[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Night Court Season 3 finale.]
Night Court delivered a big (bang theory) twist in Part 2 of its Season 3 finale that changes the show’s trajectory, as promised by creator and star Melissa Rauch. But as of the time of publication, Night Court is still awaiting a renewal from NBC, making this “to be continued” twist an even bolder move now that the door has been opened to this cliffhanger potentially being left unaddressed. The finale’s ending assures that Rauch’s Big Bang Theory costar Simon Helberg will be back next season if the series is renewed. And it will see Rauch and Helberg back in a couple capacity after playing a married couple on their former hit CBS sitcom.
The Night Court Season 3 finale was a one-hour event on NBC on Tuesday, May 6, with the two standalone episodes airing back to back on the network. Part 1 featured guest stars Michael Urie and original Night Court star Marsha Warfield. Part 2 saw Rauch’s Big Bang Theory history collide with its spinoff, Young Sheldon, with guest stars Simon Helberg and Raegan Revord.
Part 2’s big swing warranted a big casting choice. They recruited Helberg, Melissa Rauch’s former TV husband on The Big Bang Theory, for the episode and the twist that she told TV Insider would “make people have to pick their jaws up off the floor.” It was a shock, indeed. In the finale’s final moments, as Abby and on-again, off-again boyfriend Jake (Ryan Hansen) were preparing to get engaged, Helberg showed up. His character, Spencer, waltzed in with swagger as Abby asked in annoyed shock what the hell he was doing there. These two knew each other, and they knew each other well. After Spencer kissed Abby as Jake and Dan (John Larroquette) watched, Spencer revealed that he’s Abby’s husband. And just like that, Bernadette and Howard are back together onscreen.
“It was just such a dream to get to do this with him,” Rauch tells TV Insider of the big swing.
“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,” Rauch continues. “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.’ And he was just wonderful as he always is. It was very much like, OK, once we knew what the storyline was, the melding of him with Simon was just the perfect synchronization.”
Nicole Weingart / NBC
Having Helberg on set was “so incredibly special,” she says. “We’re of course very close and he’s family to me, so we’re very much in touch, but we hadn’t been on set together since Big Bang Theory ended, and to be back at Warner Brothers together on that stage, it was emotional. I was very excited that he was there, but there was also just this sense of like, ‘Oh, wow, we’re getting to do this again and getting to be together.’ And he’s such an intuitive, right-there-in-the-moment-with-you actor, and it just felt like going home, getting to work with him again.”
Rauch says they have a “spectacular plan” in place for a potential Night Court Season 4 that includes Helberg’s Spencer.
“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,” she told us ahead of the finale’s debut. So they very much intend to answer the huge questions about Spencer that this episode now raises. Abby has been engaged before, after all. She was engaged to Rand (Pete Holmes) in Season 1 before breaking it off, and then she’s had this ongoing romance with Jake throughout Seasons 2 and 3. But she’s been married all along, and to someone who seems to have no idea whatsoever that his wife is acting single.
How long have they been together? Where has Spencer been all this time? And why is Abby so unhappy to see him show up? These are the burning questions that would need addressing moving forward. And this would likely redefine how Abby’s coworkers and loved ones see her. As Rauch explained, “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.”
“We really want it to [continue] because I feel like there’s so many more stories to tell, and especially the story in this season finale,” Rauch says of her Season 4 hopes. “There’s a major story there that we want to continue to tell.”