IR Interview: Melissa Rauch & John Larroquette For “Night Court” [NBC-S2]

The Inside Reel

Actors Melissa Rauch & John Larroquette talk to The Inside Reel about approach, perspective, legacy and heart in regards to the 2nd season of the reboot/continuation of their show "Night Court" on NBC.

Transcript

00:00 (dramatic music)

00:02 - With these two characters,

00:20 there's so much emotional intelligence,

00:22 but there's also an interesting idea of empathy

00:26 and who they are as people.

00:28 Could you talk about that?

00:29 Obviously, Dan, over the years, has transformed,

00:33 but Abby herself has transformed

00:36 because what happened with her father and her addiction.

00:38 Can you talk sort of about that psychological element

00:41 and how that helps the comedy progress through?

00:44 - Sure, thank you so much.

00:47 That's such a great question.

00:48 Watching the original,

00:51 it's something that really always drew me to it,

00:54 even before I even realized exactly what I was feeling

00:58 and what was happening.

01:00 There was just something very special about the original

01:02 in that it had this very heightened, broad comedy,

01:05 but then these very heartfelt, emotional pockets.

01:08 And when you look at some of the episodes,

01:12 some of my favorite in particular,

01:14 there's these beautiful, beautiful moments of heart.

01:19 John had an episode that we actually spoke about

01:22 during the pitch for the show,

01:23 which was Dan Fielding talking about

01:27 how with all the women he's been with,

01:29 the thing that none of these women have ever said,

01:32 "I love you,"

01:32 and you see just the heart of this character.

01:35 And John is such an incredible actor

01:38 that in all the years of playing Dan Fielding,

01:42 for all the broad sort of Babylon comedy,

01:44 you really see the humanity of this character

01:47 in a look and a glance

01:48 or any of those beautifully written scenes

01:51 where we really see the humanity of Dan Fielding.

01:56 And I think our showrunner, Dan Rubin,

01:58 has done a beautiful job in this incarnation

02:01 of revisiting moments like that.

02:04 And they're some of my favorite ones to do on the show,

02:07 especially getting to do them opposite John.

02:10 And I think having them really gives us a North Star

02:14 and sort of a touchstone to come back to

02:16 amidst all the great comedy.

02:19 But, and part of that is having Harry Stone

02:22 be that character that connects the two of us

02:26 and enables us to go back to

02:29 as the grounding force of our relationship.

02:32 - They are the koalas of the sea.

02:34 (audience laughing)

02:35 - Being a judge stinks.

02:37 It's all this listening, very little arguing.

02:39 Nobody gets to see my fabulous suit

02:41 'cause I'm covered by this black robe

02:42 that does absolutely nothing for me.

02:44 (audience laughing)

02:47 - Mm-hmm.

02:48 No more follow-ups on my end.

02:52 (audience laughing)

02:54 - And it's lonely.

02:55 Everyone I knew is gone, scattered to the winds.

02:59 Some literally.

03:00 (audience laughing)

03:03 I mean, I love New Orleans,

03:04 but I mean, that place just isn't home anymore.

03:06 - 'Cause home is...

03:09 - I am not going to say here.

03:11 - Ah, you said it!

03:12 (audience laughing)

03:14 - Okay, okay, okay, okay.

03:16 And John, could you talk about that,

03:18 Ben also being the protector,

03:19 he watches over Abby, even though she is helping him,

03:22 but seeing that balance or that weighing of the pendulum

03:26 with Fielding as a character,

03:29 knowing him before, but knowing him now,

03:31 can you talk a little bit about that?

03:32 - Yes, hopefully people change as they get older

03:35 and more experienced in life,

03:36 and Fielding has certainly gone through that.

03:39 And the fact that he's now a widower

03:41 and sort of lives a very reclusive life

03:43 and is on the surface saying,

03:46 "Oh, that's all I need, that's all I want."

03:48 And then this young lady knocks on his door

03:50 and when he realizes that she is indeed

03:52 the offspring of Harry Stone,

03:54 who he had a contentious but truly sincere

03:58 and empathetic relationship with

04:01 all the years they worked together,

04:03 it becomes obvious to him that in order to

04:06 feel some sort of life in him,

04:08 that he's gonna be forced out of his cocoon,

04:10 and she does a good job of pulling him out of that,

04:13 and he becomes protective of her almost immediately.

04:16 And I think that any great comedy,

04:19 at the center of it has to have

04:21 a great deal of humanity as well,

04:24 and I think this show does that.

04:25 - Welcome back, counselor.

04:27 We should go out and celebrate.

04:28 Not tonight, I'm taking me out for our one week anniversary.

04:30 (audience laughing)

04:31 - Now that I've got my job back,

04:32 there's someone you need to get rid of.

04:34 That nut job you're dating.

04:36 (audience laughing)

04:37 - Done.

04:38 I've been trying to end it for a while.

04:40 Turns out I'm a lot.

04:41 (audience laughing)

04:43 You know, you're lucky I'm even letting you come back.

04:45 This team was really starting to gel.

04:47 - Good night, Blanche.

04:49 (audience laughing)

04:52 - Believe it or not, he's getting closer.

04:53 (audience laughing)

04:56 - But it also has to have a great sense of timing,

04:58 and of course, you know, playing off of Melissa,

05:00 obviously Harry Anderson and how he played the role,

05:04 but then also John knowing, you know,

05:07 'cause timing now is a little bit,

05:08 would you say it's different now

05:10 than it was in the '80s just because of context

05:13 in terms of comedic timing and what is needed?

05:15 - No, I think timing is universal.

05:18 Subject matter is different.

05:20 Humor has to evolve to be sort of representative

05:24 of the time in which it is created.

05:27 But when we're here sitting in front of 150 or 200 people,

05:32 the timing of a joke, the timing of humor is all,

05:35 that's universal.

05:35 That's never going to change,

05:37 particularly in a four-camera world that we live in,

05:40 because you are doing a play in essence,

05:42 and there is an audience,

05:43 and the audience has a lot of influence

05:45 on the timing of your comedy.

05:47 And so you have to learn how to do that,

05:49 and I think that that never changes.

05:52 I mean, you go back to W.C. Fields or Jackie Gleason,

05:56 the timing is the same, the setup is the same,

05:59 the amount of time you wait in order to bring the audience

06:02 with you on the journey of the joke,

06:04 all of that is universal.

06:06 The content may change, but not the context.

06:09 - And for you, Melissa, just quickly.

06:12 - Yeah, I couldn't agree with John more.

06:14 It really does feel like a dance with the audience

06:18 and or very much them being the conductor

06:23 with the orchestra that we're doing on the stage.

06:27 And you really, you're very much informed by that laughter.

06:32 It's one of the greatest joys of doing this format

06:35 is having them sort of almost as a focus group

06:38 for whatever the comedy is that we're performing up here.

06:42 - To a postscript on that, they influence it incredibly

06:45 because if you have a laugh line,

06:49 you can't speak through the laughter, so you have to pause.

06:54 And I've often said that in this show anyway,

06:57 in the original incarnation of it,

07:00 much of some very good comedy came out of that vacuum

07:04 that was necessary to wait for the laugh to ebb

07:07 so that you could continue.

07:09 You can't just stand there and wait for the laugh to end.

07:11 You have to keep alive in the scene.

07:13 And so some of the, what I could,

07:15 I don't, I don't, not pat myself on the back,

07:18 but some of the better physical comedy

07:19 that I think that I did during that original

07:22 was waiting for them to stop laughing.

07:25 - You mean the looks, the sort of sideways glance?

07:27 - Yeah, and the physical, whatever physical action

07:29 we were taking at the time that you embellish on that.

07:32 You have to keep embroidering that

07:34 until you can say the next line.

07:36 (dramatic music)

07:38 (dramatic music)

07:42 (dramatic music)

07:44 (upbeat music)

07:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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