opposite somebody he'd already worked with, and only had good things to say about his fellow Night Court newcomer's approach to comedy. He said:
Andy is such a funny guy. In particular, his very dry delivery and performances I've always been a fan of. To work with him again was such a treat. It's always nice to work with people that you know, because suddenly there's a shorthand and a chemistry there that you often need when you only have a week to do this show, and you're kind of thrown into a much bigger show that's been going for a while. So I felt like I had a partner in crime, literally, with Andy on this episode.
Fortunately, fans don't have too much longer to wait to see Night Court's murder mystery unfold with Joe Lo Truglio and Andy Daly as guest stars. The holiday episode of NBC's hit sitcom airs on Tuesday, December 17 at 8:30 p.m. ET. This will indeed be the last new episode of the year, and you can expect Night Court back in the new year on January 14.
You can also revisit past episodes of both Night Court and Brooklyn Nine-Nine streaming on Peacock. In a fun twist, Lo Truglio and Daly's arrivals happen less than a year after fellow Nine-Nine alum Melissa Fumero came on board – to quote the actress best known for playing Amy Santiago – as a "really extra" character.
