Warning: spoilers are ahead for the February 6 episode of Night Court Season 2, called “A Crime of Fashion.”
Night Court made an early return in the 2024 TV schedule after the Christmas special that delivered a minor Big Bang Theory reunion for leading lady and executive producer Melissa Rauch. While it was fun when the holiday episode brought in former BBT guest star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “A Crime of Fashion” went even bigger by adding Kunal Nayyar, who starred opposite Rauch for ten seasons of the hit CBS sitcom. They definitely weren’t playing Bernadette and Raj on Night Court, though, and their dynamic had me flashing back to comments from Rauch about her first post-Big Bang project!
But first, let’s look at the episode that brought the two former Big Bang Theory regulars back together in primetime.
How Night Court Reunited Melissa Rauch And Kunal Nayyar
As fans may have suspected after the first look at Kunal Nayyar on Night Court, he was playing Abby‘s first real love interest after ending her engagement to Rand. As famous fashion designer Martini, Nayyar definitely came across differently than Raj did, so it wasn’t too weird to watch the two play love interests after ten years of friendship on The Big Bang Theory.
They bonded over some unique shared interests – including but not limited to dinosaurs – after he broke into her office to avoid the paparazzi, and the whole romance seemed straight out of a Disney princess movie. Alas, they didn’t get a fairy tale ending, despite spending the night together. His attempt to design her a new judge robe backfired pretty spectacularly, and they agreed that they just weren’t meant to be.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ve seen the last of Kunal Nayyar as Martini, though! He departed with the comment of “Until we meet again,” so perhaps Martini will be back to shake things up for Abby again.
What Melissa Rauch Told Us About Her ‘Learning Experience’
While it may seem like a long time ago now, Melissa Rauch was announced as part of the Night Court revival as her first big project after The Big Bang Theory ended in 2019. She was initially only on board as an executive producer, but was later announced to star as Abby Stone as well as work behind-the-scenes.
When Rauch spoke with press ahead of Night Court‘s Season 2 premiere, I asked the actress what it has been like for her to work on the hit comedy as star as well as producer after all of her comedy experience with The Big Bang Theory. She shared:
It’s been a great learning experience, and I think what’s been really nice about this experience in particular is… I had no plans to do both on this show. And it’s sort of happened organically because of my love for both John [Larroquette] and the writing that was happening. So I think because of that, and how it happened so naturally, and the fact that John is also an executive producer on the show, it’s sort of this feeling of – when we’re talking about what’s coming up or stories we want to do – it’s a very natural discussion, both as actors and producers.
Her role on The Big Bang Theory that she knew well was in front of the camera; her role on Night Court was originally supposed to be off-screen entirely. John Larroquette is of course the one member of the original Night Court cast who joined the revival as a series regular (although Marsha Warfield joined him as a guest star), so it’s no surprise that Melissa Rauch loved working with him right off the bat. Her “learning experience” going from TBBT to Night Court has clearly been successful! She continued:
John, as we were developing this, was so integral to that process. As we cracked what Dan Fielding was going to be like in this new 2.0 version of him, he was so involved in that. How we sort of set up how we work together really happened before I was ever going to be starring on this show. We sort of worked together as a creative team, and then that sort of just bled into us working together. So there’s a really nice shorthand in how we work together both as producers and as actors, and I can’t say enough good things about the guy. It’s just a dream come true to be working with him.
While it was great to get the Big Bang Theory reunion with Kunal Nayyar joining Melissa Rauch on her show, she has found a new comedic home with John Larroquette and the rest of the Night Court cast. Not every actor could go from one hit sitcom to leading their own just a few years later, but Rauch has pulled it off as both actress and executive producer.
See more of Melissa Rauch as Abby Stone with new episodes of Night Court on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, and revisit earlier episodes of the revival streaming with a Peacock Premium subscription. If seeing the reunion put you in the mood for The Big Bang Theory, you can find all twelve seasons streaming with a Max subscription.