Posted in: NBC, TV | Tagged: Night Court

Night Court: Melissa Rauch Shares Simon Helberg-Related Season 4 Plans

Night Court star Melissa Rauch shared how much Simon Helberg's appearance in the Season 3 finale would've impacted the fourth season.

When Night Court season three ended in "A Decent Proposal," Abby (Melissa Rauch) was anticipating a full reconciliation with Jake (Ryan Hansen), who had an even more ambitious plan to propose to her. NBC released back-to-back episodes before the network's decision to cancel the series, leaving fans with a cliffhanger when a blast from Abby's past arrives in the final seconds. Rauch spoke to TVInsider on what could have been had NBC committed, or should Warner Bros successfully shop the series elsewhere for season four. The following contains spoilers.

Night Court: Melissa Rauch Had Plans for Her "Big Bang Theory" Co-Star

In the final seconds of "A Decent Proposal," which was an homage to the original Reinhold Weege series' season one episode "Santa Goes Downtown" that starred Michael J. Fox, Simon Helberg's Spencer appeared just before Abby was prepared to what Jake had in store. As Spencer plants a kiss on Abby in her chambers, Jake walks in and asks who he is before Spencer reveals his wedding ring and tells him, "Her husband." Rauch shed light on how her former TV husband from The Big Bang Theory would factor more into the next season. "There will be some questions that we desperately want to answer in a Season 4 [after this finale], and we have a really spectacular game plan in place if that should happen," Rauch said. "We really want it to because I feel like there's so many more stories to tell, and especially the story that you're going to be seeing in this season finale. There's a major story there that we want to continue to tell." Rauch added that "in the vein of Night Court ensemble comedy and the workplace family that has been built, everyone will be impacted to some extent, to varying degrees by the twist."

Helberg played Howard Wolowitz on the Chuck Lorre-created series as part of the core of the cast since the beginning with Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kunal Nayyar, and Kaley Cuoco. Rauch, who played Bernadette Rostenkowski, joined in season three and stayed through the duration. Nayyar reunited with Rauch, playing a potential love interest, Martini, a fashion designer in the Dan Rubin revival series. Also reuniting with Rauch was the last main cast addition to TBBT in Mayim Bialik, playing a fictionalized version of herself, which includes a fourth wall break to their original show, and Bialik's breakout role on NBC's Blossom.

When talking about Rauch's timing to use Helberg, "Since the show started, I've wanted to bring him onto the show, but I wanted to make sure that it was the perfect role for him," she shared. "And then once we cracked what we wanted to do for the season finale, it was just the dream to have Simon in this. I called him and he was so wonderful and was like, 'I'm totally there.'" Helberg likely would've been around for a noteworthy arc in season four. The original Weege series was known for several cast changes throughout its run from 1984-1992. The Rubin series faced the departures of original cast members Kapil Talwakar after season one and India de Beaufort after two seasons. Staying for the entire run were Rauch, original series star John Larroquette and Lacretta with Nyambi Nyambi and Wendie Malick as later additions, and Gary Anthony Williams in a recurring role.

Original series star Marsha Warfield would reprise her role as Roz Russell in a recurring role. There were some dramatic changes to modernize the series with Larroquette's Dan Fielding, no longer the lecherous womanizer he once was, and he embraced his new role as public defender, but still looking for the get-rich-quick scheme. Roz, like Warfield, came out and is happily married to a woman, but she's still willing to lend a hand since a pension can only go so far. Rubin's Night Court embraced the zaniness of the original while also tugging at the appropriate heartstrings for the nostalgic, featuring tributes to late original cast members Harry Anderson and Markie Post. Larroquette and Warfield remain the only surviving final main cast members of the original series to appear in the new series. Fingers crossed, but I hope that NBC grants them a Mythic Quest-like ending where we get a new ending and it's revealed that Bernadette wakes up and tells Howard about her long dream on what it would be like to be a judge in New York City. One final regret, we needed to have John Astin's Buddy to come back one last time to dole out sagely advice to Judge Stone.

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