‘Night Court’: Melissa Rauch Says Kunal Nayyar Will ‘Definitely’ Be Back
Melissa Rauch has always known she wanted a Big Bang Theory co-star on Night Court. It was only a matter of time before it happened. That “dream,” as Rauch describes it to TV Insider, came true when Kunal Nayyar made his guest-star debut in Night Court‘s second season. Like most guest stars on Night Court, he only signed on for one episode. But Rauch tells us that as long as the show keeps running, he will absolutely be back.
Nayyar and Rauch played pals on The Big Bang Theory (Raj Koothrappali and Bernadette Rostenkowski, respectively), but they’re love interests on Night Court (airing Tuesdays at 8/7c on NBC). Nayyar plays the suave and very famous British fashion designer Martini Todd Wallace. Judge Abby Stone is immediately interested in the debonaire man when he climbs into her office window to ditch paparazzi. He leaves behind a “glass slipper” when he continues to run from the cameras, but he comes back for more romantic intrigue with Abby later in the episode.
“Kunal was so wonderful and supportive from the moment I told him I was doing this, as all the cast was,” Rauch says of her co-stars from the Emmy-winning CBS comedy. “When we figured out that this role was going to be coming up, we thought he would just be the perfect person to do it and making that dream come true of getting to be reunited.”
Nayyar won’t be back in Season 2 (the finale of which airs Tuesday, March 26), but assuming the multi-cam sitcom gets renewed, Rauch says Martini will “definitely” return. “We don’t have anything planned for this season, but for sure it would be a dream to have him again.”
“We just had the most fun together,” she says. Having her former co-star of eight seasons back on set with her, and on set of the reboot of her favorite TV show ever no less, was surreal for the actor.
“We just kept on staring at each other all week [during filming] and looking into each other’s eyes like, is this real? Are you really here? Of course, we hadn’t been on set together since Big Bang ended, and it was just so wonderful and it felt like just family.” It felt “very much like my boyfriend meeting my family,” Rauch teases. “Although I don’t know if the boyfriend’s Kunal or John [Larroquette], but either way, it just felt like a meeting of families and it was really wonderful. It was a really special week, and I can’t wait for him to come back.”
Guest stars are Night Court‘s bread and butter. Season 2 alone has featured returning cast member Marsha Warfield (who will be back before Season 2 ends), Wendie Malick (returning after a Season 1 guest spot as Dan Fielding’s love interest), Richard Kind, Melissa Fumero, Ryan Hansen, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, and more. Season 1 also featured Faith Ford as Abby’s mom, and original Night Court recurring characters Bob and June Wheeler (played by Brent Spiner and Annie O’Donnell) will guest star before the season is up.
There’s a new guest star every week on the comedy now, and this has been a vital part of the Night Court puzzle since the original was on TV.
“The original incarnation of the show had this incredible revolving door of guest stars. The creator of the show, Reinhold Weege, actually said that one of the things that made Night Court so special is that the doors is a story generator of all the different, wonderful comedic voices that come in through [them]. That was something that was very paramount to us,” Rauch explains. “The stories are brought in into the courtroom, and then everything sort of takes off from there. Being able to have just comedic royalty walk in those doors with Richard Kind and Wendie Malick and Jessica St. Clair and Ryan Hansen, Faith Ford who we had last season, who’s absolutely incredible, it’s really special.”
Rauch, a lifelong fan of the original series, says the show is “steeped in comedic history,” and so “to get all these people that I personally as a Night Court fan would be excited to watch is really exciting to me.”
With Night Court guest stars, it’s the more the merrier. Catch the rest of this season’s guest stars in the last three episodes of the season.
Night Court, Season 2 Finale, Tuesday, March 26, 8/7c, NBC
