I feel like in order for this to be funny for me, I'm gonna be whiskey or something.
I actually remember this one.
Yeah?
Yeah.
Fondly?
Nah.
So I'm a little worried that this isn't enough to actually talk about it.
He's so patronizing.
It's a judge.
He's a judge.
Hi everybody, so this is Does It Hold Up?
The podcast dedicated to potentially ruining your childhood and all of your fond memories
that happened before mom and dad got divorced.
It still gets me.
I'm glad.
Yeah.
I was off the cuff last time.
It was good.
It really was.
This time it wasn't.
So yeah, we're all back.
The three of us.
High out there.
All five listeners.
I'm Brock.
I'm Amanda.
I'm Brad.
And yeah, we're here to tell you that night court does not hold.
Well, before we get into it, we have a social media presence now and we're gonna let we're
gonna let Brad handle this because I don't Twitter.
Okay.
So yeah, we're on we're on Twitter now at our handle is at hold does.
All one word.
And then of course, it's what it's all one word, but we're also on Facebook at does it
hold up and then we are now officially listed on Apple podcast, Spotify and Stitcher.
So if you just search for does it hold up, they should come up.
You might scroll a little bit down.
We're not.
Just look for Pinkie Pie.
Yeah, just look for.
Yeah, look for Pinkie Pie.
We'll see how long we can keep that before we get a cease and desist letter on our copyright
agreement.
We'll see.
We'll see what happens there.
Yeah.
But yeah, yeah, if you could.
I mean, you know, like every podcast says, you know, if you see us on there, you know,
rate us and give us five star review and, you know, see if we can move up in the whatever.
I don't know.
For all five years.
There's another podcast I listened to says the funky Apple or iTunes algorithm that's
the algorithm.
Yes, the.
Yeah.
See how we end up.
That's the monkeys.
The monkeys typing in the room.
Right.
That's pretty much.
Yeah.
So I'm going to need to take a big drink before we go into this one.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, we were already hinted at it.
We already said it.
So we we revisit at night court, the comedy, I'll say comedy, the sitcom will say it's situation
comedy that ran on NBC from.
I didn't.
I can't remember what the years were 84 to 91 or something like that.
God, didn't really last a 91.
Yeah.
Right.
Nine seasons.
How the hell nine seasons about 20 episodes of season 20 minutes per episode and a lot of
laugh track.
A lot of laugh track.
I mean, it's the same laugh track though.
That's the thing.
They don't.
They don't seem to update that.
It was the same.
Yeah.
Unless it was the same studio audience for nine years.
Yeah.
Maybe it's not a laugh track.
They trap those people.
Yeah.
You cannot leave.
Okay.
I will say that the show and kept them.
So I don't want to I'll go into it a little bit further detail later on, but I did go and
listen to or watch two other sitcoms of the time that had better ratings that were better
and to see if maybe because spoiler, these aren't funny anymore, to see if the other
shows were funny and they weren't as funny as I remember and I'll go into it more detail.
But one of the shows says it at the beginning of every episode.
It was recorded in front of a live studio audience.
So that must have been a new thing or something that they always had this like, I don't know
like how they decided which was that and which one was it.
But the one I watched a couple episodes of Cheers and Cheers always says that in front
of it.
I remember the episode begins.
Yeah.
And so but other shows don't necessarily say that.
So are they all I don't know how that works.
I don't know.
There's a history there of like why there's a lack and I don't know what it is, but I
don't know if it became too expensive or they didn't always have the ability to have a live
studio audience, but people didn't like not hearing people laugh.
I don't know and then it just became horribly insipid thing that you just you I can't watch
shows anymore.
I can't.
I'm pretty sure friends had a laugh.
I do.
And I don't think I could watch friends.
I mean friends is still popular.
They were a friend who was in front of a live studio audience.
Yeah.
Was it?
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, I mean, it's one thing to be in front of a live studio audience.
If it's a laugh track, I am immediately like I watched one episode of Big Bang Theory and
that was enough.
Oh God.
I couldn't.
I just it's just canned laughter and but anyway, I digress.
Okay.
Yes.
I just looked.
I just looked it up.
It started.
It was January of 84.
It was a mid-season replacement and then it ran to 92 was the day of 92.
Yeah.
It was on NBC nine seasons it I mean John Larricat who's in it.
He won three Emmys for best supporting actor in a comedy series from running in the fourth
because he didn't want another one.
Yeah.
And some other people got nominated in the series, Harry Anderson who is Judge Stone in
it.
I guess, I mean, for those who don't remember, it's it's about a quirky, I guess they're
in Manhattan.
They're in New York City.
Yeah.
Night Court.
And it's just the judge, the bailiffs, the prosecutor, the defender, the defense attorney
and.
My God.
The court.
The court reporter.
I don't know what he is.
He's the, uh, the docket judge or clerk report, whatever, yeah, it's just, yeah.
And it's, you know, it has some feet, I guess it has some, like, it's not like individual,
like not every episode standalone.
There is some carryover from scene, but it is just, I don't, well, I mean, we can just
talk about what we watched.
I mean, they, they, they, when they did the show, they were very specific about, it's
just to turn your brain off and laugh.
They weren't going to tackle anything heavy.
They didn't want to take on any social issues.
It was just supposed to be a relax and unwind from your day.
Have a beer and chill.
Well, the first, the first episode we just watched, they brought on, well, I guess the
actors, the actress died.
That's what I'm going to say is that we randomly picked an episode and it happened to discuss
death because one of the actresses who was in the season before died and they had to
replace her, which that was an interesting thing about the show is that if you look at
the cast from season one and then jump ahead to season three, it changed.
The only.
Yeah.
It's only Harry Anderson who is Harry Stone, the judge, and then John Larricare, the only
two that are the same to the whole nine seasons and the big bailiff.
Oh, bullets.
That's right.
You're right.
The clerk is, the clerk changes.
She changed.
Yeah.
Matt comes in season two, which is what's who he was in all the episodes we watched and
the bail of the second bail of turns over a couple of times to the solo for a few years
and then they replaced her with flow and then she died after a year and they brought
him to both both.
Who made it to her?
Yeah, they, but I don't know if I want to take that job.
I was Ross.
Yeah, so what do you guys, what do you guys eating like during lunch?
Yeah.
So, I mean, it's so the whole plot, I mean, every stage, it's either the courtroom, judge
Stone's office or the cafeteria and that's pretty and the hallway in between.
Or this window, so that's part of his office.
I'm going to guess.
I'm going to put this out there for everybody.
This was, this was hard.
It was hard to watch.
It's hard for to know what to even talk about.
We watched three episodes together and thanks to COVID-19, we had to do it remotely.
So it took like three hours to try to get it to work, right?
And we tried it with an app to where we could watch it in sync and that worked for a bit,
but then it stopped working.
So then we were actually doing like three, two, one go, each one of us running it separately,
but there were ads.
So we actually wound up spending money to buy a version of my court.
I pissed away 99 cents to buy an episode of my court.
It felt like we were investing six hours and some money to eat a shit village.
I mean, it was just, I don't know how to put it.
I don't know.
It's not even like, it's not even funny because it just doesn't, it just doesn't, it doesn't
make it like the whole show is just if you, and here's the thing, I will say, I love this
as a kid.
I remember watching, I probably started watching season four, season five, because I know that
all the characters that were in the end were there.
Ros was there, Christine, who's played with Markey Post, she was there, Mac was there.
They were all there.
So, and I remember seeing the reruns on TV and then they would start and be like, who
are these people?
And, but I remember watching those as well, the same time this was doing first run still.
So, and I loved it.
I thought it was hilarious.
I thought it was, you know, John Larricut, it was great.
I mean, I thought it was in a quirky that, and so if you have that memory, I will say
do not go back and just keep the good memory, because I mean, I think Brock, we talked about
this while we were watching yesterday was that we both, like within the last five years
have just revisited this just on a, not because of the, just because we saw it and we knew
we'd liked it.
And both immediately were like, this is not good anymore.
Like this does not, there's a lot of joke joke in air quotes.
Well, then I even jokes.
That's the thing, like you can tell where the jokes are supposed to be, because somebody
will say something, somebody will respond and the laugh track kicks in.
And half the time, it's like, I mean, you're not even, you know, doing that laugh out loud
thing where you just kind of breathe heavy through your nose.
It's just nothing.
I mean, I mean, I may have kind of done one of like these once in the three episodes we
watch.
Yeah.
And the extra one I watched today, just because I was bored, I did not laugh at all.
It was like, it was like a documentary was on almost.
Yeah.
Like it was, I mean, it was like, there's nothing.
This is nothing.
This is, I don't, and I'm trying to, this is where I'm having a hard time is like, this
was one of the different in the eighties.
I don't know.
I mean, but these people, like here's the thing, like as, I mean, I'll excuse it.
I was a kid, you know, when I first started watching this, probably in '86 or so, I was
11 or 12 maybe, you know, like when I probably first started watching this, okay.
It was funny humor.
This is what I kind of thought adults were, you know, like, you know, one dimensional.
This is what like, it was easy as a kid figure, but these are all adults that made this movie
that wrote this or wrote these shows that acted out these.
And this was funny to them at the time.
Yeah.
Right?
They thought they were a killing it.
And they obviously were by the ratings, I mean, I look at the ratings, they were, I mean,
millions of people were tuning in each week when it was on.
Yeah, I remember our Thursday nights, man, we popped popcorn and watched Cheers at Lightcourt
back to back.
And I remember my dad thinking that, that, uh, John Larricut, that Dan Fielding was a funny
guy.
Like it was a funny character.
So what, so what, they're so, they're like cartoon characters.
Every one of them.
I mean, Harry's the goofball, John Larricut's just the sexist predator, really.
Yeah.
I'll get into that with the episode I watched, but, and Kristina is just the naive, like,
almost like country bumpkin, even though she's on the woman.
Yeah.
So yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Let's just start talking about the episodes.
Yeah.
And I mean, like, Bull is just the big, low, lowable goof, right?
I mean, they're, they're all one dimensional.
Ros is just the great man.
Yeah.
She's the, she is the straight.
Yeah.
So.
Well, Mac is too.
Mac is the straight.
Like they're both like the, yeah, they're just, I mean, yeah, I don't know.
They're not people.
They're characters.
Right.
And the thing is they still had eight years and they didn't really develop the characters
and that wasn't the point.
They didn't want that.
I know.
It wouldn't be last.
I saw this on, I couldn't believe this.
I was going through some clips on YouTube.
And I think it's in season nine.
They actually, they, you know how they always had like these little bits where it's, it's
the judges talking and you can't see who the, the, the, uh, purpose, who the criminal
is or whatever.
He's talking to them, gives them speech and then he does, and it's always a gag because
he's saying something and then when they pan over, whoever it is, it's, and they actually
literally did it where Wiley Coyote was.
Yeah.
I showed that.
Yes.
I could not.
I was like, Jesus.
Like this is supposed to be, we've, we've crossed it with like, this is in who framed
Roger, uh, rabbit realm now.
This is the same universe as work.
There's a tune town and Wiley Coyote escape and you got arrested in New York City.
Like what's that?
I actually have that in my research.
What was that?
That was my Brad fact.
I think I mentioned it when we were talking yesterday.
That's, that's the jump.
I guess that has to be their jump.
The shark movement.
Maybe I don't know.
Yeah.
I don't know how the actors continued to do the show beyond it.
Just being sick.
I think they did it because they got paid.
That's the only thing.
Because I mean, I can't imagine, but I mean, a lot of people liked it, but at the same
time I just doing these jokes and trying to, I just, I feel like it's supposed to be like,
what am I doing?
Wow.
The heck?
Yeah.
Well, that's the thing.
Like you said the clip, it was like three minutes, right of it was season one, I think,
but there's no laughter.
It wasn't long actually.
It was only one minute, but it was only one minute, but they're obviously saying the jokes
and that's where the laugh track would go in.
But it doesn't, I can't, so that's the way they did it on set.
Yeah.
And they thought it was funny.
You have to pause and just.
Right.
Now, I don't know if the laugh track is like there.
So they know when or they just know to like stop after this line and count to three in
your head because that's a joke.
And then move on.
I don't either.
There is one funny moment that I can think of that this is my brad fact.
There's an episode of season six where John Larry Kent's character Dan Fielding is trapped
in a hotel with this crazy woman who like acts out television shows or something.
And Dan's on the bed like clicking through the television and stops and the announcer
on the television says, you know, we'll return to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
And Dan says, see that already.
The funny thing is that John Larry Cat was the narrator for both the 1974 and the remake
of Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
The narrator?
Yep.
Really?
Yep.
I've never seen any of those.
Yeah.
I haven't either.
So that's a cool fact.
But that is cool.
Hey, I'm doing my best.
It wasn't a lot.
But I guess if you.
Well, that would be fun.
That was funny where he's like, click it through the television and it says, and we'll
return to Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
And he's like, see it already, click.
See, like, that's funny, but I had to know that.
And then the only other cool thing I could really come up with was John Larry Cat was
a Klingon in the search for Spock and Brent Spiner was data and it's kind of like a crossover
from the two shows.
That's it.
Yeah.
Oh, my god.
Okay.
If you say so.
Yeah.
Just trust us.
Yeah.
All right.
So let's, yeah.
Okay.
I guess you want to go into it because I've got, I've got one episode or at least a little
bit of one episode that I'm going to kind of talk about just to give an idea as to the
level of humor and mine is mine, mine focuses on, on Dan.
And it's just go for it, hun.
Well, I don't know if that has one he wants to do.
No, I mean, I've got the one I have to focus on, Dan, but it's the other side of it.
So I googled the top best or the top, the best and worst episodes and I watched what they
said was the worst Dan Fielding episode.
So I'll.
Okay.
Yeah, I did something similar.
I actually googled like the highest rated episodes and the highest rated episode that this
one person said was is one of those clip episodes where it's like, they just have to do the
whole thing.
And I didn't want to watch that.
But the episode I wanted watching was a three-parter, but I could only find part one for free
on the internet.
So I didn't watch.
You're working on it.
And personally, you are working on it.
And you're working on it.
You're working on it.
You're going to invest three dollars.
Two and a half, nine, nine, ten, four.
So yeah, so what happens in this episode is you find out that, that, and you don't know
this apparently up to this point and I just have to go with it because I'm not 100% sure
that Dan in his spare time is in the National Guard.
He's in the Army Reserve, what he says.
Okay.
I mean, he does it to make a little bit of extra money, but I mean, he's an attorney.
So I'd like to think he makes good money, but he works at a night court.
He works at night court.
Yeah.
So maybe he makes nothing, but he lives in Manhattan.
Who's the public defender?
No, he's not the, which one?
I can't remember.
Which one?
He is the prosecutor, right?
He's the...
Yeah.
He's the prosecutor.
Christian's a fan.
You might make good money, but he lives in New York.
So, you know, he probably can't afford anything.
So he comes in in his uniform and he talks to Harry and he's like, "Hey, Harry, I'm
going to need some time off.
I've been chosen for like this special mission."
And you know, the whole time you're watching it, you're like, "All right.
This is kind of goofy."
And he apparently finds out somehow that the special mission is going to involve him going
into a quote unquote war zone.
So this is the 80s.
So I don't know where he's going.
I'm Central America, Grenada.
I don't know where he's going.
Right.
Well, this is pre like first...
Falkland Islands?
Is he going for the...
Yeah.
I don't know what's out there.
Tretting New Jersey?
Yeah.
Detroit maybe.
Yeah.
I don't know.
So he...
The war on drug starts.
It starts.
Yeah.
I'm not...
He's going to actually have to fight potentially and goes into typical Dan Fielding, "Haha, this
is funny mode," and basically tries to figure out a way to get out of it.
And you know, he's trying everything possible to weasel his way out of it.
He's just...
You know, I'll hide in Harry's office.
Um, bull, punch me so that you hit me so hard that, you know, I'm injured.
He goes and gets an X-ray that shows that he's got like a spleen issue, and he brings
it back.
There's a joke about how it's like a cow X-ray.
I mean, it's just...
Oh, it's...
It's like...
Well, is that your udder over there?
It's just so bad.
It's just...
Any idiot will realize that this is not a thing.
So he's panicking and panicking.
He doesn't know what to do.
And his new commanding officer finally shows up to give him his orders.
And she comes strutting in, and she's, you know, a blonde bimbo in a uniform.
This is the one where she hands him.
And she hands him...
Yeah, hands him a packet that has his orders in it, and inside the packet is a speedo.
And that's his uniform.
He has to go with her.
I remember this.
Here's the thing.
I know for a fact.
Yeah.
You used that joke before because I remember there's one episode, and we didn't watch it
for this, but where he is going on vacation, and they're like, "Did you pack?"
And he's like, "All I needed is a speedo."
Yeah.
And that's how he's going to the island.
And I'm like...
So they fucking recycled this.
Yeah.
Not only bad, but they recycle all these jokes.
So he pulls it out, and he's like, "Oh, this is great."
And of course, there's jokes about how, you know, Dan's going to be under her, and she's
saying this.
And it's...
I don't know.
She's in full bimbo mode at this point.
And so they're getting ready to walk out, and Dan's all excited now.
He's like, "Hey, I can do this."
And do you remember the first episode we watched, the guy who's like, "Hi, I'm Scum."
Like just the dirty homeless guy?
Yeah.
He comes walking in.
Do you remember him?
Yeah.
Because he ends up dying in the show.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
He has a bunch of...
Towards the end of the series, yeah.
He ends up dying and giving all of his...
He's actually a millionaire or very wealthy, and he gives all the money to Dan, and Dan
gets all excited.
And Dan has to... of course, he didn't give it to Dan.
He gave it to Dan in a trust, or in a institute, and he has to give it away, and Dan hates
doing that.
That's another funny...
Yeah.
There's always a twist, yeah.
So as they're walking out and Dan's all excited now, that bum guy comes walking in with a bouquet
of flowers pretending to be his gay lover, which is going to get him out of being in
the military.
And no matter what, Dan says, the guy won't go away.
Right.
And of course, it eventually comes out that Dan was trying to shirk his duties.
And so immediately right there, this woman says, "Well, we're going to send you to the
Arctic Circle, and the Sergeant who's with her has an envelope."
And they talk about how they're going to examine polar bears, and then the envelope is a rubber
glove.
Ha-ha-ha.
They're going to stick their hands up the ass as a polar bear.
But the fact that they've got all this stuff right there, and it's just cheesy...
This is the shit.
Like, this is so...
I don't...
I mean...
Then, to end it all...
Was this funny, then?
Then to end it all, Bull walks in, and Bull has refused to hit Dan up to this point.
But then he finally decides, "All right, I'm going to hit you now."
I'm going to hit him, man.
So he winds back to hit him, they cut away to Harry, and there's, you know, a sound of
a punch and like a crashing noise.
And then they've cut an outline above the door to the courtroom, where they've got like
Dan Fielding's fake body and his head up in a hole, so it looks like Bull punched him
into the wall.
And it goes to commercial.
And I'm like, "That's funny in like Tom and Jerry."
Why would I hit him?
That's where...
That's going back to my point.
It was funny to me, the 12-year-old Brad, sure.
Yeah.
This was hilarious.
Oh, it was funny.
He was trying to be gay to get out of the military and all that.
That was funny.
But the adults that wrote this, the adults that actually perform this, they all thought
it was funny.
The adults that watched this, I mean, they all thought this was funny back then.
I mean...
Yeah.
I mean, it was truly just watching him try to worm his way out of it.
I mean, I'm not trying to put a filter on like the social...
Yeah.
That's the way it was.
Like, that was...
Oh, no.
Yeah.
I mean...
It's just not...
It's not funny because of now, but at the same time, like, to me, I mean, I can't imagine
putting me a 40-year-old Brad back in that time watching this and being like, "Oh, it's
not funny.
The joke, this isn't funny.
It doesn't hit."
Yeah.
And I'm having a hard time understanding what happened.
Why?
You know what?
Daresay.
Why it's not funny anymore.
I don't think it holds up.
Yeah.
I'm thinking...
I'm thinking I'm leaning that way.
I'm not convinced yet.
I want to hear...
We're running here so my man is already the worst.
This is totally our Captain America jumping on the grenade moment for anybody listening.
Stay away from my court.
I mean, dear Lord, stay away from me.
All right, Brad, on the scale of legend to beastmaster, where does my court fall?
In between.
It's a legend still worse?
It's legend still worse.
Legend was painful to...
Wow.
I mean, this was painful.
Wow.
Has anybody told me you have to watch five episodes of Night Court or legend?
I think of...
No, because I can't...
Of legend.
There's no...
No.
I totally fucking disagree.
I'm not watching legend again.
I'm not...
Because I don't want to pay attention.
Legend, I had to pay attention.
Night Court, I know what happened.
So I don't really have to like...
I can just zone out.
Like you said earlier, that's what it was supposed to be.
I can totally do that with Night Court.
I was actually...
I would actually do it this morning and working at the same time.
Right.
So...
Yeah.
Right.
So what's the episode you watched?
Yeah.
What's your Dan Fielding thing?
So I watched...
And this is the one where they said it was Dan Fielding at his worst, right?
Okay.
I can't remember the name of the episode.
It doesn't fucking matter.
It was in season six, I think.
So what happens in the episode is...
Shit, I don't even remember the B plot, but I'll just tell you the A plot.
The B plot is that Christine is... she's written a children's book.
And she apparently, at some point, had a child on the show, I guess.
Yeah.
She had a little kid, but she's...
Does she have a child in real life and they wrote it in?
Yes.
I think that's what it was.
Yeah.
So she's a working mom, and she decides to write a children's book to show her son what
mommy does at work.
And it's like...
Mom, I can't remember the name, it doesn't...
Mom, I can't remember the name.
So she does that, and she has this plot, and she's meeting with the publisher, but she
enrolls the courtroom artist, which I wouldn't think that a night court would have a courtroom
artist, but maybe it's just the guy who's the actual courtroom artist during the day,
and she doesn't cap and...
No, you can't remember.
But whatever.
She hires him to do the illustrations for the children's book, and then she's sitting
down there and talking to him, and Dan's sitting at...
They're all the kitchen because they all have lunch together in the cafeteria that is open
in the middle of the night, which another thing I think is weird.
They mentioned it being night, like once in a while, just to kind of be like...
To remind you that it's a night court?
Yeah, it's a night court, but it might as well just be.
But anyway, so they're going through the illustrations, and Dan is...
He's captivated by how well the courtroom illustrator has captured Christine in all her
beauty.
What?
So, yeah, this is where it gets really fucking creepy.
So then he says, "Oh, she's really happy with it, she's going to meet with the publisher
and all that."
So then he's like, "Hold on a minute."
She leaves, and he's like, "Hold on a minute."
He's like, "Could you do a drawing for me?"
And he's like, "Well, what are we talking about?"
And he's like, "I want Christine in black stilettos and a cellophane top or something
like that."
Yeah, and I'm like, "What the fuck?"
Yeah, this is where he becomes a predator instead of a...
He's just...
Please, man.
Right.
So the illustrator, he's like, "It'll cost you a two-week salary," and he's like, "Fine,
whatever.
It'll be worth it."
And he's like amazed at how well the drawing is.
So then he's like, "I want you to do a whole series now with Mommy Christine," I think
is what he calls her, "and Mr. Dan."
Ew!
And so, yes.
Do you do the internet?
Yeah.
So the illustrator is like, "Okay."
And then he...
So then Dan has a brown paper bag, and this is where I'm like, "This was written by adults.
This is what was fun."
He brings...
And this is...
They're like...
They didn't have any fucking idea what the hell sex toys were.
He brings out...
It's a fucking plastic slinky, a rubber chicken, and some gloves, and some other shit.
He pulls about on the table, and he's like, "I don't want you to use these as your inspiration
for our adventures, and I want you to illustrate it as that."
And the guy's like...
And I'm like...
I'm like, "I'm not a fucking comedy writer, but I can have written that.
Once I get it, in 1987, you were able to put a dildo on the screen or anything like that.
But you could have just...
Like you did with the pictures.
You could have just had the brown paper bag and been like, "Hey, this is an assortment of
my toys.
Use these as your inspiration."
Who the fuck uses a slinky for sex?
No.
I don't care how kinky you is.
That's not happening.
I mean, I'm sure there's somebody, Rule 39, right?
I'm sure there's somebody.
But 34, it's Rule 34.
Rule 69, whatever.
But I'm sure they're so sharp.
But the rubber chicken was the one I was like, "What the fuck?"
Well, then I thought chicken was like, "Maaah!"
But see, I think that's to the guys.
That was funny.
It's like, "Look, we'll bring out obviously not a sex toy, but Dan uses it."
That's comedy.
Comedy cool.
Right.
So then the guy does it.
Yeah.
At some point, some guy said, "Yes, this is great."
And other people would...
Right.
Well, they...
Do you want to...
What was that?
I missed that.
Slinky.
A rubber chicken and what else?
It was some gloves and some other shit.
I don't remember.
It was so stupid.
I was just like, "What the fuck?"
Like, "This is dumb."
So can you guess what happens in 15 years to meet her publishers?
They swap pictures and it's hilarious because what she's doing, she's like, "Hey, you look
at the pictures and I'm going to read the story."
And of course, the story matches up with it's a double entendre with what she's saying.
Wow.
And that in the children's book to what they publish is looking at and of course then he
gets all hot and bothered and it's like, "I need to be punished," or something like that.
They're really into S&M in this, like soft, core S&M, but they really are into the...
I mean, Dan is like, "Yeah."
Right.
What?
They were trying to break through that barrier in TV.
Like, we're going to talk about stuff nobody's talked about before.
Right.
Oh my gosh.
That's nauseating.
So then they switch and then at the very end, Christine gets to stand back by...
She's handing out naked pictures of him at the office.
I'm like, "What the fuck?"
First of all, I don't remember.
You did what?
Yeah.
But I'm like, "Wait a minute.
What office, even in 1987, when this episode was airing, where the courtroom artist is
going to draw essentially pornographic pictures of one of the workers and the public defender
at the office?
Like, no.
I don't...
I mean, not on retainer.
I mean, he might do it for his own personal, some creepy way like that, but not on retainer.
Yeah.
Right.
And I was like, "Ah, this is...
That's where it's like...
What the fuck?
Like, they had to keep Dan...
That's...
They had to have a theme where Christine and Harry were supposed to get together, right?
Yeah.
And they cut like missing.
And then Dan was always lusting after her because that's funny.
And it's like, "No, it's not.
That's whole bit is not funny."
Like, Dan...
There was the work in the episode that I saw that I forgot about where Dan realizes he
might die.
And he's like, " Christine, you sleep with me now so that there can be a little Dan running
around."
And I was just like, "Ew.
Come on."
Well, I was reading through the episode notes and apparently there's one where she chokes
and Dan saves her.
She's choking the capture and he does the heimlich on her and saves her.
And then she...
The whole episode, he's like, "Well, to pay me back, you can just sleep with me."
Jesus.
I'm like, "What the fuck?
What could I create?"
Like, you wouldn't hang out with him.
You wouldn't...
No one would hang out with him.
I'm like that.
I'm sorry.
The first time he said that to Christine, she'd be like, "Fuck you.
Get out of my face and I'm not doing anything with you other than having to work.
The only time I'm going to say something to you is when I have to legally say something
to you in the courtroom."
But other than that, stay the fuck away from me.
That brings up a really interesting point then, because we've seen a few episodes and, I mean,
is Dan fielding?
I mean, I remember him being a funny character.
He was the, arguably, the most interesting and funny character on the show back in the
day.
Right.
Is there anything redeeming about him anymore?
Or is he truly just, like, a nasty person?
Yeah.
They're all cartoon characters.
They're one dimensional.
Yeah.
I mean, this isn't...
Yeah.
There's nothing...
There's no development.
They never try to develop.
Yeah.
The point that you bring up, Brock, is a good one.
It's like...
There's no way this show would fly now.
No.
And I think that maybe that's a social commentary in some respects, where this was acceptable
back then, obviously it was, because it lasted for nine seasons.
And it wasn't like they, you know, Dan's character started off as conservative and then just
kind of went off the deep end, even more conservative and more of a scumbag.
So the fact that it lasted that long, the people obviously found it either enjoyable
or funny or compelling or something.
I mean, that's the thing.
If we did it now, they would have to do it as like, he'd be the bumbling guy or...
Or she'd get a restraining order.
Well, I think they would just, they would never go that route.
He would never make it past day one.
Yeah.
They talk about...
So the one episode I watched, or maybe it was a clip, and he's trying to get off work
and he walks up to Harry and he's like, "Hey, can we take a resource?"
And Harry doesn't even look up.
He says, "Money or sex?" and he's like, "What?" and he goes, "Which is it?
Is it because of money or sex that you want to take the recess now?"
And he's like, "Sex?" and he's like, "Well, I'm sorry.
You're going to have to have sex with that floozing the broom closet after work today.
We have to work through the whole docket."
And I'm like, is that supposed to be, that was supposed to be funny, but I'm like, "Okay,
like this is, this is, I mean, as a child, I'm like, this is what people like, I don't
know.
I mean, I didn't really think it was real real, but I mean, I thought it was kind of
the way there might be something like some kooky, because they'll work at night and it's
some crazy New York thing, maybe there is these crazy night courts that actually are
kind of like this.
New York at night.
Maybe this is, this is what...
Knowles funny, right?
It's just...
Where they bring in all the prostitutes and all that.
All right, so I watched, here's the, this is where I'm like, this show just fucking rewashed
jokes.
There's a warning from that, good.
I watched, we watched four episodes, right?
I watched three with you guys and we watched one.
Three out of the four, there was a Christine hair joke.
Really?
Wow.
Yeah.
The one, so the one, the one where she got her hair cut, right, and nobody noticed, right?
The one I watched, she had a, no, I guess it wasn't the episode I watched, it was a clip,
she had a watch and she had, they were on TV and so she had gone to the, she had, the
hairdresser had messed it up so she was wearing a scarf and then Rosie's like, well, how bad
is it?
And they open up and it's like all frizzy, all that.
And then, yeah, it's just, and then they, the one, I guess it wasn't Christine's hair
was it.
I guess it was Harry's hair they were talking about.
Yeah.
Hair jokes, I'm like, what, is there a thing like, I mean, I hang out with, I don't know
how many hair jokes I've had, I mean, yeah, it's just so weird.
Like, if you get away from the Dan Fielding, like, please fast, most of it is just what
I would call cheesy one liners and I can't even throw, throw away.
But they're just, they're just not funny.
It's, it's just, God, I'm at a loss.
I just, I know, it's just, you know, we focus so much, but there's not a lot else.
Yeah.
Everything else is just forgettable.
I mean, quite true, like, like Harry has his magic tricks, which, and Mel Tormay.
And Harry was a magician that was actually like, where he got it.
That's sort.
He got his shirt on chairs.
Yeah.
Harry the hat on chairs.
That was his thing.
So I went and looked.
It was a 1986, just had the highest ratings of the guy.
He got to number seven for the year, right?
I think it was '86, maybe '87, but it got to number seven.
Number one at that time was Cosby show and then number three was Cheers.
Okay.
Cause I'm like, all right.
I'm going to watch now.
Well, it's, it's, it's, it's better.
It's basically, like, you're helping Ted Danson's character.
Sorry.
Yeah.
Hot take there.
Yeah.
That actually works.
I need to say that.
Um, no, so I was like, I'm going to go watch the, I'm going to go watch an episode of each
one of those during the same season that that night court just to see what was going on.
So watch the Cosby show, watch the season six.
I think it was episode one and it's where the oldest daughter and Alvin, the husband,
come back and, and you know, it was, it's, it caused me shows really hard to watch.
I'd say that because, is it because of what we know about the Cosby now or is it just?
No, it's because of a comedy, huh?
Is it just 80s comedy?
No, it's because of a, I was, I can't remember her name, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, mod Rashad's
fully, fully show.
Oh, right.
Yeah.
It's because of her.
I was going to make a joke there.
But that fell.
I fucked it up.
What's up?
Please show her.
No, there's nothing.
It was a joke.
It was good.
No, it's because of fucking Bill Cosby.
Okay.
No, okay.
No, what, what did she do that I didn't hear about?
Damn it.
I was trying to make a joke, but I stepped over it on my, on my, uh, yeah, we're not
comedian.
Uh, we're in like we're territory now.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, we have an effect here.
We're the last track.
Yeah.
Or I can do you guys.
Who's the one guy in the background who's?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Or I can do this.
Oh, God, uh, I bet it is right.
No.
So, okay, if, if it's hard, but if you can just not think about that while you're watching
it and just try, there was one or two places where I legitimately left.
Now it wasn't as funny as I remember.
And also it's a one show sample.
So I'm not going to, but it was like, but it was one or two places where I was like,
yeah, it was funny.
Yeah.
But it was predictable.
That's the thing.
Like, but they're all.
I mean, kind of soon I was like, all right, I'm going to go watch Cheers now.
So I watched an episode of Cheers, same season.
I mean, I forget what season was, but same here.
And uh, it was, uh, it was one where, uh, and I'm watching it.
I'm like, oh, I remember the, like, I remember that one.
It's the one where Ted, uh, where Sam alone decided he gets to be a sport caster for like
the week as a sub and, uh, he does the growing, I remember that growing.
That's exactly.
And I'm watching.
Oh wait.
This is when he was growing injury.
Yeah.
That's exactly the one.
Yeah.
Well, so that one.
And I laughed at that because I remembered it.
And I laughed.
There's another.
And what he's pretty, what he is good.
Uh, what he Harrison is really good at that, just to, to see what he's doing, and what he's
pretty good.
Like, uh, it was, yeah, it was, I mean, they were both, I would say both better than the
episode of night court.
So I'm like, okay, I mean, fate, praise, but.
So one random episode of cheers was better than four somewhat carefully selected episodes
of my court.
Definitely.
Yeah.
There you go. I mean, so yeah, it was, so I mean, I was like, yeah, I just had to like,
I had to see if this was just a, you know, this was just a one all this was the real
bit.
Yeah.
So it's got to be the, whatever the styling of night court and the fact that they're all
one dimensional characters that are cartoonish in nature and just don't in this weird scenario
where I mean, it's a weird, it's really kind of a strange.
I guess it's not.
I mean, court, court shows are, are, but for comedy, I can't think of another.
Is there another comedic comments based in a court?
It would be like a fairly open I don't know, but like, you could, you could, I mean, because
you have, you have your set number of characters, you know, the judge and the, the two bailiffs
and the court and the clerk and the prosecutor defending attorney, but then you can bring
so many other characters in, you would think that you'd be able to maybe do more with it.
Except all the characters they brought in were like the drags of society.
Like, let's make fun of the poor people.
Let's write the poor.
Yeah.
I mean, we're not.
We're talking about the episode that one we watched.
That one would say, ha ha, they're poor, they're poor and they're from, they're from
Eastern Europe.
Well, yeah.
Well, they said they're from West Virginia, but they're not even from West Virginia.
Ha ha ha.
Isn't that funny?
Look at them.
It's worse than West Virginia, imagine that.
Yeah.
It's, it's like, I guess that was funny.
I mean, damn, social elites, West or East of the coastals.
It's like the one that we watched together where bull doesn't show up for work and they
make the joke about like maybe joining the circus.
The circus is in town with a clown and a couple of midgets and it's like, ha ha look.
It's weird.
The bearded lady.
Yep.
Yeah.
And I'm just like, okay.
Yeah.
So do you remember like some almost read the Wikipedia about the characters or maybe
it was IMDb, but the bull had a catchphrase?
Oh, okay.
Yep.
I mean, yeah.
And do you remember his, he had a, he had a move too, signature move.
Back to forehead.
Slap is forehead.
Yep.
That's it.
That's almost like Homer.
Right?
Yeah.
Well, the only thing that I read about bull that I thought was weird is that his first
name, apparently, was Nostradamus.
Well, do you remember that Dan Fielding was not from like he was from like country folk?
I think he was from West Virginia as well and his like his first name was Reginald.
And his last, his middle name was Fielding.
And yeah, there's this whole, and I remember he, it was like some simple people, his parents
came to one time and they were, and he was barely embarrassed.
Yeah.
Remember that.
Well, in fact that Harry's parents met in an insane asylum.
And that's...
Do you remember, um, what's the actor's name?
Uh, shoot.
We played that.
Yeah.
What's his name?
Um, John Aston.
John Aston.
It's John.
Yeah.
Do you remember his catchphrase on the show?
No.
I don't.
I don't, but I'm feeling a lot better now.
That's right.
That's what he's saying all the time.
I remember now.
Yeah.
And I'm like, I'm like, so they made fun of mental illness the whole time.
I'm like, that was a funny running joke.
He was, if you look at his, he's on season three to nine.
Yeah.
Look, he's...
I've watched the Adams family.
It's...
I used to go...
It's still good.
Yeah.
Is it fun?
He had what he could with what he had in night court.
And he did okay with it, but this, when the source is shit, you can only polish that
turd so much.
And I mean, that was a pretty shiny turd coming from him at least.
I feel like I haven't done a whole lot with podcast because everything I'm just like,
yeah.
Yeah.
It's...
Yeah.
This one was rough.
I mean, this one.
Yeah.
I mean, I think what people should take away is don't watch it.
Yeah.
Don't watch.
Don't revisit this.
Not a question of does it hold up or anything?
Yeah.
Just avoid it.
Stay away.
Rewatch it.
You're going to ruin those memories.
Yeah.
Remember being, you know, a kid or a teenager and watching it with your family and giggling
and thinking the Dan Fielding was a riot and Harry Anderson could do, you know, that...
And he was quirky.
Yeah.
And, well, I guess his name's Harry Stone, I guess, did funny magic tricks.
And it was just a bunch of wacky characters and move on.
Yeah.
I remember as a kid, as a 12-year-old Dan Fielding, that would be...
That's kind of a cool way to be an attorney and have some money and have all these different
women and all this.
And it's like...
Like, that's like, it's such a crazy...
Yeah.
That's what I don't...
I can't get over.
I keep going back to an old Trotus.
Yeah.
That was part of the appeal is that this character is so ridiculous that people will just lose
themselves in him and his quirky adventures.
That's...
Yeah.
That's...
The synopsis of this episode is...
Yeah.
That's not like...
Like, the whole time, I think.
I feel it...
Yeah.
I honestly got...
Let's say about this one.
I mean, it's just...
It's bad.
Night Court's bad.
I hope there are other 80s comedies that hold up better.
You know, maybe we'll look at Cheers sometime as more of a big thing and maybe we'll...
Do the Cosby Show.
I can't think of some other ones that...
Didn't you...
You mentioned Alf, I think.
I know Alf's gonna be bad.
I'm pretty sure that...
Alf was bad was then.
I mean, Alf was...
Yes.
I never watched it.
Like, I remember enjoying it but knowing it was...
I'm not doing Alf.
I'm not reading it now.
I remember hearing two at the time.
That was that.
Okay.
Um...
It's like eating the cat jokes I can take, you know?
Yeah.
Exactly.
Oh, my God, this is...
If you don't have any suggestions for what you want us to do next, leave them in the comments.
Um...
The comments.
What comments?
On Twitter or...
We have an email address.
It's...
Uh...
I don't know.
It's on Facebook.
Find it.
You can go to Twitter.
Or Facebook.
You can come out on Facebook.
Google search for your email address.
Yeah.
No, it's...
There is a button on our Facebook page to email us.
We do have an email address.
Yeah.
I just don't remember.
It's...
I mean, I can look it up real quick if you guys want to...
I mean, this is great podcasting, but...
Right.
It's quality content.
Like I said, you can find us on Twitter on Facebook if you have a suggestion.
Right.
And if you actually got through this entire episode, congratulations...
Go have a beer on us.
If I could, I'd send you a dollar.
Or no, send me a dollar.
Somebody needs to send me a dollar to pay for that damn night court episode.
I...
If we can get all five of you to send...
Instead of a Patreon.
I want a dollar from a Patreon somebody.
Yeah.
You want to set up a Patreon?
Yes.
For one dollar.
I just want one personal.
It's like about 50 because I'm sure they take some off.
First...
Our first Patreon...
Yeah.
You're the Gold Star.
Uh...
Yeah.
You get a special badge that says, "I paid for night court."
Ooh.
We'll make you a t-shirt.
Well, now, yeah, you got to set...
You got to pay for the t-shirt, but we'll make it.
Yeah.
I paid for night court, but...
And I got this t-shirt.
Yeah.
It's just t-shirt.
Yeah.
Although I, you know, I think...
Oh, yeah.
This...
This was...
I got an article.
I'm done.
I feel like we've talked about this for nearly what...
It's got to be like 45 minutes now and...
Right.
I feel like that's 45 minutes.
That's two...
That's two night court episodes and a little bit and...
That's it.
I'm done.
I'm doing it.
You called it?
Do we have a...
Do we want to mention?
Like, what we're going to do next?
Or we're just going to call it.
What are we doing next?
I don't think we should mention it.
I think that it should be a surprise.
Ooh.
That way we can change our mind.
I don't think we're going to do anything.
This was bad enough.
If we do another one of these...
Oh, spoiler.
This is a two-parter.
We'll be talking about night court next week, too.
Oh, god.
All right.
This is for night court, the reboot.
I'll just be drunk the whole time.
There's no way I can do sober.
So the dog would be the prosecutor.
That'd be great.
Yeah.
My little pony will be the judge.
Yeah, I'm done.
All right.
Bye, everybody.
All right.
Bye, everybody.
Hey!