Updated with video.
While the second season of Night Court gets underway in the 2024 TV schedule officially on January 2, the hit NBC sitcom already aired a Christmas special to celebrate the holiday season. It was a festive way to bring the show back after a prolonged hiatus due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and delivered a treat for fans of The Big Bang Theory with a fun reunion. Night Court brought a Big Bang guest star into the mix for a reunion with Melissa Rauch, and the leading lady/executive producer has shared the story behind how Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's guest appearance happened.
The Night Court cast spoke with CinemaBlend and other outlets ahead of the Christmas episode and official premiere. Speaking with Melissa Rauch, I noted that there were a lot of guest stars who cycled in and out of Season 1, and asked if there were any she'd like to bring back. Rauch described recruiting Marsha Warfield as Roz as "the dream of dreams" after her surprise Season 1 finale appearance, then went on to address the arrival of none other than basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Season 2. Rauch said:
There's someone who's coming up who I happened to work with on Big Bang, and then we ended up reconnecting when I was doing press for Night Court. We spoke about the fact that he was actually a fan of the show back when it was on originally, and had said that he wanted to be on the show, and [I] said 'Please, please come to the show and please visit.'… This is the backstory of it. I was very excited to meet with him when he guest-starred on Big Bang and then getting to reconnect with him just about a year ago. It was one of those moments like, 'I hope this can happen eventually.' And so the fact that we got to be graced with his presence was very cool.
Melissa Rauch first met Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when he guest-starred in a Season 12 episode of The Big Bang Theory, which also featured William Shatner, Joe Manganiello, and Kevin Smith. The NBA great played himself on Big Bang just as he did on Night Court, but the stories were definitely different, and not just because Rauch's Abby Stone is far from a carbon copy of TBBT's Bernadette.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar arrived in Night Court's Christmas episode (available streaming now via Peacock Premium subscription) when Gurgs wanted a video message to Dan as his perfect present, only for Abdul-Jabbar to show up in the flesh to try and meet Dan in person. There were some fun and festive shenanigans along the way, and he's officially on my list of guest stars who I'd love to see come back at some point. Rauch elaborated on working with him again:
It's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which is really really cool, and that was the history behind it. He's so funny in it and so great and one of my favorite moments was... at our speed read we have couches set up, where actually I'm sitting now, and he came and sat down next to me and my legs don't properly reach the floor and they're sort of dangling off and then Kareem sits down next to me and looks down. He goes, 'That's interesting.' [laughs] He so great in the episode.
While Abby was the butt of some jokes about her height in the Christmas episode when a little girl confused her for one of Santa's elves, there was sadly no on-camera moment like the funny behind-the-scenes interaction between Melissa Rauch and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who towers over most people by standing at more than seven feet tall. I definitely take it as a sign that the show hasn't lost its touch for landing icons as guest stars.
When speaking with press, Melissa Rauch established that they didn't "have official bookings on anyone yet" for Season 1 guest stars to return, but "there were so many last season that just I fell in love with and I really do hope to have back if we could make that happen." The Big Bang Theory cast is off doing cool stuff now, but I wouldn't be mad if more adjacent guest stars popped in, for example.
The first season had guest stars like A.P. Bio's Lyric Lewis and MADtv's Stephnie Weir, who portrayed characters involved in the shenanigans of Abby Stone's court. There were also celebrities playing versions of themselves, like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for Season 2. Olympic figure skaters Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir both portrayed themselves, despite some nerves about coming on board the show!
On the whole, I'd say that Night Court is off to a strong start with Abdul-Jabbar as guest star in the Christmas special, and fans just have to wait and see who else Season 2 has in store.
The official first episode of Night Court Season 2 airs on Tuesday, January 2 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. You can also revisit earlier episodes of the sitcom streaming now with Peacock.
