Night Court's John Larroquette Admits He 'Wouldn't Be Here' Without Melissa Rauch's Persistence About the Spinoff (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

John Larroquette in season of ‘Night Court.'.Photo:Nicole Weingart/NBC

Nicole Weingart/NBC

AsNight Courtenters its third season,John Larroquetteis reflecting on what could have been.

The actor, 76, recently spoke with PEOPLE on the set of the NBC revival, which returns on Tuesday, Nov. 19. While it’s impossible to imagineNight Courtnow without Larroquette and his comedic touch, he admits that getting him to join the cast initially took some convincing from costarMelissa Rauch.

“I wouldn’t be here except for Melissa, because if she wasn’t doing the show … I wouldn’t have done the show,” he says. “She’s the one who called me three years ago, however long, four years ago now, I guess, and said she was thinking about doing this. Would I do it with her? And I finally said ‘yes.’”

Nyambi Nyambi, John Larroquette and Wendie Malick in the season 3 premiere of ‘Night Court.'.Nicole Weingart/NBC

“Walking on the stage for the first time in this new iteration, to see the sets, obviously the past comes flooding back into you,” he says, adding, “There’s so much history on this set for me. And so obviously it was melancholy, partly because … it’s a bit of a ghost town, as it were. But then to see the new people who I’ll be working with, it revitalizes the show and the relationships.”

Melissa Rauch and John Larroquette in season 2 of ‘Night Court.'.Nicole Weingart/NBC

“It was sad knowing that people that I loved and worked with for all those years are gone, and it was joyous knowing that there’s this other whole group of people coming in who are new to it, who loved the show,” he explains.

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Season 3 ofNight Courtpremieres Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

source: people.com