Melissa posted a link to Deadline Hollywood on her Facebook page with a story about how Night Court was the most watched/highest rated premier of any sitcom in five years across the four major networks. Only The Connors debuted higher. I guess we will see how many of those viewers stick around after sampling the show.
I hope, if not this season, Buddy comes to visit his granddaughter, either in chambers or before the court for some wacky reason. But he's feeling much better now. I don't know if John Astin is mobile enough to do this.
The court house is only seen in the opening and closing credits in the original. Plus they didn't use music within the series either. In regard to the "cheapness" -- I think it's just using video tape at the time. It's more unified now, but, the original series comes from a time when sitcoms were shot either on video tape or film. Film always had a more polished and sophisticated look to it where as video tape, IMO, looked a little cheaper and not as polished. But that's just me. It's nothing the show is doing. It's my remembering to adapt to modern production techniques in this respect.
I know that well, of course, and it did strike me as odd at first that the new show had more of a filmic grain than I'm used to from Night Court. But I think that perception of cheapness is subjective, resulting from the fact that American TV tended to save videotape for sitcoms and soap operas while dramas were on film. In the UK, they've always been more open to shooting dramas on video, so I don't think they had the same perception. And of course they had a number of shows where interiors were on video and exteriors on film, like Monty Python and Doctor Who.
Sitcoms like Friends and Seinfeld were able to find audiences in the "present time" because they shot on film and were able to upgrade to HD. Many other great/good sitcoms (like Night Court) couldn't convert to HD so they're kind-of lost to today's youth unless they're able/willing to watch the SD video being forced into a large screen.
I think in some cases, like Night Court, the SD videotape feel actually lends charm to it. The 1980s weren't clean, they weren't high definition, the TV shows we got from them are antiquated in so many ways, but it's still a good look inside what was. Night Court works for me not only because of the comedy aspect, but because I lived through the 80s, and I loved these characters as a child. Half the jokes flew over my head, obviously, but the funny people, and the silly situations still resonate, and so while I'm only speaking of myself, I think it makes classic Night Court even better. The modern Night Court will have modern sensibilities, modern comedy, modern techniques, and it will do it in high definition. It isn't the same Night Court, and it doesn't evoke the same feelings of the original Night Court beyond what nostalgia gives us as viewers, but I want it to be its own entity, and to make me laugh on its own merits. I see the current iteration as promising, and I can only hope it grows and finds its own voice as it builds on what was great before and adds to the story. Just my two bits, of course.
I do prefer the old series' set lightning and soundstage atmosphere and the new, much brighter courtroom is kind of glaring but at least the sets are almost exactly the same. Even the brass/copper mail slot is still in the hallway outside Harry's old office. They're keeping enough nostalgia so that all the new goes down smoother.
Actually, I have the complete series purchased digitally via iTunes. They did manage to upscale the quality of the show. I bought it some years back and have noticed there's been some minor upscaling and improvements. There's only so much you can do because it's video tape. You can't get anything close to the quality of film being remastered to high definition, but, there's absolutely an improvement in the video tape quality.
Totally. And all of it is just me having to adapt to that. I liken it to when CBS remasters and colorizes episodes of I Love Lucy. It's so odd to see that show in color as experiencing it in black and white gives it a more authentic representation of the time in which it was made; when color wasn't as widespread. I mean, hell, imagine what the Ricardo's apartment would look like in present day.
I don't see why the image quality matters for something like Night Court, any more than it matters for a black-and-white sitcom from the '50s. It's not like it's a special effects extravaganza. The appeal is in the writing and the performances. I don't think that analogy quite works. Changing something meant for black & white to color is altering the intent of the creation. Improving its resolution to get rid of scan lines and such is just making it easier to see the creation, which can bring it closer to how it was meant to look. It's more like cleaning the dust off an old painting, rather than painting over it with new colors. Although, granted, it can also bring out unwanted details like flaws in set construction and makeup.
An "improvement" but only so much can be accomplished, it's still going to look rough compared to remastering from film.
Oh, definitely. I love it, it feels like coming back home after being away for so long. I miss what once was, but I still can't wait to see what's next.
I couldn’t tell you the last time I watched the original show but I thought it looked very familiar though. One of those deals where it looks like what you remember in your head even if the actual show might’ve looked worse.
The 1985 original wasn't an overnight success. Indeed, the differences in style between seasons 1 and 2 are there (and I liked Ellen Foley's character, though after reading why they wanted Markie Post...), but between seasons 1 and 4 it's completely unrecognizable - and in 4's favor by far... especially as during the years the makers figured out the cast strengths and honed in on them. Marsha Warfield was definitely the missing piece needed, even more than Markie Post. Now look at shows opposite Night Court in 1985, which were the clean and saccharine type - which I am not complaining against, but for something as bawdy (for the time), Night Court was a huge risk - but the makers and cast really pulled it off. It's lightning in a bottle. But seeing 70-something John Larroquette definitely went the extra step - literally - in walking through a glass door. I did not expect that at all. The show's definitely back. One example clip: I love how they flipped the tables and now he's the scheming defense attorney... I'm surprised a new show using a similar style wasn't made, since that would probably reduce parallels to "the other show" a little more easily than an on-the-nose-outright-sequel, but the clips did show character building and sequel-like continuation, even if the new judge has the cheesy "I'm the new night court judge!", which would have felt just as unnatural if Harold Stone sauntered into the room and said the same thing in 1985... That's probably the only clip that fell flat; everything else looks rock solid awesome. Why they held this revival back from October, I have no idea. Then again, the new Bailiff isn't an improvement on Roz, though I think that's due to the occasional OTT acting. Not it's easy to improve on Marsha Warfield, made the bailiff role her own with ease -- and iconic. She's a hard act to beat... but this is season 1. I have a feeling this revival will make it a few more years as everyone settles in... but right now, without John Larroquette, I don't think it'd hold together as well...
I saw an early colorization of the Xmas episode. Could it be any more garish? They all look like survivors of a nuclear explosion with all that radiant glowing. Early seasons of Bewitched were also colorized but many scenes require a double-take since they almost look like genuine original color. Like this: A couple moments are giveaways that it's colorized (look for haloing, hair color that seems "off", very ornate and detailed items that may be glossed over, occasional skin tones looking like the result of a radioactive paint factory explosion, or the most neutral white, gray or black tone that lacks color cast or reflection matching to the hue of what it's reflecting. But they did an excellent first rate job with "Bewitched".) ILC: Now that is "Chernobyl Red" hair dye. Also note the oodles of doors, lamps, a clock face, and other set pieces that readily betray its monochromatic origins. It's often quite good, but... And this one's even more prominent! "Three Mile Island Skin Tones" are all over the place, as well as the goofy brown hair dye poor little Ricky has. Never mind the drum set that could light up a whole city block, complete with drumsticks that change color from bronze to lead then back again... and at 1:15 wiuth the oddly dull-bronze sconce lamp and hanging reflective utensils that don't reflect anything but b/w images... and the stove... but they're periphery items, and this was an older attempt at implementing the technology. For all my nitpicks, they're often watchable, even if the day-glo can still take a person out of the episode. Noting I am a fan of the 6th Doctor Who's costume, this is saying something. Now look up "Gilligan's Island" from the early-90s and really wince. (Oh wow, John Williams scored that episode's incidental music...) True, given the time in which it was done, it's honestly not bad. But the telltale signs are everywhere and admittedly inevitable, especially for the time. (Gotta start somewhere.) "Beneath a purple sky and dull green tree blobs in some scenes but glowing ones in others"... 0:51 in and the yellow raincoats are pure neon compared to the untouched ship. Also note earlier that the Skipper's shirt is way too dark as he never changed clothes (unlike the Howells and their 300 bags they brought along, of which the sheer quantity's ludicrousness is part of the comedy, but nobody would think this show is supposed to feel like "real life"...) But between then and later developments, it became far easier to color-match to blend in with genuine color seasons... (Bewitched) Thankfully the sitcom was filmed, so they found the master finished neg, then cleaned and remastered it with comparative ease. Like TOS, for the version that didn't replace the modelwork with CGI. It never ceases to amaze how much detail is captured in film, though compared to the DVD releases the new masters also deal with blooming and crush due to the poor original transfer to DVD...
He was Johnny Williams at the time... And yeah, I remember how bad the colorized Gilligan episodes were. They were trying to do it so it would still look like the original black-and-white if you turned the color dial on your set down to minimum, so that meant they kept the grayscale shading and just superimposed fields of color over it, which gave the clothes an oddly metallic sheen.
That Lucy Xmas episode doesn't look bad to me but I don't have the best eyes. I wonder if in the future if they could train AI off the later color episodes of some of these series to apply to the black-and-white ones for better matching?
Or, better yet, train the audience not to be so narrow-minded and learn to appreciate black & white the way it was meant to look.