Spoilers ahead for the Season 2 premiere of Night Court on NBC, called "The Roz Affair."
Night Court hit the ground running in Season 2 with the return of none other than Marsha Warfield, the actress from the original series who shocked fans with a cameo at the end of the Season 1 finale in the spring. She returned as Roz in the first episode of 2024 and recruited Dan in New Orleans for a mission that resulted in a trip back up to New York, Dan going undercover in yoga pants, and a reason for him to stick around. The episode just wouldn't have worked without Roz, and Warfield opened up about keeping secrets for the revival, while Melissa Rauch shared the challenges of not telling everybody.
Marsha Warfield Had A Secret To Keep
While Marsha Warfield showed her support for the NBC revival when it premiered in early 2023, the reveal of Roz in Dan's courtroom in the Season 1 finale was the best kind of surprise. Even better, she returned to reprise the role again to kickstart Season 2 in the 2024 TV schedule, and longtime fans could enjoy a blast to the past with Larroquette and Warfield sharing the screen again. So, how difficult was it for the actress to keep the secret of Roz's return? CinemaBlend's Sean O'Connell asked her that very question, and she shared:
It wasn't difficult for me. I'm pretty good at keeping secrets. No, it was fun. There was a couple of times when people I'd come across that post online or something and kind of give myself a little chuckle.
Marsha Warfield could have some fun with fans who were hoping that she'd come back, knowing that it was just a matter of time. Once the secret was out, the actress could see just how viewers felt about her reprising her original series role. Warfield described the reactions that she saw, saying:
Well, people were invested from long before I got involved. When the news [of the show] came out, people were bombarding me with, 'You have to be in this! It's a reboot! I hope they bring you back! Blah, blah, blah.' And I was always like, 'If they call me, I'm happy to go, but this is a new thing and I understand wanting to start all over again and go in a different direction.' So you know, I had a pretty good run. Pretty good run... I was happy the way it went.
Considering that Marsha Warfield appeared in more than 100 episodes as Roz in the original Night Court before arriving in the revival, she certainly has had a good run! Of course, Gurgs is the bailiff on the new show, and Roz has become a private investigator, so fans shouldn't count on seeing her back in the mix of a Judge Stone's courtroom.
Still, she promised Dan an invitation to her wedding, and I'm going to cross my fingers that it's just a matter of time until she's back. And based on what Melissa Rauch shared about Warfield, she seems ready to welcome her back as well!
Melissa Rauch Wanted To Tell Everybody
The Big Bang Theory alum is an executive producer on Night Court as well as leading lady and major fan of the original series. For her, welcoming Marsha Warfield onto the new show as Roz was a "dream," and that made it tough for her to keep the secret before the big reveal. Speaking with CinemaBlend and other outlets at NBC's Night Court junket, Rauch opened up about bringing the Roz actress back:
It was such a dream, like dream of dreams, to have her on the show. It was very hard to keep it secret, especially as we started to do press for the show, and people say, like, 'Anyone that you think of having back?' And I so badly wanted to tell them, but we also wanted to keep that moment because the moment in the studio audience was, I think, one of my top favorite moments ever at a live taping of a show. Watching Marsha come out and seeing her stand across from John. I mean, I had tears streaming down my face. In the audience, we're lucky enough to have a lot of people who come who are fans of the original and they come back sometimes, week after week.
After more than 200 episodes of The Big Bang Theory with a live studio audience, it says something that Melissa Rauch names Marsha Warfield's surprise appearance as one of her top favorite moments! The leading lady, who previously told CinemaBlend the backstory behind her Big Bang reunion in the Night Court Christmas special, elaborated on why it was such a special experience with the studio audience:
And so I looked over to see some of the people that I knew had been fans of the original, and the guy did a double take. And I saw him grab the person next to him. He was going 'Oh my god, oh my god!' Watching the audience and watching them, there was such electricity in the air, and I so badly wanted to tell everyone about that electricity. I actually haven't really done much press since that moment aired. This is one of the first times I'm talking about it, and it was so so cool.
If Melissa Rauch's status as a longtime Night Court fans wasn't clear before she brought the revival to TV, her excitement to talk about watching Marsha Warfield's return as Roz is certainly proof! She went on to discuss Warfield as Roz in the Season 2 premiere, saying:
Then to have Marsha come back, for the first episode of this season, was just a dream. Getting to be in the chambers, and there's the couch in that room that is the couch from the original. And it's standing there with John and Marsha. I so had to [keep] on like [saying], 'Keep your chill, keep your chill,' because it was just so so exciting to get to be in a scene with the two of them.
Melissa Rauch didn't confirm whether Marsha Warfield would be back for more of Season 2 beyond the first episode, but fans can celebrate anyway. After a prolonged hiatus due to the WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA actors strike, Night Court is officially back and fans can get a fix of Abby, Dan, and the rest without resorting to rewatching Season 1 with a Peacock Premium subscription. New episodes air on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.
