Note: This story contains spoilers for “Night Court” Season 2, Episode 1.
Longtime “Night Court” fans got a surprising update about Roz in the NBC comedy’s Season 2 premiere, which original cast member Marsha Warfield celebrated alongside her character’s happy ending.
Decades after Warfield played Judge Harry Stone’s beloved sarcastic bailiff from Season 4-9 of the sitcom’s original run, Roz crossed paths with her old coworker and friend Dan Fielding (John Larroquette), this time on the other side of the courtroom. After being thrown in jail for rowdy behavior during her bachelorette party, Roz opened up to Dan about her concerns that her fiancée, Loretta, was cheating on her.
Warfield, who came out as gay in 2017, noted she was pleased that Roz’s sexuality was addressed in the reboot, and that the episode’s plot did not hinge on the reveal. Instead, the new courthouse officials — including Harry’s daughter Abby (Melissa Rauch) — crafted a plan to figure out if Roz’s suspicions about her future wife were true.
“I’m grateful they made Roz gay and the way they handled it,” Warfield told TheWrap. “Me getting thrown in jail is pretty big fanfare, but that’s not why she got thrown in jail. The fact of her engagement being to a woman was just a fact, the story doesn’t turn on that … I’m grateful that they care about the character enough to handle it that well.”
Warfield’s return also reunited her with Larroquette, with the two standing as the last living “Night Court” original cast members after Richard Moll passed away in Oct. 2023.
“We’re pretty much invincible. We’re superheroes at this point. That makes me feel pretty good,” Warfield said. “But when we did the [first cameo], Richard was still alive. His passing has been pretty recent — that it’s just been the two of us.”
While Warfield and Larroquette have seen each other at memorials for other former cast mates, she noted that returning to the “Night Court” set alongside Larroquette was reason to celebrate.
“It was like one of those montages in a movie where two people dance at their prom, then 40 years later, they dance on a cruise or something,” Warfield said.
Larroquette echoed Warfield’s comments in a recent on-set interview with TheWrap, saying “for all the sadness that I felt coming back to the show because of all the cast members who had died, to see her alive and in front of me again was joyful.”
“It’s reality,” Larroquette said. “We all die, and the older we get, the closer we are to that inevitable day. Robert Altman once said ‘there’s nothing tragic about an old man’s death,’ and I think we can officially dub me an old man. So I will continue as best I can, try to be as funny as I can for as long as I can. And then memory care.”
As Warfield watched the first season of the reboot roll out — before making her first cameo during the Season 1 finale — she noted she had “no complaints” about the show, adding that “it’s so nice that somebody feels that way about the show, to want to breathe new life into it.”
“It took a while for the show to find its nucleus … But I think given the same kind of nurturing that ‘Night Court’ got, I can see it lasting as long or longer [than the original],” Warfield said.
After resolving her storyline within the sophomore season’s first episode, neither Warfield nor “Night Court” star and EP Melissa Rauch could confirm whether Roz will make an appearance again in the reboot, with Rauch telling media she hopes the original character will be present in additional installments.
“If they asked me I’m there, and if they don’t, I understand,” Warfield said. “I’m happy with where I am. I am happy with where they are. If they want me, I’m happy to come back.”
Getting to perform alongside both Larroquette and Warfield was a “childhood dream come true” for Rauch, whose love for the original series prompted her pitch for the reboot.
“In Season 1, when they had that moment when she came in the courthouse in front of John, it was one of the most unbelievable magical moments I’ve ever seen in front of a live audience,” Rauch said.
The Season 2 premiere saw Roz quickly fall into her old habits as a bailiff, despite Donna “Gurgs” Gurganous (Lacretta) presently holding down the role. Gurgs gladly stepped out of the way and let Roz take a joyride around the courtyard, mirroring Lacretta’s real-life admiration of Warfield.
“Gurgs is very enamored with her as well, so it wasn’t far-fetched for me to do that,” Lacretta told media during the December on-set visit, noting she has watched Warfield’s prolific TV career and saw one of her stand-up shows. “I just have hearts in my eyes for her because she is an icon to me … She said some very kind things to me that I wasn’t expecting. It made me cry, but happy tears.”
“Night Court” premieres Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, and streams the next day on Peacock.
