Executive Producer/Star Melissa Rauch talks to The Inside Reel about details, energy and structure leading into the finale of Season 3 of her reboot of "Night Court" on NBC.
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00:00now i'm talking i talked to you and john you know obviously when the series launched and uh the
00:22beginning of this season is you know because he knew harry very well you know uh and it's about
00:28because you want to bring certain elements have did you talk to him when he first came in about his
00:33memories of harry and how much because you're obviously watching the series you can see those
00:37little beauty beautiful things that harry did and obviously he would have transferred those down to
00:42his daughter too can you talk about finding sort of that balance within her yes um it was something
00:49that was really important to me and to all of us um was making sure that um everything we did that
00:56connected to the original um was very authentic and john was such a huge part of that he was
01:02involved in the development of this show from from the get-go um and he was so um so generous with
01:10sharing stories from the original and even to this day when we're on set he'll say oh gosh this this
01:15was a funny thing that happened with harry um and everything he says is just glowing about the entire
01:22cast um and it was very important to me when um i was sort of crafting abby to make sure that she
01:28wasn't by any means doing an imitation of harry but there was um similarities in his cadence and his
01:35rhythm so i did a lot of watching uh re-watching because i'd seen all the episodes growing up but
01:40really sat with um every season to try and get that into my bones um and and then just john
01:48sharing nuggets and when marcia warfield comes to visit to uh play her role as roz um just i'm
01:56constantly grilling them for for set stories from the original night court kids we'll call your parents
02:03or forget this ever happened if you just give us your real names our real names are on our ids
02:07stories i'm pretty sure you don't live in the state of belaska at one million fort lane
02:14hey wait she's a judge maybe she can marry us what do you mean marry you that's how we came to new york
02:22yeah we're here to see the original olive garden and get hitched it's like the breadsticks our love is
02:28bottomless but it's also about the energy of your crew your entourage in there and finding sort of that
02:35that balance and i mean you get i mean i saw it it was so clear in obviously the musical episode with
02:41with richard kind you know the way everybody was moving together and the way everybody you saw
02:46everybody's strengths within a very short like that that ending musical sequence could you talk about
02:52understanding the energy finding the energy because every way you deal with each character is very
02:58specific um first of all thank you so much for saying that we had such a blast doing that musical
03:04episode we all of us just kept on looking at each other with these huge smiles on our faces because
03:08we were just having such a wonderful time together um and you know everyone is just so dynamite
03:15on their own they're everyone's bringing something so incredibly different um between john and wendy
03:22malik who joined the cast this season who is just i mean there's uh no words to describe how phenomenal
03:29wendy is and lacrida who's been with us since the pilot um who is just such an amazing force
03:34niambi niambi who um i shared a stage next to when he was on mike and molly and i was on big bang theory
03:40would always just hang out like um in between our stages and talk and he's just so so incredibly
03:45talented and such a wonderful guy and then we have gary anthony williams who has become such a member
03:50of the family who's just a comedic powerhouse um and when we're all together like i remember there was one day
03:57at the start of the season where we're in the cafeteria um doing one of our workplace family
04:02scenes and i'm looking around like everyone is just like firing on all cylinders and just incredible
04:09um in everything that they bring and everyone is bringing something so nuanced and special it's um
04:16it's amazing it's amazing to have such a wonderful workplace com a workplace family off camera
04:21um and um sort of mirroring what's happened happening on screen too okay i'm not gonna let
04:27two kids with pocket bread get married i think we need a five minute recess thick dodgeball
04:33it's not that kind of recess some of us have asked
04:37these kids are not your problem do not get sucked in you have a very big date tonight don't worry it
04:46won't take long i got a talking stick a feelings chart and the two best hugging arms in new york city
04:52see you in my chambers
04:54you should have chosen adult prison
04:59and my last question thank you you know is obviously looking at the scripts watching scripts
05:04helping mold them all these things is very important especially the longer you know in the
05:10third season it's establishing all the mythology of these characters even ones that you uh you know and
05:15ones you didn't know i mean could you talk about looking at the scripts because you know they have
05:20to be able to exist on their own but they also have to fit into that larger narrative can you talk
05:25about the importance of that with a show like the new night court oh yes absolutely our writers are
05:32just so so gifted and so wonderful and there's just a lot of thought and um deliberate placement of
05:41when we revisit um stories or even seeds from the original because it's something that we don't want
05:47to just overburden like not i guess that's the wrong way we want to oversaturate um each episode
05:54with too much of the the original night court dna um so a lot of it is making sure that it lives in
06:00each episode and it's very much like a living and breathing part of each episode um and and planting
06:06little easter eggs so that fans of the original are make are getting um what they tune in for i know
06:12myself as a major fan of the original want as much of that nostalgia as possible but also making
06:17it accessible for people who didn't necessarily um tune in for the first one um so it's really finding
06:22that balance of making sure that um we're following that north star of the original um and keeping
06:29it fresh and new for um new audience members
06:32you