How The Cosby Show Saved Night Court From Certain Doom
Up until 2014, the public at large didn't know about the extent of sexual crimes committed by comedian and TV star Bill Cosby. Since 2014, over 60 women have come forward with allegations of sexual assault, some of which stretch back to the 1960s. The many, many details of Cosby's assaults, cover-ups, and other crimes have been openly detailed in the news, and in the 2022 documentary series "We Need to Talk About Cosby."
Cosby's crimes make discussions of the hit series "The Cosby Show" a little fraught. Because the stories of sexual assault hadn't been made public yet, Cosby was easily accepted by mainstream sitcom viewers as a kindly, father-like figure: a perfectly put-upon patriarch of a modern, wealthy Black family. "The Cosby Show" was instantly successful and widely beloved when it debuted in 1984, and it lasted eight seasons and 201 episodes. Everyone watched it. Critics praised the sitcom for presenting a Black experience that was free of typical cliches and stereotypes. The Huxtable family was wealthy and successful. The series was even mentioned in the 2011 essay book "Icons of Black America." "The Cosby Show" had a legitimate legacy and moved the needle in conversations about race and its depictions in pop media.
"The Cosby Show" was also the rising tide that lifted all ships. In 2017, the A.V. Club examined the sitcom landscape of 1984, and found it to be rather bleak. If it hadn't been for the success of "The Cosby Show," other, weirder sitcoms likely wouldn't have been greenlit to accompany it on NBC's evening schedule. The most direct beneficiary of the "Cosby" success was probably "Night Court."
This is all a bit strange
"Night Court" was a slapstick series about the people who work the wee hours in the Manhattan Criminal Court. It starred Harry Anderson as Judge Harry Stone, a wiseacre who doled out justice while winking and playing pranks. The put-upon and insufferably lascivious prosecutor Dan Fielding was played by John Larroquette, who won four Emmys for the role. Richard Moll, Gail Strickland, Charles Robinson, Markie Post, and Marsha Warfield also appeared. Compared to other sitcoms at the time, "Night Court" was a carnival, sometimes bordering on the surreal. One wouldn't be surprised to see a character running down a hallway, fleeing a giant rolling billiard ball.
As the A.V. Club notes, by the time "Night Court" first aired on January 4, 1984, most of the other recently-premiered NBC sitcoms had flamed out. The director of the pilot episode, James Burrows, concluded that a successful show couldn't merely be good: it needed to fit into a pre-established mold. In Burrows' words:
"It's a good show ... but it will take a long time to get started. There's no reason for people to watch it. Just because it's good, that's no reason. People will only watch high concept initially. They want familiarity from TV."
It wouldn't be until "Night Court" was placed alongside the already-successful "The Cosby Show" on Thursday nights that audiences would begin to pay attention. At the end of the 1985 TV season, NBC had lined up "The Cosby Show," "Cheers," "Family Ties," and "Night Court." It became appointment viewing to watch all four in a stretch. Not only did those four shows — when bunched together — save NBC, but in many ways, they resurrected the sitcom as a viable TV format.
The death and rebirth of the American sitcom
The early 1980s were a bleak time for sitcoms. The format, popular since the 1950s, began to feel played out and tired. The 1970s also saw the rise of "ABC After School Special," which injected trite, treacly moralizing into the TV landscape, and the accompanying idea that sitcoms all required a responsible moral. That trend made TV less fun to watch. Throughout the 1970s, NBC in particular had suffered a lot, producing forgettable oddities like "The Bob Crane Show," "Nancy," "Quark," and "Hizzoner." They also dumped a pile of money into a high-concept sci-fi series called "Supertrain" that lasted only nine episodes. To this day, TV nuts still speak of the terrible "Supertrain" in hushed tones.
Into this landscape came "The Cosby Show," a series that didn't require a lot of build-up and that didn't need several seasons to find its footing. It was successful immediately. Before the show debuted, NBC had one hit sitcom ("Kate & Allie"). After, they had many. According to the A.V. Club, by 1987, NBC could claim four of the top-five TV shows currently being broadcasted.
Of the "big four" listed above, "Night Court" was definitely the odd man out. It always came last in the lineup, and was likely too weird to be accepted by the average "Family Ties" fan, but it was definitely buoyed by the success of its neighbors. It ended up winning many Emmys (though half of them were for Larroquette).
Despite its tarnished legacy, "The Cosby Show" reshaped the way sitcoms were made and presented, revitalizing an entire genre for a new generation.