Night Court Episode Review: “Strange Bedfellows”

Ever since I discovered Night Court reruns on one of our new channels, I’ve been recording the episodes and watching them before work. This includes this particular episode, which I had an opportunity to watch earlier this morning.

I was about 13 when this episode first aired and, because I don’t remember seeing it after that, I wasn’t really sure what was going to happen. However, it turned out to be a pretty decent episode with a good mix of drama as well as comedy.

The part with Dan entering a surprise relationship with the woman he was competing against and, up until that point, had publicly trashed whenever he had a chance, was interesting. Part of the reason for this was I was certain he would lose the race, show his true colors and things would turn ugly between them. Instead, his reaction to losing was surprisingly graceful and their relationship suddenly became about whether they could continue it or if they would have to sadly go their separate ways. Given his womanizing attitude on the series, the fact he cared enough for someone to actually debate that was unexpected. And, I like it when shows surprise me.

The part with Mel Torme was somewhat predictable and I was able to guess what was going to happen the second he was shown as a guest star. That being said, the scenes following him getting sick, with Harry trying to take care of his favorite singer and making things worse in the process, thanks, in part, to Bull (Richard Moll) did end up being considerably funnier than expected.

If there was anything I would change about this episode, I think it would be the length of Dan’s new relationship. I think it would have been better to see them meet in an earlier episode and let the relationship grow to something outside of the bedroom before forcing him to make a choice between her and his career. It was still OK in the condensed, one-episode form. But, I think it would have had more of an impact had we gotten to know her a little better and were shown their relationship was more than just physical.

Overall, I think this was a fun episode to watch this morning. As I said, there was some drama but the episode, in general, was very funny to watch, especially after Mel Torme got sick. I definitely enjoyed watching it.

My Grade: A