According to ScreenRant, John Larroquette (The Librarians) has revealed that he originally turned down possible spinoff for the NBC series Night Court. In the sitcom, Larroquette played the role of prosecutor Dan Fielding in the 1984 version of the series. With the new revival of the series, he is the only original member to reprise his role in the franchise.
According to ScreenRant, during the 2024 Television Critics Association Winter Tour panel promoting the second season of Night Court, Larroquette revealed that he was originally asked to do a spinoff of the series based on his character Dan Fielding. He also expresses how Melissa Rauch (The Big Bang Theory) convinced him to join the revival series.
Larroquette said, “No, I was not hopeful to revisit the role. I didn’t think about it at all. Quite frankly, the opposite happened… It’s not common knowledge, probably, but after the sixth year, there was talk of Dan Fielding having a spinoff like Frasier did… And I declined to do that, because I thought it’s a very indelible character and I’d like to play his life, that’s fine, but once this is over, then go on and hopefully do something else. And so I forgot about it… And then Rauch… called me and said, ‘oh, I got an idea.’ And I said… ‘That’s a great idea, you don’t need me for it.’ Because it stands on its own, but after we talked for a long time, as the actor sort of rose in me and thought, “Well, that’s an interesting challenge to look at somebody you played 35 years ago.’ What’s happened to his life? Where is he now? Where is the funny in him considering he can’t be who he was in the ‘80s? Just because I can’t jump nearly as high as I used to. And so it began to appeal to me.”
Night Court is available to stream on Peacock.