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Night Court is one of those benign sitcoms I remember my parents had no problem letting me watch when I was a kid.
Mork and Mindy often got a little racy - also just plain weird - and Laverne and Shirley was a little too sexually liberated for a young, 8-year-old Mike. But Night Court was okay.
Sure, John Larroquette's Dan Fielding was a womanizing double-talker, but he was a strangely family-friendly philanderer. And Harry Anderson's magician ethic and outrageous love for Mel Torme was always PG-rated at most.
But there's one thing that can be said about Night Court now that its first season has appeared on DVD: Time has not treated it well.
Larroquette still shines and sparkles - his is really one of the more notable TV supporting characters that has ever existed in modern television (he won four Emmys for his work on the show) - but between this first season not having quite the smooth flow of later years and the written material being a little thin, it simply doesn't hold up. Markie Post hasn't entered the foray yet - she doesn't show up for another season or two - and this writer's all-time favorite Night Court character, Marsha Warfield, isn't on this season, either.
But we still get some cute Bull (Richard Moll) antics - even though it seems that he hasn't quite gotten into his character completely - and the courtroom dialogue in some of the later episodes of this season is as biting and witty as anything the show ever did.
It's a typical conundrum for TV show lovers: If you love everything after, say, the third season of a series, do you go out of your way to own every season (including the first couple sub-par ones), or do you just wait for the seasons you like? This writer errs toward completion - call me OCD, but it bugs me to only have a smattering of seasons from TV shows on my shelf - but for those who love Night Court and admit that this inaugural season isn't exactly the bee's knees, it might be worth waiting until later DVD box sets of the show come your way.
I know Marsha Warfield would want us to wait around for her.
The Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Presented in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio, Night Court looks - well, it looks just like you remember it. The pilot episode is shockingly muddy and fuzzed - there's very little line quality consistency at all - but as the series begins its second episode, things start looking up. Detail doesn't exactly explode off this transfer, but color contrast is fairly well-oiled and black levels are relatively thick. Not too bad.
The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
The monaural track here is appropriate, if not shockingly good. Dialogue sounds fair, music and effects - when they're around - are incorporated capably, and the show's laugh track is just about as tinny and chunky as they come. But this is the way the show originally sounded - case closed.
Also included are English, French and Spanish subtitles and English closed captions.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
We get two bonus features in this set - nothing too outrageous, but enough to whet the appetite of big Night Court fans. The screen-specific audio commentary by creator/executive producer Reinhold Weege on the show's pilot is actually not too bad. The man is an accomplished speaker, and while much of the information he imparts is covered in the included featurette, this one is an interesting track.
The documentary, Night Court: Comedy's Swing Shift is a cute - if harmless - look at the men and women who brought this mildly successful sitcom to airwaves back in the glorified 80s. There are some good interviews here.
Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?
There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.
Final Thoughts
For fans only. This first season of Night Court is cute and funny - that much is certain - but it's nowhere near as good as later seasons of the show. The video transfer and audio mix are fair, and there are a couple extra features to tout, so die-hard Bull-lovers will dig having this on the shelf, but even for fair-weather fans, it's not easy to recommend dropping thirty bucks on this one.
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