Night Court is finally returning in the fall 2024 TV schedule, just shy of eight months after the Season 2 finale back in the spring that ended with the reveal that Jake just might be Dan's son. Season 3 will also premiere with former guest star Wendie Malick returning as Dan's once-murderous nemesis Julianne, and she'll be sticking around this time. Malick and John Larroquette opened up about their characters' relationship now that she'll be a series regular, including "bad chemistry" in a very funny, Night Court sort of way.
The Season 2 finale (available streaming with a Peacock subscription) ended with Olivia on board as the prosecutor opposite Dan; India de Beaufort is out of the cast with Wendie Malick stepping in for the upcoming third season. While that means a sticky situation for Dan, how exactly could jailbird Julianne even become an attorney in Abby's court? At NBC's press junket for Season 3, I asked the Shrinking alum how the premise was pitched to her, and she explained:
That was when I first said, 'How can you have a criminally insane person become a lawyer, a regular lawyer in night court?' And they came up with the idea that there's a Project Second Chance for people who have done their time, and Abby decided that that would be the right court for me. So I just thought, 'I haven't done a sitcom in front of a live audience for many years,' but most of my career was spent doing that, and I actually had forgotten how much fun it is to be in front of a live audience. That first time I came back to be a guest on this show, it came back to me that if you're with good talented people and you have good writing, that's a pretty sweet gig.
Wendie Malick certainly has more experience than most in front of a live studio audience, with all seven seasons Just Shoot Me! with David Spade, all six seasons of Hot in Cleveland, and recurring gigs on Frasier (although she doesn't expect to return for the revival) and The Ranch, to name just some. With Night Court Season 3, she's back as more than just a guest!
And while that's great for Malick (and fans), it may not be so great for Dan Fielding's peace of mind. When asked by press during the Night Court junket what the Julianne/Dan dynamic would be like once they'd be around each other every day, the new series regular shared:
I think we have bad chemistry, but we have chemistry! It's just not terribly healthy, which I discuss actually in this coming season. It'll be a tug of war between a love-hate kind of thing, where there's definitely something there, where they connect on some level, but they also both know that it's probably a little bit dangerous to go there.
"Bad chemistry" would probably be a bad thing for most characters on most shows, but certainly not for Dan and Julianne and not on Night Court! Wendie Mallick and John Larroquette's love-hate dynamic as their characters was fun when she was a guest star, so it's a safe bet that it will continue now that she'll be around regularly. Larroquette shared his own take, saying:
Wendie Malick, who's joining the cast as a permanent member now, did a couple of guest shots with us and was sort of Fielding's partner for a little bit in weirdness. They never really hooked up, but they almost did, and obviously as she becomes a series regular, some of that insanity has to be muted, because we don't want a real crazy person amongst our family. But she's still very acerbic and witty and has her own game to play, and we'll discover what that is as we move along.
The "insanity" from Julianne's first two episodes – the latter of which was in an already crazy episode, including Dan going full Star Trek and Gurgs alluding to a dalliance with Christopher Meloni – will be muted now that she'll be around on a weekly basis, but Julianne will still be Julianne. Larroquette continued:
But for the moment, she and Fielding are now cohorts, as it were. They are co-workers, and I think they will be co-conspirators to some degree. To what degree I don't know. Certainly I don't see a relationship occurring between them for a long time, if ever, just because you want to keep that option open for as long as one can.
All in all, Julianne would probably not be Dan's first choice to join the motley crew of the night court! Melissa Rauch, who of course plays Abby, previewed that "we're off to the races with Wendie in that episode as she comes in as the new prosecutor."
So, would Dan rather deal with Julianne or with the Wheelers on a daily basis, after the Wheelers returned in Season 2? I asked John Larroquette that very question during NBC's junket, and he shared:
That's a good question. I would think probably Julianne on a daily basis, because one can only eat so many pigs feet and I have a feeling that's all the Wheelers can cook. So I think I'd rather Julianne.
Fortunately, the wait to see Julianne and Dan in her series regular era is nearly over, as Night Court Season 3 premieres on Tuesday, November 19 at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC, following St. Denis Medical. A promo gives a taste of what's to come with these characters, and it's worth at least one watch. Take a look:
The Season 3 premiere won't all be about Dan dealing with Julianne's arrival as the new prosecutor. Called "The Judge's Boyfriend's Dad," the first Night Court episode of the fall will feature Abby doing some investigating into her suspicion that Dan might be Jake's biological father. If you need a refresher on how Season 2 ended, you can find last spring's finale streaming on Peacock now.
