Steven Helmer Publications

Synopsis: In this series debut, the Manhattan Criminal Court receives a brand-new judge, Harry Stone ( Harry Anderson ). His quirky nature quickly results questions about his competence, especially when he orders an attempted murder suspect (Peggy McCay) to try to work things out with her victim/husband (Joseph V. Perry) over lunch. My Thoughts - The lack of diversity in the original cast is noticeable . I suspect one of the main reasons why the show pivoted from Sheila Gardiner (Gail Strickland) to Liz Williams (Paula Kelly) at public defender after just one episode was to address this. Though, to be fair, I think it was a good change regardless of the reason. Obviously, one 30-minute episode isn't a big sample size, especially since Harry Stone was the focus. However, I could say the same about everyone else in the courtroom and they all managed to establish their characters to some degree while Sheila was mostly just there. On that note, I need to just take a moment to pay my r...

People who know me know I'm really not that big on nostalgia. However, there are exceptions to that, including my tendency to re-watch some of my favorite shows from when I was a kid (and some from before I was a kid). This includes Night Court , which I've watched in re-runs more times than I can count, including as recent as this morning. One thing I've noticed as I once again rewatched the series that ran from 1984 until 1992 is, while the outstanding ensemble of main characters is obviously what people remember, the show also got a nice boost from what I like to refer to as part-time employees. These are characters that were only on the show for a short time, either for certain storylines as a fill in for when one of the main cast members was absent or left the series. They may not have been there long or received top billing, but they kept Night Court rolling. Here are my five favorites:  Court Clerk Mavis Tuttle (Alice Drummond) - I won't go into details about th...