Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Night Court season 3, episode 4.Night Courtseason 3, episode 4 titled “Feliz NaviDead” lives up to its name and centers around a murder mystery game gone rogue. After Abby receives a mysterious death threat in the middle of a trial, all eyes are on Andy Daly’s Fred. The vacuum salesman is lost in his own world, and the group plays “Murder in Malibu” to coerce him into a confession. However, when he appears to have been killed for real, Dan panics and admits that the event was meant to be aChristmas presentfor Abby.
In yet another plot twist, Abby shares that she had already figured out Dan’s plan and turned the tables on him. Fred stops pretending to be dead, and all the police disclose themselves as actors. The episode’s biggest shocker takes place during the final seconds when Fred and Kratz (Joe Lo Truglio,Brooklyn Nine-Nine) are left alone in the cafeteria. Revealing themselves as angels, the duo heads back to heaven right before Flobert enters the room with their harp, basking him in a golden glow.
Night Court Season 4: Will It Happen? Everything We Know
NBC’s reboot of Night Court rivals the original in terms of popularity and longevity, but will Judge Abby Stone return for season 4?
ScreenRantinterviews Daly about his love for theoriginalNight Courtseries, the Christmas episode’s angelic ending, and working alongside fellow guest star, Joe Lo Truglio.
“It just felt like a time machine situation to me.”
ScreenRant: Were you a fan of the originalNight Courtseries?
Andy Daly: I was a huge fan of the original Night Court series. Yes. Me and my parents used to just head to the TV room, sit on the couch, and watch primetime sitcoms, let ‘em roll, and Night Court was always a favorite. I loved Harry Anderson and I loved John Larroquette. It just felt like every time he opened his mouth, he got a laugh. I used to love it.
How did you end up getting involved then? Did you just get the call to do the show?
Andy Daly: Yes, and I couldn’t believe it. It just felt like a time machine situation to me. Of course, I would’ve dreamed as a kid of being on Night Court, but that’s a dream that I definitely let go of a long time ago. And then to suddenly get this call that they’d like you to come and be on literal Night Court—I couldn’t have been more excited. It’s just crazy.
I did wonder—was it hard for you to stop using the salesman’s voice when the camera cut?
Andy Daly: Probably not. It was very easy to lapse into it, I can say that. [Laughs] It took no effort to just kind of become that guy. I guess that’s sort of a go-to attitude of mine. But once the cameras were off, it was all joking around with Gary Anthony Williams and Melissa Rauch and immediately snapped right into casual off-camera mode.
Daly Enjoyed Working With Long-Time Friend Joe Lo Truglio For Night Court’s Holiday Episode
“We live very close to each other, so I’ve known Joe a long time. That was great to have him there.”
You did an episode ofBrooklyn Nine-Nine, so did you get a chance to work with Joe Lo Truglio before this?
Andy Daly: Gosh, that’s a good question. Yeah. We must’ve worked together on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, but I’ve known Joe for a long time, just back in New York days and just kicking around town. We’re neighbors, apparently. [Laughs] We live very close to each other, so I’ve known Joe a long time. That was great to have him there.
It can always be a little bit tricky to come into a show as a guest star and feel like I’m the new guy, and I’m not going to be here long. Am I going to get to know people? So it’s great when there are people there that you already know. And I already know Gary Anthony Williams and Joe Lo Truglio, so that made it easy and fun.
Dan is essentially playing a character when he’s interacting with you in this episode. How was playing off of John Larroquette in that way?
Andy Daly: It felt amazingly like it was to watch it as a kid. This character is so funny. His cynicism and just being over it all the time and his sarcasm and everything he says is just hilarious. So getting to work off of him was surreal, but wonderful.
Were you given a rundown of the episode beforehand, or were you finding out everything while reading the script?
Andy Daly: I was told the basic premise that this guy is a murder mystery actor, and maybe I was told that he doesn’t break character or something like that. But the rest of it, I had to read to find out. Often what I do, the first time I read a script, I just read my lines and verify I understand my lines. If I have to read the dialogue around my line to understand what my line means, I’ll do that.
But I try not to read the whole thing because then we have a table read, and I like to be surprised and laugh genuinely at the things in the table read. I don’t know if that’s the most professional approach or if that’s what everybody does [laughs], but I really like to show up to the table read ready to be surprised by the twists and turns. So that definitely happened for me at this table read. I was like, “Oh, I get it now!”
Night Court’s Angelic Ending Came As A Surprise To Cast Members
“It’s so funny because that was not the original ending of the script. That came into play maybe on the last day of rehearsals.”
That poses the question—was there ever a moment when you thought Fred was actually dead?
Andy Daly: I couldn’t believe they would do that. [Laughs] It’s such a funny show that impossible things happen on Night Court sometimes, which is unusual. And so yeah, I guess it could have been, but reading that I was like, “No, there’s no way. Right? You’re not going to do that on a primetime network sitcom. Just straight up kill a man in cold blood.” I was skeptical.
What was your take on the final scene when Fred and Kratz disappeared? Were there real angels inNight Court’smidst?
Andy Daly: It’s so funny because that was not the original ending of the script. That came into play maybe on the last day of rehearsals. I remember Joe and I walking onto set for the first time, and I said to him, “Did you see we’re angels?” And he was like, “Yeah!” We’re like, “Okay! Crazy!”
And part of me, because it was a new idea, I thought, “Maybe it will be replaced by another idea. Is this really going to happen?” But we did it and there were others on the set saying, “Are we really doing this?” But yeah, I would say that the ending of that episode is that Joe and I were angels straight from heaven.
It’s a very Christmassy ending. I like it.
Andy Daly: I do too. It’s such a TV trope to have a Santa Claus who seems like a crazy old person, and then at the very end, he disappears, and you hear sleigh bells in the distance. They’ll do that even on St. Elsewhere or whatever. It’s happened on so many shows that you go like, “Wait a minute, was that Santa Claus?” [Laughs] This ending of Night Court, I think, went beyond that. I think it took things up a notch. There’s a couple of literal, “It’s A Wonderful Life” style angels here to save John Larroquette’s soul.
Abby Stone follows in the footsteps of her revered late father.
In her quest to bring order and dignity to the court and reign in its colorful crew of oddballs, Abby enlists former night court district attorney Dan Fielding (John Larroquette) to serve as the court’s public defender. Still exceedingly self-confident, Fielding must adjust to a new boss and a new job – defending the downtrodden. And, beneath his arrogant demeanor, there is an empathetic side to Fielding that Abby is determined to unearth.
Check out our otherNight Courtseason 3 interviews:
Night Courtseason 3 returns Tuesday, January 14 at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
Night Court
Night Court is a 2023 series following optimistic judge Abby Stone, daughter of the late Harry Stone, as she oversees the night shift of a Manhattan arraignment court, navigating a group of quirky and skeptical colleagues, including former prosecutor Dan Fielding.
